[Durham INC] [durhamenviro] Re: Neal Hunter (751 South) developer donates $8K to Committee for Affairs of Black People

Fri Oct 26 11:54:15 EDT 2012

Three things: 

1) The Hunters' and other special interests' votes should
not count more than those of us regular citizens, but through donations like
this, they effectively do.

I could only donate about $50 to each candidate. So if $50 =
a citizen, then the Hunters' donations amounts to 160 citizens. That's not
Democracy.

Regardless of where you stand regarding Durham's future
development (in-fill versus new, outer-edge development, for instance), it
should be disturbing to every citizen when special interests throw big $ at
candidates or political action groups (for Hunter, this amounts to 1/3 of the
Committee's donations this year, counting their previous ~$14,000 report,
according to the Herald Sun).

People don't hand over money like that for no reason. 

2) Given the broken state of politics in this country, any
lack of transparency should be concerning to ALL citizens. These people work
for US -- so we should know who they are and where they stand on the issues.

By continually dodging the question regarding his stance on
751 South and, therefore, future developments on the edge of the county rather
than in its center, where in-fill development is desperately needed, Beasley is
clearly demonstrating a lack of transparency.

At the polls, he has told some voters that he is a Democrat
AND others that he is not affiliated with either party and will remain
unaffiliated. This is an even more broad dodge and demonstration that he is far
from transparent.

Citizens need to ask themselves -- why should we vote for
this person when we don't know who he is.

The other candidates have voluntarily donated their time and
efforts in numerous ways for the Durham community (Planning Commission, NAACP,
INC, etc.). Where is Omar's proven record? 
 He should serve Durham publicly before he runs for
office. At least then we would know how he will truly vote on the issues that
affect all of us.

3) The 751 South Development saga has been going on since before my two year old son was even a thought. Frank Duke changed the lake boundaries for this development in 2006! Since then, there have been two watershed boundary public hearings (which were necessary for this development to move forward), at least one county rezoning public hearing, a city rezoning public hearing, a city annexation/utilities public hearing (and more discussion at other city council meetings), a county sewer extension agreement meeting, numerous neighborhood and PAC meetings (INC, PA, Committee, Streamwatch groups, Candidate Forums, etc.), and who knows how many closed door meetings between government officials and the development team (we know of several when Frank Duke was the planning director and shortly thereafter).

When will you/Carl/anyone be satisfied that we have had enough discussion on this!?

If Omar Beasley doesn't know where he stands on an issue as controversial and important to Durham as this one, then he shouldn't be running for office.

Respectfully,
Melissa (Rooney)

________________________________
 From: Will Wilson <willwilsn at gmail.com>
To: Carl Kenney <revcwkii at hotmail.com> 
Cc: mmr121570 at yahoo.com; Intern Neighborhood Council <inc-list at rtpnet.org>; durhamenviro at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, 26 October 2012 11:17 AM
Subject: [durhamenviro] Re: [Durham INC] Neal Hunter (751 South) developer donates $8K to Committee for Affairs of Black People

I have asked Omar how he would have voted on the 751 issue had he been a 
commissioner. In my view it's an important indicator of how our 
community will grow -- continue the sprawl or focus on present developed 
areas in need. It matters because transportation costs will only grow in 
the future, our water needs are critical, and old-fashioned sprawl that 
accounts for neither can no longer be tolerated. This particular project 
also matters due to the way the developers carried it out. Omar ducks 
the question and takes no position, and I can only speculate given 
circumstantial evidence. I find that kind of political positioning more 
intolerable than taking a position I disagree with.

Will Wilson

On 10/26/2012 10:01 AM, Carl Kenney wrote:
> My response
> http://rev-elution.blogspot.com/2012/10/steve-bocckinos-unfair-assumption-about.html?spref=fb
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 06:46:46 -0700
> From: mmr121570 at yahoo.com
> To: inc-list at rtpnet.org; durhamenviro at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Durham INC] Neal Hunter (751 South) developer donates $8K to
> Committee for Affairs of Black People
>
> See link below (to Herald Sun article). Interesting that the Committee
> dropped Fred Foster and replaced him with Omar Beasley after receiving
> $8K from Neal Hunter, of the 751 South development team.
>
> I am very interested in seeing the campaign finance reports that are due
> Monday.
>
> http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/20614437/article-Hunters-donate--8K-to-Durham-Committee
>
> Melissa (Rooney)
>
>
> _______________________________________________ Durham INC Mailing List
> list at durham-inc.org http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Durham INC Mailing List
> list at durham-inc.org
> http://www.durham-inc.org/list.html
>

-- 
http://www.biology.duke.edu/wilson/
New Book: http://www.constructedclimates.org/

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