This week consisted mostly of meetings, an interview, and a reception.

On Monday evening I was interviewed by the Cary Citizen. We talked for about an hour and a half. Our discussion covered anything and everything you can think of related to Cary. We probably could have easily talked for another hour and a half but fortunate for them I had another engagement to get to. I really loved the article. The Cary Citizen does a great job of fair and balanced writing. There was only one error/misspeak in the article. When I talked about green businesses I was praising our Gold LEED certified businesses in town. Those businesses are McDonalds on Kildaire and Siemens. Somehow the article says McDonalds and ABB instead of McDonalds and Siemens. While ABB was one of the new businesses that came to Cary last year along with Deutsche Bank, it is not in a Gold LEED certified building. Anyway, if you would like to read more the interview can be found at http://www.carycitizen.com/2010/06/15/profile-cary-mayor-harold-weinbrecht.

Tuesday I blocked any evening business with the town so that I could pick up my daughter who was coming home from Italy. She made it safe and sound on time even though her luggage didn’t. Fortunately, her luggage arrived a couple of days later.

Wednesday I attended a legislative reception hosted by the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. In attendance were most of the movers and shakers in the area. Most of the locale legislative delegation made an appearance along with local elected leaders from the various Wake County municipalities. In my talks with the legislators we mostly discussed the email list proposal being considered. Based on what I heard this may be voted on during the next week. If it passes the law will allow anyone to view the town’s email lists but the town wouldn’t be required to provide the list. This would be a big improvement. While at the reception I also talked with leaders from Fayetteville on the relationships between the county and municipalities. Before leaving I had discussions with several of the sponsors including Hospice of Wake County which recently opened a facility in Cary.

Thursday was the quarterly meeting of the Economic Development Governing Board. In case you are wondering who makes up that board it includes the mayor, town manager, a council member, and two members of the chamber. Information presented on unemployment showed that Cary’s unemployment rate through April was 6.2% (down from 6.5% in March) which shows we are still doing better than anyone else in the region. At the same time, a majority of more than 1100 Chief Financial Officers polled in a recent survey said their firms would not return to pre-recession levels of employment until 2012 at the earliest. So it looks like unemployment rates are going to remain about the same or slightly better over the next couple of years. Additional information on existing business and industry was also presented:

• John Deere is relocating its engineering center from Charlotte to Cary. It will move approximately 90 jobs to Cary.
• Sears Regional Routing call center has consolidated to Cary. This brings about 115 jobs averaging about $30,000 a year.
• Ply Gem, which relocated its headquarters to Cary in October 2007, have employed 58 people so far with jobs averaging $78,000.
• Garmin International is settling into Regency Park and has employed about 40 researchers and engineers so far.
• The new Siemens gold LEED facility will increase employees by 300 over the next few years that will bring their total employment to 1000.
• The Wake County Public Schools will move its main administrative offices to Cary’s Crossroads Corporate Park over the next year.

There were several new recruitment projects in progress which include:

• A telecommunications company with about 200 jobs that hopes to make a decision within the next month.
• A home health care provider from Pinehurst
• A law firm from Virginia
• A California firm looking to open a lab
• A 2^nd telecommunication company looking for office space

The business outlook still looks cautiously optimistic as we continue to experience a long slow recovery from this recession.

Thursday night I met privately with an individual who helps maintain my personal web page on which this blog is posted.

Saturday I attended the 10^th Anniversary of the Koka Booth amphitheater. There was a reception before the 7:30 concert that was attended by former mayor Booth, former town manager Coleman, Mr. Woolner who owns Regency, Mr. Wolters who is President of the Symphony, council members Portman and Adcock, town manager Shivar, and several others. We were treated with cupcakes and champagne  and I toasted the first ten years of the symphony and Booth amphitheater. At 7:30 I said a few words, read and presented a proclamation to the Symphony President David Wolters.

A biannual survey was held this year. Following the survey two focus groups gave their opinions about the results. Those results were provided to council members this week. There were several interesting facts that came out of the groups that included:

• The two groups were divided on whether or not the town should provide growth rates.
• Both groups named several traffic problem areas mostly on the western part of town and downtown.
• Both groups complained about potholes especially on Maynard and Kildaire Farm but neither realized those were state roads.
• Both groups felt Cary was presently doing a good job of living within its budget.
• Both groups supported adding more council members due to the growth in town.
• The groups made suggestions on communications including: improvements to Channel 11, representing all regions effectively, and creating an online suggestion box.

Emails this week included complaints about road safety, noise, excess development around Jordan Lake, abortion, and shared sick leave.

Next week will be busy for me with a mayor’s association outing, a two minute state of the town, a taping of Cary Matters, and a council meeting to approve the budget.

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, June 27^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week with a budget work session, a council meeting, and high school graduations.

