This was a busy week that included banquets and a trip to Washington.

Monday started with the agenda meeting with staff about Thursday’s council meeting. We discussed information to prepare me for the presentations, Public Hearings and decision points. Due to the length of the agenda I predicted we would be there until about 10:30. We actually were done by 9:45.

Monday evening I did the March taping of Cary Matters with Mayor Pro-Tem Robison. The topics discussed were rail, red light cameras, and our sign ordinance. Mrs. Robison did a great job but I messed up a couple of times. We still were able to finish in about 45 minutes.

Tuesday began with a short meeting between the town manager and me. We discussed a couple of legal matters but nothing crucial.

My second event for Tuesday was the 2nd work session on Wayfinding. The council decided to approve the design development package, a prototype to go in front of the old Cary Elementary building, and proceeding with other sign mock-ups. The cost for implementing all phases of the Wayfinding signs will cost around $243,000 and will be implemented over a few years. The design will cost around $15,000. The money for initial phases and design has already been appropriated.

My last event for Tuesday was the annual Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources volunteer awards banquet. The Town of Cary is blessed to have so many volunteers. This year over 400 of them attended the awards banquet. These volunteers are one of the main reasons Cary is such a great place to live. I gave welcoming comments at the banquet and Bill Leslie of WRAL was the guest speaker. Bill and I both attend Cary Presbyterian and so I know him and his wife Cindy through church. It was good to have a friend speak to the volunteers. My comments were brief and were from the following talking points:

On behalf of the entire Cary Town Council and the 140,000 folks who call Cary home, it’s my pleasure to welcome you to the Annual Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources Department Volunteer Recognition Banquet.

Every year, I’m blown away at just how many of you are able to make it to this event and can’t tell you just how much we appreciate all of your hard work to help keep our parks, recreation, and cultural resources facilities and services the best in the state.

Each of you is truly a most valuable and precious resource.

From our youth sports, which are totally staffed with volunteer coaches, to our many special events, to monitoring Cary’s extensive greenway system, these activities are supported by you, and our community truly would be what it is today without you.

Nearly 80 volunteers comprise our eight citizen advisory boards and committees that work closely with staff in planning and reviewing national benchmarks.

From our teens to our seniors, each group is a force to be reckoned with, and each knows how to make just about any task fun, which I think should always be part of the volunteer experience.

I am personally fortunate to be able to look around this room and see so many familiar faces.  I see you at Town Hall, at meetings, at our events and know full well the contribution you’re making to Cary.

You truly are community leaders — eager to help, creative, spirited, and really first class.  You look for challenges and meet them head on, and I really respect you for your commitment.

So tonight, it’s my honor to honor you, to thank you, and to wish you the best as you continue in your service to our great hometown. God bless you all and the work you do for Cary.

Wednesday I awoke at 4:30 AM so that I could catch an early flight to Washington to present the federal agenda. I was accompanied by the town manager and the assistant to the town manager who works with our federal lobbyist, the Ferguson group. Once we arrived in Washington we met with the lobbyist to go over the game plan to meet with the NC Senators and the representatives for Cary. We started with Senator Burr’s office. Unfortunately, we were only able to meet with his director. We were however very well received. We next met with Congressman David Price. Congressman Price has brought federal dollars to Cary for years. His help is invaluable and he and two members of his staff discussed our issues in detail. I am very optimistic he will bring more dollars back this year. We then  met with Congressman Brad Miller. Congressman Miller works closely with Congressman Price and their staffs do amazing work for us. These two fine Congressman keep Cary well represented on the House side. Our last meeting of the day was with Senator Hagan. She was very gracious and kind. We talked about our federal agenda items and then about loans for businesses in Cary. I made the point that I believed Cary was in great position to lead the region out of the recession. Once the loans start to businesses then we should big changes in Cary. She and her staff mentioned that in the morning the Jobs Act was passed. That is a good step in the right direction. I also invited the Senator to Cary when she next visits the area. I hope she will take me up on it.

