This week was busy with a council meeting, a Cary Matters taping, a forum, and a charity event.

Monday started with calls to each of the council members about issues they might have with the council meeting agenda. Based on the calls the only concerns seemed to revolve around the issue of allowing council members to appear on Cary Matters that have filed for office. Council member Adcock did a lot of research on this issue. She talked with various state and local officials and attorneys including General Council for the State Board of Elections. Based on all that information the conclusion was that there was no law or precedence. But some attorneys recommended not participating on the TV show if you have declared because of perception issues.

Monday evening I met with directors and management staff to go over the agenda. The agenda was fairly light. We discussed the Cary Matters issue and that was about it.

Tuesday I met with the State Legislative Agenda committee. The committee is made up of council member Frantz, council member Adcock, and me. Our original draft is divided into parts that included the following: council-suggested items, staff-recommended items, consultant-suggested items, Wake County mayors-suggested items, and the NC League of municipality items. This year the legislature will be in short session. During short session years the legislators usually only consider new items if they are unanimous. This means that one council member can cause an item to not appear on the legislative agenda. One of these items was the “municipal authority for annexation by supporting the NC League of Municipalities position” which was supported by all the mayors. Council member Frantz objected to this so it won’t appear on Cary’s Legislative agenda or all the municipalities in Wake County’s agenda. The remaining items we discussed be fleshed out and go to council for a vote. Council member Frantz has indicated he may not support other items.

Following the committee meeting we headed downstairs for the council meeting. This meeting was moved from Thursday to Tuesday early in the year when we adopted the calendar. As predicted the only item with lots of discussion was the Cary Matters issue. Other items of significance included the recognition of our “Sunshine Super Heroes” and several public hearings.

Wednesday was the April taping of Cary Matters. My Co-host was council member Smith. For the first time in a long time we were able to do all parts in one take. BTW, the main topic for April is open meetings.

Thursday afternoon I participated in a forum for the Duke University Fuqua School of Business School held at SAS with the Chapel Hill Mayor Pro-Tem and a representative from the Wake County staff. Our audience was more than 25 leaders from the Shanghai part of China. One fascinating part of the forum was the interpreter who took in up to 30 to 40 seconds of comments and then translated them to the audience. This was especially impressive since it was mostly from elected officials lasted for more than two and a half hours.

Thursday night I was the celebrity bartender at the Giorgio’s Restaurant on Cary Parkway ( http://www.giorgiocary.com ). The proceeds from my work are going to the Anna’s Angels foundation (http://www.annas-angels.org/ ). I had the great pleasure of working with Giorgios Bakatsias and his excellent staff including Chief Ricky. I spent most of the night talking to customers who praised Giorgios and his restaurants. I can’t wait to have my family dine at Giorgios. Giorgios is a very warm and friendly guy who shows his love and kindness to all his customers. Just in the short time I was there I was able to tell their loyalty and love for his commitment to provide the best of fine dining. He bid me good evening not only with a handshake but with a hug. I left feeling almost like a member of the Giorgios family. BTW, the Cary news was there with a photographer and I guess will have a story in the paper about my adventure as a bartender. BTW, I do have a background as a bartender at TK Tripps on Wade Avenue in Raleigh back in the early 80s.

On Friday I had lunch with board members of the Economic Development and the COO (Chief Operating Officer) of the Cary Deutsche Bank office. I presented the incentive check from the Town of Cary. The COO talked about the hiring process and the good talent that they are able to attract.

Saturday night my wife and I attended the Basant Bahar event, held by Hum Sub of our Indian community. I gave welcome comments and then my wife and I watched several performances of classical, folk, and fusion Indian music and dance. I am amazed at some of the talent from the youth of the area.

On Sunday, my Sunday school class took a tour of the Hindu temple in Cary, Sri Venkateswara. We are studying the similarities and differences of other religions and Christianity.

