Partly cloudy this evening with thunderstorms becoming likely overnight. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%..
Partly cloudy this evening with thunderstorms becoming likely overnight. Low 66F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Updated: October 12, 2022 @ 10:29 pm
Julie Anderson, the Pine Knoll Shore’s finance director and assistant manager
Julie Anderson, the Pine Knoll Shore’s finance director and assistant manager
PINE KNOLL SHORES — A Pine Knoll Shores resident who thinks the town’s property taxes are too high believes a town official tried to keep him from obtaining comparative information about other Bogue Banks towns from the Carteret County tax office and called for the dismissal of a town official last month.
Len Riccio emailed the tax office for information in September after he attended a town finance committee meeting. The email states that, “The Town’s Board of Commissioners (BOC) is reviewing budgets efficiency with comparison to sister towns of Atlantic Beach, Town of Indian Beach and Emerald Isle with Pine Knoll Shores. We developed some models but the BOC would like to refine the information used in the models.
“So this is where I turn to you for some assistance,” the email continues. “What we are looking for if possible are the following variables by town and category if you can pull the data from your system and tools to external data. I can find median market values but that is useless in our models. We need to use/calculate averages.”
Riccio copied the email to, among others, Julie Anderson, the town’s finance director and assistant manager. She emailed the tax office, too: “Please know that Mr. Riccio is not a member of an appointed committee, nor has he been given authority by our Board of Commissioners to request information of the County on its behalf. Should the Town need any information I will gladly reach out.”
Riccio is upset that Anderson did not copy him on her email to the county, and during a town board Sept. 14, he spoke during the public comment section of the agenda and called on commissioners to fire Anderson.
In that statement, Riccio said, “Pine Knoll Shores town government has been compromised. Julie Anderson has leveraged her position as Assistant Town Manager to interfere with my right as a public citizen to obtain public information.
“I am calling on the Pine Knoll Shores town council to restore confidence, integrity in our town government. By removing Julie Anderson from her position in town government you send a clear message than any further like type of actions will not be tolerated.”
Anderson, Town Manager Brian Kramer and Mayor John Brodman all deny any wrongdoing by Anderson or the town and say Riccio’s original email to the tax office – seeking info – gave the false impression he was seeking the info for the board of commissioners.
The officials say Anderson’s email simply states that Riccio does not represent the town and did not ask that the county deny Riccio the information he sought.
Jessica Taylor, the county tax collector, said last week the email from Riccio did give her the impression that he was representing the town.
“Also,” she said an email, “the subject line reads: ‘Requested Information: Pine Knoll Shores Board of Commissioners’.”
In response to questions from the newspaper, Taylor said she did not get the impression the town did not want the requested information given to Riccio. Instead, she said, “My staff and I got the impression that, should the town need our assistance with this information request, they would reach out directly.”
In a recent interview, Riccio told the newspaper that even if Anderson’s email doesn’t explicitly state the town didn’t want him to get the information, “That was clearly the intent.”
Taylor said in response to a question that “anyone may obtain copies of public information. We would be happy to provide a system-generated report to Mr. Riccio.”
However, she added, “We are in the process of validating all of our system reports due to our software conversion and there may still be some wait time given the urgency of other matters.
“In general, all public information requests have been delayed due to the urgency of billing and software conversion. We are working as quickly as possible to ensure everything has converted appropriately and that we understand the data being pulled for each system-generated report so that we can provide accurate information.”
Taylor added that, “It seemed as if there was a miscommunication between Mr. Riccio and the Town of Pine Knoll Shores based on the emails.”
The software change has led to the county being unable to send out tax notices, and that has led to towns, including Pine Knoll Shores, being unable to send out tax bills. Usually, bills go out in August and people start paying their property taxes in September. The newspaper ran an article on Sept. 22 about the county tax office software update and the delay in the tax bills: https://www.carolinacoastonline.com/news_times/article_cef19f74-3a93-11ed-858f-5f96b626ccef.html
After reading that article, in an email to the newspaper Riccio said, “Now I better understand why I cannot get my data from the county… Apparently, they botched the system conversion process. “
He said he had been an internet technology director for large corporations.
County tax bills have now been sent to the towns, but Riccio said Thursday he has not yet receive the information he requested. In addition, he said he has requested all correspondence between the county tax office and Pine Knoll Shores since Sept. 1.
In response to questions from the newspaper last week, Anderson explained her side of the whole issue in an email to the newspaper.
“Late in the budget process this past Spring, a group of citizens showed interest in the budget and finances of the town. The Board did not want to form another committee because Pine Knoll Shores already has committees for departments/subject areas such as Finance, Administration, Public Safety, etc., therefore these citizens were directly invited to join the next official Finance Committee meeting which was held September 6.
“The Board of Commissioners were clear that these citizens were not appointed committee members and that the subject matters discussed would be policy level topics they explicitly asked of the Committee. The focus of this September 6th meeting was revisions to our Financial Policy which was first adopted in 2012.
“At this meeting Mr. Riccio brought forth a number of ideas on comparing budgets with neighboring towns, prohibiting tax increases if certain metrics exceed those of our neighbors, etc. One of these ideas involved comparing budgets per housing unit in each town. Other citizens also provided input on a variety of subjects from investments of idle funds to appropriation of reserves.
