Apex November 2017 Municipal Elections

It's that time of year again for municipal elections and we have two items coming up on the ballot, a parks bond and three seats on the town council.

First, let's talk about the Parks Bond. If you're unfamiliar with it, the town has put together a great FAQ that should address a lot of your questions. I asked John Brown, the Parks director, why the growth itself isn't enough to fund the initiatives and he pointed out that as we grow, those additional tax revenues are typically needed to offset the cost of providing services to meet the demands of the larger community (public safety, streets, infrastructure, etc). He also pointed out that if the funds are there, the council can opt to not issue some of the debt or increase taxes to repay it. If passed, the bond will add additional greenways (connecting 17 more neighborhoods!), provide for a senior center, and build out Pleasant Park (which could be useful for tournaments, meaning soccer parents, etc may not have to travel as much). In my opinion, this will have a great impact on our quality of life and we should all vote Yes for this.

Second, there are three spots opening up for the town council, Nicole Dozier, Gene Schulze, and Denise Wilkie's seats. Ms. Dozier is the only one running for re-election. There are five candidates running for these three seats:

• Nicole Dozier
• Brett Gantt
• David Hooks
• Audra Killingsworth
• Graham Wilson

I went to the candidate forum last night to hear from the candidates. If you were unable to make it, they will be posting a video on the Chamber website within a few days. Overall, the candidates seemed very similar to each other with very little disagreements.

So who has my votes? Well, I will be voting NDG (play on the NBA signs around town, encouraging people to vote for the block of Nicole, Brett, and Audra). Ms. Dozier impressed me with her experience, advocacy, and her drive to get a senior center in place. Mr. Hooks impressed me with his town experience (being on the planning board and a lifelong resident of Apex), poise, and volunteering with kids. Mr. Wilson impressed me with an emphasis on economic development.

Finally, if you want to see what the ballot will actually look like so you're prepared, you can see it here. Short and sweet!

Voting is November 7th! You can find election information here, including how to get an absentee ballot, your polling location, and more.

Global Climate

Climate change has been an ongoing issue for about 20 years (maybe more). I was influenced early on by Michael Crichton's book, State of Fear, which posits that there's no real scientific evidence of global warming. Plus, it was just another thing for humanity to focus on, that we need something to stay fearful of. It's an interesting theory, especially if you consider that the current growing fear of terrorism has probably reduced the fear of global warming, mitigating any resistance to progress. A few years ago, Casey shared this punnet-like square video of all the various perspectives of are we going to do anything about it and if global warming is caused by humans or not. So regardless of what you believe and if anything can be done, the risk of doing nothing seems a lot worse than the risk of doing something and it ending up not being a thing.

So with that out of the way, the current news of Trump and the Paris Climate Agreement has me more aware of local efforts. If the US government isn't going to lead the way, then we need to do what we can on a local level. As a North Carolina citizen, we have an opportunity to keep our state moving forward towards more renewable energy sources. There's a bill that was just filed with the NC House that rolls back some of the goals (the minimum stays at 6% vs. growing to 12.5% by 2021). I'm not a lawyer, but it also looks like nuclear energy will be considered renewable, which probably means that Duke Energy could just buy energy from its own nuclear plants vs. other renewable energy sources.

So, if you're a NC resident and you want to do something, you can find your representative and express your opinion. You can also look at what your town is up to.

Apex Candidate Forum for Nov. 2015 Elections

Totally different topic than technology, but this is another topic I care about - my government. I'm raising two young daughters and am interested in providing them with an environment where they can be safe and thrive. Our town has gotten a little bit of attention; it has definitely grown since we moved here in 2002. Tonight was a candidate forum for the local elections, which I assert means more in my day-to-day life than any other little election going on. With the growth going on here, there's definitely an increased interest in the races. When I originally registered for the event, it was going to be held at the town hall, but they soon changed it to a new high school auditorium when it was apparent there was going to be a large crowd. I would estimate there were about 300 people in attendance.

There's a mayor race with 2 candidates and a town council race with 2 spots and 5 candidates.

Town Council Forum

The town council was first up. There were five candidates and they were given 90 seconds to make opening remarks and then the moderator (WRAL's Ken Smith!) would ask five questions (pre-selected, no audience interaction), giving each candidate 90 seconds to answer the question. After the five questions, each candidate would be given 90 seconds for closing remarks. Candidates were not able to challenge or address each other. This was a forum just to give the voting public an insight into their approaches.

The candidates talked about smart growth, using our #1 ranking and attraction to be more selective with the homes & businesses that want to come here. They saw a need for better roads and more water/sewer. There's an upcoming bond on the ballot that most (all?) candidates supported. It also seems like the Land Use plan needs to be updated.

