From the Wilmington StarNews (3/8/10): The mayors of southeast Brunswick County's six municipalities have started holding regular meetings in a renewed effort to hash out problems, lobby for projects and funds, and present a united front on issues of shared interest.
First on the mayors’ list is getting the Long Beach Road extension, a new link to N.C. 87 north of Southport, back on the state Department of Transportation’s five-year plan. The connector road would relieve a traffic bottleneck at N.C. 211 and Long Beach Road. The $34 million project was put on hold when the DOT ran out of funding.
“We all want that Long Beach Road connector back on the plan,” Oak Island Mayor Betty Wallace said.
The six mayors will introduce a resolution at their town board meetings to take the request, along with a batch of issues, to Gov. Beverly Perdue in Raleigh at a future date.
Mayors of Oak Island, Bald Head Island, Caswell Beach, Southport, St. James and Boiling Spring Lakes are taking part in the meetings.
The six municipalities share an interest in projects such as the proposed International Terminal, planned for 600 acres north of Southport, and the September opening of Oak Island’s long-awaited second bridge. Then there’s the region’s economy, hit hard by the recession.
Wallace said the meetings would give the mayors an opportunity to collaborate on ways to get stimulus money or lobby Raleigh for state projects.
“The beach issues are not the only issues (that concern us),” Wallace said.
She said the mayors’ meetings might also serve as a place for mediating disputes.
“Let’s assume that one municipality took a step that the others did not like,” Wallace said. “The mayors getting together would be able to discuss that step and come to an understanding.”
The mayors meetings have not been open to the public, and according to an attorney with the N.C. Press Association, the mayors are under no obligation to invite the press or the public under the state’s Open Meetings Law.
According to Wallace, Caswell Beach Mayor Harry Simmons was instrumental in reviving the mayors’ meetings, which had been held in the past but were put on hold because the group dynamic soured.
“He (Simmons) realized we had a whole new group of fresh faces that were willing to sit down and discuss items that affected everyone,” Wallace said.
Simmons said that mayors in southeast Brunswick County had been holding joint meetings since before his election in 1999.
He said in an e-mail that opening the meetings to the public was a non-issue because the six mayors have no authority to make any decisions without votes from their respective boards.
“Since we are not a deliberative body, these are not official meetings of any kind and no decisions are being made,” Simmons said. “It has just never been an issue.”
Wallace, who won the mayor’s post campaigning on a platform built on government transparency, said she thought mayors might feel inhibited in their discussions if the meetings were open to the public.
“I am not saying that I don’t want the public there, but at the same time I would hate for someone of the public to get the wrong interpretation or take something we said the wrong way,” Wallace said.
Wallace said the meetings were an opportunity for mayors to meet in an informal setting for the benefit of southeast Brunswick County. The public can comment on individual policy proposals when they are presented to each town board for a final decision, she said.
by Amanda Wilson, StarNews Staff Writer