Three of the eight members of Raleigh's City Council came up with another idea this week about what to do about the the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center.

Start over.

In a two-page memorandum, councilors Thomas Crowder, Bonner Gaylord and Russ Stephenson, asked city staff to figure out how much it would cost to renovate the current police headquarters at 110 S. McDowell St. and build a new emergency communications center just for 911 dispatchers.

"At a time when some are calling for burdensome tax increases and others are calling for painful sevice cuts, we believe there is a middle path that is responsive to our long-term emergency services needs -- without raising taxes or overshadowing other important current and future needs of our citizens," the three wrote in a letter to the rest of the council and Raleigh City Manager J. Russell Allen.

The proposed Lightner Center had been in the works for years, but catapolted into the public arena once Allen unveiled the proposed way to pay for it -- by bundling it with $250 million worth of public works projects and raising property taxes by 8 percent.

If built, it would house police administrators and detectives, fire adminstration, the emergency communications center, traffic management staff and the city's information technology department.

The Lightner Center, named for the Raleigh funeral director who served for one term and was the city's first and only black mayor, would be 17-stories high and 300,000 square feet. It'd be the biggest, and most expensive, city building. 

There's little about the building that hasn't become controversial, with differing opinions from different city political corners weighing in on whether its needed, what it should cost and who should decide if the public safety center should be built.

The most controversial aspects have been the proposed tax increase to pay for the
building, a call to have the decision to build decided by voters at in
a citywide bond referendum and original plans to include up to $705,000
in public art in the project.

The request for a tax increase comes in the midst of an economic recession, and Raleigh's entire council has gotten hundreds of e-mails protesting the project, or asking to delay the project until the economy gets better.

Many of the opposition letters were identical, and appear to be a push from conservative quarters that think the issue should be decided by voters and not by city councilors.

Mary-Ann Baldwin, one of the council members, said she doesn't think the plan rolled out by Crowder, Gaylord and Stephenson meets the needs of the city, and reiterated that hte current 50-year-old bulding is falling apart and not suitable.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, who wants the project to go forward in order to cash in on what he says is $50 million in savings, hopes it will still pass, but with a different funding scenario. Some of the remote operations projects can be delayed, and the cost of the building might be able to be absorbed by impact or facilities fees. Meeker also asked that the art budget be narrowed to a third of the size. 

The council has avoided taking action on the Lightner Center three times this year, and it's expected to be back in front of them at their next meeting on Feb. 16.

It's one of Raleigh's oddest athletic events, the Krispy Kreme Challenge.

Today, organizers announced they'd reached their limit in runners with 6,000 signed up to run and scarf down donuts.

The race, scheduled for Feb. 6, is the brainchild of a handful of N.C. State University students who came up with the idea several years ago to run from campus to the Krispy Kreme store on Peace Street and back, eating a dozen donut in between. Fast forward a few years, and the KKC attracts thousands of runners, and raises money for the N.C. Children's Hospital.

The true challenge is to run the two miles from the N.C. State University Bell Tower, eat the dozen donuts, and run back in an hour, while keeping the doughnuts down.

Stretches of Peace, St. Mary's and Hillsborough streets end up getting littered with the partially-digested doughnuts by those runners who can't quite hold on to the baked goods.

If all the runners eat their donuts, that will mean a total of 72,000 doughnuts inhaled in one morning. Probably not a fun day to be on the clean-up crew. 

The Raleigh City Council may be voting today about the proposed $205 million project to build the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center, 17-story structure that would replace the current police headquarters.

The project has attracted controversy in recent weeks with grumblings about the property tax increase that’s been proposed to pay for the building.

The Wake County Republican Party has called for the project to go before voters in a bond referendum, and other conservative groups have taken issue with the $705,000 budgeted for public art.

If the council goes ahead with it, it could mean approving an eight-percent tax increase phased in over the next five years that would stay in place for the next 25 years. That would include $250 million in public works projects.

A house assessed at $200,000 would see their annual tax bill go up by $60.

