2008 State Of The County Address
Commissioner Joe Bryan, Chair
Wake County Board of Commissioners

November 17, 2008

Good afternoon, Vice Chair Ward, fellow Commissioners, Wake County citizens, partners and staff. It’s our tradition to reflect on our accomplishments and challenges at the end of the year, and provide a preview of what to expect in the coming year, and I thank you for the opportunity to present to you this year’s State of the County. 

It has been my privilege and honor to serve as your chairman for the past year, especially as we celebrated 100 Years of County Unity with the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners last summer, with Commissioner Webb representing Wake County in the Parade of Flags in New Bern.

It is because of this board’s leadership, along with our excellent staff and the support of our business and community partners and citizens, that we have continued to make significant strides in maintaining our highly reputable, quality community.

Ladies and gentlemen in the past I have declared that the State of Wake County is strong. Conditions have changed.

The next several years will be more difficult than the last few. We cannot panic, nor indicate that we have all of the answers. Wake County has begun and will continue to preemptively evaluate all programs in the face of world wide economic crisis. Let us join together and state, “Wake County is up to the challenge.”

We have a tremendous Finance Team and I want to commend these staff members on their diligence in maintaining our triple-A credit rating! We are among only 22 counties in the country, out of 3,000 counties to have the highest credit rating from all three rating agencies, which has helped us save tax dollars when it comes to borrowing money to invest in our future.

This high-quality credit helped us to sell one-year Bond Anticipation Notes at a yield of 1.70 percent last month, at a time when banks were failing and there was virtually no market to finance debt.

Wake County is a great place to live, and we’re not just saying that. To mention a few of the accolades:

• Kiplingers as the #2 Best Place to Live – for the second year in a row;
• by Forbes.com as #1 Best Place for Business and Careers;
• by the National Policy Research Council as #3 Economic Development Hot Spot,
• and by Business Facilities as #3 Most Educated Workforce.

Last year, we averaged 106 new residents coming to Wake County each day – that includes people moving to the area as well as babies that are born. Our county is expected to exceed one million residents in 2013.

And how about voting in the most recent election? More than 440,000 Wake County citizens cast ballots, including Early Voting and Election Day. This is nearly 87,000 more voters than the last presidential election and represented 74 percent of the registered voters in Wake County.

This year has been a bit of a roller coaster ride, with rapid changes in our national and global economy that have affected us here in Wake County. Still, we have many accomplishments and much progress to be proud.

I know the economy, as Mr. Cooke spoke about few moments ago, is still very much on everyone’s mind, and I want to come back to this for just a few minutes and tell you how we are managing the current economic decline.

We have developed a plan to keep up with the latest information, and we have a strategy to execute it. As Pablo Picasso tells us, this is the way to succeed.

"Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success."

Wake County continues to be prudent with our finances and budget, and we are examining ways to cut costs while maintaining strong service delivery.

You may recall that our current budget is $984.4 million. We are anticipating a $17 million shortfall due primarily to anticipated cuts in state funds, lower recording fees due to the slow down in the real estate market, and also lower sales tax revenues because families are cutting back on spending.

In a proactive move, the County Manager instituted a hiring freeze last month and has asked all County departments to develop plans for reducing operating budgets by four percent for the remainder of fiscal year 2009. Mr. Cooke is also conducting a strategic assessment of all capital projects prior to awarding any new contracts.

So, just as this time of uncertainty has created change in household budgets, it has also called for changes in our behavior, and we are being proactive to stay ahead of the curve.

It is incumbent on us as leaders to keep one eye on the budget as well as continue to invest in our citizens, facilities and infrastructure.

This will position us to attract and capture new jobs and growth when the economy improves. As North Carolina State Chancellor Oblinger has said, “We will not let the future define us by its dilemmas. We will define the future with our solutions.”

