The highlights of this week include a council meeting and several events.

Monday afternoon I met with staff to go other the agenda for Thursday’s regularly scheduled council meeting. The meeting seemed straight forward with the exception of the Russell Hills issue. There is a rezoning and a Land Development Ordinance amendment both dealing with Russell Hills. The amendment needs to be in place before the zoning which will mean we will need to move that specific amendment forward before the rest of the amendments.

Monday night I met with the Wake County mayors. All were in attendance except Dick Sears of Holly Springs and Harold Broadwell of Wendell. The meeting started with a presentation from Wake County staff and consultants in charge of doing the census. They wanted the mayors to be involved in promoting the census and asked if we would each to a Public Service Announcement. All mayors agreed since an accurate census could mean an extra congressional seat and more federal dollars returned to this area. After dinner the mayors discussed a wide range of topics. One topic that got a lot of discussion was the equity formula with CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization). I believe this will be discussed at the next CAMPO meeting.

Tuesday evening I met with town manager Ben Shivar. We talked about a couple of issues including a legal issue that we will be dealing with in the near and long terms. We also discussed the need to start planning for the staff/council retreat to be held in January.

Tuesday night was a work session on the town’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance and the Transportation Development Fees. The purpose of the work session was to look at potential changes to the ordinance to make it more equitable. For example, a development does not have to mitigate traffic created unless the road is at a level of service D. This means that development coming in before the level of service degrades to D doesn’t contribute. The other side of this argument is that development at a new site takes more risk and the current policy creates a minor incentive. Another issue we looked at was considering exempting schools from fees. While this sounds like a good idea it would create all kinds of legal issues. That is, the school is an institution so other institutions would challenge to be treated the same (churches, synagogues, mosques, etc). Additional challenges could be made by non-profits and so on and so on. Anyway, it appears exempting schools from the Adequate Public Facilities is not a responsible thing to do. Other outcomes of the work session included asking staff to come back with more information. One item of particular interest to me was the payoff of development costs to the town. That is, if the current development fees for a single family home cover just over 50% of the cost of development, then how long would it take to cover the rest of the cost with the tax base generated from the development? I can’t wait to see the answer to that.

Wednesday night I attended the Cary Chamber of Commerce’s Business After Hours event. I talked to several business owners and the general feeling is that the economy is starting to turn around. I was only able to stay a couple of hours so I didn’t get to talk to as many people as I would have liked. However, I was able to talk to a former board member of the chamber who expressed displeasure at my lack of attendance at these events. I explained that most of these events are on council meeting nights but committed to attending whenever possible. The next Business After Hours is scheduled for November 19^th which is not a council meeting night so I should be able to attend. I hope to see you there.

Thursday started with an evening event to recognize the outgoing members of the town’s boards and commissions. I mingled and talked with several of the outgoing members. All of the ones I talked with enjoyed their service and several are looking for other opportunities to serve.

Following this event I met with two Boy Scout troops from 244 and 152. There were there completing requirements for a Citizenship in the Community merit badge. I explained in detail what was going to happen in the meeting that night. I also explained my duties as mayor. I then answered questions. During the meeting I recognized the scouts.

Thursday night was the regularly scheduled council meeting. While our main Public Hearing for the night was whether or not to keep Russell Hills in the Town Center Area Plan, there were several people who spoke against new rules for small daycares that were proposed in the next round of Land Development Ordinance amendments. These amendments will be reviewed by our Planning and Zoning board and have plenty of opportunity for citizen reviews.

Sunday afternoon I attended a scholarship ceremony at NC State with my cousin Lisa Bond (daughter of former Mayor Fred Bond). There is a million dollar endowment in his name and we met and talked with the scholarship winners.

Sunday night I attended an award ceremony for my daughter’s tennis team. It was nice to finish out the week doing something with my family.

Emails this week included concerns about the US64 corridor, sign ordinance changes, Russell Hills, Cameron Pond, road crew encroachment on property, and a complaint about my lack of attendance at a US64 community meeting on Thursday (I explained that I was honoring prior commitments to other meetings - explained above).

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, November 1^st. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

The highlights of this week included several private meetings, a work session, appearances, and events.

Monday evening I met with representatives from the SAVE64 group. They are concerned that US64 will be converted to a superhighway between US1 and US55. This is probably not a good solution since roughly 2000 people live in that area. This is a congested area that should be bypassed. One solution to bypass this area would use a future section of I540 as the bypass portion of US64. I promised these SAVE64 representatives regular meetings with myself, town manager, and staff to keep them informed of our meetings with NCDOT.