Here are my notes from the question session:

1. What steps would you take to manage the influx of new residents?
• Helton: Invite more businesses. Don't say no to all opportunities.
• Jensen: Manage subdivisions with infrastructure. Incentivize businesses. Parks (called out Pleasant Park w/ 93 acres)
• Lassiter: Sustainable growth. Use land use plan. Strict standards/high fees for builders.
• Moyer: Set standards. Don't have to say Yes to all. Bring business to 540/64. Non-residential growth.
• Xavier: Managed growth. Keep eye on density.
2. What are your top two infrastructure challenges and how would you address them?
• Jensen: Roads. Called out Kelly Rd/Olive Chapel Rd as a problem. $50M bond coming up to provide bridge over Salem St. for Peakway. Sewer/water.
• Lassiter: Roads. Approve transportation bond. Says it won't raise taxes. He sponsored the bill of getting out of the power business and says it saves the consumers money.
• Moyer: Traffic. Bond to help Peakway. Partner more with the DOT.
• Xavier: Roads. Annexation needs to include sewer/water. Avoid being in the business of provider power and implement it quicker.
• Helton: Bond. Sewer/Water is lifeblood. Looking at history, the $2M bond for sewer/water helped support the whole Beaver Creek Common shopping area.
3. Would you support bond for Pleasant Park, even if it increases taxes?
• Lassiter: Would need concrete plan.
• Moyer: Agree. Would like to see plan tap into private funding. Let the public decide on the bond.
• Xavier: Fiscal conservative. No Bond. Wants senior center before a park.
• Helton: Needs to see a plan.
• Jensen: Need a plan. Voters will decide.
4. What specific role should the council play when recruiting business?
• Moyer: Land Use Plan. Incubator.
• Xavier: Work proactively. In unison w/ builders and residents. Facilitate/manage process.
• Helton: Untie the hands of the economic development department. Allow them to offer incentives, such as free water/sewer for a year.
• Jensen: Revise land use plan. Add more business to the plan. Preplan infrastructure (water/sewer), so they can have it ready when a business shows up and ready to move in.
• Lassiter: He seemed more resistant, thinking we're fine w/ the residential percentages.
5. Would you support a grant to match new investments for existing, expanding businesses?
• Xavier: Works elsewhere, even w/ Dell. Yes
• Helton: Yes. It's the right thing.
• Jensen: 80% of our growth comes from existing businesses, so yes, we need to support that.
• Lassiter: Skeptical, but if it's proven and ironclad, he would support it. Also if it didn't mean raising taxes. We already have a pretty good incentive with our workforce, open spaces, etc.
• Moyer: Invest in infrastructure.

In closing, Moyer seemed to get a dig into Lassiter by saying he's not using the council race as a stepping stone (Lassiter is rumored to run for higher office next). Lassiter was thankful to everyone and wanted to remind folks he's a fiscal conservative. Jensen stressed that we need more employers and a senior citizen center. Helton wrapped it up by saying we need to take some risks and that his mother-in-law is a great chef, so he's not going anywhere.

Mayor Forum

There are two candidates. Same format as the town council, but with six questions. Even with an additional question, they were done in less than half the time it took to field five questions to five candidates.

Olive opened that he's been here for 45 years and back then, the population was 1500. He's seen the downtown whither and then revitalize. Wilkie moved here in 1990 and wants to maintain our strong sense of community.

1. How will you support the council when there's conflict?
• Olive: Unify council. Stop bickering and personal attacks. Work to find common ground. Meet with each member and find out what are their top five things they want to accomplish.
• Wilkie: The mayor is the CEO of the town. Represents the residents. Bring consensus.
2. What do you want to accomplish?
• Wilkie: Economic development. Help small businesses grow.
• Olive: Hold public meetings to gather feedback. Election districts to make sure all areas of Apex are equally represented. Unique shops in downtown. No chains.
3. How would you represent Apex in state or national venues?
• Olive: Work with Capital Area Metro to make sure Apex traffic is represented in overall plan.
• Wilkie: Work with DOT on roads.
4. Businesses can't find space in Apex - how would you handle this?
• Wilkie: We should target 30% commercial tax base. Let them know we'll step up to help with infrastructure. Business-friendly.
• Olive: We're currently 82% residential. We need to review the plan, which should be derived from vision.
5. Explain vision of economic development.
• Olive: It's going to come because of the #1 ranking. Need to work with existing businesses.
• Wilkie: Show businesses that we have the talent pool already, such as the academies in the high schools.
6. Strategies for keeping up with being the best place to live?
• Wilkie: Being selective about businesses/subdivisions. Temper growth and selecting quality businesses and houses.
• Olive: Need to cast a vision for 20 years out. Insist on quality.

In closing, Wilkie said that Apex has a great staff and wants to support and use them. She's unaffiliated and so she doesn't have any party agenda. She wants to keep taxes low and businesses strong. Olive talked about breaking down his candidacy into three sections: Vision (history of working across party lines), Leadership (Cisco leadership, business school as an adult, and no party agenda, just an Apex agenda), and Experience (6 years on the planning board and 4 years on the council).

There's a local Apex Voter's Guide website that's pretty good, where you can get some more information. Don't forget to vote on November 3rd!