Probably the most interesting moment of the visit was between meetings. As we rounded a corner we were met with dozens and dozens of camera crews (I am guessing a 100). I have never seen so many crews and it was really strange having that many cameras pointed in my direction. Fortunately, they were not waiting for me but waiting for someone to come out of the hearing in the room I was passing. In case you haven’t figured it out, it was about the Toyota hearings.

Thursday started with a live interview on WRAL during the noon news. They wanted me to answer questions about my visit to Washington. Interviewing me was Bill Leslie, my friend from church and long time anchor at WRAL. Before we went on air I talked with Bill Leslie and Pam Saulsby as they prepared to go on air. I also talked with Renee Chou who covers Cary. One amusing comment was from Pam Saulsby was that she wanted her mayor on the show too. I told her that I had Meeker’s cell number and would give him a call. NOT! Anyway, they were a fun group and it is nice to visit WRAL’s studio.

Thursday night was a regularly scheduled council meeting. The biggest decisions were to expand the number of open house signs for realtors, limiting where adult businesses are allowed (mostly at the airport), and changing ethics guidelines to allow board and commission members to speak at public hearings. In the Public Speaks Out portion of the meeting there were several people from the Pro Life movement. They proceeded to graphically describe abortions to the council. Unfortunately, there were boy scouts and high school students in the audience that had to listen to them.

Friday morning I went to Cary Elementary to read to third graders in Mrs. Alexander’s class. They were a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed my visit. Other readers I saw were council member Frantz and School Board member Goldman. It is important that we take time out of our schedule to emphasize the importance of reading.

Saturday I ran the first 5K Road Race at Green Hope High School. They were taking me up on my fitness challenge. I ran the race in 24:45 which is a little less than an eight minute mile which is much less than my glory days of 6:45 per mile. Since I was told last August to give up running by the orthopedic doctors I was really worried about my knees after the race. Well, it is Sunday night and the right knee is still sore and stiff. Other than that I am as good as new. I really miss running but have been substituting swimming and elliptical machines in its place.

Saturday night I attended the Police Benevolent Association’s Officer of the Year banquet and fundraiser. It was an honor to meet so many of our great public servants in political office and in law enforcement. I was especially glad to be able to say a few words with retired Cary officer George Almond who was seriously injured in the line of duty. Congratulations to the finalists Officer Robert Tonietto, Officer Keith McKenna, Officer Glenn Mitchell, Corporal Jeff Huser, and Detective Mike Lindley. A funny part of the evening for me was when I won a bike in the door prizes. The problem was that the bike was only about a foot and a half high. Anyway, I road it down the hall of Embassy Suites. I think someone got it on film so you might see it on U-Tube.

I was notified of this week that Cary received two distinctions. First, Cary received the 2009 Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging achievement award (see http://www.epa.gov/aging ). Second, Cary was recognized as the 25^th wealthiest center in the United States.

There was a public records request this week for Cary’s email list. Unfortunately, we have to provide that email list because of public records laws. I can promise you that I will do everything in my power to make sure our state legislative agenda will include an item not have to disclose email addresses. But till then we are stuck.

I received tons of emails this week. Most of them were from Pro Life and Pro Choice advocates. The Pro Choice advocates just stated their position. Unfortunately, some of the Pro Life advocates got real nasty which is surprising since they cite morality and religion as their reasons in their emails. They had no problem attacking my Christian faith or my family. Here are a few excerpts from their emails:

“Since you don’t like to judge bad behavior what did you do with your children?”

“I can always use someone else to pray for me - like you - a sinner!”

“You don’t get the definition of morality.”

“Maybe the Bible means nothing to you.”

“I was struck by the almost identical wording between your comments and the argument FOR SLAVERY!”

I will pray for all the people that are passionate about this issue.

Other emails received this week include suggestions about Veterans Freedom Park, an invitation to a future Turkish festival, pursuing Google broadband, a complaint about the condition of our roads, a complaint about the private information policy, thanks for the Volunteer banquet, thanks from Teen Road Angel founders, a suggestion to redo High House and Cary Parkway, a visit request from the girl scouts, and a request for Cary Spay Day.

