Town & NCCVE Forum

[Brent]

OK, for those of you who attended, please feel free to post your analysis/observations of today's Town/NCCVE forum.

For those who didn't, be sure to watch on Cary TV.

There were many excellent moments during this forum.

However, to me, a defining moment occurred at the very, very end -- after the Mayor candidate debates (which was the last debate).

What happened?

Ernie declined to shake Harold's hand.

What's up with that?

[d4vendel]

I was more interested to find out that part of the negotiations that Nels did in getting the Lowes site approved was to put the Dog Park there.

I'm sorry, but this seems to be a bit of an embellishment. Didn't the Dog Park only get put there after construction of the site started and the trees in that corner were cut down by mistake? Check out the rezoning conditions - nothing about a Dog Park. That all came about well after the site was already approved.

- David

[dhyatt]

I was more interested to find out that part of the negotiations that Nels did in getting the Lowes site approved was to put the Dog Park there.

I'm sorry, but this seems to be a bit of an embellishment. Didn't the Dog Park only get put there after construction of the site started and the trees in that corner were cut down by mistake? Check out the rezoning conditions - nothing about a Dog Park. That all came about well after the site was already approved.

- David

That's correct. It was our own "brent" who suggested that because the trees were cut down in error, perhaps we could the dog park there and salvage the site. One of several excellent suggestions from CP members through the years...

[francejamie]

As a member of the board of the Cary Dog Park Club, I will totally vouch that the current site was chosen only after the trees were already chopped down.

[Rich]

I did not attend, but I was forwarded these notes regarding the school board portion of the event from a concerned parent who did.

Cary Candidate Forum
Sept. 12, 2007

Candidates present:

District 6:
Ed Armogida (EA)
Sean O’Brien (SO)
John Zal (JZ not to be confused with Jay-Z (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay-Z))

District 8:
Ron Margiotta (RM)

District 5 candidate Anne McLaurin was present but did not participate in the forum. A nameplate was provided for her as well as Beverly Clark, but she must have asked to have the name card taken down because they later took it down. Also, Beverly Clark was not present at all.

Opening Statements

Ed Armogida
Former military officer, football coach and track coach

Says it’s time for change. We need to focus on the bad part of the statistics as well as good parts of the statistics. WCPSS has lots of good strong programs, but too many people are not happy, not satisfied with the current board of education. I’d like to bring change to the BOE.

Sean O’Brien:
1st time running for public office. He decided to run because his older daughter just started kindergarten at Reedy Creek Elementary and his younger daughter will start in 2 years. He says the current “tone” of the BOE needs to change.

John Zal
Parent of 3 children (2 attend WCPSS schools and youngest will next year). Says he is a stakeholder in the system. His concerns: we need more parent involvement. There is currently only one board member who is a parent of a child in WCPSS on the BOE and he wants to change that. He says he feels like he is “humble enough to have people answer the questions I don’t know the answer to.”

RM: The children of WCPSS are my customers and my top priority. The Board of Education should always remember how our policies affect children’s lives and their families’ lives, and how our policies impact the taxpayers’ wallets.
My background consists of serving as a school board member on the current WCPSS school board, serving on a Northeastern school district’s school board, and several years serving as a board president.

Questions:

1. How should BOE handle growth?

SO: This has to be resolved by public support. All of the options concern adding capacity, and to add capacity you need to add more money and the only way to add more money is to have parents support the school system. The current tone we have on BOE is reducing public support. I am not in favor of impacts fees, but I am in favor of a property tax increase. I am not supportive of the Real Estate Transfer tax.

JZ: We need to have more schools, but we should also use the facilities we have to the best of our abilities. That doesn’t mean all schools should be year-round schools. We need to work better with the county commissioners to get the funding from the bonds so they will release it. We’ve disenfranchised parents because the current system caters too much to the low end and not to the full spectrum of all parents. Bonds are the best way to pay for schools. Growth paying for growth is best accomplished with bonds.

