Members of City Council, with the exclusion of Charlie Rivenbark, joined with state legislators to cross-examine efforts being made at the state and local levels on concerns about hurricane relief, affordable housing, water contamination, law enforcement, and the overall economic needs of the city.
Democratic Rep. Deb Butler, Republican Rep. Ted Davis, and Republican Sen. Michael Lee — along with Grayson Overholt, the regional representative for U.S. Senator Thom Tillis — attended the early-morning meeting.
Federal Funding and budget constraints
On behalf of Tillis, Overholt touched on the issues of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the national debt, to explain some of the restrictions on the release of federal funds for municipal needs.
“In 1965 that was 34% of the federal budget. In 2023 that was 72% of the federal budget. So it's just, I think it's a good context to understand the pressures that we have on our financial systems," he said.
Overholt said Tillis is paying close attention to funding for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement project. In fact, one of Tillis’ main priorities — one that directly impacts Wilmington, Overholt said — is the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill, which is set to be renewed next fiscal year in 2026. This bill is a multi-year law that lasts about five to six years and sets all policies and federal funding levels for infrastructure nationwide.
“What they're going to change is the formula a little bit,” Overholt said. “Meaning that more of it's going to go to like bridges, interstates and state highways, and less of it's going to go to smaller things like municipal parks or running horses, things of that nature. So they're trying to focus on where the greatest number of people will see the benefit.”
Another priority of Tillis’ is the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, also known as the Farm Bill, which covers a slew of programs, but most notably ensures the fair pricing of food for farmers and consumers.
“A big thing for us is the Farm Bill. And I know a lot of folks [when they] think New Hanover County, they don't think farm. However, the Farm Bill encompasses the SNAP program, which has a great impact on the state, both rural and urban. So we're going to be looking at that to get impact together for that.”
Disaster Relief
In the event that a hurricane poses a significant threat to our region as Hurricane Helene did in western North Carolina last year, or Hurricane Florence did to the coastal region in 2018, Mayor Bill Saffo questioned the lawmakers about hurricane relief.
Given that the last of the state’s reimbursements for Hurricane Florence came in this year, Saffo asked, “if we do have a hurricane in the East, with all of the pressures that you folks have in the West and the amount of money that's going there, can we handle two things at one time, of this magnitude? Because it could be 13, 14 billion [dollars].”
Senator Michael Lee responded that the state has about $8 million in various reserves and that “the key is going to be that we don't spend down reserves.”
“I think Governor Stein is, is certainly attuned to the administrative piece of this puzzle, and is already setting up, you know, for the west. And so if we have something in the east, I think it all really comes down to the day to day management on the administrative side. And I think Governor Stein is really kind of on top of it.”
Davis agreed, noting that when the reserves go untouched, the state doesn’t have to raise taxes:
“When the legislature started building up their money, I know Governor Cooper criticized us very harshly about the fact we weren't spending money. ‘Why are you keeping all this money? Why aren't you spending?’” Davis said. “What happened was, we had the money to help people. Didn't have to raise taxes. So that's what Mike was talking about.”
However, Butler said even though the state’s reserves are available for disaster relief, tapping into those funds would not be so simple.
“Anybody who's run a household budget knows that reserves are important… to a point,” Butler said. “We are in a somewhat of a perilous place, and I think it's fine to be optimistic and to say we'll be well and good, but I do believe that a storm in the east would be devastating given what we're seeing in the west.”
“I mean, we're not getting the money out west as fast as many say we should either,” Butler continued. “We're doing it. We're trying. I realize it's a Herculean effort, but they say constantly that they need it yesterday. So I think it's a fool's errand to not be aware that revenues are projected to come down, expenses are high and a cataclysmic storm here would be a problem.”
Affordable housing
Council member Salette Andrews introduced a few points about the ongoing issue of affordable housing. Andrews said locating suitable land for development contributes to the lack of affordable housing, and hinders the city’s goal of increasing residential density.
She also echoed complaints over corporate landlords, noting that Governor Josh Stein, during his time as Attorney General, entered an antitrust lawsuit against the property management software company RealPage, which was accused of enabling landlords to keep units open until they get a resident who can pay a price set by the company’s algorithm.
She said these price gouging practices are “really hurting our ability to increase density and increase the number of units available.”
“It's not just an issue to keep people housed, which is really important, but it's an economic development issue,” Andrews said. “We need to be able to attract a skilled workforce, we need to be able to attract businesses that want to relocate here, and if they can't find people who can afford to also live here, they're not going to want to locate here. So it's a big issue.”