Wake County offers a wide range of services from A to Z – that’s from Apex to Zebulon, and from Animal Control to Zoning. Many of the services are things folks take for granted, and that is often our goal, to provide for the public with transparency. Here are just a few of the services we provide each day:
 
- Well child check ups and vaccination clinics
- Solid Waste disposal and recycling services – including school programs
- Parks, Recreation and Open Space programs, including camps
- Libraries
- EMS and Emergency Management
- Veterans and Homeless Services
- Education
- Human Services
- Public Safety such as Sheriff, EMS, Fire

These are the services that we hear about the most often, but there are also hundreds of County employees who work behind the scenes to make our government effective.

This includes employees who design our facilities, administer our benefits, keep our finance system and computers running, those who clean our buildings and grounds and keep our County vehicles in good working order.

As we celebrate the work of the County to support each of our citizens, we also pause to celebrate the life of David Champion, who lost his life in an industrial accident at our General Services facility earlier this year.

Please join me in a moment of silence for David Champion and his family.

**PAUSE**

As we move forward, we will continue to carefully balance all of the work the County must do and find the best ways to serve our citizens.

Wake County will continue to make progress on essential building needs with sound fiscal responsibility.

Our actions and work this year have been guided by the Commissioners’ Priority Goals and Focus Areas, as well as the guiding principles of Planning, Leading and Achieving. This afternoon I’m going to outline progress that we’ve made in these areas, with an emphasis on our many outstanding partners.  

Let’s turn to specifics in those areas. One of the true foundations and responsibilities of County government is to serve those with great needs, be it reaching job success or accessing better health care.

Commissioners made Building Human Capital our number one priority goal this year.

We call this initiative The “Middle Class Express”, and we are realigning existing resources to transform the Human Services Department, from a safety net, to a developer of human capital and potential.

The Middle Class Express provides life coaches and training to help residents move from working poor to middle class. To date 68 Life Coaches have been trained and 70 citizens have begun this life changing program. But there is still more work to be done. As we hope to move 5,000 people to the middle class.

Mental health care is changing in North Carolina and Wake County is doing its part to make sure citizens are taken care of. We have contracted with Holly Hill Hospital to build a 44-bed inpatient psychiatric unit in response to the closing of Dorothea Dix Hospital.

Commissioners also approved schematic designs for a Crisis Assessment facility with a Substance Abuse Treatment Unit.

Other crucial areas of health care focus on the working poor and the homeless. Wake County has continued its partnership with Alliance Medical Ministry to open a new 19,000-square-foot facility in Raleigh in February.

We’ve also begun working with non-profit Wake Health Services to provide much-needed medical care to the men at the South Wilmington Street Center.

The cost of medicine is high, and since October 2007 we helped Wake County residents save more than $1.5 million on prescriptions by using drug discount cards made available free of charge through our partnership with the National Association of Counties.

No matter where people live, we are working to bring services closer to them with Regional Centers. We opened the Northern Regional Center in Wake Forest on the same property as the Wake Forest Library, EMS Station, park and town greenways. The Center serves citizens in Wake Forest and Rolesville, and like a country store provides a little bit of everything.

- Economic Services
- Child Welfare
- Family Support
- Public Health Clinic
- Behavioral Health Services
- Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office
- Environmental Services
- Revenue
- Community Services
- JobLink center
- and an open access Public Resource Room.

As the outlying areas of our County become home to thousands of new citizens a year, the Board continues to receive and approve municipal Extra Territorial Jurisdiction requests.

In August, we approved an ETJ Extension Request from the Town of Knightdale for 4,407 acres.

Later in this meeting, we will hear a request from the Town of Holly Springs. They are looking to expand the towns planning jurisdiction.

Many of these areas will eventually include infrastructure investments from the County such as parks, libraries and new schools.

Pre-K programs through high school - and on to higher learning, we strive to provide a high quality education system.
Wake County supports the Wake County Public School System in two primary ways: by funding the capital building program, and by providing funds through our annual budget for the schools to operate.

This year we increased the School System’s budget by $18.5 million, for a total of $316.2 million for fiscal year 2009. This increased per pupil funding to $2,197. Capital and operating expenses for the Wake County Public School System now account for 50 percent of the County budget.

