On this episode of The Best of Johnston County podcast, Attorney Jonathan Breeden sits down with Johnston County Commissioner Ted Godwin. Commissioner Godwin shares his lifelong local roots, small-town upbringing, and what inspired him to first seek public office back in 2008. After 12 years serving the community he loves, Ted still has a passion for managing growth and preserving the open spaces and small-town feel of Johnston County while welcoming smart commercial development. 

Tune in to hear Godwin's unique local perspective on the county's explosive 300 million dollar budget, what civic service means to him, and his vision for balancing quality of life and economic progress in the years ahead. If you want the inside scoop from a true Johnston County hometown hero, don't miss this candid conversation.

What were you wanting to do when you ran for county commissioner? Well, it was two primary things. One was trash, solid waste. I felt the system was broken. We had a decal system. I called it the restricted access to where you need to put your trash. Right? And I wanted to change that system and it is changing now. Finally it's taken me all this time. I was on the short end of a couple of six to one boats, but kept plodding away. And I think people have realized that we need to fix it. The other thing was just fiscal responsibility. I've always been little to the right of Jesse Helms, some have accused me, but I'm very conservative. I've always wanted to save taxpayers money, but I understand the county's growing. We've got to provide services. People expect those services, but I'd like to see it done, in a way that's not a waste of taxpayers money, too often when somebody's not spending their own money they get a little overboard.

 Welcome to another episode of Best of Johnston County, brought to you by Breeden Law Office. Our host, Jonathan Breeden, an experienced family lawyer with a deep connection to the community, is ready to take you on a journey through the area that he has called home for over 20 years. Whether it's a deep dive into the love locals have for the county or unraveling the complexities of family law, Best of Johnston County presents an authentic slice of this unique community.

[00:00:17] Ted Godwin: Glad to be here Jonathan.

[00:00:46] Ted Godwin: That's right.

[00:01:01] Ted Godwin: I was born and raised in Johnston County and the Glendale community over near Kinley, went to high school, the old Glendale High School, it consolidated. We were the first consolidation in 1965. I was a junior at North Johnston, second graduating class, went to NC state. Didn't quite finish the degree because Uncle Sam was interested in me. Okay. So I spent some time in the military. Came back, went to school in engineering, but wound up going into banking and was a banker for 42 years.

[00:01:29] Ted Godwin: I started out with First Union Wilson. From there I got moved to Southern Pines, that's where I met Donna.

[00:01:34] Ted Godwin: From there to New Bern and then back here almost 30 years ago.

[00:01:41] Ted Godwin: Yeah, we've got three boys. Right. And they're all grown.

[00:01:45] Ted Godwin: Four, five grandkids.

[00:01:49] Ted Godwin: Yes. One of them has already graduated, he's a dentist, he's living in the western part of the state.

[00:01:53] Ted Godwin: My granddaughter has just graduated from East Carolina. The little boys, I call them they're two eighth graders and a [00:02:00] sixth grader and one's at the innovation Academy and the other two at North Johnston middle.

[00:02:09] Ted Godwin: I even pulled the chains at the middle school football game this year.

[00:02:28] Ted Godwin: Well, I've always been involved, my Dad was involved in community development years ago back in the 50"s and 60:s. They started Boy Scout troop and little league, that sort of thing.

[00:03:01] Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. When was that?

[00:03:04] Jonathan Breeden: 2008. Right. I remember that campaign and.

[00:03:17] And so I ran under unopposed in 2012 and I did have opposition in 16 and 20. Thought I would hang it up, but there's still some things I need to see through.

[00:03:59] And I [00:04:00] don't know if that's good or bad, but that's just where it is right now in Johnston County, and we'll let the listeners decide whether they think that's a good thing or a bad thing. But unfortunately we don't have two parties in this county that are very active.

[00:04:29] What were you wanting to do when you ran for county commissioner?

[00:04:46] Finally it's taken me all this time. I was on the short end of a couple of six to one boats, but kept plodding away. And I think people have realized that we need to fix it.

[00:05:03] I've always wanted to save taxpayers money, but I understand the county's growing. We've got to provide services. People expect those services, but I'd like to see it done. In a way that's not a waste of taxpayers money, too often when somebody's not spending their own money they get a little overboard,

[00:05:35] And that doesn't qualify as recycling here. So I drove to Smithfield to the dump and put the picture frames into the, being at the dump. And and they didn't even charge me the $5.00, which was very nice of the lady at the dump. She's like, you got three picture frames, I'll let you just do it.