“It was, in the Committee’s view, a productive meeting. At the end of the meeting, Town Manager Kramer explained that the next Board of Commissioners’ meeting (9/14) would have an agenda item dedicated to updating the Board on the Finance Committee meeting, policy revisions, and to receive direction from the Board of Commissioners on further information or analysis the Board desires from the Committee, if any.
“I believe it was the next afternoon (9/7) when Town Manager Kramer and I were copied on an email from Mr. Riccio to the County Tax Office requesting detailed information on housing units and explaining that the PKS Board was looking at budget metrics comparing itself to neighboring towns. The subject line of that email clearly gave the impression this information was being requested by the PKS Board of Commissioners.
“That afternoon I notified the County Tax Office by email that Mr. Riccio was not one of our Commissioners nor was he an appointed committee member given the authority to request information on the Town’s behalf. I never instructed the County to not give Mr. Riccio information. I don’t think I have that power over the County offices. I simply was making it clear that the representation being made was inaccurate. I did not violate ANYONE’S civil rights, nor did I commit a crime of any kind as Mr. Riccio has accused.
“Later that week Commissioner (Robert) Cox forwarded a copy of my email to Mr. Riccio and the calls for my resignation began. Mr. Riccio and I had an email exchange on September 9th where I explained to him that he had every right to ask for information from the county as a citizen but that his email was not written as such. Mr. Riccio included other citizens on his email assertions of me overstepping my power and abusing my position. Mr. Riccio later emailed Commissioner Cox requesting I be terminated. I did not learn of that email until Monday morning 9/12.”
Anderson said that after Kramer refused to fire her during the Sept. 14 board of commissioners meeting, “Mr. Riccio’s displeasure with Brian’s lack of action in terminating me led him to sending me multiple emails … with large public records requests.”
Anderson said she has been a Pine Knoll Shores employee for 15 years and does not have plans to change that. Over the years, town management has encountered many citizens and/or elected officials who may not agree with decisions being made or courses of action taken. Presenting those concerns in a cooperative manner is the true key to progress.”
Kramer last week voiced full support for Anderson, calling her a model employee.
“In fact, next year it will be my strongest recommendation to the board that she take my position upon my retirement,” he said.
“As the town manager, I have the statutory authority to hire/fire employees of the town. Given this, Len Riccio’s request is to me, not the Board of Commissioners. I think Len Riccio’s accusations are wildly inaccurate and without merit and will take no action related to his demand.”
He also said all the town commissioners supported his rejection of Riccio’s demand during the public comment period of the Sept. 14 meeting.
Referring to Riccio’s original email to the county, he said the board of commissioners is not “reviewing budget efficiency with our neighboring towns” and added that the board has not developed any models. “Len Riccio did, not the town.”
In an interview, Riccio called the town’s government oversized, overpaid and inefficient. He said the town’s website, unlike many others, does not include previous budgets, and that he wants to set up a website with what he considers important information that should be made more easily accessible. Among the things he has requested from the town are Kramer’s contract, a head count of all town employees by department with pay grades, and budgets and actual expenditures for the past five years.
Pine Knoll Shores’ property tax rate is tax 24 cents per $100 of assessed value for 2022-23. Atlantic Beach’s rate is 20 cents, while Emerald Isle’s is 16.5 cents and Indian Beach’s is 31 cents. The latter two also have special taxes for oceanfront property to help fund beach nourishment projects.
Mayor Brodman said last week he stands by his original assessment that “Julie did nothing wrong.”
In response to Riccio’s complaints about the town’s budget and tax rate, he said Atlantic Beach and Emerald Isle have commercial properties that generate significant revenue to help keep rates low. Pine Knoll Shores, he said, does try to streamline its departments, including having a combined fire and EMS department, unlike Atlantic Beach and Emerald Isle, although the latter plans to do that by Jan. 1.
Nick Wilson, spokesperson for the county, said Friday the county has sent Mr. Riccio the information he requested.
Contact Brad Rich at 252-864-1532; email brad@thenewstimes.com; or follow on Twitter @brichccnt.
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So, she clarified to the county that he was not representing PKS in his request for tax information. This seems like quite an over reaction on his part, especially since the county did provide the information he was seeking. The new demands he is making also seem very petty and over reaching.
Over reaction? I can only assume if Mr. Riccio was included in the communication chain this would have never happened as it did. Which brings up another point for discussion. Make it mandatory for any government employee either at the local or county level to copy a public resident (not government employees) whose name is included or is referenced in any way within the communication be it email, letter or text message. Mr. Kramer the Town Manager does not have such a policy at Pine Knoll Shores. Maybe it’s time for he and all the other local mayors or town managers to institute such a policy to protect the reputation of our local citizens. Also the Carteret County should also lead this effort by implementing this as an employee mandate policy as well.
One thing the writer had not mentioned. At the last Pine Knoll Shores, Board of Commissioners meeting Brian Kramer came out and publicly endorsed Julie Anderson for becoming the town’s next Town Manager when he retires at the end of his contract. No wonder the Mayor and Brian are so outspoken on this matter.
thats how we done it up north?
We just need to add some more time, money & resources and it should be fine.
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