Wake County school board member Keith Sutton raised more than $30,000 during his lopsided election win in District 4 last fall.

In Sutton's final campaign report filed Thursday, the Democratic-backed candidate reported raising $33,327 and spending $32,484.31. His Republican challenger, Venita Peyton, hasn't filed her final report yet. But she had reported raising $1,280 as of Sept. 26.

Sutton's report seems to be missing some info. He reports having raised $5,500 from other political committees on his summary page. But the actual page listing this contribution or contributions isn't included.

The Wake Citizens for Good Government PAC is looking like it could be a big player in this fall's Wake County school board elections.

As noted in today's article, the PAC has reported raising $27,803.28 with $25,671.54 on hand. In contrast, the Wake Schools Community Alliance has reported raising $268.92 an having only $1 on hand.

There's a strong connection between Wake Citizens for Good Government, the five Democratic school board candidates and the Wake County Democratic Party. A number of people are giving money to all three groups, similar to how some of the 2009 donors gave money to the four winning school board candidates, the WSCA and the Wake County Republican Party.

Since you guys will probably hear about it soon enough, Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman's son was arrested on a shoplifting charge.

As noted in this online article by Thomas Goldsmith, Matthew Goldman, 21, was arrested on Feb. 4 on a felony larceny charge for allegedly disabling an anti-theft device to steal an Xbox 360 Kinect at a Target store in Raleigh. The charge was reduced today to misdemeanor larceny as part of an agreement between Goldman's attorney and prosecutors.

Wake County Clerk of Superior Court Lorrin Freeman said this kind of agreement to reduce charges was typical of the disposition of similar cases. Goldman was placed in a first offender program.

In case you're wondering why this is news, the N&O reports on the arrests of children of elected officials. Although Goldman gave a different address when he was arrested, he's still registered to vote at his mother's address.

Wendell and Wake County continue to try to work out issues surrounding the county's payment of fees for the use of the Wendell courtroom.

Wake County pays the town $12 for each case disposed of in the Wendell courtroom. Last year, Wake County Clerk of Court Lorrin Freeman and Wendell Mayor Harold Broadwell determined the county had not paid the fees in full.

Freeman and her staff confirmed that through some research and paid the town an additional $38,690 for the fiscal years from 2004-2007.

On March 13, Wendell Town Manager David Bone wrote Freeman a letter in which he said it was the town's understanding that there would be an additional adjustment to account for fees owed from fiscal year 2008. The town stands to receive a significantly larger sum of money from 2008 because the town of Wake Forest, which also has a courtroom, has had to hold court in Wendell due to renovations at their facility.

In his letter, the manager said the town of Wendell received $17,964 in facility fees for the 2007 fiscal year after the underpayment was corrected.

"Since the Wake Forest court was not handled in Wendell in 2006-07, one can assume (since the Wake Forest court is now handled in Wendell) that the Wendell court facility fees for 2008-09 should be, roughly, double that amount - approximately $36,000," Bone wrote.

But for the first eight months of the fiscal year, the town has received just $6,374 in court fees.

The issue is an important one for Wendell commissioners because the town hall, where the courtroom is located, is bursting at the seams for space with its current staff and the courtroom takes up a significant amount of that space.

Town staff also spends time during the week setting the room up for court proceedings and rearranging the facility for other meetings throughout the week.

"While there is opinion that we benefit financially from Wake County's use of our facility, recent receipts make that position difficult to defend," Bone wrote.