Chapel Hill: Storm Water Plan, Budget Conversations, Remembering Mae McClendon

0:00It's time for conversations with the mayors brought to you by the chamber for a greater Chapel Hill carburetor home to one of the most diverse collaborative and fastest growing communities of business leaders in North Carolina. The chamber is uniquely qualified to connect you with people resources and opportunities. You need to succeed learn more about membership at Carolina chamber dot org. We were joined in studio by Chapel Hill mayor Jess Anderson just nice to see you again nice to see you as well. And we have had a strange weather day since we last spoke in which there was a much to do about a little bit of rain well that's correct which you know I obviously needed to talk about this a lot this week and it's one of those like this is just happening again right this is just like a new normal where like the the climates volatile enough

1:01and we're we're enough risk averse that like schools get canceled and people are not coming into work for weather events that don't happen like this is just a thing that will I think that's our new normal yeah because I mean the the chances are very low but if it happens it's catastrophic right right so yeah you know now we're in a time when climate is more volatile so I think we're all just having to cope with the fact that things are different and it is not great. It was such cognitive dissonance on Monday to be like trees aren't falling down power isn't out lives aren't in danger this is great man all that coverage is not there and rain a little bit they're not going to be there on Friday and yeah yeah I I went through that emotional roller coaster as well I did end up like in the place of well yes and of course if kids were on buses or in school buildings and a tornado hit right that would be awful and I

2:03wouldn't even want to be like thinking about my kids being on a bus when there's afternoon storm that's right so the schools are making no that they're not and you know we're not going to wish that it happens but like it is tough when it doesn't and you're like oh well we just cancelled everything but I think that is the point of kind of at this point like resiliency planning and figuring out how to deal with our new normal right traffic was really easy to do that afternoon yeah clear the roads it's like things are moving pretty smoothly out there I was out about meetings and I kept wondering if it was okay to be out and about it meetings and I was like no I think it's okay nothing's happening but yeah it's it is the new normal of of dealing with climate change and volatility and obviously the other side of that is we had you know the the big thing that's been kind of a defining moment for the community in the last year was a storm that wasn't predicted to be a big storm that was so we got so we that's so we actually see what it looks like yes it's almost like you're leading into our work session what are we going to do about storm water

3:08mayor jails let's talk about it yes we we did have a work session last night one of the our first topic was our budget which I'm sure we will talk about as well but the other the other issue was storm water and which is clearly been a huge issue for us in the recent past and this week so you know we a big focus was talking about kind of our existing plan which you know as you may remember includes a series of storm water basins that were put on hold several years ago the plan also includes a lot of smaller improvements so we've been making progress on those and we need to kind of determine what our big you know our next big steps are so the bottom line on it is that the basins would cost a lot the starting price is 17 million and when they're all completed it would only reduce flooding for a smaller scale like a 10 to 25 year storm so given

4:15that councils asked staff to bring back a different package of options for how the same money could be spent differently we want to see if we can she achieve better outcomes using kind of different strategies tactics maybe thinking a little outside the box looking at regional solutions looking at you know are there opportunities to just move things out of flood plains and again you know these are all really expensive um propositions so what can we make progress on knowing that we can't fix all of it that our development patterns were established a long time ago and some things are just not in great places but you know how can we make the biggest dent for the amount of money we have um it sounds like these are all like medium to long-term uh solutions that we're looking at uh in terms of like getting to the point where something's actionable is there a timeline for that and so there's some things that we're already doing obviously and there is um we're we're looking at kind of a technical assistance program so that residents could get assistance with kind

5:20of the smaller scale issues that are happening in neighborhoods and kind of on individual properties um I think there we we clearly already have um there are some things in place it's just that again given that storms are increasing in severity and how often they occur we're trying to figure out um how can we adjust our long-range plan accordingly um and how can we use data to inform that but I think you know we understand the urgency behind this we're hoping to have more information um really quickly um and I think you know I think an important point right now is that we'll need this to be a community wide effort you know like climate action we can't do this alone it doesn't it's not something that the town if we do it on all our properties and all our buildings it's not going to fix the problem so there are many things property owners and businesses and neighborhoods can do to be part of the solution and we want to create the assistance to help people

6:21people figure out what that is um but that can be you know being better prepared for storms or putting in a rain garden or swales or things in strategic places but we're seeing it work in other communities and I hope that we'll have more information to share in the future as well anything else on the stormwater before we talk budget um no let's talk budget this is uh early budget conversation for the town council any any overall themes emerging early on yeah so um at this point we're in the early stages and we haven't seen any real numbers but there are kind of some big things to highlight um the first is that our property tax and sales tax revenues for the current year so the 2526 budget um have been higher than projected so we're starting off on a slightly more positive footing than expected um for property taxes we're in the middle of the reval and for the sales taxes we were seeing lower numbers um like the the revenue projected projections were lower and actually they came in higher than we had anticipated so that just means we have some um does that get you back to even then

7:25so it turns out everything was just the way we thought it would be originally well yeah no we have exactly we we did kind of uh make decisions based on lower projections so we have um we have some fund balance we have some overages which is great um and that means that hopefully we can put some things either towards um you know what we'll talk about it next week but basically we'll be making some decisions about how to use that money on either you know deferred maintenance other programs or things that we that we know are high priority um that also may save us money by doing them earlier rather than later so there it's only one time money which means that you know you can't hire new people or you can't start a new program because then next year you don't have that money right but unless you continue to have overages which we can't count on so um another big focus for council last night um was on additional information we'd like to see about how the departmental budgets are coming together um I think in particular council was interested in knowing more about how our department heads assess what we're currently doing and

8:29then looking for places we can be more efficient or more innovative or change something to to get a better bang for the buck or be more aligned with our goals um we're also continuing to work toward being on a sustainable path for our fleet our facilities our roads our sidewalks all of our kind of core services um we have been playing catch up there for several years now and so last night staff provided us with a table that proposes how we can be caught up by 2030 for most areas which sets us up for a good conversation going forward um so I think staff is currently presenting their budgets to the manager for his review um and according to the published timeline the manager's recommended budget will be unveiled at our May 6th meeting um council did ask for additional information both beforehand so there's a chance we'll have an update before then um but then following the recommended budget there'll be a budget hearing on May 20th and a council work session on May 27th and um I just hope everyone will stay informed and let us know what matters to you

9:31and um and certainly just engage as you can it's a voice of Chapel Hill mayor Jess Anderson as we enter budget season we don't have a whole lot of time left but I did want to touch on one other item and that was the sad news that we got as one of our communities best may McClendon passed away earlier this week and I just wanted to give you the opportunity to share any words you might have truly one of our best yeah um I think um many are in shock and really very sad about the passing of May McClendon she um she was such an amazing person she did so much in this community I mean she was an active member of the black student movement she participated in the food service workers strike in the 60s and you know from then she was constantly you know working as for volunteer coordinators you know for Habitat for all these different amazing organizations and volunteering on boards and she's just kind of one of those rock foundational people of this community so um so we are so

10:39sad that she's gone and also of course just thinking of you know her daughter and the rest of her family at this time but um we definitely lost a really really good one this week Chapel Hill Mayor Jess Anderson any other thoughts before we finish up um well besides uh you know besides our usual um the town is accepting applications for our advisory boards um and our next council meeting will take place on the 25th at 6 p.m. in town hall so we hope to hear from people or see them then great stuff appreciate the time and we'll talk next week see then thanks Andrew