Wake County also provides $57 per student in indirect support, including funding for nurses, Student Resource Officers and other services for students.
The Board of Commissioners approved six school sites during the last year, including the acquisition of 58.7 acres just last month for a new high school in Garner.

This means we have secured all sites for schools being constructed out of Capital Improvement Plan 2006 funds and have land banked six sites for future schools.
 
Most of these projects are being funded by the $970 million bond approved by voters in 2006, the largest bond ever approved in North Carolina.

We are working closely with the Board of Education on the next building program, and the timing and amount of a bond that may be needed to finance it.

Likewise, we’ll continue to work with the school system to prioritize projects that may or may not proceed due to the current economy and the anticipated budget shortfall.

All Commissioners place a high priority on education and it is reflected in our priority funding for the school system. There are numerous examples of how our citizens have benefited from a strong education system.

My own Dad and Mom had a 6th and 8th grade education and their goal was that their son would receive a strong education and be the first one in the family to receive a college degree. For many including myself, education has clearly improved our quality of life.

As we expand our public school system we must in turn expand our higher education system.

In January we dedicated the new Northern Campus of Wake Technical Community College. Open just over a year, the campus has already reached capacity.

Wake Tech is known as one of the most comprehensive community colleges in North Carolina, offering citizens the training and skills they need to remain competitive in today’s workforce.

At our last board meeting we recognized Dr. Stephen Scott for being named President of the Year by the North Carolina Board of Community Colleges. This award is a testament to his innovation, use of technology, ability to build partnerships and commitment to workforce training.
One of the great partnerships Dr. Scott has helped to build is with our Emergency Medical Services System. The partnership combines Wake Tech’s Public Safety Training Center with County resources like instructors, educational materials and supplies.

The college is wrapping up work from its 2004 bond, with Building D at the Northern Wake Campus set to open next spring, and many renovations and parking projects are complete or nearing completion.

Wake Tech has purchased more than 82 acres in Morrisville for a new Western Wake Campus. Designs are underway to repair or renovate several buildings on the main campus and the Public Safety Training Center.

Our Wake Tech partners are working with Human Services on a new program called Bright Futures. Commissioners just approved an agreement on November 3rd with the college and the Wake Tech Foundation to provide scholarships to Wake County citizens previously in foster care.

As we have taken responsibility for these children in the past, this program will allow us to prepare them for the future. Can nothing be done for these foster children because in the past public conscience has been inert?  Yes much can be done. In fact, you and I must do it to help prepare these young people to be productive citizens and not face the norm of jail, homelessness or poverty.

Another one of the Commissioners’ Goals this year has been environmental stewardship and protecting our natural resources – specifically water quality and quantity. For the past decade, Wake County has taken significant steps to preserve open space, especially in and around drinking water resources.

The Little River Reservoir project is a partnership with Raleigh, Rolesville, Wake Forest, Wendell and Zebulon to provide drinking water and recreation in eastern Wake County.

We have been fortunate to get a fair amount of rain in recent months, so our drought fears from earlier this year have been eased somewhat. But we must keep pressing forward with this project to meet water demands in coming years.

This reservoir will eventually provide about 17 million gallons of drinking water per day, which is enough to serve 90,000 citizens each day. We have purchased more than 2,200 acres of land and signed an Interlocal Agreement with the City of Raleigh to move this project forward.
As we reserve this pristine drinking water supply, we are also working to preserve open space for future generations.

The County began funding open space acquisitions in the late 1990s, and since then, voters have overwhelmingly approved three bond referendums totaling $91 million for open space preservation.

We have doubled our investment by partnering with our municipalities, the state, and environmental agencies to acquire open space. Highest priority is given to acquiring land that protects sensitive stream and watershed areas.

In fiscal year 2008 the County acquired 940 acres of open space. This includes the exclusive Proctor Tract, which was the largest single parcel of land still under family ownership in Wake County.

