From correspondent Virginia Bridges

Longtime Durham County Animal Control Director Cindy Bailey abruptly resigned from her position Wednesday.

Bailey, who had served as the director for more than 10 years, declined to explain her decision. “I just resigned. There are issues and concerns,” she said.  “It was just in everyone’s best interests, mostly mine, to do so.”

Bailey initially sent an email to the Board of County Commissioners and neighborhood listservs saying the sudden resignation was “due to work conflicts that the Manager felt were irresolvable.” 

County Manager Mike Ruffin said no one said the issues were irresolvable or asked Bailey to resign. “I can tell you unequivocally she has never been told that,” Ruffin said.

Here's a look at today's local headlines:

HOUSING FOR VETERANS: A Raleigh nonprofit wants to build 23 low-cost apartments, including 10 for disabled veterans. Find out where in Jim Wise's story.

SCHOOL HOUSE SUCCESS: Rachel Weeks, CEO of School House, a collegiate apparel company in downtown Durham, wished there could be "Made in Durham" labels for her company's products.Find out what she did next in new correspondent Monica Chen's story.  (Welcome, Monica!)

COUNTY STAFF, COMMISSIONERS' RAISES: It's a 10 percent bump for County Manager Mike Ruffin. Find out how much elected leaders and other local officials' pay went up in correspondent Virginia Bridges story here.  

And ... Rep. David Price speaks out on the balanced budget amendment, Nicole Barillari says hats off to the Middle College High School Honor Society, and Abigail Howard tells how you can help needy students on today's Opinion page. 

Have a happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for reading.

Mark

From correspondent Virginia Bridges

County Manager Mike Ruffin wasn’t the only one to get a raise this year this year.
The Durham County commissioners approved raises for themselves and their employees earlier this year.

Beyond the 10 percent raise recently awarded to Ruffin, commissioners also approved a 4.25 percent raise for themselves in the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Commissioners have also approved increases for the five other county officials they evaluate: the sheriff, county attorney, register of deeds, clerk to the board and tax administrator.

Those increases range from 4.25 percent for Sheriff Worth Hill, which brought his salary up to $127,279 to a 31.7 percent raise for Clerk to the Board Michelle Parker-Evans, who now makes $80,313 annually. Parker-Evens recently received her clerk certification after two years of class work, which is one of the reasons the increase is so high, Ruffin said. 

From correspondent Virginia Bridges

The Durham County commissioners voted today to give County Manager Mike Ruffin a 10 percent raise. 

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 

From correspondent Virginia Bridges

The Durham County commissioners agreed Monday night to put two sales tax referendums on the November ballot and accepted the resignation of longtime Commissioner Becky Heron. 

The commissioners also approved a $499.4 million county budget for fiscal the year that starts Friday. It includes a raise for county employees, maintains the current property tax rate, and supports a new city-county position to coordinate the implementation of gang assessment and to improve efficiency on initiatives that serve at risk youth.
 
The board unanimously approved asking voters this fall to support a quarter-cent sales-tax increase to help support public schools, pre-kindergarten programs, and scholarships at Durham Technical Community College.  If voters approve the increase, collection could begin in April. County Manager Mike Ruffin estimates the quarter-cent tax would produce $2.7 million in the last three months of the 2011-12 fiscal year, and $9.2 million in a full year of collection. Revenue would be split four ways with the majority going to help Durham Public Schools.

The board also unanimously approved giving voters the option to decide whether they support a half-cent tax to improve public transportation.

Closing his budget presentation tonight, County Manager Mike Ruffin uttered the "M" word: "merger."

In particular, merging city and county law enforcement and fire protection. Ruffin recommended it, and said he would "urge" the Joint City-County Committee (of county commissioners and City Council members) to consider the idea when it meets in September.

"I am convinced that the savings at stake are significant," Ruffin said.

Durham Public Schools are in for a boost, according to County Manager Mike Ruffin's recommended county budget for 2010-11

Not so Durham County taxpayer.

The $461.1-million budget Ruffin proposed tonight includes a $6.15-million raise in DPS' appropriation, but also a 6 percent rise for the property-tax rate -- from 70.81 cents to 75.10 cents per $100 valuation. On a $200,000 home, the annual county tax would go up by $85.80.

The budget also eliminates the equivalent of more than 58 positions on the county payroll. Thirteen of those are currently filled, and Ruffin said the county is trying to place those employees in other jobs with county or city government.

Most of the increase is designated for increased debt-service costs and decreased revenues; the schools' increase, Ruffin said, will save 111 of 237 teaching positions jeopardized by decreased state funding and an anticipated cut in the county provision.

Durham Mayor Bill Bell plans to appoint Lea D. Henry to the Workforce Development Board, resolving for practical purposes a dispute among the Durham County commissioners.

"I haven't met the lady, but it seems like she's qualified," Bell said this morning.

The commissioners have twice postponed voting on the county's appointment to the workforce board, which oversees how federal and state job-training money is used. They have been divided on the propriety of a recommendation for Henry's appointment by the workforce board's executive committee.

Donald A. Hughes, currently a candidate for the Durham Public Schools Board, has also applied for the workforce position. Henry has served for two years on the workforce board's youth council.

If Bell, who as mayor also has a workforce board seat to fill, does appoint Henry, it would make her candidacy for the county appointment a moot issue, according to County Manager Mike Ruffin. Unless the commissioners decide to re-open applications for the seat, it would also give Hughes the appointment by default.

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.