Tax breaks for owners of "historic" properties are coming under scrutiny from Durham's City Council and Board of County Commissioners.

With new candidates for "historic" status nominated every year, the number is mounting up and so is the hit to the city's and county's revenue. For the county, the amount is about $42,000 per year, commissioner Becky Heron said during the commissioners' meeting tonight.

“As historic properties build up in your community," commissioner Ellen Reckhow said, "it’s taking a lot of value off the tax books.”

The commissioners approved a set of tightened standards for "historic" nomination tonight, and the council holds a public hearing on the same proposal Monday. But both council members and commissioners are calling for a review of the whole program, adopted years ago to encourage historic preservation.

"We could have hundreds of these houses," Councilman Eugene Brown said during last week's council work session. "There has to be some limitation placed on this program, in my judgment."

The City Council unanimously approved another $355,000 for planning the Rolling Hills/Southside redevelopment tonight, bringing the city's investment for planning up to $745,000.

The area to be redeveloped includes the depressed Southside neighborhood and some other nearby blocks as well as the  Rolling Hills site which the city repossessed for delinquent loans in 2003. Since 1985, two private developers have failed to build out and sell the 20-acre site in the old Hayti area.

Paul Wiebke of the city's public works department got to give the City
Council its update on the Jordan and Falls lake cleanup rules
yesterday. He was on the council work session agenda two weeks ago, but
other weighty matters ran the council out of time.

Bull's Eye reported Wiebke's report back then, based on the prepared
presentation he kindly made available. In case you missed it then, here
it is again (a link to the full presentation is below):

Sales-tax revenue from the Dallas-Fort Worth airport is shared among five towns and two counties.

San Francisco International Airport is located in San Mateo County, which shares the wealth with the city and county of San Francisco.

At least, those were the cases in 2004 -- according to a report prepared by the Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau and shared with the City Council and County Board of Commissioners more than five years ago.

It's the same information some commissioners asked the county staff to dig up at their last meeting, when the subject of getting a share of the sales-tax revenue from Raleigh-Durham International came up.

Maybe they forgot.

Nothing came of it back then, but now the issue is back at least on Durham County's part of the table.

According to a March 8, 2004 memo from the DCVB president Reyn Bowman to County Manager Mike Ruffin and then-City Manager Marcia Conner, a consultant had wondered why Durham didn't get any of the general sales tax generated at RDU. Aside from allocations for airport operation and TTA, the income goes to Wake County, where the airport is located -- although it is jointly owned by Wake and Durham counties and the cities of Durham and Raleigh.

County commissioner Joe Bowser (who, along with commissioners Becky Heron and Ellen Reckhow, raised the issue after an airport authority report earlier this month) was on the DCVB board at the time and brought the matter to the commissioners' attention and to that of the Durham delegation to the state legislature.

The county asked DCVB to investigate, and, enquiring of authorities at similarly shared airports, got the information above.

The memo further states that "Durham draws the highest market share [of the four RDU owners] of visitor-related passengers who generate the dedicated and undedicated tax revenue generated at the co-owned Airport facility."

Thus armed, Bowman arranged for Durham, Raleigh and Wake officials to talk tax business, "but a meeting to do due diligence was cut short" due to some misunderstanding between Bowman and the Durham managers -- according to a June 8, 2004 letter from DCVB's board officers to members of the Durham City Council and county board.
"It is problematic that the initial meeting's mission may have been misunderstood," the letter concluded. "But we strongly encourage you to resume pursuit of this objective."
Better late than never.

After more than two hours' testimony and deliberation, the City Council voted Monday night to put off a decision on granting $175,000 for the Mok'e Jazz Cultural Center.

Mayor Bill Bell raised a concern about the center's estimated cash flow. Also, Know Book Store owner Bruce Bridges, who has said the Mok'e project will hurt his store, asked for city help to stay in business.

“I don't think we're prepared to make a decision tonight,” said Councilman Howard Clement.
 
The Know Book Store leases a building at 2520 Fayetteville St..  The owner, Mozella McLaughlin, has sought the city's help to renovate and enlarge the building to house the proposed Jazz Cultural Center.
 
In a letter presented to council members just before the meeting began,  McLaughlin asked the council:
 

•  To help assure he could remain in his location for six more months.
•  To provide money for relocation expenses.
•  To compensate him for six to eight months' income lost during the renovation work.

McLaughlin has invited Bridges to lease space in her renovated building, but Bridges has said the terms she offered are unacceptable, and he has been unable to find space elsewhere.

Council member Cora Cole-McFadden said she had favored the grant for McLaughlin. “But I am concerned now,” she said, “and I need to hear more about Bruce Bridges and the plight of the Know Book Store.”