The second meeting Monday evening was with a citizen concerned with the town’s presentation of information about Dorothy Park. I promised to relay the information to the town manager.

Tuesday’s regular meeting with the town manager covered several minor topics with updates before I headed to a work session on the budget.

Tuesday’s budget work session was to review all approved capital projects and projections of tax rates. It is clear that if we progress with approved capital projects as scheduled then a tax increase would eventually be needed. Even if we delay projects we might need a tax increase in the future. Our cuts in operating expenses over the last two years have resulted in 29 positions not being filled. This is putting a strain on staff to maintain the levels of service that our citizens expect. How did we get in this position? In my humble opinion, we haven’t been paying for needed infrastructure adequately over the last couple of decades. Let me explain. During the last twenty years we approved bonds for major capital projects without appropriately paying for them. Even though we had taxing approval given with the voter approval of the bonds, we chose not to increase taxes. This basically deferred the expense of the capital project or took funds from other needed smaller capital projects. In addition to that, we have been subsidizing growth with development fees that were less than 10% of cost for years. The combination of these two practices has resulted in millions of dollars in lost revenue that taxpayers had to bear or will be expected to bear. Now we are in an unenviable position of fixing it. Thank goodness we have an excellent staff and a good group of council members.

Wednesday evening I met with the new owner of Waverly Place. Even though he is having a tough time moving forward because of the economy, he expressed interest in building an out parcel which is not part of the mixed use plan. This will allow him to move one of his tenants in preparation for the major renovation. Currently, his is planning three phases of construction. He hopes to start building the new Whole Foods after moving the small tenant to the out parcel.

Wednesday night I traveled to Apex to join in the grand opening celebration of council member Portman’s new offices. He has a successful business that is now based in Apex and in Costa Rica.

Thursday, I wrote and submitted the first draft of the November Cary Matters. The main topic for November will be the town’s new website and my co-host will be Jack Smith.

Thursday evening I met with a developer and his representative on a proposed amendment to the Carpenter Land Use Plan. Because his parcels are between a narrow strip between railroad tracks and highway 55, he wants to reduce the width of the buffer.

Thursday night I met with the staff to prepare for the potential appointment of a new council member if Gale Adcock were appointed to the legislature. More about that later.

Saturday was a busy day. I woke up around 5 AM (I normally wake up around 5 to 5:15 on work days), so that I could prepare comments to nominate Gale Adcock for House seat 41 and so I could prepare for the Kids Voting forum in Raleigh later in the day.

My first event Saturday was at the West Wake farmers market at Carpenter Village. It was a wonderful visit and if you haven’t been there you need to check it out. This farmer’s market is unique in that it is run by volunteers instead of vendors. In addition, their focus is on education and good food with no preservatives.

I left the farmers market and headed to Green Hope High School for the nomination process to fill the seat vacated by Ty Harrell in NC House 41. It started with several candidates (around 6 or 7). I gave a nominating speech for Gale Adcock. Also in attendance to show support for Gale were Mayor Pro-Tem Robison and council member Portman. After several rounds of votes the final two nominees were Gale Adcock and Chris Heagarty. Heagarty won by a 16-13 vote in the final round. The Democratic Party will need to help Heagarty gain name recognition and raise a lot of money since this seat promises to be the most contested seat in the House next year.

After leaving Green Hope High School I headed to the NC Museum of History in Raleigh for the Kids Voting forum. Joining me as panelists were Mayor Williams of Garner, Council member Gossage of Apex, Council member Baldwin of Raleigh, and town manager Whitson from Morrisville. This was a fun forum with lots of interesting questions. Unfortunately there were not a lot of kids in the audience. I suspect they were at the fair. Nevertheless, it was taped and will be sent to schools and will be on line for viewing.

One interesting point in talking to Gossage before the forum; he asked who was nominated for NC House seat 41 and I told him Heagarty. His first response was “Who?”. I explained that Mr. Heagarty worked a great deal with the legislature for the NC Center for Voter Education. Mr. Gossage then said this probably made his decision to run a little easier. Mr. Gossage lost to Ty Harrell in the last election for NC House 41.

Emails this week included complaints about the Cary Tennis Center, our Bio Solids (from the same gentleman as before), the Wake/Chatham water supply, and the future Walker Street extension project.

