March 22, 2008

Meetings dominated the week once again with the majority being with other elected officials or intergovernmental related.

The week started with a meeting of Cary’s Committee to create our legislative agenda. Our agenda’s first draft has 10 items on it, some carried over from previous years. So far there are two items related to schools. The first being at-large election of school board members and the second being taxing authority for the school board. The committee should finalize the draft for a council vote on April 7^th.

Monday also included a meeting of the Wake County Mayors Association. We had two presentations from Wake County groups proposing to work with town staffs. The first presentation was from an environmental group and the second was on gang activity. Both groups promise to provide excellent supplements to what Cary has in place. One dinner topic included a discussion on whether or not towns were including at-large school board elections on their legislative agendas. Mayor Meeker was the only mayor not present during this discussion. Mayors from Knightdale, Wendell, and Zebulon opposed any change in school board elections citing a concern that their parents would lose a voice in the selection process. I was able to discuss this a little more in detail with the Wendell and Zebulon mayors who said they would consider at-large elections if the wording stated “some” at-large and not “majority”. Since that meeting the News and Observer has reported that Wake Forest didn’t back their mayor and Rolesville was undecided. It will be interesting to see where this issue goes with the Wake County Legislative Delegation.

There was a meeting Tuesday with staff and Mayor Pro-Tem Robison to review the CAMPO TAC (Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization – Transportation Advisory Committee) meeting agenda. The CAMPO TAC meeting the next day included transportation funding and long-range transportation plans for the region. One appropriation of note was for the widening of I40 from Wade Avenue to I440/US 1-64 which should begin in Fiscal Year 2009. In addition, there was an interesting discussion after the presentations on the gas tax. Mayor Meeker of Raleigh and Commissioner Chair Joe Bryan were concerned that Wake County was getting back less than 50% collected with the gas tax. They wanted information to prove or disprove this point so that this item could be included on legislative agendas. Cary staff is investigating this matter for possible inclusion on our legislative agenda.

I only attended one political event this week. Mid-week there was a Meet and Greet for NC Senate candidate Josh Stein. While I am REALLY impressed with both Jack Nichols and Josh Stein, I have decided to endorse Josh Stein. I think either candidate will do an excellent job in the NC Senate and both candidates have pledged to help further Cary’s needs. In case you are wondering, I was unable to attend Bill Clinton’s visit on Friday. Mayors from Garner and Fuquay gladly filled my seats.

One other meeting of note this week was with Tom Anhut representing local homebuilders. He was concerned about Cary’s proposed development fee increase and asked that they not be increased at all due to the housing market in the area. I pledged to be sensitive to the housing market but told him at this time I favored developers paying 75% of cost. The main reason is that Cary taxpayers are paying too much of the cost of each new development. In some cases taxpayers paid over 90% of cost. To defray some of the developer fee increase, I told him the town was working on several environmental incentives for developers which would give credits for development fees. Not only would that help with the cost but would create environmentally friendly developments.

Friday was a holiday for the town staff and they deserve it. Unfortunately for me I had to go to work at my day job. ;-) But I am looking forward to Easter weekend with a visit to Asheville to see my oldest daughter.

So until next week take care and Happy Easter! I hope to post next week on March the 22nd.