Topics on tonight’s Board of Aldermen meeting agenda include changing the land use ordinance, approving the budget, moving forward with a $24 million bond referendum, selling real property and more.
The New Bern Board of Aldermen will consider holding public hearings, restricting fishing and crabbing to the pier, removing the Planning and Zoning Board from the major subdivision approval process and more on May 13, 2025 at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 300 Pollock St. in New Bern, NC, according to the meeting agenda.
The public will have an opportunity to share their thoughts at the beginning of the meeting during Requests and Petition of Citizens.
Budget
The board will hold a public hearing to receive input.
Last week, the Board of Aldermen reviewed City Manager Foster Hughes’s proposed Fiscal Year 2025-26 Budget beginning July 1, 2025 and ending June 30, 2026.
The city manager recommended an annual budget of $165,840,915, which is 7.45% more than last year’s budget.
He recommended $52,630,306 for the General Fund which includes an ad valorem tax rate of $0.3900 per $100 dollars. He’s not recommending an increase in property taxes, but the Board of Aldermen will consider moving forward with a plan to add a referendum to the ballot in October 2025 asking voters to decide on $24 million in general obligation bonds for parks and recreation, stormwater and streets.
Departments funded by the General Fund asked for $6,160,027 and the city manager recommended $2,329,217.
The sales and use taxes are expected to increase.
New Bern’s Municipal Service District tax rate is $0.1122 per $100 of valuation.
Foster Hughes recommended filling nine new personnel positions out of the seventeen positions that departments had requested which include an administrative assistant, assistant director of Finance, and five positions in Public Works.
He said the Finance Department needs an assistant director of Finance because the director’s workload has increased.
Over the last year, the director of Finance, city manager and director of Public Works have spent hours attending the Municipal Services District Advisory Committee meetings at the New Bern Area Chamber of Commerce. It appears that the Finance director is also acting as secretary of the MSD Advisory Committee. It’s unclear why they aren’t meeting at City Hall. The city justified spending $4 million to install an elevator so the public can attend meetings.
Foster Hughes recommended a new Solid Waste position to clean areas in the municipal service district and City Hall. The Board of Aldermen did not support the custodian or assistant director of Finance positions.
He recommended a 3% Cost-of-Living Allowance for employees. The board considered giving department heads a bonus instead of a COLA so it didn’t have an impact on retirements.
They discussed the Community Development Block Grant program and Alderman Bobby Aster asked if the coordinator could be moved under Redevelopment.
City Manager Hughes said using CDBG funds to rehab housing has been one colossal failure.
Director of Development Services Jessica Rhue said the CDBG boundary isn’t the same as the Redevelopment boundary.
Assistant director of Development Services Robert Gough noted that the CDBG funds were frozen.
Enterprise Funds
Foster Hughes recommended that operating funds for the enterprise funds include $68,651,457 for the Electric Fund – a 7% increase from last year’s budget; $13,490,000 for the Water Fund – a 5.3% increase; $14,275,629 for the Sewer Fund – a 6.3% increase and $5,083,600 for the Solid Waste Fund – an 8% increase in last year’s budget.
The city manager said the Electric Fund’s days cash on hand has dropped to 34 days cash on hand and the board will have to address a rate increase.
The electric utility’s funds dropped below the 90 days cash on hand limit that the Board of Aldermen established in June 2022, according to the city manager’s monthly report here.
At the same time, it appears that the city was using the Electric Fund to subsidize the mass scale installation of Metronet’s fiber on the utility’s infrastructure.
The BOA approved a line extension agreement with developers in November 2022 which has cost the utility $3,851,276 to date. The developers have contributed $548,079 and it’s estimated that it will take eight and a half years for the utility to recover the costs when customers move in and start using the service.
In December 2023, Department of Public Utilities Director Charles “Charlie” Bauschard told the board that electric utility was faced with over $6 million in riders that the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency was passing on to the city’s electric utility to recover variable costs and other expenses incurred in 2022 and 2023. The city purchases power from Duke Energy through NCEMPA. The contract is administered and managed by Electricities.
New Bern’s Department of Public Utilities and consultants with Utility Financial Solutions, LLC conducted an electric utility financial study and came up with a plan to tackle the issue and presented it to the board in May as reported here.
The vice president of UFC said the city’s last two audits showed the utility was “operating at a loss and the cash is declining, power supply costs are increasing, and the infrastructure is aging.”
She said the electric utility’s rates have not been raised in over a decade but the Board of Aldermen lowered rates by approximately 18% in 2015, 2016 and 2017 after “Electricities lowered the wholesale power cost because some debt was paid off on their side.”
Charlie Bauschard asked the Board of Aldermen to consider a 5% rate increase for FY 2025, 2026 and 2027 which would be effective on July 1, 2024. Alderman Bobby Aster, Johnnie Ray Kinsey, Barbara Best, Hazel Royal and Rick Prill voted in support of the plan. They also supported a power cost adjustment. Then Alderman Bob Brinson said he abstained, and Mayor Jeffrey Odham said, “I’d like more time to digest this.”