I am very excited about a big new project called the Neuse River Trail. This 28-mile trail will run along the Neuse River all the way through Wake County, and it will be an important part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail that will cross the state of North Carolina.

Again, this project is affording us many opportunities to partner with other governments and agencies, including:

- Wake Forest
- Knightdale
- Raleigh
- NCDOT’s Division of Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation
- N.C. State Parks Recreational Trails Program.

All trails lead to Wake County.

Environmental stewardship includes recycling and disposing residential and commercial waste. After many years of hard work the South Wake Landfill opened in February 2008, and this facility will provide citizens with waste management services for 25 years. That is taking the long view.

After 20 years of service, the North Wake Landfill has closed for business, although recycling and other services are still available at that location.

Innovative plans for some of this property include walking trails, picnic areas, a school site, athletic fields, biking trails and other recreational uses, as designed by the North Wake Landfill Citizens Committee.

In fact County Commissioners approved the Schematic Design for the North Wake Landfill Park just last month. The landfill park is projected to open in December 2009.

Feed the Bin is one of our most successful recycling programs, currently providing for mixed paper recycling at 153 Wake County Public Schools. Last year these schools recycled more than 1.5 million pounds of mixed paper – which comes to 12.4 pounds per student.

At our October 20th Board Meeting we recognized the top schools in the Feed the Bin program, including several that recycled more than 25 pounds per student!

At the same meeting, we recognized another achievement in the Environmental Services Department. The Plan Review Section received the prestigious Norton Award from the N.C. Public Health Association for the groups Swimming Pool Protection Program.

Turning now to construction projects, we are moving forward with much needed criminal justice facilities. The biggest project is the Justice Center that is needed to meet our courtroom needs for the next 20 to 30 years. This facility is on track for completion in 2013.

In addition, Commissioners approved the site development contract for the Hammond Road Detention Center Phase 2 Expansion, which will include 672 beds, at our last regular meeting on November 3rd. That is what we call justice for generations!

Also downtown, construction of the Davie Street parking deck is well underway. This facility will provide nearly 1,000 parking spaces along with mixed-use development, serving citizens and visitors alike with proximity to the new Raleigh Convention Center. The parking deck should be finished in January, while the mixed-use development has a target date of 2010.

We are also using voter-approved bonds to renovate and build libraries. We have completed designs and bids for the new Leesville Library, and designs for the new Northeast Regional Library, and the expansion and renovation of the existing Wake Forest Branch Library.

While we’re on the subject of reading, our libraries rolled out a new bookmobile stocked with more than 3,000 books and materials. The library on wheels serves young children at preschools and daycares across the County.

Every time I hear about the bookmobile, I am reminded of my elementary school days. When I was about eight years old, I would ride my bike to the local Baptist church to meet the bookmobile. It was always such an adventure to select a new book, not knowing where the words inside would take me. It was my window to the world.

Wake County is deliberate in our pursuit of partnerships and regional approaches to serving the public. The Board of Commissioners takes a leadership role in local and regional partnerships, because we know that it takes a combination of great minds to solve great challenges.
 
We are working with many partners across the County to address the gangs in Wake County. The Sheriff’s Office Gang Unit has determined that approximately 2,000 people make up 12 street gangs in Wake County, and that most of these are adolescents.

As part of a federal program called Project Safe Neighborhoods, the United States Justice Department awarded Wake and Durham Counties a $2.5 million Comprehensive Anti-Gang Initiative Grant to develop new strategies to counteract gangs, and their effects on neighborhoods

This is why we formed the Eastern Wake Gang Prevention Partnership with the 4-H Youth Leaders in Action Academy, local police departments and other organizations, to strengthen youth resistance to the lure of gang membership.

Likewise, the Wake County Gang Prevention Task Force is working with the towns of Garner, Cary, Fuquay-Varina, Holly Springs and Apex to educate citizens and involve them in youth violence prevention programs and training.