In snail mail this week I received a complaint about Waverly place. The write complained that the developers have abandoned the shopping center and that we should do something about it. Actually, I have been talking with the developers and they are planning on a new proposal. If approved they could have the shopping center redone in about a year.

Emails this week included complaints about pot holes, abortion and the health care plan, the Easter Bunny event at Bond Park, email addresses being provided with public records requests, and staff being unethical.

The next two weeks will be light for me. The highlights for this coming week include the opening of both Cary Farmer’s markets.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, April 4^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was busy with a mayor’s association meeting and a couple of firsts for me.

At Monday’s Mayor’s Association meeting we discussed legislative items that all municipalities could support when we present to the Wake County State delegation in a month or so. This list of items will first be presented to each municipal board and the ones that are approved by all municipalities will be presented by me to the Wake County State delegation. Here are the items we agreed to take back to our boards:

• Keep local revenues intact through the upcoming budget session as well as in anything from the Tax Modernization Committee
• Allow municipalities to keep listserv email addresses private
• Retain municipal authority for annexation by supporting the League of Municipalities position.
• Allow municipalities to reduce time from 1 year to 6 months for minimum housing enforcement. This applies to non-compliant structures.
• Give municipalities the authority to use debt to pay down past retirement obligations.
• Give all municipalities the authority to use electronic notice of official meetings and public hearings. (Cary already has this)
• Eliminate the cap on the charter schools.
• Allow municipalities to use the design-build concept for public capital projects.

In addition to the legislative items I introduced to the mayors the problems Cary was having trying to get a noise barrier in the Cameron Pond area. The mayors passed a resolution in support of asking the Turnpike authority to change their policy of using permitted houses for minimum noise barrier criteria. The mayors also stated they would support Cary’s current efforts to protect neighborhoods along the corridor.

Tuesday I met with the town manager briefly and discussed issues related to the Turnpike Authority and items brought up at the mayor’s association meeting.

Tuesday evening I met with a couple of dozen junior girl scouts at the First United Methodist Church in Cary. I talked about what a mayor does and answered questions. They were a very kind and polite group and after the meeting we posed for pictures.

Wednesday I did a taping for the census. I was taped actually filling out my census. It took only five minutes or so even though they made me wait to change camera positions. This was a first for me and will show up to the public in a new way. (It’s a secret)

Later Wednesday evening I attended the graduation of the School of Government. It was great to see a full class graduating. I hope to see these graduates involved in town government.

Thursday I met with the Economic Development Board. Here are some of the highlights of the meeting:

• Global Knowledge signed a 12 year lease on their current space in Regency.
• Texas Instruments expanded its Cary facility by 8,000 square feet.
• Epic Games is announcing release of “Gears of War 3″. First two editions were best sellers World Wide.
• Garmin International announced they would locate here and hire 40 people.
• Current recruiting efforts includes:
  • A communications company looking to establish a Triangle location
  • A consulting firm looking to expand in the area
  • An engineering services firm with approximately 500 employees and 150,000 square feet.
  • A technical sales and support organization with approximately 400 employees and 110,000 square feet.
• Cary Economic Development Commission and developers are meeting to talk about a future business park.
• Recent Accolades:
  • Forbes - “Best Bang for the Bucks Cities” Raleigh/Cary
  • American City Business Journals - Wealth Center in America #25 (only one in North Carolina)
  • American City Business Journals - Maintaining Job Growth #15 (among major MSA areas)

Our unemployment rate remained around 6.2% based on the last data received. This gives us the best rate by far of the largest municipalities in North Carolina. It also helps the widely publicized rates for Raleigh which is much higher. It is important to understand that unemployment rates are based on residents. We are also doing well in job retention and creation which is based on location of the jobs.

Friday morning I spoke to a few dozen teens at the Cary Chamber Leadership Program for high school students held at town hall. They asked a lot of good questions. One wanted to know the process of running a campaign. So I told him my story about running for mayor. One thing I noted that surprised them was that I lost twenty pounds in my campaign.

