Bill James to run for 8th term!

Key Accomplishments (forcing the debt diet and recording of closed sessions)

2-5-2010

I have decided to run for another term (term 8 if folks are counting). I have been on the County Commission now for 14 years.

These last two years have been my most successful as an elected official, since I helped overturn the busing decision 10 years ago (in 1999). I cite two key accomplishments (plus a third compilation list of other recent successes):

1.     Forcing Mecklenburg County to push away from the debt table (letter to rating agencies):

My biggest accomplishment over the last year or so was in forcing the County to reduce the amount of debt it could borrow. What management now calls the ‘debt diet’ was the singular result of my decision to write directly to rating agencies going around management and the Board’s Democrats.

How did I do that? Well, for starters I took it on my own initiative to write to the various rating agencies last fall outlining the frivolous and out-of-control spending that the County Commission majority was engaging in and, in particular, their inability to live under the guidelines they themselves instituted, and their efforts to gut pay-go. Mecklenburg County had been pretending to be fiscally sound while actually spending bond dollars like a drunken sailor on shore leave.

In fact, the PRAG guidelines adopted years ago at my insistence were then roundly ignored by the Democrat majority as they kept issuing growing mounds of debt ignoring their own loose limits. Eventually, the Democrats on the Commission voted to relax the standards even more in the fall of 2008 which was (to me) proof that the majority had absolutely no intention of acting in a fiscally responsible manner without being pressured. At that point I took it upon myself to air the ‘dirty bond debt laundry’ directly with rating agencies in New York.

By sending a detailed and specific letter outlining the County Commission’s debt misdeeds directly to Moody’s, S&P, Fitch and others just before the Chair and management were to sit down with these rating agencies in December 2008 I was able to force the majority and management onto the carpet as they took  their trip to New York. The rating agencies received the letter via e-mail the day before Mecklenburg County officials sat down with them. That led to a dressing down of Mecklenburg County leadership by these rating agencies (who agreed with my summary of their spendthrift ways) and resulted in the announced ‘debt diet’ in February of 2009 that stopped 75% of the planned debt sales in its tracks.

Ultimately, writing this letter and delivering it to the appropriate people forced the Democrat majority to do what to that point they collectively had steadfastly refused to (namely to restrict the amount of annual debt and prioritize).  The effect of doing so would be to cut most debt allocations by 75% over what the majority had planned to spend. Instead of CMS getting $250 million to $300 million a year, they will get $80 to $100 million. Instead of Park and Rec getting $150 million a year, they will get $30 to $50 million.

My willingness to take on the majority using that letter to go around them resulted in real positive financial change for the residents of Mecklenburg County.  The Democrats will likely claim that they would have reduced debt anyway but that is untrue. They had just approved new ‘relaxed’ standards for increasing MORE debt just days before I sent the letter. The letter was not collaborative with other GOP though I did make them aware of it after it had gone out.

2.     Forcing the recording of Closed Session minutes (spy pen):

For some 14 years, I have tried to get the County Commission to record what occurred during closed session. There was always some excuse proffered by the Democrats as to why this was a bad idea. Here is a editorial cartoon from 2001 showing the Democrats opposition to my idea.

About a year ago I used my own money to purchase a spy pen and used it to record closed sessions announcing that I would prefer to have the Board do it but if they did not, I would take on that role.

The idea of me controlling the recordings of closed session events was enough to force the board to vote to start recording them and to approving a policy that would allow the recordings to be kept for a minimum period of 2 years. This will provide more open and transparent government and would not have occurred had I not purchased the Spy Pen and started using it.

3.     Other accomplishments:

• Helped the folks of Shanamara Subdivision get money back from double property taxation.
• Pushed and got adopted new rules allowing 5,000 County employees to give to more than just the ASC and United Way (now called the ‘combined campaign’).
• Pushed for and got adopted 287g program to arrest illegals and continues to support this program for ALL inmates that are booked (not just those arrested for specific acts).
• Pushed for ‘no illegals’ policy at CPCC to comply with Federal law (it is illegal for County dollars to go towards the education of illegals).
• Supports the expansion of Charter Schools and allowing Charter Schools to have access to County Capital dollars (current litigation underway against County).
• Helped force disclosure of 60% + fraud rate from CMS’ Free and Reduced Lunch program.
• Opposes expansion of the sales tax base (requested by the Democrats as a ‘revenue’ enhancement) which would force working men and women in trades (plumbers, electricians, etc..) to collect sales taxes on their services.
• Supported and got Board approval for additional COUNTY funding for DA’s office ($1.5 million) to prosecute more cases.
• Opposes County Management & Commissioners from serving on non-profit boards or businesses that get money from the County. Democrats refuse to adopt.
• Did not raise taxes even though there was a push to do so to ‘save county services’.

Bill James

County Commission

Bill James (R, District 6)