This is a critical service. As Maslow’s hierarchy of needs proposes, one must obtain self preservation before they can achieve self-actualization – and this is the message that we must pass on to our young people. This is the message we must share with their families and teachers. This is the message that we must get through – because our goal is to eradicate gangs.

County Commissioners agreed to re-engage the community in a discussion about growth management this year, and reconvened the Growth Issues Task Force, so ably led by our Vice Chair Betty Lou Ward, to focus on three growth issues:

• a high quality education system,
• increased mass transit, and
• local government joint planning and cooperation.

This Task Force consists of County Commissioners, County School Board members, and elected officials from all 12 municipalities, and it is expected to present recommendations in these areas in 2009.

We are fortunate in Wake County to continue to have growth. There are many areas of the country that are not so fortunate – let us continue to have this opportunity. Let us continue to have the highly skilled workforce that draws large corporations and Fortune 500 companies to Wake County. Let us continue to work together and dedicate our time, talents and resources to preparing for a bright future.

Raleigh’s downtown area is bustling with even more activity since we cut the ribbon on a successful partnership with the City of Raleigh, and opened the new 500,000-square-foot Convention Center in September.

The Center is already boosting the local economy by generating tourism dollars, creating jobs and attracting visitors to Wake County. It is booked through the next year, proving that we are popular place for visitors!

The Citizens' Facilities Advisory Committee is a group of 13 individuals appointed by the Board of Commissioners and the Board of Education to evaluate and provide recommendations on capital improvement projects.

The Committee reported its most recent findings and recommendations related to the County's building program at the Commissioners Work Session last week. The report affirms that our process for building facilities – jails, libraries and schools – is being done in a fiscally responsible manner.

Wake County is indebted to dozens of community leaders who meet to discuss the most pressing needs of our community. The Blue Ribbon Committee on the Future of Wake County began meeting in 2006 to examine plans for County facilities and infrastructure that will be needed as Wake County grows over the next 25 years, and how to best pay for those needs.

The committee was established by the Commissioners, the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake County Mayors’ Association.

The Blue Ribbon Committee, consisting of 65 business and community leaders, has made some progressive recommendations to local government partners, notably that County leaders seek legislative authority for ways to pay for growth in addition to property tax revenues, such as using sales tax.

Wake County has improved customer service with better technology. Citizens now have access to millions of legal documents online, thanks to the Register of Deeds. Marriage licenses dating back to 1931, tax maps from 1895 to 1998, and all records back to 1900 are now online.

Citizens can be more involved in County government by watching Board of Commissioners meetings live on WakeGOV.com. This includes live votes and a search feature for archived broadcasts. More than 13,000 people watched videos the first six months the service was offered, and we also stream video of our TV Show online.

This is just one of the projects that our Public Affairs Office keeps running. One of the Board of Commissioners goals this year was consistent, proactive communication.

- This means dedicating resources to continue to implement strategies to increase citizen awareness of and support for Wake County services.
- Preparing brochures and news releases and working with the media.

WakeGOV.com earned a third place honor in the Center for Digital Government County Portal category in the 2008 Best of the Web competition. The annual awards program recognizes the most innovative, user-friendly state and local government Web sites in the U.S. 

A long list of online services provided by Wake County can be viewed by visiting our Web site at www.wakegov.com.

Wake County is responsible for Public Health and Safety, and this includes the important work of caring for those who stand and fight for us, particularly during this time of war.

The Veterans Services Division expects more veterans and their families to need health, education and dependents' benefits in the future, so these services are being expanded to our Eastern, Northern and Southern Regional centers.

Less than one week after Veteran’s Day, I am reminded of the words of a wise public servant, stating that, “you can never have too much public safety.”

The Wake County Sheriff’s Office is making ever-greater strides to keep our families safe. Project Lifesaver uses digital technology to find missing people.

A new digital upgrade reduces response times and increases the coverage area, while participants with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Down syndrome wear a tracking device bracelet so they can be located.  