Next week my schedule has me speaking at Grace Christian High School, reading at Kingswood Elementary, speaking for Cary Chamber leadership for adults, and speaking at Cary Chamber leadership for high school students.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, March 7^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week included a couple of intergovernmental meetings, a banquet, and a ribbon cutting.

Monday evening was my first mayor’s association meeting as President. All Wake County mayors were in attendance with the exception of Mayor Holcombe who was on vacation. It was a little strange at first presiding over a meeting of mayors. We had a very productive meeting that started with a demonstration from Teen Road Angels.

Teen Road Angels’ concept is that teen drivers and their parents agree to a contract that will require the teens to place a bumper sticker on their cars.  The sticker will have a phone number to call if the teen is not driving safely. The mayors were excited about their program and passed a resolution to support their cause. To find out more go to their web site at http://teenroadangel.com.

One other notable discussion at the Mayors Association meeting was the follow up to our joint breakfast with the Wake County School Board. The mayors were very encouraged by the meeting and agreed to request another meeting this year preferably within the next few months. The mayors also decided that future joint meetings with the school board should have more specific topics of discussion. The first meeting was mostly introductory and vision.

Tuesday I met briefly with the town manager and Mayor Pro-Tem discussed a variety of issues.

Later Tuesday I attended the VFW award banquet for fire, police, and EMS. I was extremely honored to be the guest speaker. Here are the points I talked from:

Good evening.  Thank you, Commander, for inviting me to be with you tonight.

Like most of the Cary Town Council and the 140,000 people who call Cary home, I have not served in our armed forces, either at home or abroad, and yet, I, along with so many in our community benefit each day from the sacrifices you, your comrades, and your families made for us.  For that, please accept my heartfelt gratitude on behalf of all those who aren’t with us here tonight.

I am also extremely grateful to and proud of the men and women who serve as our community’s first responders during times of crisis and emergency and who are led by the best Chiefs around - Chief Bazemore and Chief Cain - and while technically Cary EMS isn’t a Town department, we’re very proud of Chief Cohen and his team and do think of them as part of our extended family.

I think it’s great that the VFW is recognizing their work; we just can’t draw enough attention to the importance of their service, in my opinion.

In 2009, Cary fire and police ran more than 136,000 calls for service; that’s more than one call every 3 1/2 minutes, 24/7.

Sometimes it’s for the best of times, like helping deliver a baby.  But more often than not, it’s during the worst of times, like when a loved one dies or helping untangle the tragedy of a terrible car crash.

And while I also haven’t been a firefighter or a police officer, I have been a victim, and I’ve experienced their excellent service firsthand.

My house received a direct strike from lightening in June of 2002 while my family was on vacation in Nags Head. The force was so strong that it knocked the gable roof into the yard.  it was basically destroyed. The third floor was incinerated, part of the second burned, and the first floor had about 3 feet of water. There were 5 fire companies at the fire.  We were out of the house for 9 months to the day. While we lost most everything we were fortunate enough to have fire fighters recover most pictures and all videos. To me that was the only valuable things in the house.

Talk off the cuff…

So, that’s just one person’s experience, but I can say without a doubt that the level of service I was provided with is the norm in our community.

Some of you may know that every two years we do a scientific telephone survey of a representative sample of our citizens, called the Citizen Satisfaction Survey.  In fact, consultants working for the Town are collecting the data as I speak.  Anyway, every time we do the survey, we ask citizens to rate the service they’ve received from our police and fire departments, and the rating are always through the roof.

In 2008, which was the last time we did the survey, our police received scores of 8 or higher — and you can’t get much higher because we use a 1-9 scale - for courtesy, competence, fairness, and response time.  That’s A’s across the board.

Same goes for Fire.  In fact, Fire’s average ratings were nearly always an 8.8 out of 9 in every category.

I wish my kids got those grades.  Heck, I wish I got those grades!

Clearly, and as I say over and over again, we truly have the best staff of any municipality in the state or nation.  And not just police and fire, but across the board.  I tell you with confidence that as Cary citizens, you could not be served by a better, more caring staff than you have right now at Town Hall.

