Mission Impossible ???

Took a field trip today to the Wake County Board of Elections to do a little research on Cary Town Council campaign funding. Word is that the current CTC regime's close relationship with developers started before they even took office. I looked through Ernie McAlister's campaign contribution reports for 2003 to see for myself. The reports are a bit sketchy, and not all of the contributors' records included their employer or company affiliation. Did some more digging (I know this is old hat for people here who have been at this a while) and tied a few more large contributors to their companies/interests.

As best I can tell, the Mayor had around $150K funds to pave the way into office. Here are some of the contributors I was able to identify, and they represent a who's who list of companies who benefit directly or indirectly from the development of Cary.

Person 1^st American Land $500
Person Akela Capital, LLC $2,000
Person Barton Development Group $500
Person Basnight & Associates $100
Person Bobbit & Associates $500
Person Boylan Companies $1,000
Person Byrd Commercial Property $1,200
Person Byrd Commercial Property $500
Person Carolantic Realty $500
Person CC Mangum Contractors $300
Person Developer $1,000
Person Developer $500
Person Developer $500
Person Ferrell Grading Co. $1,100
Person Fonville Morisey $500
Person Fonville Morisey $100
Person Future Homes $300
Person Hare Pipeline Construction $1,500
Person Higgins & Morris $250
Person Highland Construction $200
Person Highwood Properties $500
Person Highwood Properties $500
Person Highwood Properties $350
Person Highwood Properties $100
Person Highwood Properties $100
Person J.Sugg Property Management $1,000
Person Kamm Consulting $1,000
Person Kelly Cobb Realtors $150
Person Landco Realty $200
Person Lawrence Realty $350
Person M/I Homes $600
Person Mayor McAlister $10,000
Person Midland Atlantic Properties $500

Peeps NC HomeBuilders Assoc. $4,000
Person Perimeter Realty $2,000
Person Perimeter Realty $500
Person Preston Development $2,000
Person ReMax Realty $100
Person Robuck Homes $100
Person Royal Oaks Building Group, LLC $550
Person Ruffty Homes $250
Person SAS $1,000
Person Triangle Commercial Real Estate $125
Person Triangle Commercial Real Estate $100
Person Tri-Properties $1,000
Person Wardson Construction $2,500
Person Wardson Construction $2,500
Person Wardson Construction $2,000
Person Westbrook & Associates $200

I did not list individuals' names out of respect for their privacy, but did note that contributions from several developers were spread among various employees and family relations.

Joe Citizen cannot fight this amount of money. Simply replacing the Mayor will not fix our problems. I skimmed the campaign contributions reports for Jennifer Robinson, and while her total campaign fund was much smaller than Ernie's, there likewise was a strong bias toward developers.

The only way to fix Cary's problems is with a "Clean sweep" in the Fall elections. We need candidates who are not subserviant to developers, yet have enough money and grass-roots support to get elected. We need a slate of candidates who will run for the open mayoral and town council positions on a common platform:

• Hold the reigning CTC members accountable for all of Cary's problems, including the schools issue which they have continued to sidestep.
• Grow Cary, but at a sensible rate which allows our kids to go more than one year to the same school, and not MYR.
• Stop putting money into boutique projects, and start putting it into projects we really care about like roads, traffic management, water/sewage treatment and preservation of open space/greenways.
• Lay their bodies in front of the first bulldozer used to try and build a high-rise condominium here.

The town council members seem to spend a lot of time bickering, and at times embarrassing eachother. Perhaps a unified platform with fresh candidates is the answer to turning things around.