Tag Archive for: #jordanmcmillen

Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen

Jordan McMillen Credentialed by International Local Government Management Organization

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— press release

Jordan McMillen, County Manager of Vance County, North Carolina, recently received the Credentialed Manager designation from ICMA, the International City/County Management Association. Mr. McMillen is one of over 1,300 local government management professionals currently credentialed through the ICMA Voluntary Credentialing Program.

ICMA’s mission is to advance professional local government through leadership, management, innovation, and ethics and by increasing the proficiency of appointed chief administrative officers, assistant administrators, and other employees who serve local governments and regional entities around the world. The organization’s 13,000 members in 27 countries also include educators, students, and other local government employees.

To receive the prestigious ICMA credential, a member must have significant experience as a senior management executive in local government; have earned a degree, preferably in public administration or a related field; and demonstrated a commitment to high standards of integrity and to lifelong learning and professional development.

Jordan McMillen is qualified by having over 12 years of professional local government executive experience. Prior to his appointment in 2016 as County Manager of Vance County, North Carolina, he served a dual role of Deputy County Manager/Planning and Development Director for three years, Planning and Development Director for two years and prior to that as Planning Services Manager for three years. He is more than deserving of this designation having worked in Vance County for a number of years and having made the positive impact that he has and continues to make for our citizens. This is even more notable following his recent honor being named County Manager of the Year for the Kerr-Tar Region.

For more information regarding the ICMA Voluntary Credentialing Program, contact Jenese Jackson at ICMA, 777 North Capitol Street, N.E., #500, Washington, D.C. 20002-4201; jjackson@icma.org; 202-962-3556.

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McMillen Provides Overview of Recommended Vance Co. Budget Changes

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100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen provided WIZS with the following summary of the Vance County Board of Commissioners’ meeting held Monday, June 1, 2020:

We held three public hearings last evening in regard to the overall FY 2020-2021 budget, the water budget and the economic development budget. We are on schedule to adopt the budget during our special meeting on June 15 and are not anticipating any additional work sessions unless the Board decides otherwise.

Overall, there have only been a few changes the board has made to the recommended budget. The changes are as follows:

– Increased revenue into the general fund due to transferring $41,903 from economic development fund as the result of revenue from Triangle North to offset expenses.

– Increased EMS capital outlay $1,400 to account for the increased cost of camera installation.

– Increased revenue and expenditures by $12,295 due to Emergency Management COVID-19 grant.

– Moved $6,000 from the 4H budget to the Cooperative Extension budget to cover the salary for the 4H position.

– Adjusted state revenues and expenditures for the Juvenile Crime Prevention Council (JCPC) based upon funding grid approved by the JCPC Board on May 28, 2020.

– Added four additional vehicles to the sheriff’s office budget to fully fund the sheriff’s request for eight vehicles – $144,000 additional cost to be financed.

We are running the final numbers on the budget and will have the overall budget and revised appropriation from fund balance in the next day or so.

WIZS Note:

On today’s edition of Town Talk, Sheriff Brame briefly addressed last night’s meeting and said he was pleased with the outcome for the sheriff’s office. “I thank the County Commissioners for being in favor of what I asked for. I understand this is crunch time, and everyone knows we are in an economic fallout due to COVID-19. I’m pleased that the commissioners are working with the Vance County Sheriff’s Office and other County agencies.”

To see the recommended budget (prior to the June 1 Commissioners’ meeting), click here. To hear a recent Town Talk interview with McMillen regarding the budget, click here.

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Vance Co. Proposed FY 2020-21 Budget Includes Cost of Living Adjustment

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100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

In a followup to his discussion on WIZS Town Talk last week, Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen reported that the Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Vance County proposed budget does include a three percent cost of living adjustment.

The $49,268,824 proposed budget was presented to the Vance County Board of Commissioners at their May meeting and includes four major recurring items that increase the budget expenditures by more than $100,000 each. These items include a cost of living adjustment for County employees, a state-mandated increase in retirement costs for employees, new departmental positions/overtime increases and increases in jail healthcare to change medical providers.

The cost of living adjustment totals $522,120 and is deemed necessary as the County’s starting and current salaries are falling behind inflation and beginning to fall behind neighboring jurisdictions, according to McMillen. “A cost of living adjustment not only moves employees’ salaries up, but it also moves the entire salary schedule upward adjusting starting salaries by the same percentage. Although human resources recommends we implement a five percent cost of living adjustment for the upcoming year, we were only able to include three percent due to lack of revenue growth,” McMillen explained.

