March 29, 2008

Mayoral duties this week included a work session, a council meeting, several meetings with people of special interest, the taping of another episode of Cary Matters, and a speaking engagement. In addition, I co-hosted the Young Democrats of North Carolina along with Mayor Bell of Durham and several other elected officials.

One of the first meetings I had this week was about a potential concert at the amphitheater. While it is very preliminary and secretive at this point I think it could be a big event for Cary. We have offered support in hopes of attracting this event. I am very thankful that Cary has a venue to attract special events and provide excellent entertainment for our citizens (OK enough of a teaser. Stay tuned to see if this comes to fruition.)

The first meeting with council members this week was a Capital Planning work session. The financial director and the budget director prepared and presented the information. The focus was on policies using bond rating considerations as a framework. That is, we talked about how to maintain our AAA bond rating so that we borrow money for capital projects at the lowest interest rate possible. The good news is that we have great characteristics that will help keep our bond rating including: a resilient economy, a diverse tax base, an affluent population, strong reserves, and financial flexibility due to our low tax rate. Concerns (at least to me) were that we are about to realize a HUGE increase in debt due to our new waste water treatment facility. This will cause a huge spike in expense which could require a significant increase in utility fees. So one option we are considering is a customized debt service which will average out debt over several years and eliminate the peaks. This is similar to a homeowner paying an averaged heating bill over the year rather than paying large amounts in the winter. One other significant point of consideration at this work session was how many months of reserve to have in the general fund. That is, how much money should we have in savings. We have typically had over six months in reserves whereas most AAA communities have less than three. The disadvantage of having such large reserves is that instead of using the excess savings on capital projects we have to borrow money instead. The work session seemed to have been very beneficial to everyone. The staff will take the input from this work session and formulate a proposal that will go to the Operations Committee in the near future.

Mid week I spoke at the Rotary Club in Holly Springs. The invitation was sent to me by Holly Springs council member Vinnie DeBenedetto. I spoke for 25 minutes on the five initiatives that I am working on in Cary and how they impact the region including Holly Springs. The initiatives are ones to address Growth, Roads, Schools, the Environment, and Citizen Involvement. Afterwards, I answered questions and talked to several individuals on issues that Holly Springs is facing that Cary has faced or is facing. The Rotary Club and Devils Ridge were great hosts and I enjoyed speaking with them.

On Wednesday I taped the April episode of Cary Matters along with Don Frantz. Our major topic for this month is water conservation (not a big surprise). The taping was a great deal of fun and Don did an excellent job. I can’t wait to see how it turned out. I believe the information we provided will be of interest to many citizens. Hopefully, citizens will soon start sending in questions and topic suggestions for future Cary Matters. So if you are reading this then this is your invitation. ;-)

Speaking of questions… one of the questions we have been getting this week is for an update on our scheduled meeting with school board members. The school board leaders, Rosa Gill and Beverly Clark, met with Mayor Pro-Tem Robison and at-large representative Portman in late February (I was in Washington). At the conclusion of that meeting they agreed to meet again with me included. Unfortunately, staff has not been able to get us on their calendar since. This week we called Ms Gill and Ms Clark to find that they are both out of town until next week. We will try again and hopefully will be able to begin moving on these meetings. Sadly, I still believe a meeting between the two boards is a long shot (based on comments I have received).

On Thursday before our council meeting we had a reception for our seventeen outgoing advisory board members. During the council meeting we honored those outgoing members with appreciation gifts. Cary is truly blessed to have individuals that will give up their time (and time with their families) to make this a better place to live. I am honored to be their mayor and represent such great people.

The council meeting this week had two issues of note. One was the public hearing raising the development fees. Council members Robinson and Portman gave interesting view points. The thing to remember about development fees is that there is a cost associated with all developments. If that cost is not paid for by the developments then the tax payers pay that cost. The question is what portion of the cost of development the development should pay. The other issue of note had to do with a waiver to road improvements at Cary Parkway and High House Road. The vote was four to three to deny the waiver. The minority felt that the road is at its designed specs and adding a turn lane would ruin the aesthetics. The majority felt that since major approvals at Park West and at Davis Drive and High House will generate so much more traffic than exists today, the turn lane is a necessity. We have asked staff to help look for alternative solutions which could improve that intersection without destroying the aesthetics.

To close out the week I co-hosted a meeting of the North Carolina Young Democrats on Friday night in RTP. There were several mayors and elected officials in attendance. The buzz of course was the presidential primary but there was a lot of conversation about what we are doing and are planning on doing in Cary. I will also be in attendance at the Young Democrats today at a luncheon during the John Edwards presentation.

Well that’s about all for this week. I hope to post next week on April 5th.