This was a good week for compliments. I received appreciation for helping the SAVE64 group, for playing the tennis match against Ms. James, and for helping with the Pancreatic Cancer proclamation.

I also received a few lobbying emails for and against the proposed rezoning for Russell Hills.

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, October 25^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This election season has involved me in several races even though my intention was to remain uninvolved. I kept out of the District C race and received a lot of criticism in doing so. Some people made it very clear that they are angry with my strategy and even called me spineless. My intention in that race was to show respect for both candidates and let issues carry the day.

Now I am receiving similar criticism for staying out of the District A race. What’s even more troublesome is that I respect the incumbent, have a good working relationship with her, and she is running against a friend of mine. Thus the conundrum. In addition, my friend has a campaign team made up of many of my former campaign team members.

Please know that the following is from the heart. I am sure it will bring much criticism and is probably politically incorrect but it is truly what I feel.

I have known Lori for many years. I know her to be honest and trustworthy. In fact, I would trust her with my life. She is one of the sweetest, kindest, most sincere people that I have ever met (and her mother is a real sweetheart too). Lori is extremely intelligent and a very hard worker. Through her actions over the past 12 years she has demonstrated her commitment to her community and well beyond. In addition to serving on Cary’s Planning and Zoning Board, she has been a member or chair of multiple other town committees and task forces, and her volunteer work extends well beyond the borders of our town. Do I think she is qualified to serve on town council? Absolutely! Do I think she could do a good job? I think she would do a fantastic job and I would love to serve on a council with her!

So does this mean I dislike Jennifer? No it does not. I respect Jennifer and her opinions. I realize that the words I have written above might be interpreted as a personal insult to Jennifer but that is definitely not the intention. I also realize that my words risk our working relationship on council but I hope that is not the case and am confident Jennifer and I can rise above that. We both know that a council must always work together if they are to be effective no matter what their opinions or who they support.

I realized what I have shared may cause people to be angry with me. But I promised when I was elected to be open and honest and that is exactly what I am doing with this post.

This week was election week and included a council meeting and several events.

Monday started with an agenda week since a regularly scheduled council meeting was on Thursday. At the time I met with staff I was unsure of the Cameron Pond revegetation plan. There was a lot of work done during the week on all sides to get this in shape to be approved on Thursday night.

After the agenda meeting on I met with the town attorney on several issues. While I would love to discuss these issues, of course I can’t. I can tell you that the town is in great shape in terms of legal representation.

Tuesday I had a regularly scheduled meeting with the town manager. He only had two items of interest which he wanted to convey. Our meeting was brief and there was no crucial content discussed.

Thursday before the council meeting I had a phone interview with Lisa Clifton of Sports Travel Magazine. She was interested in the town’s upcoming table tennis championship. I pointed out the many sports venues and NCAA championships that are held in Cary. I also expressed that I believe we are becoming the amateur sports Mecca of the Southeast.

Thursday evening was the regularly scheduled biweekly council meeting. The main topic was the Cameron Pond revegetation plan and subdivision plan amendment. These were both approved after many weeks/months of negotiation with developers and citizens. While it will not meet the wishes of the residents to have what they had in the buffer returned, I believe it will provide a good screen for the neighborhood within three years. I also believe this will help the neighborhood move forward. Council member Adcock also made a motion (which was approved) for staff look into raising the priority of the town park adjacent to Cameron Pond.

Friday I attended a meet and greet for Gale Adcock to be appointed to the NC Legislature in Ty Harrell’s seat. I made a few comments on Gale’s behalf. While I think she would be an outstanding state legislator, I know she will leave a huge hole on our council. It will be tough finding a replacement for her. I wish her the best in this pursuit.

Friday night I attended the Carolina Hurricanes game with the Mayor’s Association. I spent most of the evening in conversation with mayors and their staffs about various topics. It was a great game for the Canes as I was witness to a 7-2 thumping.

Saturday morning I prepared for my tennis match against Kristen James to promote the opening of Cary’s Championship ladder. We started play around noon and finished close to 2 PM. There were a lot of deuce games and a lot of long points. If I could have gotten points for moving her around on the court and making her tired then I might have won. But alas, as consistent as I am I couldn’t hold off such a strong opponent. Although I wish the score reflected the closeness of the competition, I am still proud to be able to hang with someone less than half my age. I congratulate Ms. James on a convincing 6-3, 6-1 victory. She proved why she was all ACC and she held a national ranking.