Sunday morning I welcomed over 3400 runners at Cary’s first marathon which started at the USA Baseball complex. I spoke at about 6:45 AM and counted down the start at 7:00 AM. I hope this will be an annual event for Cary. I will do a follow up with the organizers to see how it went.

Sunday afternoon I attended an Eagle Scout ceremony for Aaron Reza held at the Paige Walker Hotel and read a proclamation. It was well attended. Aaron is very young to reach the Eagle rank being only in the eighth grade. I challenged him to get involved and help his community.

Letters this week included one from the governor congratulating Cary for the 2009 Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging award.

Emails this week included an exchange with council member Frantz about appearing on Cary Matters. Unfortunately, what was reported by the Cary News was not complete. It was Don’s turn to co-host on Cary Matters but I realized he was running for office and said that policy didn’t allow him to participate. He challenged me on the policy. I could not find it but staff did. It was policy 123 and section 7 which is about political programming. To resolve the issue I proposed a 90 day blackout which Don agreed to co-sponsor. However, this will allow me to be on Cary Matters in July of next year while I am running for mayor which is something I was trying to avoid.

Emails this week included the pro and con for abortion, complaints about litter, speeding in Jamison Park, and the veterans’ freedom park proposal. Emails also included questions about the Google Fiber Project. Here is the latest on our efforts related to the Google Fiber Project according to the MIS director:

Google states in the RFI information that the plan is to do a pilot in the US in which somewhere between 50,000 and 500,000 homes will be connected with fiber. They also state that this will likely be in multiple locations. It is likely that if Cary is chosen for the pilot not all homes will be connected particularly if several locations nation wide are chosen.  I believe they will choose locations which have good infrastructure and demographics to support the high speed broadband model. In addition I think that in the locations chosen they will deploy in areas that can be done quickly with a maximum take rate for subscribers. Certainly it would be easier to build such a network in some areas of Cary than in others.  Having said that if Cary is chosen but not all homes are connected I think it is just a matter of time before the deployment will be extended to the rest of the Town. In addition I think that if any municipality in the Triangle area is chosen that it will be just a matter of time before the others will also be served. Obviously we hope Cary is chosen first.

… I have met with SAS last week and tomorrow they are launching a very comprehensive program for their employees encouraging them to nominate Cary for the pilot. I have also contacted Wake County and they have agreed that I can state in the RFI that they support Cary’s nomination. Finally I am continuing to contact other businesses and organizations in Cary to request that they too support our nomination.

I am in the process of compiling the information for the RFI. There are 23 pages in the RFI and each has a great deal of information to compile. Several staff members in other departments are assisting me in compiling the information and we want to provide responses that are as thorough and positive as possible. This will assure that Cary has the best possible chance of being selected.  I will be entering the Town’s response to the RFI early next week so we can be a little ahead of the March 26th deadline.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions and be sure to fill out the nomination!

Next week includes a council meeting, a taping of Cary Matters, and a celebrity event to participate in.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, March 28^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

With the exception of a council meeting there wasn’t much going on this week. This is my second slow week in a row.

Monday I met with the town directors, the town manager, and the Mayor Pro-Tem, to discuss the agenda for Wednesday’s meeting. Other than a few adjustments to the way certain staff reports were worded there wasn’t much to talk about. We did talk a little about the item to direct staff to provide information in relation to the Triangle Expressway Southeast corridor. To provide detailed information would require months and thousands of dollars in staff time. What we wanted to clarify is that staff would provide as much information as possible without taking a lot of time. Staff did mention that a web page giving the status of the project would be up and running this week.

Normally on Tuesday I meet with the town manager and Mayor Pro-Tem. Interestingly, this week none of us had much to talk about so we decided to cancel and catch up next week. This was a nice surprise and I used the time to have dinner with my youngest daughter.

