This week was a holiday week and I only had a meeting with interim town manager Ben Shivar. So I will use this post to assess my goals for 2008.  

I started 2008 with 5 main areas of focus: Citizen Involvement, Growth, Roads, Schools, and Environment.  

The following were goals for improving citizen involvement in 2008: 

Citizen Involvement:

·         Create Mayor’s Blog:

o        Post once a week

o        Focus on what has been done during the last week

·         Create Town Hall Broadcast called Cary Matters:

o        15 minute show once a month

o        Two members of council

o        One big topic

o        Answer citizen questions submitted during the last month

o        Focus only on future

·         Create task force to define process for citizen issue advisory groups

o        One member per council member

o        30 to 90 days to define process

·         Redefine board and commission appointment process

·         Redefine Development Process to allow more citizen input

o        Mixed Use Overlay

o        Rezoning

·         Create additional technology initiatives:

o        Streaming videos for town council and Planning and Zoning board meetings

o        Create a new video to show on Cary TV explaining the new development process

o        Review other ways to notify citizens of rezonings, public hearings, etc,  like automated calls

·         Review Public Safety issues for future action

o        Cary EMS

o        Crime

o        School Resource Officers 

I am pleased with what we were able to accomplish in this area. I have posted weekly on my blog throughout the year. In addition, council member Don Frantz has posted often during the year. The Cary Matters on Cary TV has been moderately successful and even received an honorable mention in an award ceremony. Citizen Issue Advisory Groups became available to citizens in October. The process for appointing boards and commission members has been overhauled and everything is now available for public viewing. The development process for the mixed use overlay has been changed to allow more public hearings and public involvement. Currently there isn’t interest on council to change the rezoning process. Additional technologies are currently being reviewed by staff and the Information Services Advisory Board and expect new initiatives during this year. While I believe we have increased our involvement with the public regarding crime there hasn’t been a majority’s  interest on council to add School Resource Officers in elementary schools or to change or relationship with Cary EMS by providing financial support. 

The following were goals for Growth in 2008: 

Growth:

·         Review Development Fees and adjust accordingly

o        2 zones for development fees: inside and outside the Maynard Loop

o        Increase Transportation Fees 25%

o        Increase Water/Sewer Fees

·         Strengthen Roads Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance

·         Create incentives for certain types of growth inside Maynard Loop. For instance, free WIFI.

·         Adjust staff presentations on Land Use Plans changes and rezoning changes to include:

o        Additional trips

o        Additional school children

o        Additional fire, police, and utility personnel

o        Additional water/sewer needs

·         Review and change Mixed Use Overlay Plan 

The council decided to only have two zones of development fees. Development fees outside the Maynard Loop changed to 75% of cost to take away most of the taxpayer burden of paying for growth. Inside the Maynard Loop lower development fees remain to encourage redevelopment and revitalization. The Downtown streetscape project along with the renovation of the Old Cary Elementary building should help in the revitalization effort. I believe downtown redevelopment is the next frontier of Cary’s growth.  

The following were goals for Roads in 2008:

Roads:

• Update Comprehensive Road Plan
• Review roads Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance
• Review Traffic Management system to increase efficiency
• Implement changes so that the Computerized Traffic signs are used.
• Review and adjust town’s road maintenance plan.
  • Increase amount budgeted
  • Re-prioritize maintenance
  • Create on-line reporting for potholes and other road problems with a 48 hour response  

Cary’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan was changed this year and can be viewed at http://www.townofcary.org/depts/dsdept/engineering/transportationplan/2008ctpdraftplan/tableofcontents-pdf.htm . Our traffic management system is fully operational including fully functional traffic cams and dynamic message signs. Hopefully, this year we can make progress with signal timing and have better use of the dynamic message signs. Road maintenance was a significant item on this year’s budget with over $2.3 million being spent not including the $8 million being spent on Cary Parkway improvements. 

The following were goals for Schools in 2008: 

Schools:

• Represent citizens with school concerns
• Engage school board members on partnering opportunities
  • Land banking
  • Partnering on park resources
  • Sharing of growth information
• Work to gather county wide support for Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance
• Create citizens issue advisory group for additional solutions to help schools  

Schools continue to be a major concern with Cary citizens and with the council. In 2008 the council met with the school board as a whole twice. We also partnered with the school board on park sites at schools. We continue with our land banking program. In our legislative agenda in 2008 we asked for at-large election of school board members and a funding source such as an APF for schools.  

The following were goals for the Environment in 2008: 

Environmental:

• Propose an Environment Board citizen advisory group
  • Water conservation
  • Green building practices
    • Warm season grasses
    • Solar panels
• Make Cary one of the “Cools Cities”
• Consider making Cary’s fleet more green (maybe hybrid)  

Cary made a lot of progress in becoming environmentally friendly. In fact, we were presented an award from the Sierra Club. In 2008 we implemented a turf buy back program and a toilet rebate program saving millions of gallons of water. We approved putting solar panels on a water treatment facility to save electricity. Cary became a “cool” city this year. One of the biggest accomplishments was creating a permanent environmental advisory board of expert citizens to help us work towards being a greener Cary. 