[00:06:11] I equate it to education. I've had kids in the school system, I don't have any now. But I still pay taxes. That's the biggest part of my tax dollars for education. The county is better off to have a good education system. I think the county is better off to have a good trash system. And people say well, I live in town.

[00:06:41] They don't use the convenience side, so it's non issue, but that's like sending your kid to private school, it's your option. You still gotta pay your taxes even when you do that.

[00:07:04] So, but my understanding is the convenience sites are going to be open to everybody. And what is the go live date on that?

[00:07:12] Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

[00:07:18] Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

[00:07:20] Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right.

[00:07:32] Jonathan Breeden: Correct.

[00:07:38] Jonathan Breeden: Right. Yeah. And the I know that there's kind of landlocked there at the one on Barbara mill, which is where I go and you don't have to have a decal even now for the listeners. If you want to recycle metals or TVs or computers or any like that. The recycling is included, you just can't drop off general waste and so that same day that they sent me to the dump [00:08:00] with the picture frames that they determined was general waste, I was able to drop off some cardboard boxes and some scrap metal that we did at my house.

[00:08:22] Ted Godwin: I think we're moving forward on that.

[00:08:41] You want to google about that? Because they need a new one and where do you want to put it? Nobody wants to landfill.

[00:08:47] Jonathan Breeden: No, we're very fortunate in Johnston County to have the landfill we have and the solid waste team we have and our convenience centers are nice. The people that work there are extremely helpful and the people at the dump, the few times I've been there have been [00:09:00] very helpful too.

[00:09:12] I always talk about what a good job I think Rick Hester has done as the county manager. We had Adrian O'Neill on a few weeks ago with the Parks department and you know, bringing him on and everything he's trying to do I think has been really good.

[00:09:34] Ted Godwin: More than 300 million.

[00:09:36] Ted Godwin: It's about 350 million this year. We lock dropped the tax rate by 4 cents because of the growth. It afforded us that opportunity to do that, and obviously it's the taxpayer's money and we have to be fiscally responsible with that money. But we've got a lot of things going on in such a growing county. We've just finished the I don't want to say jail the detention center .

[00:09:58] Ted Godwin: And it's a very nice facility [00:10:00] without being overboard, I cautioned them about that. We don't need to Taj Mahal, we just need something functional and efficient and appropriate.

[00:10:07] Ted Godwin: And we're fixing to go live with the 911 center being moved out to the public safety center adjacent to the detention center.

[00:10:28] Jonathan Breeden: Right.

[00:10:34] How do you slow growth? How do you stop growth?

[00:10:37] Ted Godwin: I grew up here. I used to play baseball at the old Cleveland high school here when there was nothing around there. So I've seen a big change, I would love to see it change back to what it was. That'll never happen, I'd love to see growth slow down.

[00:10:59] Jonathan Breeden: Right?

[00:11:08] Jonathan Breeden: Right.

[00:11:12] Jonathan Breeden: Correct.

[00:11:17] Jonathan Breeden: Right.

[00:11:46] Jonathan Breeden: Right.

[00:11:52] Jonathan Breeden: Right. No you're absolutely right. And I think people, you know, being a lawyer and knowing how these ordinances [00:12:00] work and how zoning works, you know, if somebody comes up with a plan and it meets the zoning and the ordinance requirements. You can't really vote it down or they're going to sue you.

[00:12:12] Jonathan Breeden: And they're going to win. Go after town of Smithfield about that, I mean, they have been sued multiple times in the last couple of years and they have lost every single time and it's spent a lot of money of the Smithfield citizens taxes, defending lawsuits where they lost. The last one they lost was over whether there could be an RV park on the backside of the outlets that backed up to a neighborhood over near Triple S High school.

[00:12:54] And to me, that's a good thing. I mean, I'm glad people want to live here and I think the [00:13:00] Commissioners and the citizens of this county have made it a place where people do want to live.

[00:13:14] Since 1999, the county has experienced eight upgrades in our bond rating. Why is that important? We borrow a lot of money because we build a lot of schools because of the growth. And when you borrow money, that triple A bond rating is important. We've saved millions and millions of dollars in interest costs because of that bond rating.

[00:13:32] Ted Godwin: And the most recent one we put forward for the school system was, I think it was 20 or 30 million that, I mean, that we sold. And we got that triple A bond rating finally.

