The summer of 2010 will go down in history as one of the most busy regarding local policy conversations. Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools will embark upon a reinvention. Other local government entities will be reviewing and discussing amendments to various policies such as housing, street design, tree canopy, etc. Check our public policy page throughout the summer for updated lists of issues and their public comment opportunities. If you have any questions, please contact Natalie English at nenglish@charlottechamber.com.

Schools: CMS reinvention to include review of guiding principles, student assignment, pre-k programs, magnets, busing, etc. The public is invited to attend and make comments at any of the meetings listed below.

June 21: Harding High, 2001 Alleghany St., 6:30 to 8 p.m.
June 22: Government Center, 600 E. Fourth St., 6 p.m. (regular board meeting)
June 24: South Mecklenburg High, 8900 Park Road, 6:30 to 8 p.m.
June 28: Hopewell High, 11530 Beatties Ford Road, 6:30 to 8 p.m.

Tree Ordinance: City Council expects to have a public hearing regarding changes to the Tree Ordinance in August.

Housing Locational Policy: City staff will host public forums in July and August regarding draft revisions

Public Forums (5) July & August 2010
Staff review of public input and final policy recommendations Late August, 2010
Committee review and approval of recommended policy September 2010
City Council review and approval of recommended policy September 2010

Subdivision Ordinance: City staff has scheduled public meetings regarding the draft changes to the Subdivision Ordinance to incorporate the Urban Street Design ordinance on the dates below. In addition to the times listed below, if you would prefer to have a more in-depth discussion with staff about this issue, please contact Mike Davis at 704-336-3938.

June 15: public meeting to introduce draft and present key concepts
July 13: public meeting to understand intent behind comments
August 18: public meeting for staff to explain disposition of comments received
November 15: public hearing at city council meeting

Nearly 150 local business owners, health care providers and insurers gathered on May 18 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. The mission at hand: trying to tackle the tough questions that remain about the nation’s sweeping health care reform.

“This is the end of the illusion that you don’t have to have insurance if you don’t want it anymore,” Susan DeVore, president and CEO of Premier Inc., told the audience. “I think the illusion that we don’t have to measure quality, safety and outcomes, and be accountable for it, is over for the hospitals and physicians.”

DeVore was among a diverse group of industry-related panelists who took part in the Charlotte Chamber Summit: Health Care Reform - What Happens Next? The half-day event was organized to address business owners concerns. Legal and compliance experts outlined key regulation changes and explained what’s known of the implications to small, medium and large businesses.

“It’s complicated,” said Annette Potts. “The more I read, the more I become confused.” And that’s saying a lot. Potts has 25 years of experience in human resources. She’s currently director of HR for Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates. As the date of implementation nears, Potts worries she still won’t know how to respond to her employees’ and patients’ questions.

Much of the confusion can be attributed to the legislation itself, described repeatedly at the summit as a work in progress. “We have to make this work,” added one insurance company representative. “I think you’ll see local and regional initiatives because at the end of the day that’s where things get resolved.”

“I think it’s the start of the framework to help healthcare improve in the long term,” said DeVore. What’s still not entirely clear is just how much that reform will initially cost.

Hear more from DeVore in the video below. Audio from the summit will be available at www.charlottechamber.com/healthcaresummit within a few business days.

The recent End Of Grade and End Of Course scores seem to indicate that leadership does play a role. Test scores at the 14 schools under Superintendent Peter Gorman’s Strategic Staffing Initiative saw marked gains in their test scores.

The Strategic Staffing Initiative provides a mix of financial and hiring incentives for principals and the staff they bring with them to the new assignment. Each principal makes a three-year commitment to their new school. They have been given the flexibility to choose some key players on their team. It rewards leaders with the ability to build a successful team.

The test score gains are good news and there continues to be much room for growth in them. Continued support for initiatives that will build leadership in Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools is an essential part of the solution to closing the achievement gap and ensuring all students have the best shot at success.

