Table Talk Episode 20: City Councilmen Nick Fritz and Max Perreault Discuss Fiscal Challenges | Eastern NC Now

    Host Stan Deatherage welcomes Washington City Councilmen Nick Fritz and Max Perreault to discuss how they plan to reform local government in the city of Washington. Both councilmen ran on platforms of tax reduction and fiscal conservatism, and they share what they've discovered since taking office.

Behind the Curtain: Outdated Policies and Infrastructure Neglect

    Max Perreault explains that upon taking office, they discovered the city's electrical rates and fund balance policy hadn't been reviewed in nearly 17 years. He notes that if a major hurricane struck, the city likely couldn't afford to repair its infrastructure due to inadequate reserves. The city imposed an 11-cent tax increase instead of remaining revenue neutral after the property reevaluation, which became the central issue that galvanized voters. Max questions why previous city managers failed to update policies, raise electrical rates, or build the fund balance incrementally, choices that could have prevented the need for a dramatic tax hike.

Stagnant Population, Growing Government

    Nick Fritz points out that Washington's population has remained around 9,800–9,900 since 1960, yet taxes collected have steadily increased. Despite decades of additional revenue, the city's electrical, water, and other infrastructure accounts are critically low. The reason, he argues, is that the government workforce has grown substantially while the population stayed flat. Rather than saving for future infrastructure needs, successive administrations spent surplus funds on additional staffing and services to create visible, short-term accomplishments. When infrastructure needs finally arose, the default response was simply to raise taxes rather than scale back spending.

The Conservative Fiscal Approach

    Both councilmen advocate a fundamentally different approach: set the tax rate the citizens demanded, then work backward to fit services within that budget. Nick emphasizes that the city was functioning adequately 18 months before the tax increase, and returning to that spending level would not require cutting longstanding services like EMS or fire protection. He stresses that real economic growth comes from attracting businesses and commerce, not from government spending, which the left mistakenly equates with economic activity. Stan Deatherage compares their situation to Beaufort County, which also failed to achieve true revenue neutrality, taxing residents approximately 7.5% above revenue neutral in the last cycle.

Wasteful Nonprofit Funding and Lack of Accountability

    Max reveals that $942,000 of the city budget is allocated to nonprofits and charities under the label of "economic development," yet no one was responsible for ensuring outcomes. When the former interim city manager investigated, the vast majority of recipient organizations were using city funds for operating expenses, paying salaries, insurance, and overhead, which is not a legally appropriate use of government subsidies to 501(c)(3) organizations. Only one or two organizations could demonstrate tangible community benefit. The councilmen argue this money would be far better spent on capital improvement projects, infrastructure repair, or placed in savings. Stan notes that all such funding should require a memorandum of understanding with clear expected outcomes, a recommendation from conflict of interest training.

Internal Tensions and the Path Forward

    Nick raises the recent public conflict between Max and fellow councilman Joe Davis, asking how the three-member conservative bloc can stay unified. Max explains that a "perfect storm" of issues, particularly the Aquatic Center controversy, created friction. The Aquatic Center currently operates at only an 8% cost recovery rate, far below the North Carolina League of Municipalities benchmark of 50–70%. Max says he likely would have supported a private management proposal similar to what Greenville did with its municipal golf course, but Davis's approach was premature and publicly rolled out before being fully developed. Max emphasizes the importance of having "all your ducks in a row" before going public, as poorly communicated proposals generate distrust and misinformation. He says the two have since talked it through and are moving forward.

The Mayor's Lawsuit Against the City

    Nick drops what Stan calls a "bombshell": the current mayor, Ellen Bravo, is suing the city of Washington for $1 million in damages plus attorney's fees. The lawsuit stems from a zoning and special use permit dispute related to a bed and breakfast operation. The city alleged permit violations, and the Board of Adjustments held a hearing but did not actually revoke the permit, instead proposing that the mayor and the city collaborate on rewriting the ordinance. The case was moved to federal court, where the city's attorney sought dismissal. Nick finds it deeply troubling that an elected official is simultaneously serving as mayor while suing the city and its residents, calling it an absolute conflict of interest. He notes that if the city is found liable, the cost would amount to roughly $1,000 per resident with no insurance coverage. Additionally, the mayor publicly stated on a local radio show that Washington is "not pro-business," which the councilmen view as damaging to economic development efforts.

The New City Manager

    The councilmen discuss their new city manager hire, who has impressed them by immediately identifying wasteful spending and proposing conservative fiscal measures such as early retirement programs, salary cap savings, and departmental budget reductions. Stan raises a concern that the hiring vote was not taken in public, which he believes may conflict with general statutes requiring public votes on public employee appointments and expenditures of public funds. The councilmen say they asked their attorney about this and were told the process was legally sound, though Stan advises greater transparency going forward, citing how the county handles similar appointments.

Energy Policy, Economic Development, and County-City Cooperation

    The conversation turns to energy policy, with Max revealing that the city signed a contract around 2012 giving 53 acres of airport land to a Duke Energy subsidiary for a solar field. The city receives only about $2,200 per year for land valued at half a million dollars, gets zero energy from the installation, and must pay Duke the difference if the field under-produces. The contract auto-renews, leaving the city locked in. The group discusses nuclear energy as the cleanest, safest, and potentially cheapest energy source, noting that the last U.S. nuclear plant, the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, began commercial operation on April 29, 2024. Nick advocates for the city and county to hold a joint public meeting to identify overlapping services that residents are paying for twice, modeled on the federal government's 1990s approach of eliminating service duplication to shrink government and stimulate economic growth.

Closing Remarks and Looking Ahead

    Max commends Stan and the county commissioners for their stance on DSS and child re-homing issues, calling it courageous to hold the state accountable. Stan explains his goal is to have General Statutes rewritten to give elected officials more oversight and reduce bureaucratic discretion in child welfare cases, emphasizing that families should not be needlessly broken apart. The episode concludes with Stan announcing a future episode featuring Councilmen Perreault and Davis to continue the budget discussion. Stan thanks the councilmen for their transparency and candor, noting that this kind of honest, accessible governance is what local democracy should look like.