RM: The BOE is obligated to provide classrooms. Regarding the most recent bond, a large majority of dollars were provided by the county w/o a tax increase. This was the Capital Improvement Plan, which resulted from growth. We should be concerned w/ how we spend these dollars. The broadest base tax we can use to pay for growth is the property tax, which I support. We put it before the public every July to let them know there is a property tax and how much it is, so they can choose to support it or reject it.

EA: I believe in the property tax, public/private partnerships, and justified bonds. I won’t support bonds right now till I am satisfied that the money generated in the last bond is used in the way it was intended. I’m more concerned about the present. YR schools are under-enrolled, traditional schools are over-enrolled. This is not acceptable if we have empty seats available that can be used. We’re under a court order at the present time. That changed the reality of how things should be done and I’m not sensing that the community is seeing that as much as it should be.

2. MYR: how would you evaluate the success of the decision to move forward with mandatory year-round schools, and the impact it has had on traditional schools? Are you in favor of MYR as we move forward?

JZ: That word “mandatory” is what bothers people. The problem w/o MYR is that we lose diversity. VYR schools primarily consisted of white affluent kids who did very well. What’s going to be the fallout? Legally we can’t force MYR, but if we don’t have MYR we’ll have diversity problems. I’m not sure how to solve that problem.

RM: I always have and will continue to support VYR. I will continue to oppose MYR. We must respect Judge Manning’s ruling. The claims and predictions from parents opposed to MYR have all come true. We have over-enrolled traditional schools. In this district (8) we converted 6 schools to YR and left only 2 as traditional. It couldn’t work, and it wouldn’t work. We need to take a very close evaluation of what’s happened this past year and incorporate into what we do this year or we’ll have a disaster on our hands.

EA: The school system decided to appeal Judge Manning’s ruling. We don’t know what the answer is going to be. I want to see a plan B. I want to say that if we’re using hindsight, we need to go back to where we were the previous year and get this cleaned up. We have three choices: MYR, traditional or both. If the age of children is an important consideration, where are we trending? Toward all MYR or all traditional? (I believe he is referring to having children of different ages on different schedules.) I’m also very concerned that we are deemphasizing magnets.

SO: Choice yields participation in schools, and when parents participate that is critical. Regarding the success of the decision: I believe based on a poorly written law it was correctly decided. Again, the current tone on the board is a problem. One BOE member said during a meeting: “Parents are acting like they own the schools.” That is not the right tone to have. I do support YR as a choice. It is at least as good at traditional schools at providing a good education.

3. There were two articles in the N&O this week on the independent curriculum audit. They focused on principals’ control at WCPSS schools and teacher evaluations. What are your thoughts on that?

RM: Some of the articles in newspaper could very easily be misunderstood. Principals having too much power is not what came through in the curriculum audit. For teachers, auditors are more concerned with the process, not whether they were properly evaluated. Quite frankly I don’t think principals have enough control at their schools. They came in and actually reviewed the processes in place and how things can be better coordinated in this county. I think we can better coordinate with a smaller school district.

EA: Teacher evaluations are a 2-way process. Over the years we’ve gotten better but again, we need to look at how much time is used to evaluate all instructors at a school. Principals need more power; I agree with Ron. These 130 principals probably have a more critical role in the whole process than anyone in the group. I also agree about newspaper with Ron.

SO: Referred to a book called “Good to Great” by Tom Collins. To increase the leadership quality of the principal, they must be given more control. We currently do not measure students as well. We need to move to a student growth model and show on a classroom level, school level, calendar level, where the difference is being made. We can do this with the current testing process. We need to give principals the power to innovate.
Regarding teacher evaluations: if we start with a student growth model and we can discern statistically the effect the teacher has. The Univ. of PA has a good site for this.

JZ: Didn’t read the N&O articles. Says there should be a lot of emphasis on principals, leadership and people who motivate the teachers. There is a disconnect between teachers and who is making decisions at the top. Example: Trailblazers: I haven’t talked to a teacher yet who likes that program—I don’t know why. But we need to listen to teachers more.

