Accomplishments
Sally Greene:
2021 Outstanding County Commissioner
North Carolina Association of County Commissioners
I am proud to be one of five commissioners to receive the 2021 Outstanding County Commissioner Award. The other awardees were: Ronnie Smith, Martin County; Reece Pyrtle, Rockingham County; Johnnie Carswell, Burke County; and Jasmine Beach-Ferrara; Buncombe County.
The award recognizes our work on a landmark agreement that will direct 80-85% of North Carolina’s share of the national opioid settlement directly to counties for use in treatment and mitigation programs.
The $26 billion settlement is with drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and three companies that distributed opioid painkillers, even as addiction and overdose deaths skyrocketed.
Orange County’s share of the settlement fund, which will be disbursed over a period of 18 years, will help build the support systems and partnerships needed.
Orange County is well positioned to provide immediate benefit to people in need by enhancing its existing programs, including work by our Criminal Justice Resource Department and Sheriff’s Office in pre-arrest diversion and medication-assisted treatment for people in detention.
I am grateful for the recognition that counties are in the best position to create and administer the programs necessary to confront the cruel and deadly opioid epidemic head-on.
During my first term in office, I helped Orange County meet the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 demanded unprecedented responses from all of us. Orange County responded with urgency and flexibility to provide what residents need.
I am very proud of the work Orange County has done together with the town governments of Chapel Hill and Hillsborough during this emergency. Through our collaboration we have succeeded in:
- Coordinating public health mandates and services
- Allocating more than $100,000 to prepare and distribute meals
- Providing $643,000 in emergency small business loans and grants and $150,000 in grants to individual artists and arts organizations
- Granting over $8 million in rental and utility assistance to families at risk of losing their housing
The Orange County government will continue to provide services to help our community recover from the economic repercussions of COVID-19.
The Orange County Commission also made significant progress on many other critical community priorities.
During this term I have helped push forward policy and funding measures for projects that benefit our residents. Some highlights include:
- Recruiting five businesses, creating 1,300 jobs at salaries averaging $41,000to $71,000
- Partnering on new housing with Habitat, CASA, EmPowerment, Community Home Trust
- Establishing a re-entry council, a street outreach, harm reduction and deflection program, and more, as collaboration between criminal justice and housing work
- Beginning cooperative planning to address persistent school maintenance needs
- Funding initial design for stand-alone behavioral health facility
- Leveraging $669,000 in county funds to purchase $1.7 million in easements, adding more than 700 acres to permanently preserved land
- Adding links toward completing the Mountains-to-Sea Trail
- Creating a permanent space in which our thriving arts community can work and engage with the community
- Committing to establish major branch library in Carrboro
My service on local and regional committees puts me in touch with what people need and fosters collaborative problem solving.
As a County Commissioner, I am part of multiple groups that either provide focus for specific county issues or promote mutually beneficial planning among the local governments in our region.
- Co-chair, Transit Policy Steering Committee
- Co-chair, Orange County Broadband Task Force
- Chair, Area Agency on Aging, Advisory Council on Aging
- Delegate, Triangle J Council of Governments
- Delegate, North Carolina Association of County Commissioners
- Board member, Piedmont Food Processing Center
- Board member, Upper Neuse River Basin Association
- Member, Orange County HOME Consortium and Local Governmental Housing Collaborative
- Member, Orange County Food Council
- Member, Orange County Reentry Council
Past appointments:
- Chair, Justice Advisory Council
- Board member, Community Home Trust
- Board member, Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau
- Board member, Triangle Area Rural Planning Organization
- Member, Family Success Alliance
- Member, Partnership to End Homelessness