Bridges said his is “the oldest African-American-owned bookstore in North Carolina ... as well as a local institution.”

Besides books on black history and culture, the Know includes a restaurant and holds a weekly jazz night. More than 20 citizens spoke to support Bridges and his store. Some complained that, in funding the McLaughlin project, the city would be using taxpayers' money to displace one business in favor of another.

Chris Tiffany, who said he had been a Know Book Store customer for more than 20 years, compared the city's subsidy for the Mok'e Center to “helping Rupert Murdoch take over the Carolina Times” — a long-established black newspaper in Durham.

Staff writer Jim Wise called it (in a column he wrote last night for tomorrow's Durham News). The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People has endorsed Donald Hughes and incumbent Howard Clement in the Oct. 6 primary for Durham City Council.

Hughes, the son of former City Councilwoman Jackie Wagstaff, won the endorsement over incumbent Cora Cole-McFadden. (Cole-McFadden has the endorsements of the People's Alliance and the Friends of Durham.)

"In a very, very, extremely close race," Durham Committee Chairwoman Lavonia Allison said, Clement won the endorsement over Sylvester Williams. (Clement has been endorsed by the People's Alliance and the Friends of Durham.)

Look for Jim's take on the political season so far in tomorrow's Durham News. 

The Friends of Durham, one of the city's three main political action groups, has endorsed incumbents Cora Cole-McFadden (Ward 1) and Howard Clement (Ward 2) in the Oct. 6 muncipal primary.

The group did not make endorsements for mayor or in Ward 3, where only two candidate are running.

"It gets down to experience," said David Smith, chairman of the Friends. "We're in tough times right now. We thought experience was important."

Three candidates are running in Ward 1: McFadden, Donald Hughes and John Tarantino. Smith said the Friends 50-member steering committee was impressed by Hughes, but felt he was too young and needed experience serving on city boards. 

Five candidates are running in Ward 2: Clement, Mike Drew, Sylvester Williams, Sandra Howell and Darius Little.

Little has called Clement too old, and Smith said the veteran council member is "showing his age a little bit." But "the other four didn't impress us much," he said. Clement also serves on the Crime Cabinet, he noted. The Friends stand for better schools, lower crime, lower taxes and better race relations, he said.  

City Council candidate Darius M. Little has launched his campaign Web site, http://dariusforcouncil.weebly.com.

The site describes his experience, goals and platform — the last concentrated on public safety and economic development.

Among goals, he has:

"Creating a 'family atmosphere' in Durham, by working to include all people in our Democracy, by allowing them to see their concerns being seriously addressed, at the decision-making table."

Donald Hughes filed for election to the City Council's Ward 1 seat this morning, accompanied by about 20 supporters who included his mother, former council and school board member Jackie Wagstaff, and county commisssioner Joe Bowser.

"Win, lose or draw, may the campaign bring you joy," elections director Mike Ashe said when Hughes had signed the requisite papers and paid his $188.35 filing fee (below).

Hughes is challenging incumbent Cora Cole-McFadden, who defeated Wagstaff's council re-election bid in 2001.

"I'm focusing on my own campaign," Cole-McFadden said, speaking by telephone from New York, where she is attending the NAACP convention.

Before going to the Board of Elections to file, Hughes opened his campaign with a rally on Alston Avenue, across from Eastway Elementary School (above).

"This election is about inspiring Durham," he said, recalling his own inspiration as an Eastway pupil when a then-council member Cynthia Brown spoke to his class about community participation.

A May graduate of UNC Greensboro, Hughes said his campaign will take full advantage of technologies such as Facebook and Twitter with which he and his contemporaries have grown up.

"It is now our time," he said.

Political newcomer Donald Hughes takes the plunge into Durham's city election tomorrow, with a 10:30 a.m. rally on Alston Avenue.

"It's just been in me for as long as I can remember," Hughes told Bull's Eye this afternoon.

Hughes is challenging two-term incumbent Cora Cole-McFadden for the Ward 1 City Council seat.

"I really want to see Durham come together and move for action," he said.

Speculation around town has put Hughes into the city council field for months. A 2005 graduate of Hillside High School and 2009 graduate of UNC-Greensboro, he has made his opinions known at several city council and county commissioners' meetings this year.

"Being a native of Durham and growing up in the community ... I saw the importance of standing up for what you believe," he said.

Hughes is the son of former city councilwoman and former Durham Public Schools board member Jackie Wagstaff, Cole-McFadden defeated Wagstaff's bid for re-election to the council in 2001.

"My mother stressed the importance of giving back to my community at an early age," Hughes said.