McMillen said it would be advisable to revisit revenues in the early part of 2021 to see if further adjustments can be made to the salary schedule mid-year. The last cost of living adjustment given to County employees was one-and-half percent in January 2017, and, since that time, inflation has increased over six percent.

Additionally, McMillen stated that Granville, Franklin, and Warren counties are currently undertaking a salary plan which will cause Vance County’s salaries to fall even further behind.

A public hearing to receive citizens’ comments on the proposed budget will be held at 6 p.m. on Monday, June 1. To adhere to current social distancing guidelines, the public is asked to email comments regarding the budget to Vance County Clerk Kelly Grissom at KGrissom@vancecounty.org prior to the hearing or up to 24 hours after the hearing.

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Vance Co.: COVID-19 Hurts Sales Tax Revenue, Will Impact New Budget Year

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100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen provided WIZS with the following statement concerning the County’s current state of affairs and the 2020-2021 budget process:

On the Vance County business front, we have trying to operate as close to normal as we can. All County employees continue to work, but we have limited interactions and access to the public in our offices due to COVID-19.

We have continued to hold our committee meetings. We held our Commissioners’ meeting on April 6 – we did not have enough members of the public in attendance to go over our 10 public restriction in the room, but we also made the meeting available on Zoom.

We are on schedule for our next Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Monday evening, May 4, 2020, and will make that one available on Zoom as well. In order to avoid any potential “Zoom bombers” or hacking, the County will have the meeting log-in information for anyone that wants to call and get it, but we are not pushing it out via all media outlets.

We have a properties committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 3 p.m. to discuss the schedule for the Eaton-Johnson Renovation and will follow that with an HR committee meeting.

A lot of our attention from the staff standpoint lately has been on the budget. We are finalizing the numbers this week and plan to present the budget to the commissioners at the May 4 meeting.

COVID-19 has had and will continue to have impacts on next year’s budget. Our main concern is the impact on sales tax revenues due to the various businesses that have been shut down the last month or so. For the current budget year, sales tax impacts will be felt during the last month in the fiscal year (June) as sales tax dollars come into the county three months after the sale.

For the next fiscal year, we are expecting lower sales tax revenues for the first and second quarters of the fiscal year and quite possibly into early 2021 – realizing this time period could be extended depending upon how the economy reacts. As a result, we are budgeting conservatively for sales tax revenues which limits our ability even further to add large items to next year’s budget.

The other impact we have seen on budgeting is that businesses which typically list business personal property by April 15 have been slower to list this year. They are coming in, but it has delayed our ability to finalize the budget numbers as we use what is listed to determine property tax revenue for the next year. We intend to finalize this tomorrow and may have to make a projection vs. basing it off of the actual listed property.

All in all, I am pleased where we are with the budget in light of the challenges we have had lately with COVID-19, but I am recommending to the board that we revisit our revenue projections in the fall to ensure we are still on point with all of the uncertainty.

In terms of normal budget worries, I am always concerned this time of year with the number of necessary budget requests from departments that we are unable to fund. The board will ultimately decide whether we made the right choices when they review the budget, but we are always challenged with only minimal revenue growth and the ability we have to fund additional items without raising taxes.

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Officials Estimate $15K Grant Will Remove 10 Abandoned Mobile Homes

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THIS STORY IS PRESENTED IN PART BY DRAKE DENTISTRY

Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen provided WIZS with the following summary of the County’s recent award of a $15,000 grant to remove abandoned mobile homes:

The County applied for a grant through the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service which is under the State’s Department of Environmental Quality. We applied for $40,000 and were awarded $15,000.

This program has been on our radar since our first two iterations with it in 2010 and 2016. Our Board mentioned an interest in the program during their retreat last year in January and, once the funding was finalized in this year’s state budget, we had our Solid Waste Department prepare the application.

The funds will come to the County and is for the deconstruction, removal and disposal of abandoned mobile homes. We believe these funds, coupled with our matching requirement of $7,500 and with the participation fee, will remove approximately 10 units.

We will choose which units to address based upon a first-come-first-serve interest from property owners. First, we will inspect the unit to ensure it is abandoned and in a condition where it should be removed, and then we will handle the selection of a contractor to complete the work.