When the rates were presented to the public in June, the mayor said he wanted to match Duke Energy’s rates and suggested the board raise rates to 6% and told staff to come back to the board with numbers that would match the rates. The board approved a 6% rate increase in May.
The Board of Aldermen approved a 6% rate increase along with a power cost adjustment in December 2024.
During the April 28, 2025 Work Session, Hughes said the enterprise funds needed to generate their own revenues. He recommended increases in the utility funds for shared services and “transfers due to the increase in the calculation for payment in lieu of taxes and Electric’s rate of return on investment.”
Director Bauschard asked the Board of Aldermen to approve a 3% rate increase with manual monthly power cost adjustment which would allow them to balance the uncollected power supply cost. An alternative would be to approve a 4.5% rate increase with the current PCA restrictions.
Mayor Jeffrey Odham said he wanted to see more information. Alderman Bobby Aster said he didn’t want to raise rates but new they had to. Alderman Barbara Best asked, “What about when you get to that point when something happens and you don’t have electricity because we didn’t do what this man is asking us to do?”
Aster said he didn’t think it had to do with the problem that they have at the Lewis Farm substation. “I live over there where that’s going to happen, I was calling Charlie and the
city manager constantly during that cold weather asking what is our usage? How
close are we? We were sitting on pins and needles but until we come up with that $20 million to build this new substation, none of this is going to have anything to do with that you know,” he said.
He said he hated having to raise rates, but said they couldn’t keep going in the hole.
Charlie Bauschard said they had two events in December and they reached their peak capacity at the Lewis Farm Substation. “In response to that I had to disconnect customers and move them on the system in an emergency situation they lost power, right, then that was localized to that station that part of the system capacity. The substation the electric system capacity project that I had in the first year of my five-year capital plan of $20 million and that resolves that problem and it fixes some other things,” he said.
He said that in February they were “approaching additional capacity limitations on the system.”
Foster Hughes said they will have a workshop in June or July to talk about the rate increase. He said, “Once we see the electric utilities start going in a better direction financially to where we can afford a revenue bond or to go out for loans that’s when some of the recommendations Charlie will be considered for funding by the board.”
Major subdivision approval
The Board of Aldermen will consider holding a public hearing on whether or not they should give the director of Development Services or their designee the power to approve major subdivision plans. This would bypass the Planning and Zoning Board and leave the public in the dark about any major development. The Board of Aldermen used to approve the plans for major subdivision until they delegated the authority to the P & Z Board.
Other agenda items
Other agenda items also include:
Holding a public hearing to annex over nine acres located “west of Downey Drive and north of the NC Highway 43 bypass.”
Conducting a public hearing on a change to a development agreement for West New Bern.
Consider adopting a resolution for the sale of 919 Elm Street.
Consider adopting a resolution for an audit contract.
Consider adopting a resolution that would authorize staff to submit an application to the Local Government Commission to issue $22 million in general obligation bonds.
Consider approving the Classification Pay Plan for FY 2025-26.
Consider adopting the new Schedule of Fees and Charges.
Consider adopting the Budget Ordinance for FY 2025-26.
Consider approving a Declaration of Intent to reimburse FY2025-26 Vehicles and Equipment.
Consider changing the Land Use Ordinance.
Consider changing the Code of Ordinance to prohibit fishing and crabbing at certain locations. The amendment reads, “Specifically excluding the Riverwalk Fishing Pier, it shall be unlawful to fish or crab in the Trent River and Neuse River from any public property, specifically including sidewalks, promenades,
docks, piers, rights-of-way, boat landings, and bulkheads along the waterfront extending from the northernmost point of Council Bluff Green in a southerly direction along the Neuse River to its confluence with the Trent River, thence in a westerly direction along the Trent River to its intersection with the western line of North Carolina Railroad at the terminus of Hancock Street.”
About the Board of Aldermen
Citizens of New Bern elect six aldermen to represent their wards on the city’s governing board, known as the Board of Aldermen. The general management of the city and the government is vested in the council. The board passes legislation during public meetings.
The mayor presides at the Board of Aldermen meetings and represents the city at official events, like ribbon cutting ceremonies.
The board appoints a mayor pro tempore every year to serve as the mayor during the absence of the mayor. “If the mayor should become physically or mentally incapable of performing the duties of his office, the council may by unanimous vote declare that he is incapacitated and confer any of his powers and duties on the mayor pro tempore,” according to GS 160A-70.
The Board of Aldermen hires the city manager to serve as the chief administrative officer. The manager leads the city under the guidance of legislation put forth by the board and he has the authority to hire and fire employees.
Watch meetings via the city’s Facebook page, City 3 TV and YouTube channel.
By Wendy Card, Editor. Send an email with questions or comments.