Commissioners assess strides made since 2025 planning retreat
Commissioner Ted Godwin wishes the Board could have made more progress on regionalization of water and sewer.
Toward the end of their 2025 planning retreat, Johnston County Commissioners set goals for the year ahead.
At the start of this year’s session, Kevin Leonard, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, asked Johnston leaders where they had succeeded and where they had fallen short in 2025.
Commissioner Ted Godwin was ready with this answer. “I wish we could have made more progress on regionalization of water and sewer,” he said.
In Johnston, the county owns water and sewer plants, and some of its towns own one or the other. Commissioners think a single water and sewer authority would offer economies of scale and greater resiliency, among other benefits.
Beyond Johnston’s borders, commissioners would like to see greater cooperation with other counties, particularly on water supply.
But so far, regionalization has proven elusive.
“I wish we could have made more tangible strides to create partnerships and some tangible direction on getting that accomplished,” Godwin said.
For his part, Commissioner Bill Stovall said it was unfortunate the board had not yet adopted a new Unified Development Ordinance.
The effort was there, Stovall said. “We went through a very involved process with a consultant,” he noted. “We had public outreach meetings that were held in each of the commissioner districts.”
But then the effort ran aground. “We got down to what should have been really the final hearing at the Commissioner level, and we found out there was a wealth of our citizens who, quite frankly, didn’t know this process was going on,” he said.
Stovall said the County had clearly suffered a communications failure. “So there was a lot of pushback on that document, which we thought was nearing the finish line,” he said, adding that the County now faced the time-consuming task of reassessing and revising the UDO draft.
Commissioner Michelle Pace Davis was glad that Johnston was close to completing a cost-of-services study and financial-impact model. In particular, Commissioners could use the financial-impact model to approve or deny specific development requests.
“It’s not quite checked off,” Davis said, “but it’s getting there.”
The board’s goals from last year were many — a new UDO and stormwater rules, water and sewer partnerships, new County Government buildings, regular school building maintenance, and new hires, among others.
“I don’t see anything on that list that hasn’t got touched,” said Commissioner Butch Lawter, the board’s vice chairman. “I think we’ve been moving it all.”
He attributed the success to the now annual planning retreats. “I think that’s the beauty of what we started,” Lawter said. “Not only do we have a direction for the board, we have a direction for the staff to execute, and we have a direction that the public knows where we’re headed.”
But like Godwin, Lawter thought the County had fallen short on an important goal. “My biggest disappointment has been regionalization,” he said. “I feel like we have banged our heads against the wall over and over and over.”
Johnston has talked with Wake County about buying more of its water, but Lawter said that was a short-term fix. “I honestly still believe that for us, getting into the Cape Fear River is going to be very helpful,” he said.
Lawter and his fellow Commissioners recently created a new County Government job that, when filled, will work in part on regionalization.
“There are some other responsibilities in there,” Lawter noted. “But as Commissioner Godwin said last year, we need somebody who wakes up every morning thinking about how we get to regionalization.”
Commissioner Mike Rose liked that Commissioners had supported construction of a new Clayton High School. “It is a beautiful plan, and to keep it right there in Clayton, downtown, on the same campus, is a major win for that community,” he said.
Commissioner April Stephens gave the board credit for tackling challenges at their roots. “There’s something to be said for breaking things down to basics and going back to the foundation,” she said. “And I feel like that is something we have been really good at doing.”
Stephens pointed especially to how Johnston might build a new home for Social Services and more space for the courts. “We took a step back and said, ‘What’s working? What’s not? Let’s break it down and rebuild it,’ ” she said.
Commissioner Patrick Harris, the board’s chairman, saw something positive in community response to the draft UDO. “We did have a very good public hearing where it brought a lot of people out, and they were able to voice their concerns and their opinion,” he said. “In my opinion, that’s when government works best — when the people are engaged and involved. It was a good meeting.”
“I think we’re well on the way to getting that resolved into a document that everybody can live with,” Harris added. “I won’t say everybody would be happy with, but everybody can live with something that’s fair and equitable to everyone.”
Like Stephens, Harris was glad the the County was taking tangible steps toward a new home for Social Services and more space for the courts. “We’re making a lot of progress on that,” he said. “It never moves as fast as I would like to see it move, but I think it’s moving reasonably well.”
Harris thought the same of all of the Commissioners’ goals for the County. “From my perspective, I think we’re moving well,” he said. “Staff has done a lot of work to get us to the point that we’re moving forward on these goals that we’ve set.”
Page last updated on: March 13, 2026