This program has been very satisfying because it gets right at beautifying our community. When we received the funding in 2010, there were multiple highly visible units that were removed. I recall one instance on NC 39 North where two abandoned mobile homes were right along the roadway, and every time folks traveled to the lake it was a visible blight. We are hoping this latest round of funding will allow us to identify and work with property owners to do the same.

For more information about the Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Service’s Abandoned Manufactured Homes (AMH) Grant Program, please click here.

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Proposed Vance Co. Budget Includes Increase in Fire Tax, New Deputy Positions

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Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen was on Wednesday’s edition of WIZS’ Town Talk program to discuss the County’s proposed FY 2019-2020 budget.

Presented to the Vance County Board of Commissioners at their May 6 meeting, the General Fund Budget is proposed to be $48,362,611, a figure that includes all tax-supported governmental activities and represents a 0.4% increase over the current budget.

According to the 247-page proposal, the budget provides sufficient funds to improve the current level of services in several areas and addresses many of the priorities and goals established by the board of commissioners during their annual planning retreat.

In summary, the budget:

  • Includes no increase in the general fund property tax rate with a continued pattern of minimal revenue growth.
  • Includes an increase of 2.3 cents per $100 in value in the fire tax rate to provide part-time positions to the volunteer fire departments which will assist with improving response times and lowering ISO ratings.
  • Includes no increase in the solid waste household fee and includes no increase in the water usage rate while reducing the amount transferred from the general fund to cover water system debt service.
  • Improves the current level of services and maintains the county’s healthy financial condition. The general fund balance is projected to be 31.2% by the end of FY19 down from 37.8% in FY18 due to the purchase of land for economic development. The fund balance appropriated to balance the budget is $1,192,442 with a total of $500,000 expected to be spent on non-school and non-debt capital projects.
  • Addresses salary compression, retention and employee pay by funding a salary progression plan to move employees along the pay scale on a regular basis.
  • Focuses on improving rural fire protection and enhancing overall public safety. This includes providing funding for part-time positions at volunteer fire departments and the rescue squad, replacing a portion of viper radios for public safety departments, and providing staffing increases for the sheriff’s office.
  • Includes 2 new deputy sheriff positions, 1 new building codes enforcement officer Ill position, 2 new telecommunicator positions, 2 position upgrades (DSS and tax office), and 2 part-time custodian salary adjustments.
  • Prioritizes citizen health and continues working to improve the county’s substance use disorder challenges through increased funding for the health department.
  • Advances economic development opportunities for residents and businesses while supporting distance learning opportunities for students by funding initial efforts to deploy affordable wireless broadband in the county with a focus on unserved and underserved areas.
  • Includes a major investment in school capital providing $5,252,000 to Vance County Schools to support redesigns for the middle and high schools, multiple HVAC replacements, parking lot redesign and paving at the middle school, ADA upgrades, replacement of the high school boiler system, and other requested school capital needs.
  • Implements the FY20 CIP which includes renovations for a new DSS/Senior Center facility as a major debt project and several smaller pay-go (cash) funded projects from fund balance.

“I was pleased with how the budget came together this year,” said McMillen. “Going into it, we were wary of the fact that there wasn’t going to be a lot of additional revenue. We were able to maximize the County services and add some new services with very limited additional revenue growth.”

Of note, McMillen said the proposed fire tax rate increase of 2.3 cents per $100 in value will allow the County to fund two part-time positions at each volunteer fire department, a proposition that has been much-discussed in recent Board meetings and work sessions.

According to McMillen, this rate increase would amount to approximately $23 annually for the average Vance County household.

“This tax increase will help improve response times for citizens and will also allow those departments to lower their ISO (insurance) rating, which translates into real dollar savings for citizens,” explained McMillen.

McMillen also noted that he was pleased the proposed budget provides the Vance County Sheriff’s Office with two of their requested four new deputy sheriff positions.

In total, $1.9 million in additional requests were unable to be funded, according to McMillen, including a request for four new positions at the Vance County Detention Center.

Board of Commissioners will meet in work sessions at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 20 and Tuesday, May 21 to discuss and review the proposed budget.

A public hearing regarding the budget will be held at the Board’s next regularly-scheduled meeting on Monday, June 3 at 6 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Meeting Room, 122 Young Street, Henderson.

