December 13^th, 2007 (Initial Posting)

(This first post will be a long one since it covers 2 months rather than a week. I anticipate subsequent posts will be much shorter)

I began doing work related to the mayor’s office on October 10^th (one day after the election). By the end of October I had spent about 50 hours in about 20 separate meetings. Those meetings included most of the current council members, 2 council members from neighboring municipalities, 7 different staff member groups, and 8 special interest groups. Included in the special interest groups were the Chamber of Commerce, the Homebuilders Association, various builders and political groups.

While all October meetings were important the ones that I deemed crucial were the council members, the Homebuilders, and the Chamber. Council members were obviously concerned about the direction the council was going. They all seemed very receptive to change. The Homebuilders were also receptive to change but requested that the new council notify them of change as soon as possible. Their biggest concern was lack of predictability. I committed to notifying them of any changes in policy. I also told them that it was possible that impact fees would increase and that the development process may change. The Chamber of Commerce meeting was more of an introductory meeting but they did express interest in keeping current programs that were funded by the town. The meetings in October were relatively short in time and generally introductory in content.

Meetings in November and December not only increased in number but also in length and content. This time period included more meetings with staff and council members, Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker, Chatham County Commissioner Patrick Barnes, Wake County School Board member Ron Margiotta, other mayors and elected officials, and various special interests. My meeting with Mayor Meeker was very pleasant as we discussed mutual interest in the environment and transportation. I also met with Chatham County commissioner Patrick Barnes. He expressed many concerns about the Western Wake Wastewater Facility (which is in the review process). In addition, he expressed frustration about the inability to work with Cary officials. We agreed to stay in touch and work on possible solutions to problems. I met with Wake County School Board member Ron Margiotta to talk about school problems especially in relation to Cary. This meeting was of particular interest to me because of the many citizens that spoke highly of Mr. Margiotta. Since our talk I have paid special attention to how responsive he is to Cary citizens. His interaction is very important in a time when Cary citizens are dealing with constant reassignments and year round issues. His willingness to work with me is very encouraging as I prepare to meet with other school board members. Other elected officials that I briefly talked with include Mayor Weatherly of Apex, Mayor Sears of Holly Springs, and Mayor Faulkner of Morrisville. We all agreed that our willingness to work on regional problems together will be increasingly important as our communities grow.

November and December included several pitches from developers on upcoming projects. This will be ongoing throughout the next four years. One interesting conversation I had was with developer representative Jerry Turner. Mr. Turner discussed problems with the existing development process. I talked about how I wanted to review and hopefully change the development process next year so that citizens had more participation and equal representation. He pointed out that developers have a problem after a proposal is submitted because change is not allowed until after the Public Hearing. We agreed that if the town reviewed this process it should include citizens and developers. Who knows, maybe the best solution would come from the Davis Drive & High House group and developers.

November and December were also the beginning of talks and forums. I spoke to several groups including DDH (Davis Drive and High House), Cary Democrats, Wake Democrats, a homeowners association, and at the TCC (Triangle Community Coalition) Forum. The TCC forum was attended mostly by people with development interests -- that is, developers, realtors, and business owners. They expressed concern that the housing market is slowing and is 25% slower than last year at this time. One developer stated that he felt punished (through impact fees) for providing housing that the town created the demand for. He wanted to know why that was fair. My comment was that all development has an associated cost including water, sewer, fire, and police. I asked why a senior citizen on a fixed income should pay for the majority of the cost of infrastructure for a new development. I expressed that I didn’t think we were punishing them since they pay a very low percentage of the cost of the infrastructure and that my goal was to create fairness. Looking back on the forum, I thought the forum was very healthy and will give both groups a better understanding of each other.

As I finish this post I am one day away from taking office. Being mayor of the 7^th largest municipality in North Carolina will definitely put butterflies in your stomach but I am excited about the opportunities that are before me and this council. Talk at you later…