On Monday I met with staff, directors, and management about Thursday’s council agenda. Our estimation at this point in time was that the council meeting would be fairly short since the only item of contention seemed to be the special use application for a communications tower.

Tuesday I met with the finance directors and attorneys to sign bonds. Since the mayor has to sign all official documents there were a lot of bonds for me to sign. Nevertheless, the entire process only took 10 to 15 minutes.

Tuesday night was the second work session on the budget. Our first discussion centered on potholes. First a little background on the pothole situation in Cary. The town has received 95 complaints about potholes on Cary roads and has fixed all of them. There have been 334 complaints about potholes that are the responsibility of the NCDOT. Cary deemed that 13 were dangerous and fixed them. NCDOT has yet to repair these potholes. The budget question that I asked council was if we should consider repairing some of those potholes. The council wants NCDOT to fix their own potholes and is not interested in fixing them for NCDOT. My concern is that the number of potholes is having an effect on quality of life in Cary. Some of these state roads, like Maynard, are in very poor shape. The town will continue to ask NCDOT to fix these roads. If you want to know which of these roads are the responsibility of NCDOT you can go to http://209.42.194.57/CaryMap/ViewMap.aspx?ItemID=39&PortalID=1.

Our second discussion at the work session was on the operating margin. Council member Frantz and Portman expressed a concern about future revenue projections being lower than future expenditure projections. What is important to remember is that our revenue projections are extremely conservative. For example, this year we will receive an excess of over $4 million in revenues over the revenue projections. So the projections are somewhat misleading in that they are mostly a worse case scenario.

Next the council discussed the proposed downtown manager and whether or not this should be a town position or position associated with a private organization. The town manager expressed the need for coordination between planning and implementation with the manager. The town manager also expressed that with the substantial financial commitment, council should be able to control costs. One other point the town manager made was that the downtown manager should meet a goal of ten times his cost with generated tax base. So basically to have better control of the downtown manager the town manager believed it should be a town position. After his explanation the council agreed.

Our last budget discussion was on whether or not we should make a decision to take abortion out of the health care plan. There was no motion made on this topic. First let me say that I have strong personal beliefs on this issue. Having said that, I don’t believe it is a local government’s responsibility to question Supreme Court decisions regardless of how strong we feel about a decision. This particular coverage hasn’t cost Cary a penny in the last five years so it is a political and moral issue. And the Supreme Court has ruled that this is a legal medical issue. I think it is important for everyone to know how political this issue is. A local political party has performed polling and identify that 70% of voters oppose having this in the health care plan. The problem with this poll is that the implication is Cary is spending money on this which is not true for the last five years. So, this controversial issue is being used as an important political “wedge” that can help their candidates. Iit is clear to me that someone is using this for political gain which is unfortunate. The Cary council is better than that and is more professional than that. We should stick to issues that directly affect our citizens that we have authority to address, not question Supreme Court decisions.

On Wednesday we held our biweekly council meeting. We scheduled this council meeting on a Wednesday so that council members could attend high school graduations for local Cary High Schools. As predicted at the agenda meeting on Monday, the major focus of the council meeting was the special use hearing on the communications tower.

Thursday I attended two high school graduations on behalf of Cary. Green Hope High School was at 8 AM and Panther Creek was at 8 PM. Panther Creek was graduating the first class that went to Panther Creek all four years of high school.

Friday I attended the graduation of Cary High School. This is the oldest high school in Cary and has a lot of tradition. It was fun to watch the parents, teachers, and administration interact with each other. There is a strong bond between them at this school and you really feel it.

Saturday I attended a free health fair at the Morrisville Hindu Temple. This health fair is held once a year and approximately 60 doctors provide free medical services for anyone. The organizers expressed a desire to get the word out that this is open to the public not just to the Indian community. It is my hope that we can help them get the word out in the future.

Sunday I attended a fundraiser for County Commissioner candidate Steve Rao. The event was well attended and included Congressman Brad Miller, the Secretary of Treasurer Janet Cowell, Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, several state representatives and council members from Raleigh, Cary, and Morrisville. I have known Steve for years and believe he has a key ingredient that makes him a future great leader. And that is the desire to serve others.

There have been tons of email during the last two weeks including a request for a duck crossing sign, many requests for a screening wall at Cameron Pond, a request to put the guardrail between the sidewalk and road on Kildaire Farm Road, a complaint about the appearance of Waverly Place, several about a cell tower (which I couldn’t read because it was a quasi judicial matter), and information about our Cary Teen Council receiving a national award for service.

Next week looks a little lighter than this week and includes an interview, a legislative reception, and a meeting of the Economic Development Board.

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, June 20^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week with an intercity visit to Carmel, Indiana and a long council meeting.

Monday started with phone calls to the council members for questions or comments that may concern them with the regular council meeting’s agenda. Unfortunately, I was only able to get in contact with one council member and left messages with the others.