[00:14:20] Ted Godwin: One of the things that has kept us from getting that in times past was one of the things that was really hard to change. The metric was the average family income in the county, and that's hard to change over a period of time. And through the efforts of our Economic Development Office, Chris Johnson has done a great job.

[00:14:38] Ted Godwin: And the Commissioner's creating a business friendly environment. Since 2014, 2015, we've added not millions, but billions of dollars in economic growth, jobs, high paying jobs. And there'll be more to come in the future. They haven't been announced yet, and that has really afforded us the opportunity to get that triple [00:15:00] bond rating

[00:15:17] And I worked with Chris Johnson and I think the commissioners put me on there cause I kept complaining about these tax kickbacks that they were giving, and I think the commissioners are like, well, you keep complaining about it, we'll put y'all there and let you actually learn and see who we're competing with and what we have to do.

[00:15:38] Ted Godwin: But people need to understand that we're not giving anything away. We're just reduced. Well, the competitive aspect requires that we do this. But when someone pays us a dollar in taxes and we give them back as part of this incentive 90 cent that first year Well, we're still getting 10 cent that we didn't have.

[00:15:57] Ted Godwin: And after a few years we'll be getting the whole dollar and keeping it. [00:16:00] So we're not giving away anything from the coffers, it's their own money.

[00:16:28] Ted Godwin: That's right.

[00:16:51] And they're talking about building another plant now that they're gonna maybe close that road where it goes through their Paltan [00:17:00] and be able to connect both sides of their thing. And they brought an entire line from Germany, I think there. So, that's a huge thing for Johnson County.

[00:17:22] Ted Godwin: And there's other things happening, not only in that hub around Clayton, but down towards Four Oaks and over, of course, in Selma. A lot of things are happening there, the Workforce Development Center that the commissioners helped bring into being 25 years ago has been wonderful as far as Grifols and Novo and the Pharmaceutical Campus is there.

[00:17:49] Jonathan Breeden: In Four Oaks, that's right. In the old Forbes bank buildings.

[00:17:59] Jonathan Breeden: Right. Okay.

[00:18:12] Jonathan Breeden: Right. I did. I had read about that. That's really good, and then they're building a bunch of new warehouse, flex space down around Benson right near I 95 and 40 that's coming there. We've got some brand new industrial flex space here, right here at 4042 on 42 that's just getting finished. That's gonna allow some small businesses that need flat industrial space to come here. And we're excited about that.

[00:18:59] Ted Godwin: Yeah, you're [00:19:00] talking about what they refer to as Class A office space. And that's correct. High end stuff.

[00:19:10] Places to live, retail below townhouses above maybe a 10 story building. We'll see if they stick with that. But I mean, it's going to be, I don't know, I'm excited, I find this fascinating. I know a lot of people like this, all this growth, like jobs and investment and giving places for our citizens to work. I think it's great.

[00:19:51] Jonathan Breeden: Well, right. Cause we have the two of the biggest interstates in the entire country intersect right here in Benson. And then we're getting this new [00:20:00] interstate 42 that they'll be building over the next 20 or 30 years. And that's going to add economic development too, because it's going to make it easier to get products from the ports into the center of the state and those are going to come through Johnston County.

[00:20:26] Jonathan Breeden: Right. No that's excellent.

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Let's talk a little bit about the park. If you listen to the episode with Adrian O'Neill, the County Parks and Rec Director the County has purchased this land here at Polenta and Government Road to build the Cleveland Community Park, or it's going to be the first County Park.

[00:20:58] Ted Godwin: That's a good question. And I [00:21:00] guess it depends on how you approach it and what you get developed to start with. Obviously, we're not going to put anything out there like a Shrek the first year, but something that would in our studies with the feedback we've gotten from the input of citizens, the passive recreation that you would see in a park, walking trails things for kids to do and that sort of type of thing.

[00:21:33] Jonathan Breeden: Right.

[00:21:40] And of course, our people do a good job of meshing that need into the other needs that we have and prioritize them in and pacing those bond offerings in line with our repayment schedule so that we retain a solid financial footing.

[00:21:59] Ted Godwin: [00:22:00] That's right.

[00:22:10] Ted Godwin: I'm not sure. The commissioners hadn't made that decision yet. There's been a lot of requests having to do with not only school needs, but JCC, the college needs, and we're looking at all of that and again, trying to prioritize it within the financial framework that we're forced to deal with.