I don’t want to close without mentioning a few other groups that are becoming integral to our community’s safety and, therefore, our quality of life.  First is our CAP Team.  CAP stands for Citizens Assisting Police.  Do we have any members here?  PAUSE

This is a group of about 130 volunteers who’ve completed our Citizens Police Academy and gone on to form a private, non-profit group that works closely with our police department on a variety of issues.  They help provide security at public events and assist with fingerprinting, child safety seat installation, clerical duties, service center staffing, and lots more.  In addition to doing a fantastic job, the CAP Team volunteers free up police officers to handle tasks that only sworn law enforcement officers are allowed to do.

The second group I want to mention is our CERT team, or teams I guess it is now.  It seems like just about every month we have another group forming.  CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team.

Do we have any CERT members here? PAUSE

CERT training is a Citizens Corps program designed to enable citizens to care for themselves and then their neighbors during the first three days following a disaster. Our Fire Department takes the lead role in this program, educating participants about disaster preparedness, CERT organization, light search and rescue, medical care, fire extinguisher use, and disaster psychology.

While it’s been a very long time since we’ve experienced this in Cary, we all know that severe weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, flash floods and winter storms can cause a lot of damage to communities, overwhelming emergency responders and in some cases, leaving neighborhoods cut off from outside support.

Anyone remember Hurricane Fran?

Well, what we didn’t have with Fran were our CERT volunteers, and I’m glad to say that the next time a Fran comes through - and it really is just a matter of time - our community’s going to be in even better shape as we train more and more friends and neighbors how to help us get each other back on our feet.  Right now I think we have about 200 citizens who’ve completed CERT training, which is awesome.

So, in closing let me once again thank each of you for the role you’ve played in making our community what it is today.  Whether you choose the armed forces or public safety or CERT or CAP or even holding public office, serving others is a high calling, one to be proud of and one that each of us needs to appreciate the other for.

I truly believe that if we strive to always put others first, we will ourselves receive the best and blessed reward.

Thank you.

I thoroughly enjoyed the award ceremony and hope they invite me back next year.

Wednesday I attended the TAC (Transportation Advisory Committee) meeting of CAMPO (Capital Area Metropolitan Organization). The hottest topic for discussion was the rescission of $13.2 million of federal funds. Basically, we didn’t have enough “shovel ready” projects so the federal government took the money back. Now the CAMPO staff is working to make sure this never happens again. Cary has already submitted a long list of projects that would use well over the funds rescinded.

Thursday I attended the ribbon cutting for The Meat House on Kildaire Farm Road. This is a true butcher shop with all the additional items you would need for a great meal. I think this business will do great in this location. To find out more about what great items they offer go to http://www.themeathouse.com.

News releases this week included Raleigh/Cary being the #3 Happy City in the nation. If you look into the report in depth you will find that Raleigh/Cary ranked #1 in work environment. It is good to be #1 in work environment especially in this recession. To find out more see http://correspondents.theatlantic.com/richard_florida/2010/02/happy_cities.php.

Emails from staff this week included summary of fiscal actions provided by the Budget Directory. This is in a response to a citizen that questioned whether we were doing enough during these tough times. Here is his response:

Debt Service and Fund Balance Policy Guidance
On March 25, 2008, Council held a worksession focused on discussing financial policy.  The worksession slides (Financial Policy Worksession March 2008.ppt) and a link to the minutes are attached for reference.  The bottom line from this worksession and the subsequent staff follow up resulted in the Council effectively managing to a debt ceiling of 15% for the general fund and a four month general fund fund balance reserve target.  The 15% figure refers to the total amount that debt service represents as related to total general fund expenditures in a given year.  Prior to this worksession, there had been no formal discussion by Council on the topic of setting a threshold.  The four month fund balance refers to a fund balance amount over and above that reserved by state statute being equal to four months worth of annual operating expenditures and debt service.  Because the amount reserved for state statute is equal to about two months worth of expenditures, the net effect is that Council kept the amount being reserved equal to six months worth, which is what it had been previously.