Monday afternoon I met with staff directors to go over the agenda. This agenda was full of items that would generate a lot of discussion so I knew it would be a long meeting. I guessed it would take about 4 hours which would have put us at 10:30. Boy was I wrong. We didn’t actually get out of the meeting until close to 12:30. The meeting had four public hearings including a special use public hearing. Since that is quasi judicial the speakers didn’t have time limits.

Monday evening I taped the June episode of Cary Matters with council member Portman. The main topic was on floodwater issues. The question and answer portion of the episode included water conservation, internet service in public places, and unwanted material on mailboxes. We were able to knock this recording session out in about 45 minutes.

Tuesday, I along with roughly 30 others boarded a plane for Indianapolis for the Cary Chamber’s intercity visit. We arrived around 9:30 AM and started with a bus tour of Indianapolis. Lunch was held at the Lucas Oil Stadium (where the Colts play) with Carmel Mayor, Jim Brainard and several representatives of the NCAA which is headquarted in Indianapolis. The NCAA representatives are very important for Cary since we are one of the six NCAA championship cities in the US and want to continue to hold NCAA championships in Cary. The rest of the day was spent visiting sites such as the Carmel city square, their arts district, and one of the key roundabout interchanges (similar to US64 in Cary).

Wednesday started with a breakfast meeting at the hotel where we heard from a county commissioner on transit and several members of the Carmel staff on transit and road projects. The rest of Wednesday morning was spent visiting the Carmel aquatics center which was very impressive and even had several water park features such as giant slides and a lazy river. After lunch we finally got to a discussion of how Carmel paid for all the amenities they had. It turns out that they get about $30 million a year in income tax revenue in addition to a property tax rate that is about 40% higher than ours (assuming ours and the county rate were combined since they have their own school system).

On the way to the airport the bus went by the Indianapolis Speedway. It was “community day” as part of the Indianapolis 500 celebration which means people can ride around the track. So we asked if we could take the bus around the track. We were allowed to enter the infield and were queued up but were not actually allowed on the track. Oh well, it was impressive being in the infield anyway.

All in all it was a great trip. There were a lot of impressive things to see in Carmel which has about half our population. They are known in the region as the town with the roundabouts. Currently, they have around 60 of them. The one thing that stuck with me the most is how much more revenue they get than Cary. If we had their amount of revenue we could probably do wonderful things in short order. But in Cary I believe people want their representatives to be very conservative with their tax dollars and I believe our council does exactly that.

Thursday’s council meeting lasted close to six hours. Two of those hours were spent on the special use hearing that I mentioned earlier. Other discussions that took time included the Park at Westlake (approved), the Historic Preservation Master Plan (approved), the Cameron Pond Wall recommendation (approved), and the road waiver for Stone School Supply Store(approved). I voted against the road waiver because I strongly feel that waiving road improvements causes the next development to pay for them or the citizens to pay for them. One important point that I try to make is that someone WILL pay for them. In the past, it has been the taxpayers subsidizing development at over 90% in some cases. I want to make sure we don’t go back to that amount of subsidy. Having said that, I think it is important to do all we can to encourage new businesses in Cary. Balance is the key and that is how I approach each case.

Emails this week included a call for my resignation because I allegedly mix politics and religion and don’t know about the separation of church and state. Hmmm. I am very sure I do know and don’t mix them. Anyway, other emails included several requests for the wall option from Cameron Pond residents, several complaints about bridge guardrails on Kildaire Farm road near Lochmere, questions about Waverly place, a complaint about the lack of sidewalks on Dynasty Drive,  requests for money for non profits, and concerns about our fire policy on pine straw.

Next week I will be in Hilton Head so I won’t have anything to post other than I had a good vacation (I hope).

Well that is all for this week. My next post will be on Sunday, June 13^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week with several receptions/dinners and a budget work session.

Monday I played my annual round of golf at the Augusta National Golf Course. Or maybe I should say the golf course played me. I only had a couple of good holes, the par 5 8^th and the infamous par 3 16^th. I played the 8^th very well and had about a 10 foot putt for birdie but missed. The 16^th I had about a 12 foot putt for birdie but missed. Although I didn’t score well I had a great time. It was a bit rainy for the first 7 holes but the sun came out and it was beautiful for the rest of the day. It was an honor and privilege to be able to play this course.

Tuesday was the first budget work session. Budget Director Scott Fogleman went over the budget and answered a few questions. To sum up the proposed budget: remain conservative, hold the tax rate, and hold on any major expenses. I think the council will come to an agreement soon about the budget with little or no modifications to the proposed budget.

Wednesday I started by attending the Cary Chamber’s Economic Development Industry Appreciation reception at MacGregor Downs. There were about three dozen industry leaders in attendance including one of our newest businesses Deutsche Bank. I gave a few words of welcome and thanked all the businesses for being in Cary and for supporting charities in the area.