4. Regarding financial events of the past year: MYR funding, real estate appraisals, etc. How do you characterize the relationship between BOE and County Commissioners?

EA: I wouldn’t hire a second appraiser after already hiring one. (Not sure what his point was here). Regarding the relationship with the CCs: they’re the ones doing the funding. I can understand their frustration with the BOE. I also would have voted against what they voted against. There was too much time wasted. Two years ago the relationship was a lot better than it is now.

SO: The BOE and CC worked together well for a few years. They moved forward on that till the bond was passed. Then, a change of tone occurred on the school board and that resulted in the execution of MYR. Parents were forced into making a choice about the bond. They wanted to give the school system money but they didn’t want to approve MYR. (O’Brien explains that he has a lot of experience working with the CCs and other government bodies at this point.) It’s a function of comedy and personality for how you can come together and not say the kinds of divisive things we’ve heard.

JZ: There should be less overlap between the CCs and the BOE. The School Board needs to make some compromises. As a parent, I would be more willing to compromise to get a solution that is better than nothing at all. There has been a lot of deadlock, and it’s very discouraging.

RM: Regarding the relationship between the BOE and the CCs at present time: it’s terrible. It’s certainly the worst I’ve seen since I’ve been on BOE. Different personalities are part of problem, and there are faults on both sides. To a great extend I continually fault the board I serve on as being unwilling to meet with people and talk to people. They have been unwilling to listen. And regarding the real estate situation: to not require an appraisal is unheard of. When it was done, they showed the public that the school system was willing to pay double the money. We can’t spend tax dollars that way.

Closing statements:

JZ: I’m a parent, a stakeholder, and I have a vested interested in seeing that things are successful. An ITB/OTB problem exists. I want to work for all of Wake, not just for our district.

RM: I’m unopposed, and I’m truly disappointed that I am unopposed, and have decided to run a campaign anyway. Campaigning is the best time to get the issues out before the public and will serve the public well. The people in my district know I’ve never been afraid to speak out and be vocal. Now it’s more than my community: I want to speak out throughout this county. Voices are not being heard. That is my main reason for running a campaign.

EA: I’m a former history teacher. I believe very strongly there should be more people running. Our district has 20-25% voter turnout in our district. That’s not enough. I want your vote but would rather have you vote for my opponent than not at all. In the past year, I was told I could never walk again (was in a hospital for a year). (He is walking.) We can do anything we want. We can make this a school system that we all need to have and want to have. Thank you, I am grateful for this opportunity.

SO: This is the best-dressed crowd I’ve spoken in front of. (Laughter.) We have good schools in WCPSS, and good people serving, but “been there done that not” is not good enough. Currently there is a strain on system. The tone isn’t where it needs to be. Voter approval is not going to happen if the tone is like this. I want to highlight two policies. (1) Value added student assessment. (2) Come up w/ a regional/vocation/technical high school. We need real career readiness for people who know by the time their 16 that they’re not going to college. I have the background to make a transition in this time w/o disrupting the good things we have.

I cannot answer any questions, I post these as an FYI.

[Brent]

That's correct. It was our own "brent" who suggested that because the trees were cut down in error, perhaps we could the dog park there and salvage the site. One of several excellent suggestions from CP members through the years...

Actually, I can't take full credit for this...Marla Dorrel came up with the idea about the same time I did.

And good point that several good suggestions, some of which have been implemented, have indeed originated here in the "peanut gallery" of carypolitics.

[Brent]

There were 10 candidates who debated for Town Council yesterday.

9 of the 10 said that the town's infernal dynamic message signs ought to go. Some said it more strongly than others (including their characterization as "Complete waste of money" and "malignant warts on the landscape").

Only Tommy Byrd noted a potentially redeeming value that might merit keeping them.

And even Mayor O'Commerce, who had previously written that he saw no hypocrisy in the town's erecting pole signs while simultaneously requiring private pole signs at businesses to be torn down, has changed his tune. He stated emphatically that the signs were bad, bad, bad and hypocritical.

