Greetings from South Africa

As many of you might recall, last spring the City of Kannapolis had a visitor from South Africa named Sbu that was here on a program arranged through Appalachian State University and the U.S. State Department to help build the capacity and skills of legislative staffers in South Africa.

Deputy City Manager Eddie Smith in South Africa with Sbu

As a part of the program, I have been in South Africa for the last few weeks on a return visit. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it has been a very good trip. Our delegation includes Sherry, who grew up in New York next to Central Park and has worked for the Congressional Research Service (CRS) for many years. There is Melissa, who works for the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). Also along are Chuck and Marvin, who work in city management in North Carolina.

Some interesting tidbits thus far:

• What stands out most to me about South Africa is the fact that all the properties in the area where I am staying, known as Hillcrest (outside of Durban) are surrounded by fences (with razor wire atop), signs for “armed” security response, and guard dogs. Jogging in the morning has teetered on borderline feelings of safety versus concern (I was with another person from our group). Even though apartheid ended in 1994, there’s still seems to be an underlying sense of tension. I also observed last night when we went to eat dinner that an armed security officer was walking through the parking lot, and there are also unemployed, self-appointed “car guards” who watch your vehicles while you eat or shop. It is customary to monetarily tip these “car guards” for watching your vehicle or for not stealing it, I’m still unsure which.
• A shocking, yet refreshing, observation was the underground utilities and absence of power lines in the downtown area of Hillcrest. The intersections are clean and crisp with very controlled access points between commercial businesses and major roadways. However, the lanes of travel are very narrow. The average width of pavement for minor roads from edge of asphalt to edge of asphalt is roughly 12-14 ft (at best).
• Gun Laws – file an application, wait to be proven competent (interviews with friends and relatives), prove why you need the gun (inherited, hunting, sport, etc), and provide a gun safe in the house (which is inspected by the gov’t). All persons who have a gun are encouraged to conceal the gun; if not, there’s a high probability that they would be robbed and possibly killed with that gun.
• Police Officers: Very dangerous job. Not respected (no authority is respected). Jobs are hard to fill because of the high stress. No counseling structure in place to help police officers deal with the stress, so they don’t talk to anyone – allowing the stress to build up and consume them. Highest rate of family murders is among police officers.

We will likely host another return intern in Kannapolis this fall.

Farewell to our International Visitor

For the last three weeks, the City of Kannapolis has had the pleasure of hosting Sibusiso Sifiso Zulu, or “S’bu” for short. S’bu is from KwaDukuza in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. He is here on a program arranged through Appalachian State University and the U.S. State Department to help build the capacity and skills of legislative staffers in South Africa.

S’bu is the Director of Communications and Marketing for his community, which is a coastal town where tourism is the primary industry.

During his visit here, he had the opportunity to learn not just about local government in Kannapolis, but also spend time with many of our institutional partners – Cabarrus Regional Chamber, Salisbury-Rowan EDC, Charlotte Research Institute, Cabarrus YMCA, Kannapolis City Schools, NC Research Campus, Cabarrus Crime Stoppers, and even the City of Charlotte. Sbu also spent valuable time with Walker Marketing, The Independent Tribune, and Jay Howard Enterprises (JHE).  He ends his stay here by attending the NC City and County Communicators (NC3C) conference organized by our Communications Director Karen Whichard and her counterparts in Concord and Cabarrus County.

I took S’bu to Charleston, SC for a weekend so he could see a coastal community that has a strong tourism base and diversified economy. Coming from a coastal community, S’bu surprisingly enjoyed eating crabs for the first time, and we also visited the South Carolina Aquarium and the USS Yorktown. We were also fortunate to be treated to an air show courtesy of the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, scheduled just for our visit…well, not really, just good timing on our part but we did feel special.

We also visited local area attractions such as Charlotte Motor Speedway, Concord Mills, Great Wolf Lodge, Stewart-Haas Racing, Hendrick Racing, the Dale Earnhardt Memorial Plaza, NASCAR Hall of Fame, Kannapolis Intimidators Minor League Baseball, Downtown Salisbury, and Downtown Concord.

Thanks to all of our city departments and partners who took time out of their busy schedules to meet and talk with S’bu. And special thanks to Sara, Ken, and Rob for being such great host families. We couldn’t have done it without your support.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Spring is here and opening night for the Kannapolis Intimidators is next Thursday! The team is entering its 16th season at Fieldcrest Cannon Stadium. Last year the Intimidators won the first half season title and qualified for the post-season playoffs.