Later Wednesday I met with major investors of Waverly Place. They provided drawings of a proposal to redo Waverly Place. If approved and built it will cost them about $40 million for the changes. Once completed the center will be a destination place with water features, fire pits, plenty of outdoor seating, and even an area for entertainment or small markets.

Thursday I attended a reception for the NCAA Division II baseball championship. This was a gathering of about three dozen people including members of the NCAA, Mount Olive College (co-host), the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, USA baseball, and National Training Center Staff. I gave a few words of welcome and promised a weekend of good weather. I guess it is a good thing that I don’t predict weather for a living. Cary is very fortunate to be an inaugural NCAA Championship city and holding championships in several sports including baseball.

Friday I attended a luncheon being held for Mary Henderson who is retiring as Director of Parks Recreation and Cultural Resources Director. Mary has been with the town 28 years and has basically worked in the department as the town has grown from a few thousand people to the seventh largest municipality of North Carolina. Through her work we have an accredited, national recognized, award winning department and one of the most desirable places to live in the United States. Mary is a big part of Cary’s success and she will be sorely missed. The reception was well attended and was a who’s who in Cary’s past with former mayors, former council members, former and current staff, and friends and family.

Friday night I attended the NCAA Division II baseball banquet. This was attended by all the people from the reception Thursday night but this time included players from all eight teams. These players were all glad to be at the championship and had great things to say about our facility. Here are a few of the quotes I received from a news report about the Kutztown players:

“It is just unbelievable how nice this place is.”

“You just dream about playing in a beautiful facility like this.”

“This facility is like the Taj Mahal of baseball complexes.”

“This is something you have to see for yourself. It’s by far the greatest field I have ever played on.”

“This is just a first class facility and I can see why the NCAA chose Cary to host the championships.”

Emails this week included complaints about a sex offender, sidewalks, potholes, annexation, and a request to fund a wall at Cameron Pond.

Next week I will be on an intercity visit to Carmel Indiana. We will also have our last council meeting in May.

Well that is all for this week. I will be on vacation starting Saturday so my next post will be on Friday, May 28^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was a busy week which included a council meeting and some interesting events.

Monday started with the usual agenda meeting. In attendance were town management, directors, attorneys, and the town clerk staff. Earlier in the day I called council members to see if there were questions or comments about the agenda. The two items of interest included allowing employees to share sick leave and whether or not to try for LEED certification for fire station #8.

On Tuesday I was a judge in a biscuit contest held at the Gold LEED McDonalds on Kildaire Farm Road. This is the first time I have ever been a judge in a food contest. I was judging with a food writer from the N&O who had done many food judging competitions. She warned me in the beginning to take very small bites. Well, I was a little hungry so I took large bites. By the 10th contestant I was more than full. Although the contestants, from all over the region, used the same ingredients and the same oven the biscuits were different. I was told that the difference was created in the preparation and the cooking. And I COULD tell.  The judging criteria we used were appearance (pimply golden on top with white sides and 1 ½ inches high), taste (melts in your mouth and of course tastes good), and presentation (interesting since most cooks spoke very little English). The winner got a cash prize and was able to compete in the next level of competition. I was also a winner (in a sense) because I left with a food gift certificate, a pin, and a McDonald’s apron. It was a LOT of fun and I really enjoyed it. However, I will probably skip the biscuits for a while.

Tuesday evening I had an informal interview with a reporter from the Triangle Business Journal. They are interested in doing several interviews in the future with me regarding our downtown area. Some of their interest peaks around the railroad and how it impacts the downtown area. I explained that we currently had 3 major crossings. All of these are “at grade” meaning they do not have a bridge or tunnel and require crossing arms. Cary is in the process of designing a tunnel at Walker Street which will give the downtown a grade separated crossing. This is important because NCDOT Rail plans to increase traffic on the rail over the next few years. One of the goals of the high speed rail is to reduce and/or eliminate at grade crossings from Raleigh of Charlotte. This would include Cary crossings at Maynard, Academy, and Harrison. However, eliminating or grade separating those crossings will be difficult because of several reasons: 1) they are vital links that connect the town, 2) the rail station is being rebuilt with federal dollars fixing the vertical and horizontal position of the tracks at Maynard and Harrison, and 3) the tunnel at Walker Street will also fix the vertical and horizontal position of the tracks. And of course all the rail issues could have a significant impact on how our town develops in the future. More on this at a later date.

Wednesday I played in a 4 game tennis exhibition at the Cary Tennis Park as part of the Senior Appreciation Day. Our exhibition included the head pro Sean Ferreira, Western Wake Tennis Association Donna Gast, NC Tennis Association Kelly Gaines and myself. I got off to a slow start but was paired with Kelly Gaines who is a strong player. We rallied to end in a 2-2 tie. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. I thanked the crowd for their attendance and support of the Cary Tennis Center and encouraged them to help get youth interested in the game to keep it moving forward.

