Independent Weekly: The “Meeker Majority” that isn’t

The “majority” were the five members, including Mayor CharlesMeeker, who emerged from the 2007 Raleigh city elections as a potentialprogressive alliance on neighborhood and growth issues. But a yearlater, when asked about his majority, Meeker was moved to quip, “Whereis it?”

His four allies, meanwhile, have various problems with themayor—including their shared anger over his remark that their frequentmeetings together are “improper.” They say the meetings are nothing ofthe sort, and several maintain the purpose is to create a vision forRaleigh’s growth—because Meeker hasn’t.

The Meeker Majority was always tentative, a confederation among apair of strong-minded council veterans, Thomas Crowder and RussStephenson; two newly elected members, Rodger Koopman and NancyMcFarlane; and a mayor who, since taking office in 2001, has earned areputation for moving cautiously and—his term—”governing from themiddle.”

Indeed, as Meeker points out, the MM tag is something the media invented, not one he’s ever used.

Still, the mayor says, the current council quickly resolved a numberof major issues that previous councils, with their pro-developermajorities, couldn’t—or wouldn’t.

“This council has been more effective in dealing with challengingissues than any council in recent memory,” Meeker said, despitebattling a drought and, now, a tanking economy.

As examples, Meeker lists: doubling impact fees on new developments;rejecting subsidies for commercial parking decks in the form of TIFs(tax-increment financing); completing the design for a City Plaza onFayetteville Street; addressing infill and teardown issues;andpreserving Horseshoe Farm Park in Northeast Raleigh as a nature park.

Moreover, he added, the city recently celebrated the opening of thenew Raleigh Convention Center and the Marriott Hotel on FayettevilleStreet, “the most successful opening of a major public project thatI’ve ever been associated with.”

And, he said, laughing, “this council didn’t screw it up.”

Despite the shared successes, however, a rift between Meeker and atleast three of the four councilors has been developing all year. Itcame to a head in recent weeks over filling a vacancy on the cityplanning commission, plus a pair of contentious development projects inCameron Village and the Stanhope neighborhood, both near HillsboroughStreet and N.C. State University.

While these issues were being debated behind the scenes, The News & Observerreported that the four councilors have been meeting and talking as agroup throughout the year, a practice that is completely legal butwhich Meeker nonetheless called “improper” if they were plotting toblock a development project.

Under the state’s open meetings law, five members of theeight-member council cannot meet in private because they constitute amajority capable of making decisions outside of public view. There’s nobar in the law, though, against four councilors talking together—andsuch meetings, in various combination, are common in Raleigh City Hall.

But Meeker says he warned his allies months ago that their meetings,if held regularly, were a bad idea. Why? Because the other threecouncil members consider them disrespectful, and they’d be improper ifthe four discussed “tactics” for stalling development cases, since a4-4 split equals defeat.

Crowder, Koopman, McFarlane and Stephenson all reject the idea thatwhat they’re doing is in any way inappropriate. Koopman said he was”extremely disturbed” by the mayor’s criticism, a thought the other twomen echoed. McFarlane, more soft-spoken, said she’s “frustrated” by theneed to respond to something “that’s just not an issue.”

“I don’t like having my character impugned,” McFarlane added. “I’m pretty upset about that, too.”

McFarlane said the foursome’s meetings are a way for her to conveyneighborhood concerns from her North Raleigh district and hear what’sup inside the Beltline. “I’m the only council member who lives in NorthRaleigh,” she noted. “There isn’t any kind of collusion. I’m justdumbfounded that some people might see this as a bad thing.”

The others went further. Koopman said Raleigh’s strong manager/weakcouncil form of government (the mayor’s paid $15,000; councilors,$11,000) demands “professionalism” from the city manager and hisdepartment heads. But too often, “it’s amateur hour at city hall,” andhe’s forced to turn to his fellow council members for reliable guidanceon policy questions.

Crowder, Stephenson and McFarlane are smart, knowledgeable and enjoythe give-and-take of isssues, Koopman added. Meeker doesn’t enjoy it,”can’t wait to get you off the phone,” and doesn’t believe in thecareful planning that great cities require. “Communities that actuallydo plan are more successful at all levels,” Koopman said.

Crowder said the group meets because they have shared values,consider neighborhood interests as well as developers’ plans, and wantto shape Raleigh’s future growth as a well-planned, “sustainable” city.

“Where’s his vision?” he said of Meeker. If they didn’t talk amongthemselves, Crowder added, the already lengthy public council meetingswould be “8 to midnight—we’d never get done.”

Other council members—including veteran Councilors Philip Isley andJames West—don’t like pushing developers or challenging their projects,Stephenson maintained. Nor, he said, does Meeker. “Charles is,”Stephenson went on, pausing to consider his words, “not as interestedin changing the status quo or strengthening citizen involvement ingrowth issues.”

Thus, the three men agreed, a lot of their time is spent figuringout how to get five votes—meaning, usually, Meeker’s vote—forinitiatives such as:

• Conserving drinking water and helping businesses and homeowners install systems for rainwater capture and reuse. There’s agreement on the goals, but specific policies are lacking.
• Curbing stormwater runoff. The city’s rules are especially lax during construction, McFarlane says, when rivers of mud leave project sites but builders aren’t fined.
• Providing affordable housing and transit routes. Developers aren’t required to include affordable units even in the biggest projects. Crowder, for one, thinks they should be.
• Empowering neighborhoods. The 18 Citizen Advisory Councils have little power to represent neighborhoods; they need better support from city government, or else to be cut loose. The four councilors support the former.
• Strengthening city planning. The planning commission, an advisory body, usually goes along with developers. With a new comprehensive plan on tap for the city (a draft is due any time now), some planners on the planning commission would be helpful.

That last issue is the reason the four have lined up behind HeatherVance, a planning professional who staffs the Raleigh office of theAmerican Institute of Architects, to fill the current planningcommission vacancy.

West, however, says the vacancy belongs “historically” to hisSoutheast Raleigh district, and he’s nominated Quince Fleming, anorganizational consultant, to fill the spot. Fleming lives in West’sdistrict and is African-American. The same two things are also true ofVance.

The initial council vote, two weeks ago, was 4-1 for Vance, withMeeker among the three declining to vote. His MM allies want the mayorto follow his past practice of “governing from the middle,” which meantjoining four-vote pluralities to make a majority. Meeker wasnoncommittal in an interview Tuesday.

“I’m encouraging the councilors to resolve that issue informally,” he said.

As for the disputed projects, each involves a developer seeking tobuild “bigger” than the relevant small-area plans for the Stanhope andCameron Village areas would allow. The Stanhope project, a privatedormitory and parking deck for NCSU, was first proposed six years ago,and negotiations with the neighbors resulted in a very detailedsmall-area plan that new developers now propose to change. In CameronVillage, developers want to build condos on a small portion of theshopping center site without discussing how the rest of Cameron Villagemight develop; neighbors are alarmed at the precedent—and futuretraffic congestion.

Meeker says tension over the council’s decisions is natural, becausethey’ll set a precedent for “mid-rise” developments throughout Raleigh.Stephenson and Crowder agree, and maintain that they’re trying to getthe neighborhoods and the developers together for “win-win” outcomesand sound planning in both cases.