During Tuesday night’s candidate forum at the Renaissance Centre sponsored by the Wake Forest Area Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Vivian Jones said the bus service – the free loop bus and the express bus to and from Raleigh – is one of the accomplishments she is proud of.
Commissioner Jim Thompson called the buses a 19th Century way to address a 21st Century problem and suggested the town would do better by having residents use Uber and Lyft.
“I think you deserve a full-time mayor,” Jones said to the large audience, explaining she goes to meetings in Raleigh and the region to learn and carries ideas back to the board and town staff.
Thompson, who has said he will not be as active as Jones, said the town needs a new set of eyes and needs to be “more responsible about growth.”
They wrangled about the current transit plan, with Thompson saying that it will not benefit the town for several years and Jones saying no, “The transit plan will benefit the town within the next two years.” She said the town is trying a “multi-modal” transportation system with greenways, sidewalks, buses and cars.
Asked by moderator Holden McLemore about priorities for the next four years and beyond, Thompson said there is a lot of consensus about managing growth. “It’s great that we are growing,” but “Our town does not have a comprehensive land use plan.” He also said the town’s tax base is 80 percent residential and needs more industrial growth.
Jones said the town years ago decided to use a flexible growth strategy based on the Community Plan. The town uses the Unified Development Ordinance and zones throughout the town that indicate what would be compatible uses in each. Also, “I would love for us to have more jobs.” She corrected Thompson saying the percentage of residential to commercial is 75 percent to 25 percent. And, “ we have had good economic development” which is largely home-grown. “Home-grown economic development is more sustainable.”
In their closing statements, Thompson said the town had hired a new town manager and relaunched the business and industrial partnership to bring more industry to town. He said he wanted to make town government more transparent and “make this a 21st Century town.”
Jones spoke about her leadership which helped develop the Wireless Research Center of North Carolina and the “hundreds of small businesses that are creating an environment in the town.” She said, “I have the time to work with many organizations” in the county, region and state. “I think it is important to have a mayor” who as her father said is “showing up and being prepared.”
(Because of time constraints the forum for the five town board candidates will be reported next week.)
22 Responses
Jim Thompson delivered a well thought out plan for our Wake Forest. All Vivian Jones had were more buses.
I would like to see a metro line – like in Charlotte, DC, NY- it would be fantastic to jump on and end up in downtown Raleigh or Durham. Not more busses – that’s definitely not the answer.
Yes!! High speed transportation is a must for future growth in a responsible way.
High speed transportation benifts people and commerce.
It would enable Wake Forest to keep a small town feel and yet enjoy the benifts of the larger cities…museums, education, larger selection shopping & dinning & jobs.
Small town went bye bye years ago. And it is only gonna get worse.
I’d be curious to see a detailed list of Jim’s Votes on development over the last 5 years as a member of the town board. Actually, I’d love to see the voting record of all of our commissioners.
Amen! And who makes shed meetings.
You can see almost all the votes by all the commissioners by going through the Gazette archives. The board’s business meetings are always on the third Tuesday. You will find that most of the votes are unanimous.
I’ve spoken to the town clerk and asked for the detailed records they keep on voting. I was told they don’t keep detailed records of who votes yay or nay on issues. Just whether the issue being voted on passes or fails. I don’t know the law but that seems like it isn’t right. There should be detailed voting records.
PS. Exactly my point. Most votes are unanimous so apparently Jim wasn’t so concerned about growth.
I am running on a “manage growth more responsible” platform. Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t support growth. I do. And yes, my votes on the board often reflect that, especially as it relates to commercial development, which we desperately need more of. The challenge with growth in Wake Forest is that we don’t have a comprehensive community and land use plan and because of that, its difficult to put teeth in our UDO. Ideally we’d have a comprehensive community and land use plan that would then allow us to put more teeth in our UDO. As it stands now, development is either approved administratively or comes before us (the Planning Board and Board of Commissioners) for approval. And usually by the time it comes to us, once fully vetted by town staff, its touch to deny much based on our UDO and not wind-up in court. And the courts aren’t very friendly to municipalities these days. If you’ve lived long enough in Wake Forest, you know the thousands and thousands of dollars we’ve had to spend defending ourselves against developments that we denied. Again, we need a plan!! I support doing that. The current Mayor thinks they are outdated and, as stated in the recent forum, “thinks we’ve manged our growth just fine.”
Jones Full time Mayor?
It’s a part time job. Is she otherwise employed? No. So STOP saying WF deserves a F/T Mayor. No one is falling for that. Even so, if she was full time you would think some lesser projects – easy to fix problems would be corrected.
IMO – Jimmy Thompson has a vision. He’s proactive and I hope will lead to a successful Mayoral career.
