BRAC REGIONAL TASK FORCE (RTF)
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
Thursday, March 26, 2009 10:00 am
Spring Lake Family Resource Center
1. Call to Order. Chairman Tim McNeill called the Board of Directors meeting to order at
10:00 am at the Spring Lake Family Resource Center. A Quorum was established.
Board Members in attendance:
Bladen County: Greg Taylor
Cumberland Municipal: Tony Chavonne
Cumberland County: Jeanette Council
Harnett County: Tim McNeill
Harnett County (Alt): Tommy Burns
Lee County: Lesa Price
Moore County: Bob Zschoche
Montgomery County: Edgar Morris
Montgomery County: Judy Stevens
Richmond County: Jim McCaskill
Robeson Municipal: Blake Proctor
Sampson Municipal: Roland Hall
Sampson County: John Blanton
Scotland County: Tom Parker
Paul Dordal: Executive Director, BRAC RTF
Other Attendees: John Harbison (BRAC RTF), Renee Siemiet (BRAC RTF), John Bellamy
(BRAC RTF), Don Belk (BRAC RTF), Dr. Jane Smith (BRAC RTF), Renee Lane (BRAC RTF),
Tim Moore (BRAC RTF), Erik Wells (BRAC RTF), Richard Rice (FTCC), T. Helmlinger
Ratcliff (NCSU), Manish Mehta (Five Points Hospitality), Naynesh Mehta (Five Points
Hospitality), Neil Flavin (Five Points Hospitality), Charles Sutherland, Randy McLean
(PDI/DSTA), Kevin Klug (CTC), Danielle Byrd (Residence Inn), Ed Petkovich (Washington
Group), Peter Van Borkulo (Ft. Bragg), Carrie Rice (Ft. Bragg), David Oyster (Little River
Baptist Association), Rick Inskeep, Geoffrey Hoffman (Alphatecture), Mike Atwood (Ace
Promotion), Melissa Hall (NCSU Co-Op), Sara Jewell (ModSpace), Donna McNeill (Harnett
County Schools), Michael Warner (AFCEA), Michlle Scullard (APC, INC), Dr. Curtis Charles
(FSU), Shevelle Ramirez (Ft. Bragg Schools), Jean Cashion, Patrick Coughlin (Moore County
Chamber),
2. The Draft Minutes from the January 22, 2009 Board of Directors Meeting were reviewed.
ACTION: Approve minutes from January 22, 2009 Board of Directors Meeting.
MOTION: A motion was made by Jeannette Council to approve the minutes. The motion was
seconded by Tony Chavonne. The motion carried.
3. Chairman’s comments: Chairman Tim McNeill welcomed everyone and thanked them for
attending. He introduced Peter Van Borkulo and Carrie Rice from Fort Bragg. Mr. Van
Borkulo and Ms. Rice gave an update, stating that the Air Force is finalizing decisions on Pope
AFB and remaining personnel manning. Fort Bragg is also working to address various scenarios
for an early move of U.S. Army Forces Command.
4. Executive Director’s Report.
a. BuildBragg.com. Paul Dordal stated that the construction of the FORSCOM and
USARC HQ building is the largest construction project in NC at this time. Hensel
Phelps has made a commitment to hire locally and will encourage their subcontractors
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b.
c.
d.
e.
to hire locally. Users of BuildBragg.com will be connected NCMBC for
subcontracting opportunities.
Futures Platform. The Board of Directors approved the hiring of Futures to design
and launch the job connection platform. The contract is nearing completion. There
will be opportunities for platform sponsorship that will assist in sustaining the BRAC
RTF in the long-term. The site will have job posting, career exploration, and
education exploration tools.
State Level Meetings. There have been several meetings with the Governor’s office,
including a meeting with Base Commanders and the Governor. The meetings have
been an opportunity to provide the Governor’s office with priorities central to the
region.
Strategy 1 Update. The Strategy 1 study is an effort to understand the region’s
defense industry. TDA and Booz, Allen, Hamilton are performing a cluster analysis
examining the business sectors essential to defense industry growth in the region. An
update will be given at the Defense Business Association meeting on April 14th. The
full report will be released in June.
ACTION: Request board approval for the Executive Director and Chairman to use
U.S. DOL grant funds, not to exceed $90K, for the next phase of implementing
Strategy I actions to include the comprehensive development of the concept for a NC
Center for Defense and Homeland Security.
MOTION: A motion was made by Blake Proctor to allow the Executive Director
and Chairman to use up to $90K from the U.S. DOL budget for the next phase of
implementing Strategy I actions to include the comprehensive development of the
concept for a NC Center for Defense and Homeland Security. The motion was
seconded by Greg Taylor. The motion carried.
Defense Business Association. The next meeting of the DBA will be 14 April 2009
at the Airborne and Special Operations Museum. The meeting will begin at 10:00 am.
Dale Carroll, the new Deputy Secretary of Commerce will attend and be available for
networking.
5. Regional Planning. Don Belk provided an update on the Implementation Phase of the
Comprehensive Regional Growth Plan. He stated that RFPs are under development and will
include transportation, energy/infrastructure, healthcare, and a regional strategy for
sustainable growth.
ACTION: Request Board approval to enable Executive Director with Board Chairman
concurrence to expend $1.155 million CRGP Implementation Funds (OEA 2009-2010 Grant)
per chart allocations to execute the approved Scope of Work. Selected proposals that exceed
allocated amounts will be brought to the Executive Committee for additional review,
discussion and final approval.