Wednesday evening I attended the “Step into Africa the AIDS crisis” exhibit being held at the YMCA on Cary Parkway. This exhibit allowed you to step from room to room as the story was presented via headphones. Volunteers also interacted with you to enhance the experience. The experience walked you through the tragic lives of those who have AIDS in Africa and the help they need. It was a moving experience and I was glad I went.

Thursday I met with Hub Sum representatives to brainstorm on events for this year. I am an honorary member of Hub Sum board. Their biggest event is Diwali which will be held in September. This will be the 10th year of the Diwali celebration in Cary. The Diwali celebration is Cary’s biggest event at the amphitheater and usually draws in the 12 to 15 thousand range. We brainstormed about ideas of promoting the event to help Cary citizens understand that this is a Cary event and not an Indian event.

Thursday night’s council meeting focused on two topics as predicted. The first discussion was the shared sick leave which was a staff recommendation that came from council direction. I agreed with the staff report but also wanted it to go back to committee to get more information about further things we could do. The majority of council agreed.  The second item that generated discussion was on whether or not to pay for LEED to certify the new fire station being built. The council decided to not pursue LEED certification because of the $41,000 cost. I contended that the staff cost of ensuring the fire station met the green standards might be the same as or exceed the cost of the LEED certification by a third party. We have no way of knowing since this information wasn’t provided but we do know significant staff time will be involved. It is also disappointing to me that we ask our citizens and businesses to become more environmentally sensitive and encourage their LEED certification but we don’t. Thank goodness for McDonalds (Ric Richards), Siemens, and SAS who continue to step forward to lead our community in LEED certification.

Friday I briefly attended the Public Works celebration over at the town facility on James Jackson Avenue. Our public works people go out of their way to bring the best possible service to our citizens. A perfect example was three of them who noticed 6 year old and 10 year old girls walking next to US1. They called police and stayed with the girls until the authorities arrived. Thank God they cared. Without them there might have been an unthinkable tragedy. At the event on Friday I thanked the three men: Cliff Norman, Larry Coe, and John Spey. Their acts were heroic in my eyes.

Friday night I attended a private dinner with a friend and member of the Indian Community’s political action committee. We had great food and conversation and of course talked politics. I look forward to their support next year.

Emails this week included a complaint about the required irrigation backflow testing, a complaint about barking dogs, a complaint about a water bill, a complaint about a utility project on Stephens Road, a request to make fire station #8 LEED certified, an invitation to an eagle scout ceremony, and a request for an interview.

Next week looks busy for me. On Monday I have the privilege of playing the Augusta National Golf course which is one of the most, if not the most, prestigious privately owned golf courses. The rest of the week includes a budget work session, a couple of receptions, a retirement ceremony, and a banquet. I will probably be speaking at all of these which require some preparation on my part.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, May 23^rd. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This week was about meetings and a graduation ceremony.

On Monday I met with a president of a homeowner’s association about a water leak that created a water bill of several thousand dollars. While I couldn’t personally help them in my capacity as mayor, I did listen and suggest people they should contact.

Tuesday I met with the town manager and mayor pro-tem to go over any pressing issues. One item I have asked for is a map to be put on line that will distinguish DOT roads and Cary roads. People are constantly complaining about roads and it is hard for citizens, council members, and staff to know what roads belong to whom. Hopefully, this new map will be available soon and be a great reference for all.

Wednesday I met with developers on a potential residential development in the Weston Office Park. Basically, they wanted to know if I would support this. Usually, I am not a big supporter of swapping office for residential but the Weston Office park would probably benefit a better mix of uses. So I would be willing to see the details of this case.

Wednesday night I attended the 27^th graduation ceremony of Citizens Police Academy. I am proud that Cary has citizens who not only want to learn about our police department but want to assist in making the best police department in the state even better. God bless each and every one of them.

Thursday I met with a gentleman who is interested in downtown revitalization and development. This person had a lot of ideas and our discussion was about all the possibilities for Cary’s downtown area. It is my hope that we can make downtown more of a destination point in the future. This year’s budget will have an item for a downtown manager. It will be interesting to see if council will support that.

Emails this week included a complaint about sidewalk and guardrails on Kildaire Farm Road, several complaints about a bridge in Weston Manor, a request to make our new fire station LEED certified, several complaints about roads in the Green Level area, a complaint about mailbox damage, and a complaint about the convenient center.

The most interesting announcement this week came from a press release stating that Cary now has the highest bond rating for Revenue bonds. There are three types of bonds: General Obligation bonds (voter approved) which has the lowest interest rate, Revenue bonds which has the second lowest interest rate, and asset bonds. Cary has had the highest rating for General Obligation bonds for years. Now we have the highest bond rating for our Revenue bonds as well. This will result in lower tax rates and savings for our taxpayers.

