HOT Lanes: The Empire Strikes Back...

...or something like that.

After last Saturday's resolution at the MeckGOP convention where County Republicans rejected I77 HOT Lanes, circling the wagons was bound to happen. Those wagons appeared in the form of dozens of HOT lanes supporters, consultants, NCDOT officials, and two hand & picked media outlets at a meeting today in Raleigh.

For a while now, the WidenI77.org activists have been trying to meet with Speaker Tillis, and recently, a meeting was set for today at 1030am in Raleigh. Initially, the expectation was that this was going to be just a small sit-down between constituents and their representative in the Legislature.  

Earlier this week, information began to leak out that there may be a few additional guests.  A few dozen would turn out to be more accurate.

Wednesday afternoon a post popped up on Facebook outlining what appeared to be a "dirty trick" by Governmental HOT supporters on the activists of WidenI77.org.   

Here's what happened

When the activists arrived, they went to the Speaker's office and then were directed to an adjacent building.  Upon arriving there were about 40 people from various levels of state and local government as well as a consultant and NCDOT officials waiting for them.  Then a bridge line was opened revealing another dozen or so people on the phone.  

Some officials were apparently in Raleigh for "Town Hall Day", but apparently they found time to break away to head to this meeting.  (For those keeping score here in Davidson, Town Manager Leamon Brice was there in person along with Commissioners Brian Jenest and Rodney Graham.  Mayor woods was on the phone.)

The media outlets linked above somehow made the cut on knowing this event was coming as they had the conference bridge information.  Several other media outlets were contacted this afternoon and evening, and to a one, they had not heard about this giant confab.

So, instead of a sit-down meeting with their representative - something that should be available to any citizen - the activists of WidenI77.org were treated to a press conference of sorts where they were allowed to ask one question each among comments by literally dozens of HOT supporters.

An overwhelming display of force, is that what passes as our new example of responsive government?

It seems more like that scene in Star Wars where the Death Star is rolled out to blow up defenseless Alderaan.

Correction:  The consultancy represented at the meeting was KPMG per comment from Davidson Commissioner Rodney Graham below, not Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consultancy that has presented at other recent HOT lanes meetings.

MeckGOP Raises the Political Stakes for HOT Lanes Supporters

For the past few months as the WidenI77.org citizens group in North Mecklenburg questioned the effort to install HOT Lanes on I-77, the Mecklenburg County Republican Party remained noticeably silent on the subject.  To a degree, that silence was understandable considering the push to install these toll lanes is being led by local Republicans in the State Legislature.

This week that changed - culminating in a dramatic scene during Saturday's annual MeckGOP County Convention.

On the morning of the convention a resolution was submitted opposing the current HOT Lanes plan for I-77.  After working with the Resolutions Committee, the proposed language for the resolution was edited down for brevity and content.  However, the overall intent of the resolution remained in place.  This was a resolution to oppose the current HOT plan for I-77.

The resolution was submitted to the convention as one of only three public policy resolutions on the official agenda.  The fact that this resolution "made the cut" is a statement in itself.  There was at least one other resolution rejected by the committee.  Seeing that the Resolution Committee is made up of party insiders, the fact that they allowed this to be one of the officially presented resolutions shows a willingness of at least some in the party hierarchy to support alternatives to the current HOT lanes proposal supported by many Republican elected officials.

The HOT Lanes resolution was held until the end partly due to the expectation that it would be somewhat contentious.  The edited resolution was read from the podium and then the floor was opened for debate.

What happened next will be hard to ignore.

There was no debate.  Nobody spoke against the resolution.  Nobody spoke for it.  It stood on its own.

Then it was time to vote.

By a unanimous voice vote, the MeckGOP County Convention passed the resolution opposing the current plan for HOT Lanes on I-77 without further study.

It took a huge amount of political courage to submit that resolution to the convention, but speaking truth to power always does.  Saturday, that courage was unanimously rewarded.

Now that Republican elected officials have unequivocal proof that the path they have chosen is unsatisfactory to the party faithful, there is only one question left.

Will they listen?


See below for a copy of the resolution received by aShortChronicle.  This was transcribed from a recording made by a member of the audience as it was read from the podium.

For more on I-77 Hot Lanes see...  The Hot Lanes Chronicle

MeckGOP Elects New Board

Saturday morning at the Mecklenburg Republican Party County Convention, a new slate was elected to lead the local party for the next two years.