The final, approved version of the FY 2019-2020 budget will be effective July 1, 2019. To view the proposed budget, please visit the Vance County website at www.vancecounty.org.

To hear the Town Talk interview with Jordan McMillen in its entirety, click here.

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Vance Co. Commissioners’ Meeting: Rezoning, RVs & Former Middle School Buildings

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Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen provided WIZS News with a summary of the Vance County Board of Commissioners’ meeting held on Monday, April 1, 2019. McMillen’s reported highlights from the meeting include:

“We didn’t have any public comments but did have one individual who came back from last month to voice their opinion against the discussed rezoning. Their basis was not wanting commercial activity in a traditionally residential area. The commissioners tabled this matter one additional time and requested that the applicant provide a valid survey of the area to be rezoned with the idea of keeping half of the property on the Edwards Road side as Residential and rezoning the half facing US 1 bypass as General Commercial. It appears the board is open to the rezoning once this is provided, but they have made no decisions. I would anticipate a decision on this at the May 6 board meeting if a survey is provided.”

The board set two public hearings for the May 6 meeting for potential amendments to the zoning ordinance to allow accessory structures in front yards and also one concerning RV/Camper Regulations.

“I believe the bigger one may be the RV/Camper Regulations and I could anticipate some board discussion on this next month. For the most part, the question concerns regulations vs. property owner rights. The proposed amendment would eliminate the temporary use of RV/Campers outside of RV Parks. The state already prohibits permanent living in RVs/Campers. This will most likely have an effect on someone who owns a vacant lot and brings their camper/RV for a weekend or during the summer.”

In regards to moving the Vance County Department of Social Services to the former Eaton Johnson Middle School building:

“We are continuing our negotiations with the school system and I believe this will move forward very soon. Our board did proceed last night to authorize me to negotiate a contract with Oakley, Collier Architects to get the ball rolling on this project.

Regarding Henderson Middle School, the board declined the school systems offer to provide the building to the county at a fair market or negotiated price. For the most part, our board felt it would be difficult financially to take on both Eaton Johnson and Henderson Middle School at the same time. Our commissioners did offer to assist the school system with any costs to ensure the building is added to the historical register to ensure the architectural character is maintained.”

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McMillen: Vance Co. Board Begins 2019-2020 Budget Preparations

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County Manager Jordan McMillen was on Monday’s edition of WIZS’ Town Talk program to discuss the Vance County Board of Commissioners’ recent two-day planning retreat, held for 2019-2020 fiscal year budget preparation purposes.

According to McMillen, day one of the retreat included presentations by various county department heads, a change from previous years that led to greater clarity on the challenges and needs of each area.

“At this point in the budget process, which is really just beginning, we have a good handle on the needs for the upcoming year, primarily because of that first day of the retreat,” said McMillen.

Many of those needs center around one of the largest budget costs – public safety. With a new sheriff at the helm, McMillen expects one of the requests put forth to the Board this year to include the addition of several staff positions with the Vance County Sheriff’s Office.

Additional big-budget items, such as possible EMS schedule changes and on-going fire restructuring talk also weighed heavy on the discussion.

Part of the EMS restructuring includes talk of transitioning EMS personnel to a 24/72 schedule where a responder works a 24-hour shift, followed by three days off, in a rotation that would see all shifts covered.

Transitioning to this schedule would require the addition of nine new EMS positions at a cost of approximately half-a-million dollars, bringing McMillen back to the “challenges” part of the equation – money.

“Our main sources of revenue – sales and property tax – have minor growth each year,” McMillen said. “We may have $300,000 – $500,000 additional each year, which sounds like a lot, but when you start to look at some of the cost items and expenditures, they take that amount up pretty quickly.”

When questioned on the reported $650,000 in additional revenue available from the roll-off courthouse and jail renovation expenses, McMillen said the money will more than likely be put back into capital expenditures.

“The County does have an aggressive capital improvement plan that has funded projects such as roof replacements and met various needs neglected during the recession years,” said McMillen. “I don’t know that it’s going to help us on the operational side of the budget; we may be able to use some of it.”

At the retreat, McMillen said he cautioned commissioners on the potential perils of juggling so many major projects at the same time.

“I recall, a few years ago, we would focus on one large project at a time. Now we are really stretching and getting into a lot of projects at one time. I think the message for the upcoming budget year is that we need to be careful with that.”