Andrews said the city is continuing efforts to tackle the issue, citing the council’s recent appropriation to the Cape Fear Collective.
She also called upon the legislators in the room to continue supporting many of the housing programs like “the Community Development Block Grant Program, the Home Investment Partnership Program, the Housing Choice Voucher Program, and Veterans Affairs support housing voucher program.”
Andrews also mentioned that there are incentives for developers to set aside 10% of their units for workforce housing that is 80 to 120% of area median income, then their density limits would be lifted.
Council member Luke Waddell added that some regulatory policies can impede the development of more housing in ways that drive costs up for renters. He asked Lee, Butler and Davis which cities are meeting their affordable housing needs.
Lee responded with “time is money,” and said there are municipalities that have streamlined the process for development by being “cognizant of time.”
Lee said the Technical Review Committee, which ensures that proposed developments are compliant with the codes of TRC’s participating agencies, can hold up new developments.
“I haven't heard bad things about Wilmington, but if you're coming to a TRC [technical review committee] and you're getting it from one department, another department of the department, and then you get follow ups from different departments, and then the follow up from this department causes problems for this department, you end up kind of ping ponging all around and because time is money, it drives that cost up,” he said.
To answer Waddell’s question, Butler said that staffing these departments adequately is critical.
“If you don't have the boots on the ground to do the work, you do see a temptation on the part of legislators to privatize certain elements, inspections, engineering, and I think that's a slippery slope,” Butler said. “So you need to have the investment in your personnel to make sure that there's not duplication, and that the workflow does move. You can't blame staff if they're understaffed.”
Saffo addressed the ongoing plans for the redevelopment of the Hillcrest community by the Wilmington Housing Authority, which has been in the works for over a decade. He said WHA is partnering with a private-public developer to increase their nearly 200-unit property to 600 units of both market-rate and affordable housing.
“We may need some help on that between state and federal to make this thing really good,” Saffo said.
Lee concluded the discussion on housing by reminding city officials that their representatives are only a phone call away.
“A lot of times people don't realize you can just call us and say, ‘Hey, this is kind of crazy that we have to do this,’” Lee said. “I know Governor Stein would be interested if it has to do with an administrative policy rule or concern, and we in the legislature can, can work on those things too.”
PFAS
“Have y’all ever heard of PFAs?” Waddell, the city’s representative on the board of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, asked jokingly before diving into the issue of our contaminated air and water. “Obviously it's a serious issue, and I know we're all nearly experts on it, and have had to be, unfortunately,” Waddell conceded.
Waddell said the CFPUA has been an industry leader in the mitigation of PFAS, the family of chemicals, including GenX, that have prompted environmental concerns in the Cape Fear region since 2017. Waddell added that CFPUA's granular activated carbon (GAC) water filtration system is also industry leading. However, he said, the city is not yet utilizing the most effective and efficient treatments of PFAS.
“It seems like we're peeling an onion,” Waddell said. “There's more and more and more that we're finding, and ultimately it's having to fall on the backs of the ratepayers until we can finalize some litigation, hopefully with Chemours, and other things that we should be looking at coming down the pipe.”
Waddell is referring to an expansion that was placed a couple of weeks ago on The Chemours Company — a chemical producing company based in Delaware with a branch located in Fayetteville, North Carolina — by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality. The expansion made about 150,000 more private wells around the plant eligible for PFAS testing.
This prompted Waddell to give an overview of CFPUA’s largest capital project, the expansion and replacement of the more than 50-year-old South Side wastewater treatment plant located on River Road.
“We're going to take it from 12 million gallons a day to 16 billion gallons a day. Updated cost estimate on that's about $480 million. It was a little high,” Waddell said. “And we're able to reduce that cost to $400 million. We've secured $140 million in low-interest State Revolving Fund loans, planning to defer like $83 million in other capital projects, to kind of really focus on this, because it has major impacts to our community.”
Waddell said this is an issue for which he’ll continue to advocate and seek funding.
Davis said he’ll continue to push a bill, the PFAs Pollution and Polluter Liability Act, he introduced in 2023 that would hold companies accountable for the pollution they caused directly.
“Basically, what it would say is, if you are a person that creates PFAs, and either through the air or through the water, it enters into a public utility system, if you're a public utility, then that polluter is going to have to be responsible for all the cost of cleaning up the water,” Davis said. “For the exact reason like you said, Luke, the rate payers should not be on the hook, having to pay for the millions upon millions of dollars.”