http://www.townofcary.org/Sunshine/Agendas___Minutes/Town_Council/Minutes_Archive/councilmin08/ws032508.htm

Capital Project Related Actions
Staff and Council continuously evaluate the long term implications of debt issuances necessary to carry out the capital program along with the operating budget forecasts, and this was done again during the FY2010 budget development process.  With the impacts of the economic downturn on the rate of the Town’s tax base growth and sales tax revenues, the streetscape capital project (largely funded with debt) was put on hold for one year to slow the rate of borrowing necessary.  In addition, Council directed toward the end of the budget discussions that a comprehensive review of debt and capital spending be performed to address options and alternatives impacting future debt issuances.  A work session was held on October 13, 2009 (minutes located at http://www.townofcary.org/Sunshine/Agendas___Minutes/Town_Council/Minutes_Archive/2009_Council_Minutes/Cary_Town_Council_-_October_13__2009.htm) and another related work session was held on December 15, 2009 (minutes located at http://www.townofcary.org/Sunshine/Agendas___Minutes/Town_Council/Minutes_Archive/2009_Council_Minutes/Town_Council-December_15__2009_Work_Session.htm).  Through these work sessions, all 374 active capital projects were reviewed and information presented including a description, current status, and implication of stopping each project.  In the October work session Council directed that staff further review the general capital projects categorized as “maintain” through “new” for which ones should move forward with the goal of minimizing the immediate need for related debt issuances.  This resulted in 125 general capital projects being immediately put on hold as of October 14.  In the December 15 work session, Council voted to continue with 67 projects, to delay 19 others, and to postpone another 39.   With these actions, Council took $20.6 million in cash remaining from postponed projects along with $3.6 million of capital reserve fund balance and eliminated the need to borrow $24 million for projects selected to continue.  In addition, Council put 19 capital projects on hold.  Included on the hold list are projects with balances remaining totaling $68 million, $63.8 million of which is unissued debt. The need and related timing of these projects are to be considered along with future budget considerations including their affordability and the overall economic climate.

Additionally, as part of building the FY2010 general capital budget, a high degree of conservatism was used in light of the economic climate in which the Town is operating.  The adopted general capital budget in FY2010 totaled only $5.1 million, which was $73 million or 93% lower than FY2009 and it was completely funded with cash sources.

Headcount Reductions
As a matter of regular business, operations are continually reviewed to ensure resources are being spent wisely and creating value.  When positions become vacant, it provides an additional opportunity to reassess the continued utility of that position/program.  As the economic situation has worsened over the last couple of years, staff began to hold certain positions open by not recruiting for them for an extended period of time.  While executing FY2009 and preparing the FY2010 budget, management determined that a number of approved positions would indeed be held open through the end of FY2010.  Knowing that certain positions would not be filled during the year, the funding associated with those positions was removed from the budget.  During the spring of 2009, when the FY2010 budget was being formulated, a total of 22 positions met this criteria and funding for them was removed from the budget.   Currently, there are 30 positions on the hold list.  Exactly which ones will be held open and/or not funded in the FY2011 budget will be determined during the budget development process.  We continue to evaluate workload in those areas associated most directly with new development and monitor existing vacancies to ensure that enough capacity exists to support the level of development while holding positions open or reallocating workload as appropriate to ensure the right balance of customer service exists in all areas.

As with the capital budget, a high degree of conservatism was also used preparing the FY2010 operating budget due to the economic climate in which the Town is operating.  While 27 potential new positions were identified during the budget development process, only one new position was recommended to and approved by Council for approval (a water resources engineer funded through the utility fund).

Meeting the Budget in An Environment of Economic Uncertainty
To help keep the public and Council apprised of the economy’s impact and related Town actions, staff began providing regular updates on the subject at Town Council meetings in the fall of 2008.  Regarding the FY2009 budget, Council directed that a $3.5 million reduction be made before adoption to help provide additional operating margin buffer to the economic slowdown.  Throughout the year, staff also engaged in several efforts to delay and cut back on various expenditures to help maintain funding flexibility.  The Town’s general fund ended FY2009 with an operating margin of $5.4 million versus an initially estimated operating margin of $6.2 million.