[00:22:38] Ted Godwin: I can't say that I support that because from what I understand, the cost to develop that land because of the nature of the soil would be prohibitive. I'm not against him getting a Clayton campus. I think the college does a great job and can do a better job offering what kids need to get ahead in life. Not everybody needs a four year college. [00:23:00] Experience. And I've seen from my own family, you know, I had a nephew that graduated second in his class in high school, got a scholarship, full ride when he got out with a chemical degree, he needed to want to go to work at Grifols. Well, he needed to go to JCC to get a lab certificate.

[00:23:39] And the clean suits they wear, I mean, they look like astronauts and they have to go through air chambers and all that because they're making injectables that are in IV bags that and it has to be completely clean cause you don't want anything to get into those IV bags that gets injected into you, and that's one of the programs that they offer there at the workforce development center in Clayton.

[00:24:16] I mean, so they really, and they're always looking to hire people. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking about changing careers, think about going and calling JCC and looking about getting into bio works. So you don't know if there'll be a parks bond in 2024.

[00:24:30] Jonathan Breeden: There's other parks needs other than this one. There's the mountains to the sea trail, there's stuff like that. But I was just curious because I've never seen to get a straight answers. I talked to commissioners is where we have it this year or not.

[00:24:58] For example, the [00:25:00] open space fund that he talked about, how will that be impacted by our land use plan when we adjust those ordinances? I don't know if that'll stimulate that or slow it down. All of that would factor into the money's available that we've been used to having available. But to get to that point, I think we're going to have some type of bond issue, but it may need to be broader than just there in Cleveland.

[00:25:28] Jonathan Breeden: What about going back to the sort of fire tax type plan that got promoted a few years ago? You were on the board when they had the meetings out here at Cleveland high school where they were going to create a 4 cent tax for the Cleveland township out here.

[00:26:03] Ted Godwin: Yeah, we got some good feedback from that meeting and I was in favor of going forward and allowing the citizens to vote on that.

[00:26:10] Ted Godwin: People in that area wanted to vote on it and experienced that tax increase and experienced the Park. Great. I was all for that. I wasn't necessarily in favor of us arbitrarily putting it in place when I knew there was a lot of opposition against it.

[00:26:35] I'm happy that Michael Naught and Denton Lee and Scott James, you know, bought that land as private citizens and sort of held it till the county could get the grants and buy it. You know, we're very fortunate. I've talked about being on the first call, I went to Rick Hester's office and him and I called the lady that owned the land.

[00:26:50] Jonathan Breeden: Because she was trying to give the county the 13 acres across the street.

[00:26:53] Jonathan Breeden: And I'd been out there to look at it and Rick had been out there to look at it. We were like, it's not level and it's full of stomps [00:27:00] but we knew she had the other one. And I was like, and I just asked her would you be willing to consider selling us the 80 acres on this side of the street?

[00:27:29] Ted Godwin: And I think it's a good starting point that may duplicate itself in other parts of the county because there's a lot of other parts that are growing.

[00:27:52] Ted Godwin: Well, I'd really like to see, you know, we've worked hard on this land use plan. And while I understand having been a banker, I understand the [00:28:00] need for growth. But also grew up here and I'd sure like to see it preserved as much as possible. But I'd like to see that land use plan really come to fruition through some good solid meaningful, I don't know how to say it best but managed growth.

[00:28:15] Ted Godwin: You know some people say when you say managed growth that translates into stopping growth.

[00:28:21] Ted Godwin: But I think there's ways that we can compromise and bring about a suitable end that everybody can live with good and feel good about it.

[00:28:39] What do you love most about Johnston County?

[00:28:58] Jonathan Breeden: Right?

[00:29:08] Jonathan Breeden: Well, that's awesome. So if people want to learn more about you and I guess your campaign, how do they reach out to you?

[00:29:23] Jonathan Breeden: Well, that's cool. All right. Well, thank Ted Godwin for coming in and being our guest today on the best of Johnson County podcast.

[00:29:47] So that you'll be aware of future episodes of the best of Johnston County podcast. There are new episodes are put up every Monday. So every Monday, come back and look and see which guests we have that week.

That's the end of today's episode of Best of Johnston County, a show brought to you by the trusted team at Breeden Law Office. We thank you for joining us today and we look forward to sharing more interesting facets of this community next week. Every story, every viewpoint adds another thread to the rich tapestry of Johnston County. If the legal aspects highlighted raised some questions, help is just around the corner at www. breedenfirm. com.