At the February Hillsborough-Wade CAC meeting we gathered to celebrate and discuss the recent City Council vote to officially recognize and restore support for the Raleigh Citizen Advisory Council (RCAC) and all of Raleigh’s CACs.
The Hillsborough-Wade CAC held its first in-person meeting in over 3 years! The meeting and program was a huge success. We had over 50 residents in attendance, and the program included two City Councilors and staff from Raleigh’s Community Engagement Office.
Three years ago on February 4, 2020 Mayor Baldwin and her City Council majority voted to stop supporting Raleigh’s Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs). Three years later that void still exists. There are no new community organizations run by Raleigh residents with City support. Fortunately for Raleigh residents there are quite a few Citizen Advisory Councils that survived the sneak attack on February 4, 2020. Even without City funding and support, these survivors have continued on with their mission of two-way communication between Raleigh residents and their City government.
At the first meeting of the new Raleigh City Council, I spoke about what our Hillsborough-Wade CAC has been accomplishing over the past almost 3 years since the previous City Council majority voted to abolish City support of CACs.
First we “Showed You the Money.” Then we “Followed the Money.” In this third of our series about the money in Raleigh’s politics, we examine the effects of Special Interest money pouring into the campaigns.