MOTION: A motion was made by Blake Proctor to allow the Executive Director and Board
Chairman to expend $1.155 million CRGP Implementation Funds (OEA 2009-2010 Grant)
per chart allocations to execute the approved Scope of Work, with the understanding that any
selected proposals that exceed allocated amounts will be brought to the Executive Committee
for additional review, discussion, and final approval. The motion was seconded by Roland
Hall. The motion was carried.
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6. Working Lands Protection Program. Grace Lawrence stated that she gave 18
presentations during the last month and that media coverage of the program has been great.
Surveys for business owners and residents are available at the BRAC RTF website. Tim
McNeill requested that Ms. Lawrence present at county commissioner’s meetings. The
surveys will provide a view of the state of agriculture in the eleven counties. The Working
Lands Protection Program will compliment county land plans. The goal of the WLPP is to
keep agriculture viable, and this is compatible with the military’s view of agriculture as
compatible land use around installations.
7. Workforce Demonstration Program.
a. Department of Commerce. Tim Moore stated that the NC Department of
Commerce held a program monitoring visit on March 13th and reviewed operations,
grant program strategies, partnerships, Implementation Plan timeline & compliance &
performance metrics. Initial feedback has been very positive.
b. Steering Group and Joint Education/Workforce Advisory Group. Due to
significant overlap in membership and goals, and with the guidance of NC
Department of Commerce, the BRAC RTF recommends the Board of Directors
approve the merger of the Steering Group and Joint Education/ Workforce Advisory
Group into a single entity with the following provisions: The name of the Steering
Group will be “WDP Education and Workforce Steering Group”; the Chairs will
remain the same as the Steering Group; and the current Joint Education/Workforce
Advisory Group members that are not members of the Steering Group are non-voting
members. This will decrease travel expenses and meeting time requirements of
members.
MOTION: A motion was made by Jim McCaskill to approve the merger of the
Steering Group and the Joint Education/Workforce Advisory Group into a single
entity: The name of the group will be “WDP Education and Workforce Steering
Group”, the chairs will remain the same as the Steering Group, and the current Joint
Education/Workforce Advisory Group members that are not members of the Steering
Group are non-voting members. The motion carried.
c. Strategy 1. Tim Moore reiterated the stated goals of Strategy 1 and reported that a
focus group held March 16th revealed that businesses are in need of security
clearances and individuals able to obtain them, DoD basics, and that they are anxious
for the results of the study.
d. Hensel Phelps & BuildBragg.com. Hiring sessions were held by Hensel Phelps on
March 12th and 19th, with over 150 applications processed. Hensel Phelps also held a
subcontracting session on March 17th in downtown Fayetteville.
e. FSU/UNC-P Study Status. The project is well under way. A visioning summit was
held on the campus of Fayetteville State University on March 20th. The purpose was
to identify barriers that might prevent the socio and economically disadvantaged
populations from benefiting from BRAC-related and other employment opportunities.
f. Regional Education Summit. Dr. Jane Smith stated that a Regional Education
Summit was held on February 5th to discuss STEM collaboration and establish
relationships. The Summit resulted in the creation of a Pilot Circuit in Cumberland
County. This circuit will be a collaboration between Pine Forest HS, FTCC, FSU, the
AACWI, and Applied Research Associates.
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g. Program Manager for IT. Erik Wells was introduced as the Program Manager for
Information Technology. He has been hired to work directly with Futures on the
Pipeline.
h. Pipeline Update. Fedra Nally (Futures, INC) stated that she is the Program Manager
for the project and that various projects are being worked concurrently to launch the
pipeline by August.
8. Outreach and Communication. Renee Lane stated that an article was published in the
International Economic Development Journal and that Paul Dordal was also featured on
Kaleidoscope (Time Warner Cable). Upcoming trade shows include:
a. Spec Ops East, April 20-23
b. Braxton Bragg’s AUSA, May 19-20
c. NDIA, May 19-20 (Mary Lilley will attend)
d. Marketplace 2009, May 27th in RTP
Additionally, Paul Dordal and Dr. Smith will attend the DANTES Conference July 28-30th.
9. Building Move. John Harbison stated that the deadline for the BRAC RTF to move off base
is June 19th and that the RTF is looking for reasonably priced space. The difference in this
action item is that the Executive Committee had set a limit on $3,000 per month, which has
been prohibitive in finding space.
ACTION: Allow Executive Director with Board Chairman approval to determine which
facility best meets BRAC RTF needs and obtain one-year rental lease at lowest reasonable
cost.
MOTION: A motion was made by Greg Taylor to allow the Executive Director with Board
Chairman approval, to determine which facility best meets BRAC RTF needs and obtain a
one-year rental lease at the lowest reasonable cost. The motion was seconded by Jeannette
Council. The motion carried.
10. Budget Update. John Harbison provided an update on the budgets, stating that Tier 1
counties will have an increase of $864 in matching funds. The bill for 2009-2010 will be
$28,856 for Tier 1 counties and $10,000 for Tier 2 counties.
11. Other Discussion. There was no further discussion.
12. Upcoming Events:
Next Board of Directors Meeting: Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 10:00 am
Next Executive Committee Meeting: Thursday April 16, 2009 at 10:00 am
13. The meeting was adjourned at 11:47 am.
Submitted by:
Paul Dordal,
Executive Director,
BRAC RTF
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