Davis said this legislation would also help improve the air and water quality in neighboring counties, Brunswick and Columbus.
But Davis’ bill has faced some contention in the past from the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce and the North Carolina Manufacturers Alliance, one reason being the potential increase in costs for manufacturers.
“And my response to them is,” Davis said. “If I have a family, especially children, do you think I want to go work in a place, or invest in a business in a place where my family can’t have clean drinking?”
“They're not putting it in the water directly like they were,” Davis continued. “Problem is the settlement is so polluted, when the water comes through, it picks that stuff up, so it's still present. But hopefully that bill will get traction and go forward.”
Lee added that the threat of effluent (toxins from sewage systems) in drinking water is a growing threat, and that this bill would be a step in the right direction.
“So one of the regulatory challenges that we have in North Carolina and the world, for that matter,” Lee said. “Is that these are compounds that can be made, and you have to, it's hard for the government to keep up.”
Lee advised the others that the state should establish a reserve to sustain research on PFAS, and continue to fund collaborations between DEQ and “the scientists that are leading in the world on these issues.”
Butler was also on board with Davis’ bill.
“I've been talking about this for years, and for you to take it up, I truly admire you for doing it, and I appreciate it. And this community should appreciate it. I will support you to the point you tell me to stop,” she said.
And like Lee, Butler said the state needs a full range of solutions to target the various threats to our air and water.
“It can't just be PFAS, unfortunately. We need true polluter-pay bills. This is a very good step, if you can push this through,” said Butler to Davis.
Transportation and infrastructure needs
Saffo steered the focus of the conversation to transportation, and talked about some longtime capital projects that could greatly improve this growing region’s traffic concerns.
“I know that 10, 12 years ago, we made an announcement [that] there would be five interchanges in this community that would be done: Military and Eastwood, Market and Eastwood, College, [and] Kerr [and] MLK, and then College and Oleander,” Saffof said. “I know there's some funding set aside for this particular project, but as you all well know, costs have gone through the roof.”
Specifically, Saffo asked for about $1.1 million from the state to fund an ongoing resurfacing project on Raleigh Street connecting to the Port of Wilmington, for which the city has put aside $2.2 million.
Another large budget item on the agenda was the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge replacement project, for which the state received a $242 million federal grant last year.
Now, the federal grant is on hold due to a 30-day review that must be conducted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. And reports say costs on materials have inflated, bringing the projected cost for the project to $1.1 billion, as compared to the $450 million that was previously projected.
Saffo mentioned that a possible source of funding for the new bridge could come from bridge tolls. He said he hoped, if tolls were utilized, they would be handled by the North Carolina Turnpike Authority and not a private or foreign entity.
“Hopefully we can get some additional funding from the federal government on that particular bridge, thet would be great. I know the needs are tremendous,” Saffo said.
Saffo said Brunswick County is the fastest growing county in the state and that Leland’s population is close to topping 30,000 people. He told the lawmakers this growth is why the bridge revamp is so needed.
“We have over about 50,000 people a day that are coming into the community that are not even residents of this community,” Saffo said. “Then you throw in all of the folks that come in during the summer months.”
“Tourism is here, and everybody that goes to any one of the three area beaches has got to drive through the city of Wilmington to get there,” he added. “It just puts a tremendous amount of pressure on all of us.”
Mike Kozlosky, the executive director of the Wilmington Urban Area Planning Metropolitan Planning Organization, chimed in as well.
“We need to focus on increasing the funding for transportation and then also project delivery,” Kozlosky said. “We do a lot of talking about projects, but we need to focus on delivering those projects for this community, because we are growing, and so any help we could get and any revenue that we can get to come back to this area would be much appreciated.”
Economic development
Councilmember David Joyner introduced the issues facing economic development in the city, one being the ability to sell the city’s surplus properties left behind from the consolidation of city operations. Joyner brought up SB 203, a bill that would allow the City of Wilmington to sell these properties in private negotiations. The bill is sponsored by Sen. Lee, and Joyner said other cities, including Raleigh, Cary and High Point, already have this ability.
Aubrey Parsley, the director of economic development for the City of Wilmington, spoke more about the bill.
“The genesis of it was our office consolidation here in this building, that left us with a portfolio of surplus properties that's a little more robust than maybe some other units," he said.
“Some of these assets that we have here are very complex,” Parsley said. “Complex in the form of environmental contamination, or they're just large assets that require significant due diligence, way above and beyond probably what's contemplated in these upset bid or sealed bid procedures.”
