County commissioners Chairman Fred Foster wants the city’s advice on nonprofit funding, but his fellow Commissioner Michael Page wants the city to rethink its policies.

Grants to nonprofit agencies came up during a meeting of commissioners and City Council members last week, when Foster asked Mayor Bill Bell how the city ended its “non-city agencies” grant program

“We put a plan in place over a four-year period, told those in the queue we would be ending funding after a certain time and no new applications would be taken,” Mayor Bill Bell said.

The city program ended after the 2011-12 fiscal year. Durham County still makes cash grants to various organizations that apply for its Nonprofit Agency Funding Program. For the current fiscal year, the county gave out $794,849 to 41 agencies.

“It can be a burden without a benefit,” said Councilman Eugene Brown. The grants constituted about .25 percent of the city budget, but took as much council time in budget meetings as the Police Department, he said, and some organizations were doing no fund-raising on their own.

“I agree with you,” Page said, but then said, “I really do hope at some point you rethink this process.

“There are some nonprofits that are really providing services … that work very hard to serve citizens, particularly citizens no one else serves,” Page said.

Durham does give money to some “very targeted nonprofit initiatives,” particularly in low-income housing, City Manager Tom Bonfield said. Some city departments have partner arrangements that support nonprofits through departmental budgets or by in-kind donations.

“We realize we have limited resources,” said Bell. “There are instances where we’ve had people come in who had no experience working with the city … and ask for city money.”

Page said the county got “an enormous number of applications” for arts and recreation programs, areas the city formerly funded as non-city agencies.

“You were carrying some of this weight,” he said.

“People can always ask,” said Bell.

By Virginia Bridges

Durham County commissioners appointed former board member Phil Cousin Monday night to fill Joe Bowser’s vacated seat.

Commissioner Chair Michael Page said before the 4-0 vote that from the start, he and others on the board wanted someone who could hit the ground running in the term that expires in December.

Page, who is running for re-election along with three other incumbents, also said commissioners didn’t want to influence the November election. "The consensus of this board is that we would move toward a commissioner that would leave the race totally open in the fall,” he said.

The vote also marks the second time commissioners ignored the Durham County Democratic Party’s recommendation to fill a vacated seat.

Submitted by correspondent Virginia Bridges

County Commissioner Joe Bowser resigned his seat today after losing a bid for re-election.

Bowser (right) finished seventh in the 14-person race for five seats on the county board.

"Effective today May 9, 2012, I will resign my seat on the Durham County Board of Commissioners. There are some big decisions this board will be making soon, and I feel it would be better for a member who will continue beyond this year to assist in making those decisions," Bowser wrote in an email to County Manager Mike Ruffin and his fellow commissioners.
 
"I have enjoyed my tenure on the board and wish my fellow board members the best!" Bowser said.

"Commissioner Bowser has provided significant years of service to Durham County Government and we are grateful for his work," said Board Chairman Michael Page in a county statement announcing Bowser's resignation.

"He has been engaged in numerous boards and commissions and has worked diligently to improve the quality of life for the citizens in this community," Page said.  "We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

Bowser was first elected to the board in 1996 and held the office until losing a re-election campaign in 2004. He won back his seat in 2008.

He is the second county commissioner to leave the board in less than a year. Last July, Commissioner Becky Heron resigned for reasons of health.

The four remaining commissioners will discuss replacing Bowser at their regular meeting Monday night.
 
The top five vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary were incumbents Page, Ellen Reckhow and Brenda Howerton, along with Durham NAACP branch President Fred Foster Jr. and environmental consultant Wendy Jacobs.

Bowser finished with 17,098 votes, 268 behind sixth-place contender Will Wilson, a Duke University biologist, according to unofficial results.
 

Here is an an early look at Bob Wilson's column coming Sunday in The Durham News. Tell us what you think below (with your name) or in a letter to the editor at editor@newsobserver.com

BY BOB WILSON

I hope you didn’t reflexively toss the mini-billboard that came in the mail a few days ago. You know, the one with the beaming faces of County Commissioners Chairman Michael Page, fellow incumbents Joe Bowser and Brenda Howerton, and incumbent wannabe Rickey Padgett.

The billboard – er, campaign post card – appeared to be from the candidates themselves, all fervent supporters of 751 South, the proposed 167-acre, mixed-use project hard by the Chatham County line.

And hard by the eutrophic upper reaches of Jordan Lake, which needs another patch of urban sprawl about as much as James Harden needs another elbow punch from the Lakers’ Metta World Peace.

The post card actually came from the Durham Partnership for Progress, a political action committee formed by Southern Durham Development Inc., the local outfit behind 751 South. The PAC exists for one purpose: Elect its four anointed candidates to ensure that 751 South has a future.

Don’t be dazzled by Southern Durham President Alex Mitchell’s declaration that the PAC has high-minded ambitions to “foster a political environment … that encourages equal opportunity, job creation, smart growth.”

Smart growth?