Mayor Charles Meeker has been pushing to go ahead with the project, in order to cash in on $20 million in savings on construction and loan interest, but he’s facing resistance from several council members, including new member Bonner Gaylord, who have raised concerns about the size of the project and the timing of passing a tax increase in the worst economic climate since the Depression.

The city has already spent at least $21 million of the $205 million project, buying two buildings to relocate the police department to and the cost of the design and pre-construction services. Raleigh Police Chief Harry Dolan is moving ahead with relocating his department, despite not having the official green light from the council, and has said his staff will be out of the 50-year-old current police headquarters.

The new building would house police, fire, emergency communications and information techonology departments for the city.

The News & Observer will be at the meeting, and give updates on what happens at today’s council meeting.

Check back to find out, or offer your thoughts on what you’d like the council to do, or what questions you may have. You can also email reporter Sarah Ovaska at sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com.

With the Raleigh City Council still wavering over whether it’ll go forward with a new $205 million public safety center, critics of the building are honing their sights on the project’s fine print.

Particularly irksome for Joey Stansbury, who heads the conservative group Wake Community PAC, is $705,000 slated to pay for public art at the 17-story building.

"It's a lack of priorities," said Stansbury.

But the money for public art is required by a city ordinance passed last spring that calls for all capital improvement projects, like the center, to dedicate as much as one-half of one percent of the total cost to art.

The Clarence E. Lightner building is priced at $140 million, giving way to the $705,000 estimate for art. The other $65 million in the Lightner project would cover design costs, relocation of police staff to two recently-bought buildings and the cost of outfitting the new building with furniture and equipment.

Nearly $21 million has already been spent by the city on the project though it hasn’t gotten the official go-ahead from the council. Giving the project a green light also means the council will be signing up for a politically risky property tax increase for Raleigh city residents.

The council will revisit the Lightner Center project at its Jan. 19 meeting. Approving it would mean a likely property tax increase of 8 percent over five years, which would also pay for $250 million worth of public works projects to put new maintenance facilities for city and a new wastew. Mayor Charles Meeker, who is pushing for the project to go forward, has said the current police, fire and emergency communications facilitates are inadequate and should have been updated years ago.

Meeker said there’s been no specific art works chosen for the building, but that including art in the budget makes what could be drab government buildings into something visually interesting. The entire $705,000 doesn’t need to be used for art, he said.

“The public art really is important,” he said.

Hoping to settle the ever-simmering debate in Raleigh of what gets more attention, Inside the Beltline or Outside the Beltline, the city of Raleigh issued a news release Friday that announced that the neighborhoods outside the city's core gets the lion's share of goods.
Not exactly.

How many times will County Commissioners Chairman Tony Gurley gavel Commission Stan Norwalk out of order today?

Gurley, a Republican, and Norwalk, a Democrat, have been going at each other since Norwalk was elected in 2008. For instance last month, Gurley accused Norwalk of using his diabetes as a political ploy to stall for more time so that Democrat Betty Lou Ward could be elected vice chairwoman.

Gurley said he and fellow Republican Commissioner Paul Coble even came up with a special "Stan Norwalk Quarter" last year when Democrat Harold Webb was chairman.

Tomorrow's Raleigh City Council meeting is bound to be interesting with the eight-person council set to vote on whether or not to go ahead with plans to build the $205 million Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center.

Saying yes means a likely property tax increase in the worst economy since the Depression.

But the Raleigh City Council is also holding a hearing Tuesday evening designed solely to hear residents' input about the budget: what should and shouldn't be paid for with city dollars. Anyone with two cents to offer is invited to attend.

The public safety center, 17-stories high and named after Raleigh's first and only black mayor, would replace the current Raleigh police headquarters on McDowell Street near downtown's Nash Square and on the same block as City Hall.

Though most councilors agree that the current facilities for the police, fire and emergency communications are inadequate, the financing of the project has proven worrisome.

