Near the end of her last meeting as chair of Mecklenburg County's Environmental Stewardship Committee, Commissioner Elaine Powell took aim at one budget word: "discretionary," the label for spending a government treats as optional. She called it "like an obscene word on things that are critical infrastructure."
"Park and rec is critical infrastructure," Powell said Tuesday, Nov. 10. "And to call it anything else is a big mistake. And so maybe that should be my last words."
Powell, who represents District 1 in north Mecklenburg, did not seek a fifth term, and her term ends Dec. 2. The committee turned the meeting into a send-off for her and for Commissioner Laura Meier of District 5, who is also leaving the Board of County Commissioners.
Seven years of work
The committee first met in 2019, Erin Stanforth, the county's sustainability and resiliency manager, said in a look back at its work. Environmental stewardship has been one of the board's budget priorities since the 2022 fiscal year.
Since then, she said, the county has acquired more than 2,000 acres of parkland toward the goals of its Environmental Leadership Action Plan. Its budget for clearing invasive plants was $750,000 in 2022, $1.3 million in 2024 and 2025, and $1 million in 2026, when the county treated more than 1,800 acres.
Commissioner Susan Rodriguez-McDowell asked to return to the slide on land. "This is your legacy," she told Powell. Then she turned to electric vehicles: the county fleet had nine in fiscal 2021 and has 293 now, she said.
'Elaine's party'
Commissioner Leigh Altman said Powell "will go down as one of the most successful commissioners in the history of the Board of County Commissioners," and called her work "a labor of love."
"This is her party," Meier said. "This is Elaine's party." Powell, in turn, said there was never a day she couldn't count on Meier "for listening and learning."
Commissioner Arthur Griffin Jr., who is not on the committee, came anyway. "A hurricane is just simply a group of raindrops that decided to work together," he said. "And so Elaine does that."
Nancy Carter, whom Powell recalled as a former Charlotte City Council member, read a short tribute: "She looked at land and saw green space."
How it started
Powell recalled seeing "human suffering caused by the, like, environmental conditions." At the time, she said, she didn't know how government worked, and she asked a pulmonologist to come with her to tell officials what people were going through. "And he said, 'I don't have time, but you can do it.'"
"Somebody has to do something and you can't wait for somebody else," she said. "And so here I am 37 years later."
She asked everyone to stay for lunch, then took a motion to adjourn.