Next week promises to be a busy week. In addition to a council meeting, I will be judging a biscuit bakeoff and participating in an exhibition at the Cary Tennis Park. Should be fun.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, May 16^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This was a busy week for me with a taping of Cary Matters, a council meeting and events including an elected officials gathering and the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame benefit concert.

Monday started with calls to all the council members about questions they might have on Thursday’s council agenda. That afternoon I met with directors, town management, legal, and administrative staff to go over the agenda. Topics we discussed included the annexation of properties at West Lake, road alignments at Weldon Ridge and Kit Creek, and the award process associated with the C-Tran bid. At the end of this meeting I figured the council meeting would last until about 10 PM. The meeting did actually end close to 10.

Monday night I did a taping of Cary Matters with council member Don Frantz. He and I do very well together and have actually won a gold AVA award. We did the taping fairly quickly. The main topic was on the state legislative agenda. The questions were on the budget, applying for town advisory boards, and upcoming shows at the Booth Amphitheater.

Later Monday night my wife and I had dinner with the chaperone for the culinary students from La Touquet, France. Over the years my wife and I have hosted many students from La Touquet and have become friends with Madame Chatel. Each year we catch up, talk a little about golf (The Masters), and about visiting France. It was a good time and the meal was excellent (we ate at Giorgios).

Tuesday council held a work session on the town’s stormwater services. Our staff categorizes flooding as catastrophic, structural, or nuisance. Catastrophic is defined as a flood that washes out roads and collapses buildings and homes. Structural flooding is defined as getting into the lower portions of homes that may damage homes. Nuisance flooding is defined as standing water in the yard. Some interesting takeaways for me from this work session included:

· There are 593 single family homes in the flood plain in Cary.

· Cary will get a FEMA grant to determine the worst flooding areas in town.

· If the town decided to purchase homes next to streams that are prone to flooding it would cost over $170 million just in the downtown area.

· If the town decided to purchase homes that experience nuisance flooding it would cost somewhere in the $17 million price range.

· Council decided the current policies were working well. That is, we have a policy to share 50-50 for homes that experience structural flooding.

After the work session I headed over to Grace Christian School to watch an Irish Dance recital that my daughter was in. These are a talented bunch of kids and they did a wonderful job. My daughter was in several dances and of course she was great as usual.

Wednesday evening I attended the Elected Officials reception at the Matthews House. I gave welcoming comments and introduced the council members. All council members were in attendance except Robison. The event was very well attended (I had trouble finding a place to park). I would say over half the crowd was elected officials or candidates. The remainder seemed to be made up of local business people. All the officials and candidates were introduced. I mingled and talked until they closed the event down (another late dinner for me).

Thursday was a regularly scheduled council meeting. We got through the West Lake annexations fairly quick. The most controversial item of the evening seemed to be the bid award for C-Tran. Several drivers and management spoke in favor of current operator First Transit which did not have a bid that qualified. Council agreed on the staff’s recommendation on a new company and will review their performance after six months.

Friday night my wife and I attended the Raleigh Rocks concert by the Rock n Roll hall of fame. We enjoyed the acts, some of which were to perform at the Koka Booth Amphitheater the next night. I spoke with several people associated with both events including the President of the Rock Hall Terry Stewart. He is still interested in keeping an annual benefit event at the Booth Amphitheater. I was very glad to hear that and thanked him and the Rock Hall for being here.

Saturday morning I participated in the SPRUCE spring litter sweep. I was on a three member team sweeping US1 from Cary Parkway to Walnut Street. We ran out of time but decided to continue at least to the ramp at Walnut Street. We collected 20 bags of trash, and 4 bags of recyclable material. Interesting things found included a pot pan lid, an army boot, $55.05 in cash, a credit card (not expired), and a drivers license. One of our members will try to contact the person with the credit card. I also had a little surprise when I lifted a piece of trash and found a good old black snake. While it was a great day and we accomplished a lot, it was sad to drive by on Sunday and see several pieces of litter already back on the side of the road. I believe we are stewards of this earth and town and need to educate everyone the importance of not littering. It is my goal to do all I can to keep Cary clean, green, and beautiful. If you want to help please let me know.

Saturday afternoon and night I attended the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame benefit concert at the Booth Amphitheater. The proceeds went to the local United Way. It was a fantastic concert and I really enjoyed the lineup especially Cheap Trick.

Emails this week included complaints about a developer, complaints about a road alignment ,a  complaint about the town’s growth rate, a complaint about the town’s recycling, a complaint about traffic, and a complaint about having affordable housing in Cary.

Next week will be a light week for me with just a few meetings and one ceremony where I will be the keynote speaker.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, May 9th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This was a busy week for me with a ribbon cutting, meetings, interviews, political events, a birthday and my anniversary.

