March 30, 2006

Meeting Summary of March 30, 2006:

Goals/Objectives
1. Continue to build connections among committee members.
2. Examine the need for court facilities in the downtown area to alleviate overcrowding in the current courthouse and understand how the plans for a new courthouse will fit in with downtown redevelopment efforts.
3. Examine the county’s transportation plans as outlined by CAMPO, and gain an understanding of how roads and other transportation issues are paid for.
4. Review process for formulating recommendations.

Process Overview

Fred Day, Committee Co-Chairman, welcomed the committee and reminded them of the mission. Phil Boyle, committee facilitator, outlined the process the committee will use to formulate recommendations. Essentially, the committee will divide into seven smaller groups, by topic, to examine the major capital needs more in-depth. The work groups will focus on these areas:

Criminal Justice Facilities (courts, jails)
Finance
Parks and Open Space
Public Schools
Transportation
Wake Tech
Water and Sewer

On April 4, the group will divide into the smaller work groups to receive responses to questions and requests for additional information requested by committee members during the informational briefings to date. Each table will be staffed by a technical expert, either the original topic presenter or a staff member with extensive knowledge about the subject.

On April 11, the committee will receive a presentation about financing methods. On April 25 and May 9, the committee will again work in the smaller topic teams to come up with funding recommendations for the Board of Commissioners, which is the committee’s mission.

Criminal Justice Facilities Master Plan (view entire presentation)

Phil Stout and Steve Carter presented Wake County’s 30-year Criminal Justice Facilities Master Plan. Phil Stout is the county’s director of Facilities Design and Construction, the department that oversees building projects and land acquisition. Steve Carter is a justice facility planning consultant, and founder and managing partner of Carter Goble Lee Associates.

In North Carolina, the state is responsible for the criminal justice system, which means it pays for staffing and court technology/automation, while counties are responsible for facilities to house the courts and staff. The state reimburses the county about half the $62/day/person detention costs.

The County’s population is expected to double from 2000-2030, to nearly 1.4 million people. This will increase court caseloads and the numbers of people in jail. Projections for caseload growth from 2000-2030 are:

Total Superior Court Filings: +72%
Total District Court Filings: +122%
Total Civil Court Filings: +80%
Total

Criminal Court Filings +124%

Other projections include:

Judiciary

Number of judges to increase from 21 in 2000 to 43 in 2030.
Support staff for the Court to increase from 326 in 2000 to 933 in 2030.
Space requirements for the courts is projected to increase from 300,000 SF to 600,000 SF.

Detention

Increase in average daily population (ADP) will be related to the length of time to process cases in the Courts.
The total ADP is projected to increase from 821 in 2000 to 3,133 by 2030.
The

Spring 2006 opening of 416 new bedspaces at Hammond Road will only meet today’s ADP.

A team of representatives from the Tenth Judicial District, the Sheriff’s Office, City-County Bureau of Identification and 10 county departments, led by Carter Goble consultants, has collaborated on a master plan for new court and office facilities in downtown Raleigh.

The highlights are:

Judicial, County Administration, and Public Records functions will remain in the Downtown area of Raleigh.
County buildings in the new “Justice Plaza” will connect to a new central energy plant for greater energy and cost efficiency.
The existing 40-year old Courthouse will be refurbished and remain as the Civil-Family Courthouse.
A new Criminal Courthouse will be connected to the adjacent Public Safety Center and the existing Courthouse by tunnel to improve efficiency and safety.
Future detention needs will be met at the Hammond Road site acquired in 2000.

The costs are estimated at:

Phased development plan between fiscal 2007 and 2013: design and construct new Criminal Courthouse, Public Records space, 720 additional bedspaces at Hammond Road, and new structured parking. $464.9 million
From fiscal 2014 to 2029: complete the remaining four phases at Hammond Road, upgrade portions of the Public Safety Center, and renovate the existing Courthouse for additional Civil-Family Court support space. $361.6 million
Total $826.5 million

Group Engagement on Criminal Justice Facilities

The speakers took questions following their presentation. Highlights from that discussion include:

Whether it would make more economic sense for the county to sell its land in downtown Raleigh and build all court and detention facilities on lower-priced land elsewhere (the answer is probably not, because that would require replacing 1 million square feet of existing space, and would cost about $300 million. It also would reduce efficiencies in sharing staff by placing the new courthouse near the existing courthouse).
Addressing the needs of the mentally ill population, much of which is being housed in detention facilities by default because there’s no other adequate space. This drives up costs and the need for number of beds, because this population must be housed separately. This also is true of the juvenile population, though Mr. Carter noted that, fortunately, youth detention numbers are not rising as rapidly as were projected nationally several years ago.