The most recent update provided to Council was at the January 28, 2010, Council meeting where it was shown that thus far during FY2010, we are expecting by the end of the year to have a general fund operating margin (revenues in excess of expenditures) of approximately $1.85 million versus an adopted budget margin of $0.25 million.  Much of the better than expected performance thus far is due to expenditure savings on variable rate debt service and slightly higher than anticipated property tax billings.  We plan to continue updating Council with the latest information at the 2nd Council meeting each month to help keep them and the public apprised of the current status.

One of the best single sources of information for reference regarding the economy’s impacts on the Town of Cary’s financial planning can be found in the Town Manager’s Budget Message which is presented each year with the Recommended Budget.   It can be found on the Town’s website as part of the budget at the following link:  http://budget.townofcary.org/budget/currentyearapproved/aob/010-messageoperatingbudget.pdf As an indicator of just how important and impactful the economy has been recently in budget development, there are 40 different occurrences of words derived from “economy” in the 24 page budget message document.   Specific examples of areas impacted by the economic downturn are in the areas of new building activity and sales taxes.  For example, the level of building and permit fee revenue budgeted for FY2010 is $2.8 million which is $3.2 million or 53% less than the $6 million in revenue taken in just two years ago (FY2008).  Another significant revenue source that is even more quickly impacted by consumer confidence is sales tax.  Given the uncertainty of just when and how quickly the economy might begin to recover, this revenue budget for FY2010 was reduced to $19.3 million, which is $4.9 million or 20% less than the $24.2 million in sales tax revenue taken in just two years ago (FY2008).  Revenue earnings for these two areas thus far in FY2010 are performing in line with expectations for building permits and slightly better than budget for sales tax.

Scott Fogleman
Town of Cary
Budget Director

Emails this week included complaints about a tax increase (not true), Aquastar, toilet rebate, and Cameron Pond.

We have also received several emails about Google’s offer to install fiber optic in ten towns. Our staff is looking into this one.

Next week promises to be busy for me. Monday is the Cary Matters taping, Tuesday is a work session and a banquet, Wednesday I will be in Washington, Thursday is a council meeting, Friday I visit an elementary school, Saturday I run in a 5 K benefit in the morning and attend a Police Benevolent Association award ceremony in the evening.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, February 28^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This week was made up mostly of council and staff meetings. The one exception was the leadership dinner where former Governor Hunt was the emcee.

Monday started with the biweekly agenda meeting. The agenda was fairly bland so the main item of discussion was council member Robinson wanting to add something to the agenda after the post date. It is important for citizens to know that we post the agenda on Friday before a Thursday council meeting. After that point items may be added to the agenda at the council meeting when we adopt the agenda. To add it at the council meeting would require at least four votes. To get an item on the agenda before the post it on the web only requires two votes. So to honor council member Robinson’s request would have required us to violate our policy or to suspend our rules of procedure. I talked with council member Robinson about this and she agreed to put the item on at a later date. I believe this is good policy because it allows the citizens to have time to review the topics we will discuss and vote on. IMHO, to add something at the last minute has to be time critical. This was done by Mayor Pro-Tem Robison at the last meeting when she wanted to report on the $520 million grant from the federal government for high speed rail.

Monday night I attended the Leadership dinner for the two day Emerging Issues forum. It was a collection of  business leaders and politicians. I arrived at the social hour and wondered around looking for someone to talk to. Fortunately, I found Congressman Brad Miller and we struck up a conversation for about twenty minutes. We talked about several issues including the economy and his upcoming election. He is a great guy and I love talking with him and working with him on issues. I will be visiting him and other congressman and senators in Washington in a couple of weeks. After talking with Congressman Miller I found an old tennis buddy and we talked for a while. Then I mingled around and talked with people from Blue Cross and Blue Shield. At that point we were shuffled in to the dining area and I asked if I could join them at their table. I had a great conversation with the gentleman beside me, Bob Greczyn, who just retired from being the CEO. Mr. Greczyn lives in Cary and is a big fan of NASCAR.