As was mentioned in this earlier post, at the February County Precinct Meeting there were originally two candidates interested in the top spot of Chairman - one from Pat McCrory's camp, the other from Robert Pittenger's.  Also, on the copy of that post over at PunditHouse.com there were rumblings from activist extraordinaire Adam Love of Campaign for Liberty that there may be a candidate from the "grassroots" who could possibly challenge for the leadership spot.

However, by Saturday that was no longer the case with only Brad Overcash officially throwing his name into the ring.  After Mr Overcash was officially designated as the next Chairman, he made a motion to forego elections for the remaining positions and presented his selected slate for the Board.

In a sign hinting at party unity there was no showdown over who would lead the party through the next election cycles.

Congratulations and good luck to the new Board!

Bonus Observation: As "Chairman of the Convention" Charlotte City Councilman Warren Cooksey put on a great performance as Master of Ceremonies for the day.  His knowledge of the minutiae in the rules of parliamentary procedure was impressive.

Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx - Sure, why not?

Mayor Foxx for Transportation Secrtary? WCNC.com

I mean...

• he's completed exactly zero major transportation infrastructure projects end-to-end.
• his signature transit project, the Charlotte Streetcar, is so ridiculous that it's bogged down in a board where his party has a 9-2 majority.
• his city's transit plan is bankrupt.

However...

• he's the in-house counsel for a "green" transit company, a job he took immediately after becoming mayor.
• he's coordinated a committee to resurrect the bankrupt transit plan by figuring out how to raise taxes, and he's gotten Republican support for the same.
• he's hoodwinked a heavily Republican General Assembly into supporting HOT Lanes on 77 which benefits Democratic Charlotte with tolls paid for by voters from Republican North Mecklenburg.

With skills like that, he should fit in just fine in Washington, DC.

First the APFO Goes, Then H150 Rolls

It has been a tough couple of weeks for Davidson's central planners.

First, the Town was forced into removing its Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) from the town's laundry list of development regulations. Then today, H150 passed overwhelmingly in its first real vote in the NC Legislature.

Make no mistake, the Town was forced into dropping the APFO  - regardless of the spin put on by Town Hall that it's removal does not signal a retreat from the town's commitment to controlling growth.  Removing this ordinance was primarily caused by consistent pressure from the courts that APFOs constituted a tax that municipalities in North Carolina are not authorized to collect.  In fact, Davidson itself had already lost one lawsuit against the APFO to the Developers of the Summers Walk - settling for pennies on the dollar of what the APFO had originally demanded.

In the end though, the APFO was mostly just about money.  What happened today with H150 in the NC House could strike at the heart of Davidson's efforts to control how every brick is laid and every shingle is shingled in town.

H150 in the House and its companion bill S139 in the Senate will place some serious limitations on the Town's ability to control design on new single-family residential development - at least that's the take by those at Davidson Town Hall.  These bills are retreads of a bill that stalled in the last legislature - Bill S731.  See this story from February about how this bill and Davidson's response to it were receive by it's primary sponsor Sen Dan Clodfelter (D-Meck).

In what appears to be a Don Quixote-esque quest to thwart these bills, the Town pulled out all the stops in preparation for today's first vote on H150.  Commissioner Graham (himself a builder) took to Facebook over the weekend encouraging people to write their legislators.  On Monday, the Town actually sent a blast email to residents encouraging them to do the same.  See here for a copy of the email.

If you were wondering why the Town sent the email encouraging citizens to take political action towards a very specific cause, here's the answer from Town Information Officer - Christina Shaul.

"Last year, when this bill was called Senate Bill 731, there was an official resolution that was passed opposing  this legislation, and it was sent to all of our legislators.  We hosted a meeting with the legislators to voice our opposition.  This is a continuation from last year.  More recently, with this new version (House Bill 150 and Senate Bill 139: Zoning/Design and Aesthetic Controls), there has been a lot of conversation between the mayors and commissioners of Huntersville, Cornelius, Mooresville and Davidson, because we are all still in opposition due to the architectural guidelines we all have in our ordinances.  Mayor Jill Swain of Huntersville spoke in opposition to the bill when it was in committee, and Leamon Brice was also in Raleigh last week to represent our mayor and board of commissioners because the position of the board has not changed since the last formal resolution."