The Sheriff’s K-9 Unit includes 12 dogs that are trained for protection, searches, tracking and trailing. Some are narcotics dogs that sniff out drugs and some are bloodhounds that can locate missing persons and suspects.

The Office is also one of seven law enforcement agencies in the country selected for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement 287 (g) pilot program that will check the immigration history and citizenship of everyone booked into the jail.

In the area of Emergency Medical Services, Commissioners approved the new Advanced Practice Paramedics program. The program will allow 9-1-1 dispatchers to send the County’s best paramedics to citizens in the greatest need starting in January 2009.
This cutting edge program provides more efficient paramedic service to critical calls, offers follow-up attention when it’s needed, and directs less critical patients to the health care facility that has the most expertise in their type of emergency.

I’m particularly proud to have attended an awards ceremony that recognized our paramedics and first responders who saved the lives of 49 cardiac arrest victims this year using a combination of techniques that include constant compression CPR, defibrillation and induced hypothermia. Forty-nine people that are alive and with their families thanks to OUR first responders.

These techniques ensure no interruption in CPR and provide an electrical shock to restore ineffective heart rhythms. Inducing hypothermia in cardiac arrest patients helps the brain recover as their pulse is restored.

The square mileage in the unincorporated areas that make up the Wake County Fire District has decreased, as municipalities have annexed more area. At the same time, call volume in unincorporated areas has increased with population growth. To continue to provide quality fire suppression and prevention services, we added additional firefighter positions, as well as funds for other operating costs.

Managing pet overpopulation and animal control is also a public health job, and Wake County can be very proud of our Animal Care, Control and Adoption Center. We found homes for 3,122 pets in 2008, an all-time record and 28.5 percent more than the previous year. We also began a new pet-fostering program that allows the Center to shelter more animals as well as make more pets what we call “adoptable.”

Commissioners recently declared the week of November 2nd Animal Shelter Appreciation Week and we had a special guest at our board meeting – a large stray dog named “Jerry.”

Due to television coverage of the event, Jerry’s owners contacted the County and “Jerry”, whose real name is “Buddy,” was reunited with his family two days after the proclamation.

The Board of Commissioners is actively engaged in urban issues, from the County, to the State, to the National level.

- Betty Lou Ward has served as president of the NCACC and the National Association of Counties and is a strong advocate for the arts.
- Lindy Brown is a leader on homeless issues.
- Kenn Garder received the 2008 County Courthouse Award from NACo.
- Tony Gurley served two consecutive terms as chair of this board, working on education and passing the $970 million school bond.
- Paul Coble works carefully with the Fire Commission and is a leader in public safety areas.
- Harold Webb has helped with the CIAA and MEAC tournaments.
- While I serve as first vice president of the North Carolina Association of Counties and chair of the transportation committee.

As we look to the challenges facing us in coming years, at the top of the list is surely the issue of transportation and transit!

That is another goal of the Board of Commissioners: to work collaboratively with other groups and agencies, such as the General Assembly, regional transportation organizations, municipalities and others, to identify strategies that ensure the County’s transportation needs are addressed. This will definitely be a focus area for our Board in coming years.

In May, the Special Transit Advisory Commission submitted their Regional Transportation Plan that includes:

- Investing in a regional bus network that will offer express service between the Airport, downtown Raleigh, the Cary train station and downtown Durham.
- Providing buses, trolleys and modern street cars that will circulate around RDU and downtown Raleigh, offering a flexible means of travel and
- Connecting Cary, downtown Raleigh, North Raleigh, Durham and RTP by 56 miles of rail.

And speaking of both partnerships and transportation, we worked with local legislators to secure $25 million in annual funding for the Triangle Expressway – the Western Wake part of I-540, from Holly Springs to RTP.

Our goal is to spend less time in traffic and more time with our families.

All of these efforts combine to make Wake County a strong region that attracts new business. As I mentioned, we are feeling the effects of a slowing economy as much as the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean we should stop our efforts to grow and improve – which means that economic development continues to be an important area for us to discuss.