This will be my last post for 2008 and I will hopefully post again by Sunday, January 4^th. I hope to be posting on a new web site with new features by that time. Have a Happy New Year and a wonderful holiday season.

This week was mostly made up of holiday events with only a couple of meetings sprinkled in.

Monday evening was the annual holiday party given by the Mayor’s Association at the Capital City Club. Each municipality in Wake County was represented along with county commissioners. I had the honor of introducing my wife Belinda, council member Jennifer Robinson, council member Jack Smith and his wife Bridgette, our town clerk Sue Rowland, and our interim town manager Ben Shivar. A good time was had by all. I will be acting as treasurer of the mayor’s association during this next year and will be honored with serving as president after that.

Tuesday I had my weekly meeting with interim town manager Ben Shivar. We discussed several issues and talked briefly about the annual council/staff retreat in January. At 5:30 I taped the January episode of Cary Matters with council member Don Frantz. I think it is our best episode yet. BTW, we received an honorable mention for Cary Matters in a recent national award.

There were no meetings scheduled Wednesday so I only had to stop by and sign a few documents at town hall. I can’t remember if I have mentioned this before but the mayor has to sign all town documents. So I usually drop by town hall daily whether or not I have a meeting scheduled. I did have an impromptu meeting with the interim town manager to get updates on items we had discussed the previous day.

Thursday morning I hosted a meeting of the Wake Transit Leadership Team. This team is made up of mayors from Raleigh, Cary, and Wake Forest, council members from Raleigh and Cary, chamber representatives from the Raleigh and Cary, and representatives from Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO), Triangle Transit and RTA. We discussed proposals of how to implement the transportation plan presented by the STAC report of the CAMPO. We reviewed several options and narrowed them down to three. During the next few weeks we will present our suggestions to various groups for their feedback. David King of Triangle Transit will begin making presentations to various municipalities during the next few weeks. He will make a presentation to the Cary council at our next regularly scheduled council meeting on January 15^th. It is the intention of this group to make a presentation to the Wake County Legislative delegation after feedback has been received from various stake holders.

After the Wake Transit Leadership meeting I had a scheduled call to 93.9 for the Make a Wish Foundation. This is a wonderful cause that benefits children and families that are enduring a great deal of suffering as a result of sickness or disease. I was honored to be a brief part of this great cause.

Thursday was the annual holiday lunch for the administrators, clerks, legal staff, and directors. Cary is blessed to have such a wonderful group of dedicated individuals who care so much about making sure our lives are the best they can possibly be. This was a great lunch with tremendous food and fellowship and I was glad to be a part of it.

On Saturday night I had the pleasure to attend two Christmas parties. One that was hosted by council member Erv Portman and his wife Sue and another hosted by Vickie Maxwell and her husband Bill. I met and talked with a lot of people and saw people I hadn’t seen in a long while. It was a lot of fun.

Emails this week included a variety of topics such as C-Tran, cablevision rates, Habitat houses, development fees, easements, and schools.

Regarding schools, I spoke with school board members and school staff about reassignment issues and the Panther Creek modular units. The Panther Creek issue is still a problem that has to be worked out in the short term. Most of the reassignment discussion centered on high school nodes, specifically 383.3 and 383.4. School board member Goettee agreed to meet with Don Frantz and me at the beginning of the year to discuss these nodes.

Well, as you can tell I had a lot of events (and food) this week. I’ll close for now, work off some calories, and hopefully post again by Sunday, December 28^th. Have a Very Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season.

This week included council meetings with key decisions and a few interesting events.

Monday started with an agenda meeting with key members of staff to prepare for the December 11^th council meeting. After the agenda meeting I attended the Divan Cultural Festival in Cary where I was a key speaker. This was a group of Turkish Americans that were interested in Cary’s ideas on diversity. In addition, they were curious about popular topics of interest such as schools, roads, etc. I had a wonderful time. I had dinner, spoke for about 30 minutes and stayed to answer questions for about another hour. This event was attended by over a hundred people gathered mostly to celebrate the festival of sacrifice as part of their Muslim religion. They also expressed interest in doing more for the community.

Tuesday started with a very brief meeting with the interim town manager followed by a work session. Before the work session began the interim town manager gave us an update of our economic status. Cary continues to be in excellent financial shape. Nevertheless, we continue to be conservative and are making cuts wherever possible. One interesting point was that the town increased the general fund by over a million dollars due to smart investments by the finance department.

The work session centered on a proposal to submit to the county on why we would need $10 million in the Occupancy Tax generated by hotels and motels in the county. Keep in mind that Cary has given much more than it has received over the years. We have been promised to be put in front of the line for $10 million if we had a viable project. The top two proposals were to create a recreational and diving aquatics component to partner with the Triangle Aquatics Center or to make key improvements to the soccer complex, the USA baseball complex, and the tennis center. I preferred the sports venues because of their economic benefit. Since they were created they have generated an estimated $15.5 in economic benefit to the town. They are estimated to have an impact through 2011 of over $38 million in economic impact. The work session ended without clear direction because of the absence of one council member. We decided to make the decision at the council meeting with all council members present.