Emceeing the Leadership dinner was former Governor Hunt. He really hasn’t changed much over the years and seemed as energetic as he had in the past. He recognized sponsors and then introduced the featured speaker Dr. Goodnight from SAS. Dr. Goodnight’s talk focused on education. He believes that this country is not producing enough science and math students and eventually we will become a service country and other countries will take the technological lead. He mentioned how test scores improved for middle school students in Wilson County once all of them received a laptop. In case you don’t know, he and his wife Ann have been huge advocates for education for years. God Bless them. At the end of Dr. Goodnight’s talk he answered questions. It was interesting that he refused to answer one question because he said it was a social issue. Governor Hunt then jumped in and answered it. Very entertaining. It was a good talk and I believe everyone enjoyed it.

Tuesday we held a work session on transit. We had five different presentations: Pat Simmons from NCDOT Rail talked about high speed rail and regional rail, Joe Durham and Tim Maloney from Wake County talked about county governance of transit, David King from TTA talked about transit, and Ed Johnson from CAMPO talked about their involvement as a metropolitan organization. All of these folks represent groups from different aspects of rail. It is important to know that high speed rail, regional rail, and local transit will all be using the same tracks and will all have to coordinate and work together.  It was estimated that Cary won’t see transit for at least a decade even if a ½ cents sales tax was passed to pay for it. An important point made by Mr. Simmons was that for areas to be economically successful in the future they will have to include rail.

Thursday’s council meeting was uneventful and the issues were not controversial. That leads to short meetings. We actually spent more time in closed session than we did in open session.

Friday I had my quarterly dinner meeting with Mayor Pro-Tem Robison. We talked about a dozen issues and finally stopped when it started snowing heavily (we wanted to make sure we both got home safely). It is important to know that Ms. Robison attends almost all mayor meetings during the 9 to 5 hours. So when we get together she spends a lot of time filling me in on the details that I have missed. She does a wonderful job representing the town and has actually taken leadership roles in some of the statewide committees.

Emails this week included taking abortion off our healthcare plan, getting the town involved in the Google fiber program, and compliments to staff for addressing safety issues.

One pressing issue after another round of snow is potholes. There are two problems we are facing. One is that a lot of the roads are the responsibility of the state. The other is that asphalt plants are closed until there is warmer weather. That leaves the only option of filling potholes with “cold patch” which is, for the most part, temporary. Of course when you apply a temporary fix then that cost more. Right now we are focusing on major potholes no matter which government agency they belong to. Hopefully, we will have all the major ones filled very soon.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, February 21^st. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.

This week was a relatively light week marked by an offer for a park and the kickoff of the 7^th School of Government class.

On Monday afternoon I met with the town manager, director of parks, director of planning, director of engineering along with Ms. Goodnight and SAS Chief Legal Officer about the Veterans Freedom Park. They are interested in donating the eleven acres to the town as a park. As part of their offer they want to erect a 120 foot spiral monument for the veterans. The cost of this spiral structure is around $1.9 million which they are offering to pay for. As a result of this meeting I made a proposal to council to put an item on the next available agenda to direct staff to look at town costs associated with this proposal. It was seconded by council member Frantz and will be on our February 11th agenda. The potential costs to the town include maintenance of the grounds, parking, and traffic improvements. It will be interesting to see if the town can have the first phase of this park without parking. That is, connect it to nearby trails and have the spiral monument viewed from the road as cars pass by. Engineering will have to look into ordinances to make sure they are met. Personally, I am excited about this proposal and think this monument and property will eventually be beautiful landmark for the town.

Tuesday I met with the town manager and Mayor Pro-Tem Robison for an hour. Our conversation centered on CIRC (Citizen Issue Review Commission). Our last changes to the CIRC process made the town manager the initial reviewer for applications. I think this is a mistake and should be changed. In addition, I think the current process restricts CIRC and needs to be changed to give them more flexibility.