Monday started with the ribbon cutting of the new building for Siemens Medical Solutions. Not only is this expansion bringing high paying jobs to the area but the building is environmentally friendly and was awarded Gold Level Leed Certification. Some of the highlights of the certification include 95% of the construction waste was recycled and diverted from the landfill. No potable water will be used for irrigation. High efficiency toilets are installed reducing water usage by more than 40%. Energy usage is 25% lower than standard requirements. And many many more features. The ribbon cutting itself was attended by several elected officials including the main speaker Congressman David Price. I was honored to be recognized and presented a small gift from the town to the CEO who was in attendance from Germany.

Monday night I presided over the mayor’s association. We were fortunate to have all twelve mayors in attendance. The mayor’s association unanimously approved a state legislative agenda which I will present to the Wake County delegation. It includes:

1. Keep all local revenues intact through the upcoming budget session as well as in anything from the Tax Modernization Committee
2. Exempt list of citizen email addresses from disclosure under the Public Records Act
3. Retain municipal authority for annexation by supporting the League of Municipalities’ position.
4. Provide local authority to Wake County municipalities to order dwellings that have been declared unfit for human habitation to be repaired or demolished if they have been vacated and closed for six months.
5. Provide Wake County municipalities authority to use debt to pay down past retirement obligations
6. Provide authority to Wake County municipalities to use electronic notice for public hearings.
7. Eliminate the cap on charter schools.
8. Allow municipalities to use the design-build concept for capital projects.

Other actions taken by the mayors included asking each municipality to issue a proclamation on the National Physical Activity Plan by Advocates for Health in Action. For more information on this group see http://advocatesforhealthinaction.org.

Tuesday began with an interview by a student at Chapel Hill on the town’s appearance and sign ordinance. In the interview I pointed out that we have a committee currently reviewing our sign ordinance.

Later Tuesday I attended a fundraiser for Elaine Marshall hosted by council member Portman. I formally endorsed Ms. Marshall months ago. She has worked with me and other council members over the years. She has promised that if she gets to Washington she will always make time to meet with me when I make my annual trek in February (she knows that Senator Burr hasn’t met with me the last two years I visited). My visit to Washington every year is to present an agenda with the purpose of getting some of the federal dollars we send through our taxes sent back to Cary.

Wednesday night was an informal gathering of my campaign team from 2007. We talked about a lot of issues. Of course I will not disclose any of that on a blog to give my next opponent information.

Thursday I was scheduled to attend a Komen for the Cure at the Governor’s mansion. Due to several work and personal issues I was not able to attend. I sent my regrets mid afternoon.

Later Thursday night I did an interview with WTVD. They did a story about why we want the legislature to exist our citizen email list from the Public Records Act. I told them that I believed this was less about public records and more about invasion of privacy. A recent survey showed that 88% of Cary citizens agreed. I hope our legislative delegation will help by allowing us this exemption.

Friday was my youngest daughter’s birthday and Sunday was my anniversary. To celebrate we spent the weekend at Wrightsville Beach. We had a good time even though it was cloudy and cool.

Emails this week included a request for old turf from Wake Med Soccer, several compliments about our budget practices, complaints about the tragic murder at the Groves, complaints about the Weldon Ridge road alignment, a complaint about a builder, a request to help someone get a job, and a few invitations.

Next week promises to be busy with a council meeting, a work session, a Cary Matters taping, a litter sweep, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame concert, and a few personal events.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, May 2^nd. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

This is my first post on mayoral duties in two weeks. The week included events typical for weeks that have regularly scheduled council meetings.

Monday started with calls to council members to see if they had any issues or questions about the agenda for Thursday’s council meeting. This was followed later that afternoon with a meeting of Directors, town attorney, town clerk, public information officer, and town manager to discuss the agenda. Our discussion seemed to focus on two issues: the state legislative agenda and the public finance resolution.

Tuesday I met with the town manager to go over any current hot issues. The legislative agenda and budget seem to dominate most of our conversations lately. Before meeting with the town manager I had the good fortune to meet and talk with Emily Barrett who is Cary’s first sustainability manager. The meeting was also attended by the members of the Environmental Board. I let them know that there are companies interested in getting involved in the community on various issues related to energy and the environment. One such company, ABB, has expressed a strong desire to get involved.

On Wednesday, I met with Cary’s budget director, the town manager, and assistant town manager to go over the draft budget. Here are some  points I took away from the staff’s  recommendations: economic downturn continues to impact revenue, no tax increase recommended, no change is solid waste fee recommended, sales tax revenue is down about 10%, and ad valorem revenues are up over the last fiscal year. In addition, the recommendation is not to remove any debt funded capital projects from the “delay” list.