Wednesday I participated with the Food bank and ABC 11 on the food drive. We were located at the Kroger on SE Maynard. The goal was to raise two tons of food. Thanks to the generosity of Cary citizens they raised over 2 ½ tons of food for the food bank. As I have said many times, Cary is great because of the people that live here. This was just another example kind generous hearts that so many people in Cary have. I am proud to be mayor of such great citizens.

After the food bank event I attended a joint work session on the fly tower art that is proposed with the renovation of the Old Cary Elementary building. We decided during this year’s budget to include this $18 million renovation because the elementary building was close to major structural failure. As part of the project a new stage was to be built with the 399 seat auditorium. That auditorium includes a fly tower with was deemed to have artwork integrated into the exterior. The problem was that council never made a decision on whether or not they wanted artwork on this fly tower. So this meeting was to hear from our advisory board, the architects, and the artists on the proposed integrated art. The outcome of the work session was that majority of the council, including myself; felt that total artwork integration into the exterior of the fly tower was not desirable and that it should be integrated into only part of the exterior. We asked the architects and artists to come back with other options.

Thursday was the last council meeting of the year. It was interesting that so many people showed up to speak at Public Speaks out that we ran out of time (one hour time limit). Most of the people speaking were upset about the school reassignment especially two nodes in MacGregor. I tend to agree and have contacted school board members multiple times this week. The biggest debate and decision at the council meeting was on the Occupancy Tax. We decided to propose the sports venue improvements to the county to get $10 million in Occupancy Tax revenue. I will be making this personal plea to them in the near future.

Saturday I participated in the Annual Jaycees Christmas parade. It was fun riding in the parade and waving to people. Next year I think I will bring candy since that is what the kids want.

Sunday I met with a group of people answering the challenge of Barack Obama to make a difference in their community before January 20^th. There was about 30 or 40 people there and I made suggestions on everything from picking up litter to helping out with those that are less fortunate in the community. We will see where this group will end up.

Well, that is about all I have for this week. I’ll close for now and hopefully post again by Sunday, December 21^st.

This week consisted mostly of social events, ambassador events, and a few meetings.

Monday began with a regularly scheduled meeting with the town attorney. The purpose of these meetings is to make sure I have up to date information regarding town law suits. Although I can’t talk about the law suits I can say that the town is currently working on just a handful and I have the utmost confidence in our legal representation.

Monday evening I attended the annual meeting of the Wynston Ridge homeowners association. I stayed after the meeting to answer questions the attendees had about town affairs. Questions ranged from the timing of certain road improvements to questions about park facilities. There was also interest in the town’s economic status.

I only had a brief staff meeting on Tuesday so I took that opportunity to do a little Christmas shopping with my daughter Cara.

Wednesday was the town’s annual Employee’s luncheon. I greeted (shook hands) with 641 employees according to the Human Resource counter. Once everyone was seated I thanked the town staff for a great year and a job well done and wished them a happy holiday season. Cary is lucky to have employees that care about their jobs and the people that live in this town. I believe this is one of the main reasons Cary is such a great place to live.

Wednesday night I attended a reception for the NCAA College Cup. I gave a brief welcome to the members of the NCAA committee and the college cup committee. Cary has been designated as a “Championship City” by the NCAA. This means that Cary will host national championships until at least 2012. We share this pilot program title with St Louis, San Diego, San Antonio, Indianapolis, and Cleveland. This year was our sixth straight year of hosting the Division I national championship in soccer (we alternate men and women). We will host the men’s college cup in 2009 and the women’s again in 2010. Hopefully, we will become the regular home of the national championship in soccer. It is estimated that this event combined with a Capital Area Soccer League tournament created over $3 million in revenue for the local economy. We are also looking to host a national championship in lacrosse and in Division II baseball.

Thursday my wife and I had dinner with a big campaign supporter from last year. I really enjoyed seeing them and it is hard for me to believe that I have been in office a year already. I guess time flies when you are having fun.

Saturday I presented a proclamation to Dr. Gatwood who was the music director for the Cary Messiah for over 30 years. He brought joy to many citizens over the years with song and music. I was honored to recognize his accomplishment.

Saturday evening was the town’s official tree lighting ceremony. Steve Daniels of WTVD was the MC and I introduced our official tree lighter, Kay Yow, the legendary coach from NC State. We surprised Coach Yow by naming the gym in the Herb Young Center after her. She is truly an ambassador for Hope, Optimism, and Courage as she continues to battle cancer while living life to its fullest. God bless her and all she does.

Sunday evening I attended the Cary Messiah performance at Westwood Baptist Church; what an unbelievable performance. If you can’t get in the holiday spirit from listening to that performance then you might have a little Scrooge in you.

This week’s emails were dominated by citizens from Cary and Morrisville who are upset at Morrisville’s new Land Use and Transportation Plan which calls for much more dense development. There were various other emails including concerns about school reassignment.

Well, that is about all I have for this week. I’ll close for now and hopefully post again by Sunday, December 14^th.