The CIRC and citizens advisory groups were conceived by me and conversations with Mayor Pro-Tem Robison shortly after I was elected. I envisioned a mechanism where citizen advisory groups could be formed to investigate new ideas for the town. I did not intend it to be used as a lobbying tool. The idea of a review committee (CIRC) was from the task force we formed to create a process. I thought it was an excellent idea. But I think the CIRC group should be able to look at an application for a citizen advisory group and be able to decide that criteria have or have not been met. And if the criteria have not been met then offer other options. Maybe the idea should be a proposal to an existing board. Maybe the idea should be a written report to the council. Maybe the idea should be presented as part of the Public Speaks Out portion of council meetings. Whatever the idea, citizens should be presented with options from this review committee called CIRC. Anyway, the conversation with the town manager and Mayor Pro-Tem spilled over to Wednesday afternoon. At this point I fear there is barely enough interest on council to keep this idea afloat. The CIRC committee is a very smart group of citizens that need the chance to use their talents. I hope to be able to come up with revisions to the policy that will help the CIRC, the process, and citizens have more of a voice.

Wednesday night was the first class of the 7th school of government. It was well attended by staff and council. I, along with 5 other council members, welcomed the students and wished them success. Most of us challenged them to take what they learn from the class and become leaders in their neighborhoods and communities.

Emails this week included complaints about the location of the Western Wake Wastewater Facility, the rescheduling of the Winter Wonderland event, the Chatham County/ Cary joint land use plan, snow and ice removal, and our new automated meter reading system called Aquastar.

We also received several emails thanking the town for a wonderful job of snow removal. I totally agree with these emails. The town staff had all Cary major thoroughfares cleared by Sunday evening. They then focused on secondary roads based on the trash pickup schedule to eliminate any potential collection delays. By early to midweek there was little need to continue snow removal. Keep in mind that snow removal is a cost that needs careful management. I thought the crews did a fantastic job and we were way ahead of Raleigh and Durham in clearing major thoroughfares. Once again Cary employees proved that they are the best in the state.

Other emails included the 4^th quarter report for 2009. Here are some interesting tidbits from the report that you may not have heard before:

• The town grew by 35 acres this quarter bringing the size to over 55 square miles.
• There were 2 fatal crashes in the fourth quarter of 2009. The year ended with a total of 9 fatal crashes in 2009. These crashes consisted of one involving a MOPED driver, six involving passenger vehicles, one child hit in the roadway, and a motorcycle collision.
• Cary and 11 other Triangle-region water suppliers formed the Jordan Lake Partnership (JLP) in March 2009. The City of Durham is the lead agency for the JLP. In November, the JLP submitted a request to the NCDENR Division of Water Resources (DWR) to begin the process needed to evaluate additional allocations from Jordan Lake. While Jordan Lake is managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the water supply pool is owned by the state, and the Environmental Management Committee (EMC) is responsible for making the allocations. On January 14, 2010, the EMC approved the DWR staff recommendation to begin Round 4 of the Jordan Lake allocation process. DWR will now begin the process by holding stakeholder meetings, updating the Cape Fear River Hydrologic Model, and updating their Cape Fear River Basin Water Supply Plan. It will likely take at least two years before DWR makes recommendation regarding allocations to the EMC. The JLP members are already working on a water supply planning task to assess future needs. Cary’s Integrated Water Resources Management Plan (2007) recommends we obtain an additional 4% allocation (which will nominally supply 4 mgd of average annual demand); the Town currently has a joint 32% allocation with Apex and the Cary portion is 23.5%.
• Economic impact from Cary’s three major sports venues: Cary Tennis Park was about $1.3 million, Wake Med Soccer Park was a little over $2 million, and USA Baseball Park was almost $1.3 million.
• Turnover for the Town of Cary during 2009 was 4.3%, the lowest turnover that the Town has had in at least twenty years. We had an average of 1106.50 employees and 48 terminations (”terminations” includes all separations from employment, regardless of reason).

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, February 14^th. Please feel free to leave a comment on my post.