Omar Beasley failed to win a county commissioner's seat in last week's election, but if he decides to try another run for office he's got some money to get going.

Beasley's third-quarter finance report listed a cash balance of $3,715.86 as of Oct. 29 and, on election day, the Committee to Elect Omar Beasley got a $1,050 donation from developer Neal Hunter.

Hunter is a financial backer of the controversial 751 South development. Beasley took no position on the project during the campaign for county commissioner.

The City Council unanimously rejected the 751 South developers' request for a water-sewer extension earlier this year. Three council seats and the mayor's chair are up for election in 2013, and the project could become an issue in next year's city campaign.
 

County Commissioner Joe Bowser’s campaign fund is $8,000 richer thanks to a couple with a financial stake in the controversial 751 South development project.

Bowser, who lost a bid for mayor last month, reported the donations from Neal and Janet Hunter to the Durham County Board of Elections on Monday. Each gave $4,000 to the Bowser Campaign Committee. The couple did not donate money to any other candidates in Durham’s mayoral and City Council races.

Neal Hunter sold the 751 South site near Jordan Lake to Southern Durham Development Inc., financing $10 million of the $18 million price in return for a non-voting share in the company.

Bowser’s term on the Durham County Board of Commissioners expires in 2012. He has been a strong supporter of 751 South, which won a crucial rezoning by a 3-2 commissioners’ vote in 2010. That rezoning is the subject of a lawsuit scheduled for trial in November.

In Durham County, $4,000 is the maximum amount an individual may give to a local candidate’s campaign for any one election. Bowser was a candidate for Durham mayor, but was eliminated in the Oct. 11 primary. Both Hunters’ donations were dated Oct. 11.

While running for mayor, Bowser declared his intention to raise or spend less than $1,000 on the current election. After falling out of the mayor’s race, he withdrew that declaration, putting himself under a requirement to file periodic campaign finance reports.
 

The county commissioners' meeting got right testy Monday night, with commissioners exchanging sharp words about "statements  and accusations" after Commissioner Becky Heron called for her colleagues to fess up about any "commissioners receiving gifts,  this that and the other from the developers" of 751 South, Southern Durham Development Inc.

As the discussion went along, Commissioner Joe Bowser said he had been misrepresented in the press.

"They have tried to claim me individually as one who has taken money from the developers. I didn’t even know the developers  when I was running for this office. Didn’t even know who they were. They have never given me a dollar. Go look on my  campaign finance reports. You’ll see it, not one dollar."

Since he made the suggestion, Bull's Eye went to look and found that, indeed, Bowser's finance reports show no contributions  from Alex Mitchell or Tyler Morris, principals in Southern Durham Development Inc.

However, they do show that, in his unsuccessful 2004 campaign for re-election to the Board of Commissioners, Bowser  received $2,000 from Neal Hunter, who sold the 751 South site to Southern Durham and now owns a minority share in the  company.

OK, that doesn't make Hunter one of the developers, but you'd think he's at least an interested party.

(As Southern Durham President Alex Mitchell explained the arrangement with Hunter, he and Morris paid $18 million for the  land: $8 million up front to Hunter, who agreed to finance the rest for interest and a partial, non-voting share in the company.

("Neal Hunter is not the developer," Mitchell said. "Tyler and I are the only people on the bank loan.")

Cree scored a coup close to home this week.

The city of Durham announced it will join Cree's LED City program, and add 573 LED lighting fixtures in three parking garages.

Cree started the program in early 2007 with Raleigh as the first participant. The program has expanded to cities across the country and around the world.

“Durham has been Cree’s home for more than 20 years, and we’re thrilled our hometown is joining municipalities" elsewhere in installing LEDs, said Neal Hunter, president of Cree LED Lighting, in a prepared statement. Hunter helped found Cree at N.C. State University 23 years ago.

When all was said and done — for the time being — Bull's Eye overheard Durham County commissioner Ellen Reckhow comment, "It's the greatest show in town."

Commissioner Brenda Howerton had a different conclusion.

"It's a mess," she said.

Both were right. And show and mess will probably go on for some time to come.

They were talking about the Jordan Lake watershed boundary, which came before the commissioners and a standing-room crowd Monday night.

Howerton cast the deciding vote to subject the Jordan Lake watershed boundary to a rezoning process that includes at least two public hearings.

By midafternoon, a Durham citizens' petition for an "Independent Jordan Lake Survey" had more than 1,400 signatures reacting to a state Division of Water Quality ruling on Friday.

The DWQ accepted a developer-commissioned survey from 2005 that led to relocation of the one-mile "critical" watershed boundary for an arm of Jordan Lake in southwest Durham County.