Betsy Kane’s Raleigh City Council Endorsements

Endorsements

At-large: Russ Stephenson (single vote, no second)
District A: Nancy McFarlane
District B: Rodger Koopman

In the at-large race, six candidates are running for two seats. Russ Stephenson stands head and shoulders above the rest of the field, combining depth of understanding of Raleigh’s issues (he’s an architect and award-winning city planning consultant) with a nearly pathological commitment to reaching out with courtesy to all groups (including those that disagree with him). In his first term as an at-large councilor, he has shown a dedication that defies the paltry $7,000 after-tax compensation that accompanies this full-time job.

The other contenders fall so far short of the standard set by Russ that I cannot recommend a first-round vote for any of them. Paul Anderson must be one of the city’s nicest people, but I am dismayed by the $4,000 contribution from the NC Homebuilders PAC that seems to have prevented him from taking a more assertive stand on Raleigh’s pressing growth issues. Helen Tart, likewise, is an admirable advocate for transit and a fine person, if I may say so, but continues to perform weakly in the public debate setting that is so critical for effective at-large leadership.

Mary Ann Baldwin, as the choice of Big Real Estate, is unacceptable; she has stated that she wants to keep impact fees at their current (paltry) rate, which leaves taxpayers footing 85% of the bill for growth. Furthermore, when pressed on the question of a $75 million subsidy for John Kane’s private parking deck – a stupendously bad idea which the voters, not surprisingly, overwhelmingly oppose – she will not commit to a position. This leads me to the obvious conclusion about her intentions.

Her positions on other growth and development related issues are likewise retrograde. The presence of the oak leaf on her campaign signs does nothing to convince me that she would protect trees, neighborhoods, or taxpayers from developers’ depredations.

The other candidates, Will Best and David Williams, are inadequately informed about the city’s functions and favor a hands-off philosophy towards governing that will fall short of addressing Raleigh’s pressing growth issues.

From this overview of the field, I recommend that voters on Tuesday “single-shot” Russ Stephenson – that is, cast just one vote for Russ.

Single-shotting doubles the effect of your vote (as it is calculated as a percentage of total votes cast) and boosts the chance that Russ, and only Russ, gets in on the first round. That would put the best candidate in office, and it would put the voters in a position to demand commitments from the remaining candidates duking it out for the leftover seat in November’s runoff election.

Seeking to distinguish themselves from the pack, the candidates will, I predict, become more willing to “clarify their positions” (so to speak) on issues such as Kane’s parking deck and a meaningful increase in impact fees. These are the issues that the voters want leadership on; only Russ Stephenson provides that leadership at present.

In District A, the clear choice is Nancy McFarlane. As an advocate for neighborhoods, parks and green space, she has worked for years to get northwest Raleigh’s out-of-control stormwater problems under control. She pledges to protect Raleigh taxpayers by making new growth pay more of its own way so that property taxes don’t have to, and brings a strong business perspective to management of city affairs in a fiscally sound way. McFarlane also understands that the upcoming Comprehensive Plan effort will shape the city’s infrastructure, growth, economy, and well-being for the next 20 years.

Incumbent Tommy Craven, in contrast, opposes an increase in impact fees, votes against the mayor’s initiatives time and time again, and has helped to pack the Planning Commission with pro-developer appointees. In spite of his district’s pressing stormwater needs, he was the only councilor to vote against safety upgrades to Greystone Lake Dam to protect roads and residences.

He also opposed downtown investments that have resulted in the historic comeback of Raleigh’s Fayetteville Street, Glenwood South and nearby districts. The fiscal health of North Raleigh depends on a vibrant, tax-contributing downtown, so I am not sure why Craven chooses to pit one part of Raleigh against the other. (It’s an easy campaign strategy, of course.) I am glad to see that Nancy McFarlane takes a broader view.

Another easy choice awaits voters in District B, northeast Raleigh. I endorse Rodger Koopman, a superbly credentialed candidate with a successful background as an entrepreneur and a retired Army officer with a high-level intelligence position in the Middle East. The child of holocaust survivors, he is deeply committed to democracy and citizen empowerment at all levels of government.

I wish that his opponent, Jessie Taliaferro, had the same commitment to citizens – she’s fought to disable the city’s Citizen Advisory Councils and take away their funding.

But that’s characteristic of the difference between these candidates. On every issue that Raleigh neighbors and taxpayers care about, Koopman and Taliaferro seem diametrically opposed.

Koopman favors raising impact fees significantly to ensure that growth pays for itself. Taliaferro engineered last year’s minimal increase in impact fees that was supported (to prevent the mayor’s higher increase from going through) by the real estate community.

Koopman supports reasonable standards for infill development to protect the character of established neighborhoods. Taliaferro wants to keep the rules as they are (hint: non-existent) while tear-downs proceed apace.

Koopman wants to keep Horseshoe Farm and Durant Nature Park as nature parks. Taliaferro wants to build a gym and ballfields on the nature at Horseshoe Farm, and proposes cutting down 15 acres of mature hardwood trees at Durant.

Three percent of Koopman’s campaign funds came from the real estate community; 77 percent of Taliaferro’s did. – Well, you get the picture. This one’s a no-brainer.

Rodger Koopman, Nancy McFarlane, and Russ Stephenson – I’m looking forward to their terms on Council, and I have high hopes for the “New Raleigh” they’ll help our city become.