Saturday evening I attended the 9^th annual Diwali festival at Booth Amphitheater. I was honored to be named to their 10^th Diwali festival board. I then gave a few words of thanks to the crowd before touring exhibits and enjoying a wonderful dinner. The entertainment for the evening was India’s Idol (like American Idol). Although, I couldn’t understand a word he sang he was a great performer and everyone seemed to enjoy the show.

Emails for the week included a complaint about Pulte homes in the McCrimmon at the Park Community. The complainant wanted to emphasize how the town employees and town council were worthless. She made sure not to hold back any insults. I responded and respectfully told her that I believed our staff is one of the best in the state.

Other emails included Cameron Pond, the US64 Corridor Study, complaints about Dorothy Park, and complaints about school reassignment.

Other key events for the week included the election of town council members. I am glad to see Julie and Jack re-elected and I look forward to working with them. At the time of this writing it is unclear whether or not Mrs. Robinson will be in a runoff with Mrs. Lori Bush. I wish the best to both of them and hope the best candidate wins.

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, October 18^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This week I attended several events and even became part of an unfortunate event.

Monday I attended the Rob Thomas concert. I had blocked this day on my calendar long ago so that I could attend the concert. All three bands, Carolina Liar, One Republic, and Rob Thomas were excellent. This was one of the top shows of all time for me at the Booth Amphitheater. Because the show was interrupted by a thunderstorm it was allowed to continue 15 minutes past the curfew.

Tuesday’s only scheduled meeting was with the town manager. We discussed several minor issues which took about half an hour. I left thinking about having the rest of the evening to catch up on things. While sitting at a red light on Old Apex Road someone ran into the back of my new Hyundai Santa Fe. What followed was about 48 hours of nightmare issues with both insurance companies most of which have now been resolved. I hope to get me car back within a couple of weeks. Although I was a little sore after the accident I feel fine now.

Wednesday I attended the Triangle Expressway (I540) thank you reception in RTP. It was a who’s who in elected leadership and transportation state and local representatives. A lot of people sacrificed a lot of time and effort to get this link of I540 started. Research Triangle even reserved several acres for about 50 years for this expressway. That foresight certainly saved the taxpayers lots of money. That’s what I call vision.

Saturday I attended the Memory Walk hosted by the Alzheimer’s Association held at the Booth Amphitheater. This Eastern North Carolina Chapter is the largest in the nation and they expected about 2000 people for the event. This was their largest fundraiser of the year. My role was to say a few words and read a proclamation. I was honored to be there and participate along with Debra Morgan from WRAL.

After the Memory Walk I headed over to Bond Park for the celebration held for the litter sweep volunteers. They picked up 60 bags of trash from 8 am to 11 am. God Bless them! I had planned to pick up (as I did in the spring) but had committed to the Memory Walk.  Some of the areas included in this litter sweep included Black Creek, Cary Parkway, and US1. The most interesting things picked up were a laptop, a cell phone, and a pair of pink sneakers. The most common items: 499 cigarette butts, 345 wrappers, 173 plastic bottles, 124 caps and lids, 79 plastic bags, and 72 toys. We estimated about 20 groups participated in this sweep. I hope you will become part of the town’s SPRUCE volunteers as we work to build an army to keep Cary clean and green.

Sunday I headed to Wake Forest for the grand opening of the E. Carroll Joyner Park. This is a huge park of about 150 acres. It includes three miles of walking trails, an amphitheater, a performance garden, and a pecan grove. Mayor Jones was very proud as well she should be. It will be a fantastic amenity for their community.

Emails this week included complaints about election signs, the vegetation plan at Cameron Pond, potential school nodes reassignments, legalizing backyard hens, and our Bio Solids program at the Sewer plants being a waste of money.

One note as we move into next week. I will be preparing for my tennis showdown with one of the top lady tennis players in the area. The challenge match will be at high noon at the Cary Tennis Park on Saturday, October 10th. While this might not be the battle of the sexes that we saw with Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs I hope it will be an entertaining match. I will be playing a former University of Virginia player that is currently listed as a 5.0 player. Wish me luck ‘cause I’ll need it. Or better yet, come and watch! I might not have a world class game but I have been told that I have a world class tennis grunt.

Well that is about it for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, October 11^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.