INDY Week, whose readers earlier this year named Livable Raleigh the Best Local Activist Group in Wake County for the third time, has published a piece detailing the upcoming City Council election. Three months out, Raleigh City Council Election Taking Shape.
Our citywide poll of registered Raleigh voters conducted by Public Policy Polling was published Tuesday, July 23. At publication time we included contact information at PPP for questions about the methodology. For anyone who is hesitant to contact PPP, we have put together this quick primer on polling and the accuracy levels of polls. Our poll was conducted by PPP using a database of Raleigh Registered voters. It is NOT a poll of self-selected followers of Livable Raleigh.
Venality in the corridors of power, especially within local governments, can erode the very foundation of public trust and hinder effective governance. Raleigh, like many cities, is not immune to these challenges
Livable Raleigh’s new 2024 citywide poll of registered Raleigh voters highlights continuing trends and significant changes since our 2022 poll. Two key changes include a declining confidence in Council, coupled with the perception that Council isn’t doing enough to protect Raleigh voters’ quality of life from growth impacts.
I stand before you today as a concerned citizen deeply troubled by recent actions taken by this Council. I refer to the rising crime in our city under your watch, but specifically, decisions to increase your own salaries, extend your terms from two to four years, and reject additional representatives on this Council—all without allowing the citizens of Raleigh to vote on the matter.
What you may not know is the City Council could have repealed the ordinance that changed council term lengths from 2 years to 4 years and completed a NEW resolution to place the question on the November ballot as originally promised to the voters. We shared all of the necessary data with the councilors and there were five of them committed to repeal and implement another resolution for the referendum starting at the June 4th City Council meeting.
Council’s record of taking major votes without listening to stakeholders continues to disappoint. Now, having ignored stakeholders in the Blue Ridge Corridor, they stand on the verge of losing their taxing authority. With the Council elections coming in November, don’t make the same mistake again: engage stakeholders and act according to their wishes or prepare to be voted out of office.
Although we were not successful in getting the required 5,000 signatures for the petition to put a referendum on the November 2024 ballot for City Council Term Lengths we got over halfway there and we were successful in creating city-wide awareness of the issue.
The public is losing faith in government. It’s time to step out from under administrative control and voice your independence. Listen to your electorate and be more reflective of public input.
As part of our preparation for the upcoming City Council elections, we have been having conversations with City Council Candidates. One of the biggest issues facing Raleigh right now is the public’s desire to have reforms made to Raleigh’s Missing Middle policies that were implemented in 2021 and 2022. We have listed several previously published blogs related to Missing Middle for your review that explain our position about the Missing Middle policies.
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