ONLY ON 3: New Hanover County shells out nearly $200k for employee dues, subscriptions

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Wilmington StarNews recently reported that New Hanover County was paying $800 a year for one of its employees to be a member of the Rotary Club. At a time of tight budgets and layoffs, some wondered whether that was a necessary expense.

We did some more digging, and found the county is actually paying the Rotary membership dues for five different employees. The spending does not stop there. The county spent more than $180,000 last year on dues and subscriptions. Some of that money was doled out in big chunks, like $18,000 to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners and another $20,000 for a membership to UNC’s School of Government. But most of the money was spent in much smaller increments to pay employees’ dues to professional organizations, like $675 for a membership to the Association Executives of North Carolina and $239 to the National Association of Fire Chiefs. The spending has some folks in the private sector scratching their head.

“I pay my own professional memberships,” taxpayer John Metzger said. “I think maybe they should get some kind of subsidy or something, but most of these things are personal. It’s about improving your position.”

While the vast majority of subscriptions and dues went to professional organizations, there were other expenses that you might find questionable. The county has at least 11 separate memberships to Sam’s Club, six to Costco and at least 14 separate subscriptions to the StarNews. Some taxpayers see that as awfully redundant.

“There’s people that’s in the community that’s trying to do stuff, that’s struggling every day, and I believe that they need to do smarter things with their money,” James Jones said.

We sat down with County Commissioner Bobby Greer to discuss the expenses. He agreed there seemed to be room for improvement.

“Those types of things, hopefully the County Manager is looking into and will make those corrections,” Greer said.

We also asked Greer about the five Rotary Club memberships county taxpayers are footing the bill for.

“I pay my own dues,” he said. “The county doesn’t pay my dues, but I’ve been in Rotary a long time. There are a lot of people you meet. A lot of people ask me what’s going on within the county.”

Greer said the Rotary Club dues have not formally come up at any County Commission meetings, but he has approached County Manager Bruce Shell about the issue. Shell tells us these are just memberships the county has traditionally covered, but moving forward, it’s something he’ll evaluate. They’re also looking to streamline their newspaper and wholesale club subscriptions.

Shell says in the past year alone, the county has shaved more than $6000 in dues and subscription expenses. For example, he dropped his subscription to the Wall Street Journal, and dropped a professional membership to a CPA group, to save the county money.