Wednesday started very early. I was at West Cary Middle School at 6:45 to welcome guest speakers and students to career day.

In lieu of my weekly meeting with the town manager and Mayor Pro-Tem I talked briefly with the town manager on Wednesday. We briefly talked about a rail corridor study that will be proposed to CAMPO that should do an in depth analysis of Cary’s rail crossings. This study is extremely important to the town as we continue planning downtown revitalization. We also talked about the announcement that Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Resources Director Mary Henderson will be retiring effective on June 1st. The town manager says he plans to use a full process to find the next director. Mary Henderson has been with the town for 27 years, 15 as director. She will be sorely missed. Through her leadership the town has one of the best Parks programs in the nation. God bless her for all her work.

The council meeting this week was held on Wednesday instead of Thursday. This was to accommodate the interest in the ACC basketball tournament. It is important for us to hold meetings and public hearings on nights when people can and will attend. Thus the decision was made early in the year to move this meeting.

The Wednesday council meeting was relatively short lasting less than a 1 ½ hours. There was a presentation from Bob Coats who was with the US Census group. BTW, PLEASE fill out your census forms which should be in the mail this week. Our discussions were on the CIRC (Citizen Issue Review Committee) process and directing staff to provide information on the I-540 impacts to Cameron Pond.

The proposed changes to the CIRC process will allow this group to help citizens get information to council. That is, citizens should be able to come to council meetings as usual OR they can petition to form an issue advisory group. The CIRC will then decide the best way for those citizens to get information to council. The options include creating an advisory group, providing written reports to council, working with an existing advisory group, or tabling the proposal for more assessment. I think these changes along with removing the town manager review from the process should make things run smoother.

There was also good discussion on having staff provide information about solutions to Cameron Ponds problems with buffers. Council member Smith noted that we might be setting high expectations which we cannot meet with our current economic situation. I think that is a very valid point. But we will see what the information allows in opportunities for assistance.

I received a few letters this week from elected officials congratulating Cary for receiving the 2009 Building Healthy Communities for Active Aging achievement award. Congressman Miller wrote “I could not be prouder to represent you, and the Town of Cary, in Congress.” NC Senator Stein wrote “I congratulate you and hope that you will extend congratulations to the town’s employees as I know this success involved the hard work and commitment of many.” I think that pretty much says it all.

Emails this week included a lot of support for the Cameron Pond issue I mentioned above. In addition, there were a few emails for and against abortions. Other emails included complaints about littering, questions about Google’s fiber offer, and complaints about solicitations.

Next week includes a meeting with the Wake County mayors, a talk with girl scouts, a talk with youth leadership, a taping for Cary TV, and welcome remarks for a triathlon.

Before I close I want to remind everyone that this is Sunshine Week. Here is what sunshine week is all about (from our web page at http://www.townofcary.org/Sunshine/SunshineWeek.htm ):

1. What is Sunshine Week?

Sunshine Week is a national initiative designed to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. This includes the public’s right to attend meetings and access documents deemed a “public record;” in North Carolina, this determination is made by the state’s General Assembly. Sunshine Week 2010 is March 14-20.

2. How is the Town of Cary participating in Sunshine Week?
As part of this year’s Sunshine Week efforts, we’re providing educational opportunities for our staff and elected and appointed officials to ensure everyone who carries out business on behalf of the Town understands the importance of the “sunshine” laws. We’re also maintaining this Web page, created in 2008, to answer your questions, help make it easier for you to make public records requests and know your rights under the law. It’s part of our ongoing commitment to be open, transparent and accessible. In fact, our Web site is a prime example of our commitment to Sunshine Week. Since 1997, the Town has been putting Council meeting materials on the Web for everyone - Council members, media and citizens - to access at the same time. It is the primary reason Cary’s Web site was created, and today, it boasts more than 55,000 files of “public records”.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, March 21^st. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a rare change of pace with a few speaking engagements and then a couple of days off. I should note that my time off usually means working more at my better paying job. At least I got to see my family and eat dinner with them this week.