Three have said they are for it, including Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker, while three oppose going forward on it because of the timing and financing that could mean an 8-percent tax increase. Not decided yet are Nancy McFarlane, who represents a swath of North Raleigh neighborhoods, and councilor-at-large Russ Stephenson

Raleigh City Manager Russell Allen suggested that the council consider a $500 million loan that would combine the building with $250 million in various public utility projects around the city.
And that could mean a likely property tax increase for Raleigh taxpayers when the council hashes out its budget this spring and summer.

Allen's proposed a funding model for the Lightner project that would add three cents phased in over the next five years to the current tax rate of $0.375 for each $100 the assessed value of a property. In short, homeowners with a house assessed at $200,000 would see a $20 jump in their taxes for each penny, $60 in total.

Meeker wants to move ahead with the project, acting now
could mean saving the taxpayers as much as $20 million by locking into
lower interest loans and constructions costs.

The vote on the Lightner Center is expected during the council's afternoon meeting, which is open to the public and begins at 1 p.m. at the Council Chamber, Room 201 of the Avery C. Upchurch Government Complex, 222 W. Hargett St.

But the council will come back at 7 p.m. to hear from the public about what should, and shouldn't, be funded by the city in the coming year.

Click here to check out a photo gallery of the proposed center, designed to be energy efficient and house the city's police, fire, emegency communications and technology departments.

Have thoughts on this? Contact Sarah Ovaska at sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-4622.

Political gadflies and opinionated citizens, we still want to hear from you.

Triangle Politics figured that many of our elected leaders in Durham, Orange and Wake counties may have their hands full. So we thought we'd help them out and offer some suggested New Year's resolutions from readers.

This is your chance to tell us what you wish the leaders who control the purse strings and spend tax dollars would do in the new year.

Post here or e-mail your suggested resolutions for any or all Durham, Orange and Wake political or government leaders to sarah.ovaska@newsobserver.com, and we'll print some of the best ones. Please keep it short, simple and clean, we're trying to avoid doing the heavy editing today.

And, just for your information, some of the crew over here at the N&O is resolving to start avoiding those office donuts. The only exception will be for this year's Krispy Kreme Challenge, planned for Feb. 6 and now open for registration.

So send those resolutions our way!

The city of Raleigh wants residents to unleash their grease.
City crews will collect used cooking oil and grease from resident's homes as part of a pilot program being enacted for the holiday season. The collected oils will be converted into biofuels by Triangle Biofuels, a local company that's buying the grease from the city for $0.25 a gallon.
The free program is up and running, so residents can begin putting their grease out on the curb along with their trash and recycling once they contact the city's Solid Waste Service Department to arrange a pickup.
The program will run through Jan. 15 and includes pick-ups at churches and places of worship.
Pickup won't be automatic, residents need to call solid waste workers at 996-6890 to arrange a pickup at least a day before their weekly trash day.
The grease should be in a sealed container, like a milk jug or old coffee can, but can not be kept in glass containers.
Questions? Call the city of Raleigh's Public Utilities Department at 857-4540.

It appears that Raleigh City Council member Mary Ann Baldwin used $1,800 of her campaign war chest to pay for an upcoming trip to China with the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.
Baldwin said the trip offers chances to learn about the Chinese economy and viewed the trip as an extension of her council duties.
The trip, scheduled for Oct. 24 to Nov. 1, includes nine days worth of sight-seeing, with stops at China’s Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. Harvey Schmitt, the chamber’s president, said the trip is being billed as a way for participate to familiarize themselves with China to gain a better understanding of the nation’s economy and people.
Baldwin she used $500 of her own money, in addition to the $1,799 that her campaign paid for.
"You’re kind of between a rock and a hard place," Baldwin said about the decision to use campaign funds. "You don’t want to use tax-payer money for something like that.”
Nancy McFarlane, a fellow Raleigh city council member, is also going on one of the three trips the chamber organized this fall to China.
Baldwin, a marketing consultant elected to the council in 2007, is one of five people running for the two council-at-large positions in Tuesday’s Oct. 6 municipal elections.