Alex Lafond is a current resident of District D and works for the Raleigh-Wake Emergency Communication Center as a Telecommunicator.  He is the Founder of R-PAC, which is a local government accountability group designed to advocate for City Workers, Equitable and Responsible Development, and hold City Council accountable with how they vote based on campaign promises. His Public Safety experience spans back to 2014 when he began as a Volunteer Firefighter in Central New York and worked as an EMT. 

Alex spoke to City Council on January 14, 2025:

Hello and good evening everyone.

My name is Alex Lafond and I’m a resident in District D off Wade Park Blvd.

Between December and last week, I attended a number of the Budget Listening sessions put on by the Budget and Management Services Department, so let me start off by acknowledging how well put together these were. Sadia and her team of analysts put together sessions that were informative, effective, and fostered an environment which allowed citizens to speak about the things that they care about most. So thank you Sadia and your team.

Attending these budget sessions was also far more informative than just how the budget is created. It showed me people have a lot to say. They have a lot they care about. But of these things, the 3 that kept coming up were Affordable Housing, Transportation, and Public Safety.

Over the next couple of weeks, I encourage and implore those of you here and at home who may be watching to contact the 4 council members that represent you to make sure they fund the things that matter to you.

For me, I want to make sure its clear where I stand:

We need to invest even more in our downtown. We do this by funding grants for residents who dream of owning a small business in downtown. We need to continue zoning downtown and the immediate areas for more residential development and stop the suburban sprawl which massively increases our infrastructure maintenance and spending costs and is a large contributor to car dependency and traffic in this city. We need to fund projects that make downtown much more friendly for those in Raleigh with a disability so they too can enjoy our downtown businesses.

Secondly, we need to fund separation allowance for our city firefighters who have earned that benefit from sacrificing their bodies and mental health over the time that’s required to collect that benefit.

Finally, we also need to increase pay for all our city workers. While The Milken Institute report released today is great PR for the city, it neglects to acknowledge the real picture – Raleigh is unaffordable for our city workers. In other words – all the people who keep this city running and make it a place which ends up on all these lists.

I ask the council to please heavily consider these things as you proceed through the budget process over the next couple months.

Thank you for your time and consideration this evening regarding these topics.

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