Hence, pretty much no matter who is elected, I look forward to the signs being removed in the first 30 days of the new administration (if not done before the election).

And I'll even hold out small hope that the Carpenter Farm Supply and South Hills Mall signs could be saved.

[d4vendel]

You are not really holding your breath on either one of those events, are you Brent? :-D

[Brent]

You are not really holding your breath on either one of those events, are you Brent? :-D

Oh, I'm confident of it, Dave.

After all, I know that none of these people would say something just to help their election campaigns and then do something different if elected.

Right?

Right? :-D

[d4vendel]

:wink:

[Brent]

CARY CANDIDATE FORUM BEGINS AIRING TOMORROW

CARY, NC – The Cary Community Candidate Forum begins airing daily on Cary TV 11 Saturday, September 22 through Monday, October 8, 2007. For a daily schedule of the candidate forum as well as other CARY TV programming, click on the CARY TV 11 icon at http://www.townofcary.org . For those without Time Warner Cable service, the forum is available online for the first time; see the Video Files section of the Town's Web site at http://www.townofcary.org/med/video/video1.htm .

Recorded in the Cary Town Council Chambers on Wednesday, September 12, the unedited forum includes candidates for the At-Large seat and districts B and D of the Cary Town Council and for districts 6 and 8 (district 5 declined to participate) of the Wake County School Board. Segments for each seat lasted about 75 minutes and included candidate opening and closing remarks as well as questions from Cary citizens.

The 2007 Cary Community Candidate Forum is the first and only forum for candidates for local office sponsored by a Triangle local government and the only forum for local offices to be aired this year on Cary TV 11. The forum was sponsored by the Town of Cary and managed by the N.C. Center for Voter Education.


###

PRIMARY CONTACTS: Susan Moran, Public Information Officer, (919) 460-4951
Damon Circosta, NCCVE, (919) 839-1200
April Little, Deputy Public Information Officer, (919) 481-5091

[MattD]

And I'll even hold out small hope that the Carpenter Farm Supply and South Hills Mall signs could be saved.


Brent - sorry to say, but I believe the Carpenter Farm Supply sign has already been taken down (about a month ago).

[Brent]

Matt,

Yeah, I realized that after the fact; I talked to Dale recently.

Did you know that the town has assessed a huge fine against him?

[MattD]

Matt,

Yeah, I realized that after the fact; I talked to Dale recently.

Did you know that the town has assessed a huge fine against him?

How much of a fine? I've got a few thousand pennies I can donate to the cause...

[DarylB]

Matt,

Yeah, I realized that after the fact; I talked to Dale recently.

Did you know that the town has assessed a huge fine against him?

How much of a fine? I've got a few thousand pennies I can donate to the cause...

Pennies for the cause? I don't think they need, nor deserve the cash, however small. More like tar and feathers for those that assessed any "fine". Who the hell do they think they are?

[Brent]

Matt, you/he will need more than a few thousand pennies, as I recall.

Darryl, who they think they are is Town Staff, and as previously noted, they'll do as much as they can get away with. In the absence of sufficient adult supervision, as is the case now, they get away with far too much.

Such as telling the owner of a private business to take down his sign that is a landmark, mocking him by arrogantly putting up similar (yet butt-ugly and useless) signs of the government's own, and then slapping him with a major fine because he didn't take down his sign soon enough to suit the sign czar tyrants.

All the while, those who should be providing adult supervision are playing see no evil/hear no evil/speak no evil. And the tall one who purports to be their leader writes eloquently, defending the staff sign czar tyrants, saying that the town's signs are important and valuable and wonderful (especially now that they're green), and that there is NO HYPOCRISY WHATSOEVER in the town's putting up its own pole signs while requiring private businesses to tear down theirs.

Until he has his eleventh-hour, election-season epiphany in which he completely flip-flops. No transparent political gamesmanship there, no sir. How stupid does he think Cary citizens are?