MeckEd, a Charlotte Chamber partner, is a nonprofit organization that mobilizes leadership, rallies resources, and engages the community so that all Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students achieve significant and measureable academic success. MeckEd is working with CMS to raise the funds necessary for programs that will build upon the leadership capacity in principals, teachers and parents. The MeckEd Leadership Fund supports New Leaders for New Schools, Parent University, and Tomorrow’s Leaders. MeckEd goals are to create a pipeline of 50 leaders ready to become principals in 2011 and to improve retention of expert principals from the current three years to more than five years by 2015.

As a business community, we should work with Dr. Gorman to prepare principals that exhibit the very best of leadership skills. By doing it in our businesses, we develop teams to get the job done. Dr. Gorman is putting people into these roles who are preparing our future workforce. We should help him find and train the very best leaders who can prepare the very best future employees.

Natalie Haskins English
Senior Vice President, Business & Education Advocacy

After several action-packed days on the Charlotte Chamber's 2009 Inter City Visit, Chamber Chair Tim Belk wrapped up the visit with his closing thoughts.

1. Optimism – We are in unchartered territory – don’t batten down the hatches – lift your heads up – look to the future.
2. What’s in front of us is more exciting than what’s behind us.
3. We can’t take our foot off the gas pedal. We cannot let up!
4. Energy and clean technology is an economic base we can build upon and be known for in the state and in the nation. Two powerful forces want to help us fulfill this vision: Jim Rogers and Governor Bev Perdue.
5. Put diversity in the vision of the center city. Remove the hardscape and the softscape barracks.
6. 111 of 176 principles are new in their job over the last three years. We must invest in leadership development. The increase in students in the free lunch program as well as budget cuts adds urgency to this imperative.
7. Higher education institutions will have more impact on our community going forward. Pamela Davies at Queens, Ron Carter at JCSU, Phil Dubois at UNC Charlotte, Art Gallagher at J&W, Tony Zeiss at CPCC are engaged in the community and will provide great leadership.
8. Budget cuts are a constraint to meeting our transportation needs. We can partner with other urban regions, rather than compete to solve our infrastructure needs.
9. Cultural arts complex will redefine peoples’ views of our city. Public/private partnerships makes things happen and are an example of our can-do attitude.

The following remarks were given by Charlotte Chamber President Bob Morgan today during Bank of America's Annual Meeting in Charlotte:

Mr. Chairman, I am here to speak in favor of the proposed re-election of the incumbent Board of Directors of the Bank of America.

When the Charlotte Mecklenburg Development Corporation needed help to redevelop a blighted industrial corridor in West Charlotte, Ken Lewis and Bank of America stepped up to help create the Wilkinson Business Park, which today provides good jobs to citizens in the surrounding low income neighborhood.

When the opportunity arose to build mixed use, affordable housing in Baltimore, Ken Lewis and Bank of America did not cut and run, they stepped up to provide leadership and funding that has helped to revitalize that city's downtown and the Inner Harbor.

When Charlotte's First Ward neighborhood was the poster child of run down, dilapidated public housing, Bank of America stepped up, almost single handedly, to redevelop and transform the First Ward into one of America's premier examples of mixed use inter city development.

These are but three of thousands of examples from across the country where Ken Lewis and the leadership of Bank of America have stepped up to make life better for the less fortunate citizens of our country. When Charlotte and other communities have needed strong corporate leadership, Bank of America has not cut and run...Ken Lewis and his team have stepped up.

Today our national economy is suffering from what may be the most severe recession in our lifetime. Virtually everybody and every industry is effected, including of course the banking industry and Bank of America.

As a shareholder and as the President of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, I am proud of Ken Lewis and the entire Bank of America team and appreciate what they do for so many others in so many places across America.

Now is not the time for Bank of America shareholders to cut and run. I speak in favor of the re-election of the incumbent Board of Directors and encourage all shareholders to do the same.