Working with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, our economic development efforts, including our investment grant policy, continue to attract businesses from all over the world. We must continue to have what I call our “World Series of Investors”, with companies like Novartis, NetApp, Fidelity, Glaxo SmithKline, RBC Centura and Credit Suisse moving to and expanding in Wake County and our region.

We are not just competing with America. We are competing with China. And with India. And with other countries all over the world that are investing in their workforce, because like us, they all want to be competitive in the 21st century.

Wake County will continue to work closely with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and N.C. State University to bring high paying jobs and investment to Wake County. Rest assured if we are going to be accountable and as score is kept Wake County will win!

Also to be continued is our work with the Wake Education Partnership and the Raleigh Chamber for a renewed focus on student achievement that began in April 2008. The Partnership and Chamber together recommended that the County Commissioners take over building and maintaining schools, and develop a long-term operating funding plan  for education. This board will be looking forward to continuing this work with the Board of Education.

In closing, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some telling examples of what makes Wake County such a great place. In addition to our elected leaders and professional management and staff, we have great volunteers. In the last year, we had more than 3,000 citizens volunteer and participate in their County government.

Volunteers humble me each and every day as I go around our County. We would not – could not – be the County that we are today without these volunteers.

In September, we gave top honors to two people who selflessly give of themselves and their talents to make this a better place to live. Elmo Scoggin, a volunteer announcer at WCPE, a not-for-profit classical music radio station, is our Larry B. Zieverink Volunteer of the Year, and Betty Moore, a devoted unpaid worker and Coordinator of the Sheriff’s Office Project Lifesaver, is our County Government Volunteer of the Year.

Both retirees were among 19 Commissioners’ Volunteer Awards nominees to be recognized at our volunteer celebration and we are grateful to both for serving as ambassadors wherever they go!

Finally, on a personal note, I would like to thank you sincerely for the honor of serving as your chairman for the past year. It has been a fun job, and a challenging one! It has been a whirlwind of meetings and events that allowed me to meet so many people in all corners of our County and from other nations, and to be involved in such interesting issues and projects.

I couldn’t do all that I have done without the support of my family, and especially that of my wife, Jennifer, for her understanding and encouragement over the past year. And we couldn’t do all that we do without our excellent County employees – truly, our greatest asset. I salute and thank County Manager David Cooke, in my opinion the best County manager in North Carolina, for his professionalism and leadership of the staff who implement our goals and initiatives every day.

As Andrew Carnegie said, "Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."

It truly takes a team, and a lot of partners to keep this County running.

I appreciate the expert legal advice and guidance from County Attorney Scott Warren. He has brought a new energy, vision and expansion of duties to take our County Attorney's office to a new level. Thank you Scott.

And I especially want to thank our clerk to the Board, Susan Banks, who keeps track of those thousands of details, large and small, that help this County function so well. I would also like to convey my personal gratitude for keeping me to a schedule and assistance in my role as first Vice President of the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners.

All of the commissioners are indebted to her for keeping us on track, and maintaining high standards of professionalism and a good sense of humor the entire time!

Finally, I’d like to express my appreciation for the commitment and dedication of each of you on this board, and also for the thousands of hours you dedicate to serving on committees and the leadership that you provide throughout our community. Public service is very demanding, but it’s also very rewarding, and it has been an honor to work with you as my colleagues.

As I stated at the beginning of my remarks today, the next several years will be more difficult than the last few. We cannot panic, nor indicate that we have all of the answers. Wake County has begun and will continue to preemptively evaluate all programs in the face of world wide economic stress. Wake County is up to the challenge.

I look forward to working together to continue tackling the challenges ahead and providing solutions to Wake County’s 843,000 citizens.

To conclude, there never seems to be enough time to thank all of our many partners that work with Wake County Government. But,if you’ll give me another three minutes we do have time for a video medley. Take a look at this compilation of clips from our television show and other projects. You just might see someone you know – or even yourself.

Thank you again for allowing us to serve you.

Commissioner Joe Bryan