To help narrow their focus, the Board established six goals for the 2019-2020 fiscal year:

  • Move the Vance County Department of Social Services to the former Eaton Johnson Middle School building
  • Provide funding and support to improve fire response county-wide
  • Support existing businesses and market available buildings
  • Improve broadband internet access throughout the county
  • Address littering/trash issues and increase clean-up efforts
  • Address public health issues, particularly substance use and mental health disorders

The first of these goals, moving DSS into the former Eaton Johnson Middle School building located at 500 N. Beckford Drive, is a priority for the Board.

Currently owned by Vance County Schools, McMillen said the Board “hopes to move forward, expeditiously, with acquiring, designing and renovating the former school to include the movement of DSS, and possibly the Senior Center and other departments as space would allow.”

These goals will go before the Vance County Board of Commissioners for approval at their monthly meeting this evening.

To hear the interview with Jordan McMillen in its entirety, please click here.

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County Manager McMillen Says Vance is Full of ‘Positive Momentum’

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Vance County Manager Jordan McMillen was on Thursday’s edition of WIZS’ Town Talk program to discuss the positive growth in various areas of county government.

“Vance County’s mission is to improve the quality of life for our citizens,” McMillen said. McMillen, who has worked for Vance County for 10 years and served as county manager for two, credits the approximately 350 “amazing employees” for their hard work in making a better life for all residents.

Part of that improvement in quality involves the removal of 35-40 abandoned structures from Henderson and Vance County in the past two years. Working with the City of Henderson, the County has eliminated these potentially dangerous and unsightly structures and has cleaned up at least twice that amount of properties that are now available for purchase.

McMillen estimates that there are currently 50 available properties for sale in the county and 160 in the city-limit. County surplus properties, along with photos and aerial views, may be viewed by visiting the County’s website at www.vancecounty.org and clicking on the “Surplus Properties” tab.

The County is also improving the quality of life for its citizens, according to McMillen, by bringing more jobs to the area. “Our major focus is jobs. Not only bringing jobs to Henderson and Vance County but preparing for future job opportunities as well.”

New businesses such as Mako Medical Laboratories are bringing in higher-paying jobs and opportunities. “Mako has been a great partner with us and with the community. I’m happy to report that they are six months ahead of schedule in that they have created 80 jobs of the 153 they committed to creating,” McMillen said.

The retail industry is also beginning an upward swing in the area. “We are seeing a lot of positive momentum on the retail front with businesses such as Planet Fitness and Aldi. We are starting to see Henderson and Vance County as a good market from the retail standpoint,” said McMillen.

When asked what contributed to the change in momentum, McMillen explained, “You start bringing in businesses and that starts the trend. Small pieces start coming together and the market starts improving.”

Another area currently undergoing growth and expansion is the Henderson-Vance Industrial Park. In fact, McMillen said the County would be closing on the purchase of 85 acres of land for park expansion on Thursday afternoon.

With the help of a $2.5 million grant from the NC State Department of Commerce, the County will be able to develop the land to include a road, water, sewer and utilities. Construction is expected to begin late spring of 2019.

“What some folks don’t know about the park is that there are about nine or so businesses there and all have expanded in the last two or three years,” said McMillen. “This has created a situation where there is a need for more land.”

Another way Vance County is looking towards the future includes the Henderson-Vance Economic Development’s new marketing and branding campaign aimed at attracting more people to the area. McMillen expects the department’s new logo and redesigned website to be unveiled within the next 30 days.

Vance County is also currently working with Franklin and Granville counties on receiving proposals to improve broadband access, especially to those residents on the very outskirts of the county lines.

In discussing improvements, McMillen also mentioned the addition of 81 miles of water line in Vance County, a part of the water project completed in 2014. “We are looking forward to the next phase of the project with construction starting later this year on Rock Mill Road, NC-39 S. and Foster Road, a six-mile project.”

The County is also in the middle of a consolidation project with the Kittrell Water Association. “We are looking forward to that [consolidation] having a positive impact on our systems and being able to better serve citizens in the Kittrell area,” said McMillen.

Finally, McMillen believes progress is being made due to the spirit of the local people. “I love the people of Vance County. You build relationships with people in a small town and have close access to the things you need. There is a will of the County and of the folks to do better, and that is what is most important.”