Glenwood South and surrounding neighborhoods are simply not safe. We unfortunately have to live with what former city leaders created and you have allowed to fester. The sad, shameful truth of it all and everyone knows it is that if any of you lived in the area and had to live with this ‘vibrancy’ it would have ended years ago.
Raleigh was a perennial top 10 city when only being compared against other large cities in the Best Places to Live rankings. But, when the candidate pool was expanded most larger cities performed poorly. It seems smaller cities are more popular than large, dense, urban, vibrant locales. And, the difference isn’t due to cost of living or even traffic concerns. It’s quality of life.
The Raleigh Fire Department (RFD) is at least 200 firefighter positions short. When including the current 50 known vacancies, they are 250 firefighters short of the manpower needed to fully protect this City today. Raleigh has not added any new firefighter positions since 2014, while experiencing rapid population growth and development. Let’s be clear. RFD is requesting the same benefit paid between retirement and age 62 that RPD officers have been receiving since 1987.
Livable Raleigh supports the separation pay for firefighters and we’re disappointed the City Manager chose to leave it out of her proposed budget; Council should correct this mistake.
I stand before you today on behalf of Raleigh’s firefighters, urging you to approve funding for the Firefighter Separation Allowance. These brave men and women risk their lives daily to protect us, yet they do not receive the same retirement benefits as Raleigh’s other public safety heroes, our police officers.
I’m here tonight to stand in solidarity with Raleigh’s Firefighters and join them in their fight for Separation Allowance. I believe that’s a reasonable price to pay to have a properly funded fire department that keeps us safe, attracts sufficient firefighting staff to our amazing city, and retains experienced and healthy firefighters, so they can not just survive, but thrive in Raleigh.
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.
It was embarrassing to listen to both Fire and RPD ask for additional compensation just to stay competitive with neighboring communities. Raleigh has the best training facilities in the area but we suffer from retaining personnel because, although we are the Capital City, we don’t provide fair compensation or benefits.
Highlights City Council voted unanimously to restore a relationship with Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs) to include free monthly access to meeting rooms, provision of technology to support virtual meetings, and support for capability building for future leaders At...
Highlights Despite previously guaranteeing 3 minutes per speaker at Public Comments and establishing a special meeting to accommodate that, Mayor Baldwin instituted a one-minute limit per speaker because 108 people had signed up to speak. Four councilors voted for...