Thursday before the council meeting I met briefly with the town clerk and retreat committee members to formally approve the minutes of our meetings held in November and December. That took all of about 15 seconds.

Before the council meeting Thursday I had the good fortune to meet with several groups. First, I met with the culinary students from Le Touquet, France that are here for a few weeks to study and cook in the US. This is an on going program and one I have participated in several times by hosting students. Next I met with Boy Scout troop 202 who were attending the meeting to earn merit badges. Then there were several dozen Green Hope High School Civic students. They often show up at meetings and most have their pictures made with me to prove they attended. This is usually a lot of fun and I am glad that they get exposure to town government.

The council meeting went as expected with no surprises. The main topics were the state legislative agenda and the public campaign finance resolution. The main points in the public campaign finance resolution for me were: it was an existing bill, we were asking for authority NOT making an action, and we would require a referendum of the people before using such authority.

Saturday I attended and spoke at the Turkish Festival at the fairgrounds in Raleigh. This was a great cultural event and I enjoyed the food, music, and dance that celebrated their culture. They were great hosts and presented me with a very nice gift. I think it is important to know that Cary is a diverse community with a large Asian population. Most of the people in Cary are not originally from Cary. As a matter of fact, less than 2 percent of all adults were actually born in Cary.

Saturday afternoon I met with a political candidate. I was glad to meet with them and answer any questions. I meet with any candidate who requests and try to help the best that I can. I think it is important to establish relationships with candidates and officials regardless of their party. In my 2 ½ years as mayor I have seen issues resolved because of strong relationships and trust and believe this approach to be invaluable.

This week was the last week to send in your census forms. If you have not sent in your census forms yet then you are likely to get a knock on your door from the census people. Cary is not doing as well as I had hoped. As I am writing this Cary has had 76% participation compared to 68% for Raleigh, 67% for Durham, 78% for Apex, 79% for Holly Springs, and 68% for Morrisville. If you would like to view data from anywhere in the country you can go to http://2010.census.gov/2010census/take10map .

I received an interesting email from town staff on Cary’s population. Surprisingly Cary continues to grow at a steady rate. Here is the information:

As of April 01, 2010, the Town of Cary’s population is estimated at 139,808. This is an increase of 4,675 people (+ 3.46%) in the last year (since the April 01, 2009 estimate). Cary’s population has increased by 45,245 people (+47.85%) since the last U.S. Census on April 01, 2000.

In addition to the population estimate, please note that the Town of Cary has averaged a 4.84% annual population growth rate from April 01, 2005 until April 01, 2010. This figure exceeds the Town Council’s 2003 goal of maintaining an annual growth rate of 3-4% measured over a five-year rolling average.

Note: This population estimate is based on the reported number of Certificates of Occupancy issued in the Town.

I received one other interesting email from staff related to a greenway on my side of town. Residents in this area have been waiting a LONG time for the Speight Branch greenway to actually go under Tryon Road (the tunnel has been there for years). Here is staff’s comment about that greenway which will use a SAFETEA LU (Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient, Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users) grant:

Once completed, the greenway will go around the lake.  We met w/ the consultant last week to review the initial alignment so we are moving ahead.  Construction will take approximately 6 months. It is difficult to gauge when we will obtain all DOT approvals and whether we will need to purchase greenway easement which obviously will impact the schedule.  If we start construction by April 2011, we should complete by the Fall of 2011.  

During the last two weeks I have received tons of emails from citizens including complaints about the appearance of Waverly Place, comments about Cary’s community arts center, questions about moving to Cary, questions about open meetings, complaints about the turnpike being built, complaints about McCrimmon Parkway closing, complaints about Cary’s electronic email list being disclosed, complaints about sprinkler systems for residents and ordinances about pine straw, complaints about public campaign financing, support for public campaign financing, complaints about LifeTime fitness, and many, many requests for proclamations, visits, speaking engagements, and being a keynote speaker.

Next week includes my second meeting as President of the Mayor’s Association. We will discuss several items including issues all municipalities unanimously support presenting to the Wake County delegation for this year’s short legislative session.

Next week also includes several campaign events and a trip to the governor’s mansion.

Well that is all for this week. I plan to next post on Sunday, April 18^th. Please feel free to email me with a comment.

Special Masters Post:

A great finish to a great week with a great champion, Phil Mickelson, taking the green jacket. Most of the excitement was when Tiger made a small charge. At that time there were about 5 players within a couple of shots of the lead. But after the 13th hole Phil took control and it was over by the time he reached the 16th green.

For us volunteers it was a long hard week physically but a fantastic week in golf history. Personally, working from dawn to dusk and eating dinner at 10 PM was getting old but each day I was re energized by the excitement that surrounded me. I hope you enjoyed this years Masters as much as I did.

It is good to be home and I am looking forward to getting back to my everyday routine (and hopefully work off the 5 pounds I gained).