Parsley said he sees this bill as a way to modernize the city’s ability to negotiate the sale of these complex assets at fair market value.
Butler asked how this bill could address concerns about transparency, to ensure there will not be any “backroom deals.”
“The public still becomes completely aware of all the parameters of the deal, and it still goes to our board for approval, so the sun will shine on it when a market rate deal is reached,” Parsley said.
“Well, these properties are so complicated that they require a really big investment on the front end to make sure that it's the right fit for the end user, but if they find themselves in an upset bid situation, they probably are disinclined to spend that money,” Butler said.
Parsley said, without the ability that is proposed in SB 203 (now in the House for awaiting approval), the upset bids that they currently engage in are a “non-starter” for a lot of potential buyers and gave an example.
“We have this property just north of this building [the Skyline Center] here, that's a former CSX bulk chemical liquid storage facility,” Parsley said. “[It] had a spill in the 90s, [the] city now owns that property, and we're taking it through the Brownfield agreement process with DEQ, and at the same time we're trying to dispose of it.”
“So the negotiations that'll need to take place between a prospective buyer, the state, and the city are just not really compatible with an upset bid procedure,” he said.
Parsley made one last point, regarding the importance of the film industry to Wilimngton.
“We want to be champions for our film and television television industry. We know that in 2024 alone, that industry brought in over $300 million to the state of North Carolina,” Parsley said. “And so as you're looking at the grants that go into film and the caps on those grants, we would just ask that you consider the good work that can be done statewide, and specifically in Wilmington.”
Law enforcement and fire department needs
Councilman Kevin Spears spoke on behalf of Charlie Rivenbark about the needs of law enforcement, but included his own thoughts on the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
“There are initiatives out there to end wokeness,” Spears said. “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is more than just a trending topic. It impacts the lives of people in our community. So I would be remiss if I didn't say that.”
Chief of the Wilmington Police Department, Donny Williams, and Chief of the Wilmington Fire Department, J. Steve Mason, presented their needs to the group.
Williams focused on the suspension of a federal grant the agency is relying on to fund new, highly specialized equipment.
“We were approved back in 2022 for a port security grant,” Williams said. “We were able to purchase a total containment vessel. And what that vehicle does is we can put up to 10 pounds of explosives inside of it, and we can safely transport it, or we can actually detonate the explosives right there inside of the vehicle. And it could be done multiple times.”
Williams said the city would benefit from a total containment vehicle since Wilmington sits on the intersection of the Military Ocean Point Terminal Sunny Point, one of the largest military terminals in the world, that serves as a transfer point for military equipment.
Williams said there have been instances where people have encountered grenades near MOTSU, in which case the vehicle would be useful; he did not denote whether the grenades were found by civilians or officers.
The agency is also awaiting other port security grants that would fund the purchase of drones and a boat lift, he said. As for the vehicle, the agency has already purchased it. but without the port security grant to reimburse the cost, he said the city would be on the hook for a lot of money.
“So I know we've been told to sit tight, but those funds are very, very important for our agency and for our community,” Williams said.
Lastly, Williams touched on the issue of teen violence.
“I want to thank you at the state level for what you did last year with Raise the Age, where automatically Class A through F felonies go to Superior Court, if they're violent. It has helped some,” Williams said. “But as I said the last time I was given the crime update, my biggest fear are handguns in the hands of our juveniles, and we just need to do more, because there are a lot of firearms that are out there.”
Fire Chief Mason talked to the Council and state lawmakers about his concerns over the dissolution of FEMA and how that may impact emergency services provided by the city.
“FEMA is much more than the support that you see after a storm. FEMA actually runs the National Fire Academy, the National Emergency Training Center and the Emergency Management Institute,” Mason said. “And what I want to say about that is the National Fire Academy provides training for fire departments and emergency management professionals all over this country at either no cost or low cost, which is extremely important to small communities that do not have the funding to send people for state of the art training.”
Mason thought back to when he and his staff helped with the response effort in western North Carolina during Helene, and noted the lack of trained personnel in those smaller counties to demonstrate the needed investment into trained emergency responders that FEMA provides.
“There was not enough trained emergency response personnel who could serve in Incident Command roles in all of these communities. You had 16 [counties] affected,” Mason said.
“Some of the cities had their own emergency operations center,” he continued. “After about 48 hours, they wore their people out, and so they had to start reaching out to their partners across the state and across the country to find trained emergency management professionals.”
The meeting concluded with Mason’s overview, at which point, officials got up and shook hands and thanked each other for their time.