Madame Mayor is a reactionary Mayor who seemingly procrastinates on just about everything. Including her answers on Tuesday. It’s time for a change.
Ask yourself – Why does everything take so darn long to address and apply a game plan with town resources to fix anything?? Ugh!!
PS. There were no “sparks flying” at Tuesday’s meeting. I was there. It’s a joke to lead with that comment. Although Madame Mayor’s feathers were visibly ruffled. It’s supposed to be a debate. Dissenting opinions. There were no personal attacks like the awful Federal election debates.
No sparks. Not even for little old Wake Forest.
What the Mayor (nor this “reporter”) are telling you is that the way we got from 80 to 75% is with fuzzy math – they started treated mutli-family HOUSING “commercial” and not “residential” in the tax base calculations. Anyone notice what most of the development has been lately? Multi-family housing…
If you really want to know the truth about these two candidates, ask their fellow and former commissioners, as well as the town Manager, economic developer, etc. who they would rather have as Mayor.
All I heard from the Mayor was that she is so out of touch with today’s citizens that she thinks MORE bus service is the solution to all our traffic and transportation woes. While the bus service is nice to have for the very limited number of people who utilize it, to think that adding more is the solution is absolute nonsense. Not only a waste of money, but also puts Wake Forest at a major competitive disadvantage over other municipalities who are taking advantage of the Mayor’s lack of fighting for commuter rail/etc and we will soon be the laughing stock of Wake County.
Might also want to ask some of the current/former Commissioners if the current Mayor has skirted the open meetings laws by organizing votes behind the scenes and what she mutters to them under her breath during meetings about what she really thinks about many of the citizens. You might be surprised what you learn…
The Mayor is not the person she’d like you to think she is. Period.
Wow!! Thanks for the info! We’re voting for Jim Thompson!!! ??
?Great comment…we need a new perspective, infuse more energy and a new vision. What I have observed over the past 4 years has been a bit disappointing…i chose to move here and saw WF’s potential. I believe Jim knows our town’s potential and has all of the above requirements to help push in a better direction.
Bingo. Nicely stated.
In response to Eric’s suggestion that we ask current Commissioners and Town staff about Mayor Jones “skirting” open meeting laws, what she “mutters” to them, and who THEY’D vote for…
I took your suggestion and asked those who have worked with her in different capacities (Commissioner, Town staff, heavily involved local volunteer). It was made crystal clear that your accusations are FALSE. According to those I spoke with, she has never once “skirted” the open meeting laws. She has discussed items with Commissioners outside of the official meetings, yes, but not in a manner that was illegal, nor in a manner the Commissioners didn’t utilize legally amongst themselves. Her “mutterings” have been nothing more than what any of us would divulge in moments of surprise or frustration. Those hearing may not always agree with her comments, but they are within context and reasonable from the perspective that she has a right to her opinions just as we do.
Before it is assumed those I spoke with are simply unfamiliar with her opponent, and are therefore voting for familiarity, please remember that their relationships with her naturally overlap with their relationships with him, as they work together. My sources are equally knowledge about Mr. Thompson. They detailed some of the things he’s said and done that they don’t like, much as Eric and others have done about Ms. Jones through this forum. Personally, I find his thoughts and behaviors to be much more concerning than hers, but I am here not to throw mud and defame character as many here have done to Ms. Jones, so I will not detail those.
Most importantly is the question of whether those to whom I spoke–each being very familiar with both candidates from various capacities as detailed above–
still plan to vote for her. Every representative individual would prefer Ms. Jones as Wake Forest’s mayor, and each plans to vote for her.
So the short answer to Eric’s accusations and challenge: I did ask those you said to ask about the charges you levied. The charges are false, and those I asked are voting for Ms. Jones.
In an article in the Wake Weekly, Margaret Stinnett, long-time committee member, strongly suggested that a change is needed. And she has made a generous donation to Jim Thompson’s campaign. That speaks volumes.
According to the signs in their yards, every current representative’s aren’t voting for her.
Transparency is important. If residents pay 75% of our taxes we should see where the money goes. Current Mayor has spent a lot of money on enriching the landscaping and services around the village and has not had to spend on the surrounding areas. As taxpayers we should be able to see where the residential tax revenues come from and where they are spent.
We all want a quaint and inviting village , however not at the expense of needed attention to the surrounding developments that support most of the growth in the past decade.
As I’ve said dozens of times, we’re lucky to have Vivian.
Also, don’t slip on the acorns……….
It’s as if she was at a different forum. What I saw was a bitter and out of touch Mayor doubling down on the notion that more buses is THE solution to our traffic woes. Are you kidding me? How out of touch can you possibly be? We desperately need new leadership.
Oh Carol your bias has never been more obvious.
Indeed. It’s always been that way though. They arrived together for a candidate forum in 2009.