Later, the committee worked in small groups to discuss and report back the answers to these questions:

1) What infrastructure needs and challenges did you hear that the committee should address?

Plan is reasonable if projections are right

Prevention planning
Mental health reform MUST be addressed
Youth and adults (address life skills and preventive measures)
Early release vs. brick & mortar
Revisit location of facility
Define courts and county seat clearly
Explore long-range relocation of justice complex away from central city
At a minimum: recognize items not included – mental health, arts, libraries, etc.
Focus on mobility and education
Re-examine moving the criminal justice facilities out of downtown center
More looking at moving facilities to lower priced land
Increase court fees to pay operating and capital
Vertical addition to Justice facility – adding commercial office rental
Vertical on Hammond Road
On-line tech/electronic options for traffic citation and satellite traffic courts like DMV has done

2) What other information would be helpful to you?

Are there demographic trends (i.e., Hispanic) that could change projections?
Cost figures on prevention and rehabilitation.
Relationship between high school dropout rate and incarceration.
Best practices info on prevention from other states.
Status of drug courts?

Transportation/Roads (view entire presentation)

Ed Johnson, Executive Director of the N.C. Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), and Joe Milazzo II, Executive Director of the Regional Transportation Alliance (RTA), presented “Transportation Trends & Challenges in Wake County.” The population growth and location of employment center has a dramatic impact on travel and roads in Wake County, but the county is not responsible for road construction or maintenance. In North Carolina, only municipalities and the N.C. Department of Transportation build roads.

The speakers said that currently, Wake County fares better than peer areas around the country, such as Charlotte, Atlanta and Austin, in terms of time spent commuting and congestion cost per traveler. However, they said that we are using up the available capacity and that commuting patterns and demographic projections “indicate a ticking time bomb of gridlock on the horizon.”

They said that by 2030’s projected population increase, not only will we have more people on the roads, but the number of trips per person would increase, as would the average trip length. The result is that the total vehicle miles of travel will increase 114% (an annual growth rate of 2.8%).

CAMPO’s Long-Range Transportation Plan focuses on roads, and includes more than 200 road projects, more than 1,500 lane miles of new or widened roads, and assumes that money will be available to complete I-540 and other key roads. It also emphasizes transit and alternatives, such as express lanes, light rail and bicycle lane improvements.

Funding shortfall: The 2005-2030 transportation funding plan is based on expecting $6 billion in traditional funds, including $2 billion in projects that will be funded after 2020 but are likely needed before that time. The plan also includes $2 billion in funds that do not yet possess legislative authorization. The total additional funding needed beyond traditional sources by 2030 is $6 billion in Wake County.

The federal government is not expected to step up funding for local needs, because North Carolina is a “donor” state, meaning that it sends more transportation funds to the federal government than it receives back for highways (95 cents per dollar is returned). The state is facing a $30-billion gap in transportation funds, and is unlikely to increase funding, either, the speakers said.

Group Engagement on Transportation

The committee asked questions and discussed several options, such as toll roads, with the speakers. The comments, along with reports from small groups, included the following observations and questions:

How do we stop the state from taking our transportation dollars (and using them for other things)?
Look at toll/HOV for existing I-40/540 to reduce commute time into Triangle from outlying counties
Advocacy – federal and state
Turnpike (toll road) utilization
Legislative allocation methodology
Understand and define DOT allocation
Is it really a County issue? Balance the push for more funding with aggressive strategies to address the demand side – need to do both.
Land use efficiency is a key: county should invest strategically in all infrastructure to drive affordable and healthy patterns
How will the individuals of Wake County react to the growth patterns as proposed in this plan/presentation?
More local control over transportation taxes
Increase public awareness over where transportation funds are going
Stop donor position
Concentrate on VMT as benchmark
Land use/increase density
Audit cost per mile of construction
Importance of mixed use
Keep money in budget once allocated
Multimodal transportation solutions
What level of gridlock do we want?
Toll roads a must!! Dollars collected to stay in Wake County
Equity formula outdated, needs revision from per capita to trips
$250M not out of Highway Trust Fund – need creative strategy for lessening transfer
New revenue stream for transportation
N.C. needs to be in control as a state of its transit (soup-to-nuts transit plan)
Defined transportation need and plan before need is here