What’s so smart about planting 1,300 homes and townhouses and 600,000 square feet of office-retail on 167 acres of environmentally sensitive land whose runoff by Southern Durham’s own assessment will put 600 pounds of nitrogen a year into Jordan Lake?

By Virginia Bridges

Durham County Commissioners Chairman Michael Page has endorsed Mayor Bill Bell's call for higher bails for people accused of gun crimes.

Page said today he didn't specifically cite the $300,000 bail amount in his state of the county speech this week because local officials are discussing it and figuring out next steps.

But he said does support Bell's proposal, which would increase bail for those accused of illegally firing a gun from the current $75,000 maximum amount.

"If it works, I support it," Page said.

From correspondent Virginia Bridges

County Commissioner Joe Bowser says he will break the deadlock over filling Becky Heron’s seat on the county board by supporting Pamela Karriker.

“After many days of careful consideration concerning the selection of a replacement for former County Commissioner Becky Heron, I have decided that we must act in the best interest of the people of this county,” Bowser wrote in an email. “With that being said, I will join Commissioners (Michael) Page and (Brenda) Howerton in their support of Pam Karriker.”

If Page and Howerton continue to support Karriker, she would have the three votes at Monday’s meeting to be appointed to the seat, which Heron vacated Aug. 1 for health reasons.

“(Bowser) can make it happen if he so chooses,” Page said. “I think that every commissioner has a right to help build consensus here, and this is what I am hoping that we are going to get to.”

Look for more on this story coming tomorrow in The Durham News.
 

Sheriff Worth Hill said this morning he is retiring Jan. 1, due to concerns about the health of his wife, Mary.

"She's been looking after me for 53 years," said Hill (right); and "She's been been wanting me to come home."

Hill, 74, and county commissioners Chairman Michael Page are meeting this morning to discuss Hill's departure.

"I hate to do it," he said.

By state law, when a sheriff resigns the county commissioners appoint a successor.
Hill said he will recommend Chief Deputy Mike Andrews to take his place.

"Everything will run along well if they appoint my chief deputy," Hill said.

"Sheriff is not an easy job," said Page. "It's a job you have to come in prepared to do."

Hill said Andrews has 30 years' law enforcement experience and FBI training, and proven skill as a manager. He was named chief deputy in 2008.

"He's an outstanding person," said Hill.

Hill will be leaving just 14 months after his re-election to a fifth consecutive term as sheriff. A Durham native, he has worked for more than 45 years in law enforcement and retired from the Durham Police Force, as a major, in 1988.

He was first elected sheriff in 1994.

"I'm going to miss it, I'm going to miss my people," he said.

From correspondent Virginia Bridges

A shakeup in the Department of Social Services has split the Durham County Board of Commissioners, with the chairman accusing a colleague of dishonesty and another calling the chairman a liar.

Chairman Michael Page says Commissioner Ellen Reckhow was dishonest about her knowledge about the new DSS interim director.

Page says he also heard Commissioner Joe Bowser sought to oust former DSS director Gerri Robinson because she wouldn't hire one of his friends. He would not name who told him and said he could not prove it. “But I have to go by that when people bring me information,” he says.

Bowser calls Page a “liar.”

“It takes an ignorant person to make comments that are not true,” Bowser says. Although he introduced a potential job candidate to Robinson, he says it was a “recommendation only.”

Page’s concerns start with a June 27 county commissioners meeting where Bowser, Reckhow and Becky Heron voted to put Gail Perry on the DSS board.

Page and Brenda Howerton, the fifth commissioner, voted for Gloria Green, whose first term on the board had just expired. Page had served on the board with Green, a former DSS employee, and said the county had no reason to end her tenure.

Heron and Reckhow said Bowser, the commissioners’ liaison to the DSS board, contacted them before the vote, saying Robinson’s leadership had been divisive. She says she consulted County Manager Mike Ruffin, who indicated a change needed to occur, “which carried a lot of weight with me.”

Ruffin woould not comment.

Look for more on this developing story in tomorrow's N&O and in Wednesday's Durham News. If you'd like to speak with the reporter working on it please call Virginia Bridges at 919-564-9330 or email virginiabridges@gmail.com 

County Commissioners Chairman Michael Page took issue tonight with Durham PTA Council President Trilby McClammy over school financing.

In a letter to parents, McClammy wrote that the county holds "a rainy day fund of over $92 million" that it could use to avoid cutting its appropriation for Durham Public Schools.

Not exactly, Page said in a statement he read at the commissioners'  regular meeting.

Chuck Kitchen was removed as Durham County Attorney this afternoon and immediately replaced by former Deputy County Attorney Lowell Siler.

The reason for Kitchen's termination is that he is named in a lawsuit against Durham County by Southern Durham Development Inc., county commissioners Chairman Michael Page said.

"We want to keep this thing clean and we want to make sure that, because the [former] county attorney is named in that, that he is totally aside from the county," Page said.

Earlier this summer, Kitchen had announced his retirement Nov. 30. He remains on the county payroll until then, as an adivsor to Siler and to handle two other cases unrelated to the Southern Durham suit.