The team arrives in Kannapolis Thursday evening, April 1st and already has scrimmages scheduled against another Chicago White Sox single-A affiliate, the Winston-Salem Dash, Saturday April 3rd and Monday, April 5th at 1:00 pm.

Here are a few upcoming promotions and special events to entice you to come out and enjoy an evening.

• Friday, April 9 –  “Talkin’ Business in the Ballpark” event with area chambers of commerce to do some networking. Call the stadium at 704- 932-FANS to reserve your tickets.
• Wed, April 28 and other Wednesdays in following months – Nine Innings of Networking – $19 for a reserve seat ticket, all-you-can-eat picnic in the BB&T Picnic Shelter AND unlimited business networking opportunities. Call the stadium at 704- 932-FANS to reserve your tickets.
• Fireworks at every Friday and Saturday home game!
• In addition to the popular Thirsty Thursdays, this year there will also be Wet Your Whistle Wednesdays for great deals on food and beverages.

View all of the many promotions/special events here and this season’s schedule here.

South African Exchange Student Coming to City Offices

Several months ago Appalachian State University’s Masters of Public Administration Program approached the City of Kannapolis about its interest in participating in a propopsed project to bring a group of future leaders from South Africa to North Carolina to learn more about democratic practices.  We learned last week that the U.S. State Department has awarded Appalachian State University a grant to cover the costs of the project. The City of Kannapolis will host one of the South African visitors for a 22-day internship experience in April. 

Our guests will arrive in Boone, NC in early April and participate in a seminar at Appalahcian State on the American system of government.  Following a short but intense internship with the City of Kannapolis April 9-30th, our South African guest will travel to Washington, D.C. to participate in a seminar with the U.S. Department of State after which they will return to South Africa on May 5, 2010.

Retreat Summary: Finances, Economy, and Priorities

So, this is my first posting on the City’s new blog and I’m eager to share some post-retreat thoughts and highlights. A few of you may have had the opportunity to preview the financial and budget Powerpoint I presented to City Council two weeks ago.  The jest of the presentation centered on the fact that for the past 25 years we’ve made budgetary and tax decisions that generated revenues sufficient enough to stay roughly one percent above inflation; thereby allowing us to sustain and maintain day-to-day operations.

Most people may not understand that City’s only control three decision making processes for insuring revenues are sufficient to maintain basic levels of services and make investments in capital projects: tax rate, fees, or decisions that help raise property values. All other sources of revenue are controlled by other entities and are usually based on the city’s population (which is why the 2010 Census is so important).

Similar to other parts of North Carolina, property values in Kannapolis have steadily increased over the last 25 years. It’s tempting during periods of increasing property values to make decisions that adjust the tax rate to near revenue neutral levels, as opposed to keeping the rate the same, because based on circumstances at that moment in time the short-term gain may be in the best interest of a majority of people. However, while such decisions may provide short-term gains, doing so can also have unintended consequences often associated with delayed infrastructure repairs, upgrades, and quality of life improvements such as: higher construction costs, costly emergency repairs, low community moral and enthusiasm.

My research shows that past budgetary decisions to maintain, as close as possible, a revenue neutral tax rate, resulted in the City’s ability to stay one percent ahead of inflation…which doesn’t leave a lot of additional revenue to do much else.  Of course, there were occassions, usually every 3-4 years, where monumental decisions were made to invest in capital projects such as Village Park, Baseball Stadium, Public Works Operations Center, Fire Station #1 and #5, etc., that have benefitted the community.

There’s no argument that the economy is struggling. There are many factors to use when determining if the economy is good or bad (unemployment rates, consumer price index, inflation rates, new home construction, etc.). These factors, along with plenty of talking head interpretations, are critical to determining when the economy is healthy enought to make capital investments.

Point is, the economy is dynamic in the sense that it’s always going to fluctuate. In a great economy everyone’s revenue is plentiful but the cost of products may be on the rise; in a sour economy our revenue’s may be decreasing but the costs of construction could drop as much as 20%, as is the case in 2009.

Bottom line, the intent of my presentation was to close the loop on the projects and ideas that city council heard during the two-day retreat and get them focused on how to make these intiatives a reality. At the end of the day, we all have to decide if we’ll let our priorities dictate our financial decisions or whether we’ll let our financial decisions dictate our priorities. A dilemma indeed for any city, regardless of its age.