However, all of the above effort went for naught when the votes were cast Tuesday.  In it's second reading, H150 passed 94-22.  Only one more reading and vote is necessary before this goes to conference or to the Governor's desk.

It's bi-partisan Legislative as well as industry supporters were quick taking to Twitter showing their approval...

...and things are not going to get better for the town planning set when S139 comes before the Senate.  Jeff Tarte's support is not limited to cheering tweets.  He's also one of the bill's primary Senate sponsors.

Update: The 3rd reading of the bill passed the House 94-18 on Wednesday.  Now, action turns to S139.

"Special Meeting" Confusion Abounds Monday Morning

When the Davidson Board began meeting for off-cycle "special meetings" back in October, the public was told these meetings are about "team building".  Great care was taken to assure those interested that the meetings were open to the public.

Since then, the monthly meetings have rotated from home to home among the Board members.  A quick review of the meeting minutes appears to show that only a single citizen other than media has ever attended.  Admittedly, this could be incorrect as the meeting minutes are sparse on information to say the least.  Except for one mention of a single citizen comment, these meeting minutes are copy and paste of the following...

Taken at face value and based on the repeated assurances that these "special meetings" are all about team building rather than actually conducting Town business, no published agendas seemed necessary and no detailed minutes were necessarily warranted.  As long as conversation is about "getting to know you" topics why would they be needed?

Monday, all that changed.

Starting with an announcement on DavidsonNews.net on Sunday and followed up by this email early Monday, the purpose of these meetings appears to have turned towards more serious business - the 2014 budget, the tax base, and "priorities".

A series of email inquiries to Town Staff and elected officials failed to adequately clear up the matter.  Some said there was surprise at the "agenda".  Others, implied it was an agenda and a continuation of discussions that had been going on at recent "regular" meetings.

What was clear from some of the emails received Monday at aShortChronicle is that the public was not clear at all on what this meeting was intended to be.  Was this a meeting worth attending if you want to know about the budget?  Was this a real intended "agenda" for what are typically free-form agendaless meetings?  If so, would the discussion (if not any votes) be documented in minutes that were meaningful and would the meeting itself be covered by the media?

What is even more clear is that if these "team building" meetings are to become more like work sessions they should no longer ever be conducted in private residences.  At a minimum they should be conducted like normal work session meetings.

Running a government isn't a social club.  It's doing the people's business.  That should always be done in an open and transparent manner with as little confusion as possible.

Davidson Community Garden Meets and Surpasses Fundraising Goal

As a testament to both the generosity of local residents and the value of the project to the community, I am proud to report that the Davidson Community Garden blew away its fundraising goal - bringing in just shy of $4000. Donations are still trickling in with a more exact total available in April. However, with the original goal being $3000, the project has already eclipsed this mark by nearly 25%.

This allows the project to begin installation of its own water system with work to begin as soon as this coming week - just in time for the planting season!

The tentative plan is to have 2 - 3 spigots in place which will allow for much easier watering and less dragging of heavy hoses. This will allow children to help out more easily as well as support the installation of some drip irrigation and soaker hoses throughout the rows and box beds. Having a consistent water supply will also improve production.

So, how did the project get to $4000 in just three short months of quiet fundraising?

Here's the breakdown. To start, all donations came from private sources including two large gifts. The first was a $1000 anonymous gift intended as a matching grant. A second donation of several hundred dollars came from Cub Scouts Pack 58. The Scouts are regular volunteers at the garden as well - donating time and energy in addition to making this very generous financial gift. Together, these two donations accounted for a little less than half of the total. The majority came from numerous smaller amounts donated from people all across town - ranging from a few dollars to over $100. This was a true community effort.

Special, thanks go out to Mike Kessler with Davidson College and Michael Whaley and Glenn Kinken with DUMC for their support with the logistics of making this happen. The garden is on land owned by the College with financial and organizational support coming from DUMC. Without the support of these two organizations, the garden would not be where it is today - both literally and figuratively.

As the Davidson Community Garden enters its fourth growing season, the future could not be brighter!





Stories on DCG from Last Year:

Davidson Community Garden - Growing Food for a Good Cause - March 24, 2012
Davidson Community Garden - A Quarter Ton So Far - July 2, 2012
Davidson Community Garden Reaches 1-Ton Goal - December 20, 2012