Monday started with a visit to Grace Christian High School. I spoke to two classes about my life story and about all the jobs I have had. Of course, since I was speaking to a Christian school, I was able to include what role my faith played in career and life choices. The main message of my talk was that God has a plan for all of us and that each and every one of us is blessed with gifts and talents.

Monday evening I had a conference call with the developer who plans to redo Waverly Place. He has been eager to start renovating this shopping center but has been held back by the economy. In our talk he expressed interest in changing what was approved to something less intensive. We will meet next week to look at his ideas more in depth. Hopefully, we will see new life in the Waverly Place shopping center soon.

Tuesday morning I visited Kingswood Elementary School and participated in read across America day. I had the pleasure of reading to a 4^th grade class. I read Dr. Seuss’s first book “And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street.” They seemed to enjoy it and we even had time for a little Q&A. This class included some great artists. They showed me a poster with several components of the “Green Eggs and Ham” book. I had a great time during my visit and on my way out saw my friend Bill Leslie going in to read to another class.

At mid-day on Tuesday I spoke to a few dozen adults participating in the Cary Chamber Leadership Cary Program in the council chambers. I talked about the duties of a mayor and went through a typical week of being a mayor. Just in case you are interested, here is a list of my top duties as specified in one of the first documents I received as mayor:

• To preside over public meetings of the council;
• To vote upon all measures before the council;
• To be counted for quorum purposes;
• To rule motions in or out of order;
• To determine when a speaker has gone beyond reasonable standards of courtesy in his or her remarks and to entertain and rule on objections from other members on this ground;
• To answer questions of procedure;
• To preserve order and decorum;
• To call a brief recess at any time;
• To adjourn in an emergency;
• To appoint all special committees, except where the council shall otherwise order;
• To execute documents as approved by council on behalf of the Town.

I also answered questions. One interesting question was why the mayor position isn’t a full time job. This is a good question. Well, to answer that question one needs to understand that Cary has a council-manager form of government. That is, the manager manages the town and does the day to day operations. The mayor, while being the face of the town, performs the mayoral duties and sets policy. To have a full time mayor and a town manager may be confusing to the public. Of the mayors in Wake County, most are retired or hold other jobs. As for me, I work full time at SAS as a testing programmer in the Software Globalization Division. To put it simply, I write C code to test code to make sure it runs on all platforms in all languages we support.

Tuesday evening I participated in a conference call with the town manager and the Mayor Pro-Tem. As usual, we talked about the hot issues, legal issues, and strategies to handle them.

Afterwards I headed over to Cary High School to attend the Cary Democrats Precinct meeting. Each elected official and candidate for office was invited to speak briefly. Other elected officials included Mayor Pro-Tem Robison, council member Adcock, NC House Representatives Weiss and Stein, and Mayor Holcombe. There were probably others but those are the ones I remember. The best talk of the evening was given in the beginning by a high school student named Thomas. Wow! I can’t wait until he is old enough to run for office.

Wednesday there was a light dusting of snow but apparently it was enough to delay Wake County Schools for two hours. The delay postponed my talk to the Cary Chamber Youth Leadership Program for teens. It has been rescheduled to March 19^th.

Emails this week included those for and against the town health care policy covering abortions. We also received emails about the town applying for Google’s fiber offer to towns. BTW, the town will have the RFI done in plenty of time before the deadline. Emails also included complaints about the town disclosing the email list to two people that have requested it. It is important for everyone to understand that public records laws currently require us to provide that list. We are currently working on legislation to present to our delegation that will change this. I also received email complaints about sidewalks, litter, and speeding. In addition, I received invitations this week to an Eagle Scout ceremony and a talk at a Girl Scouts meeting.

Next week’s council meeting and preparation meetings will dominate my calendar.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, March 14^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.