For the better part of a year, some Wake commissioners and members of the school board have sparred over just whose fault it was that an agreement aimed at avoiding sales tax payments on new schools was delayed.

The two sides can't even agree on how much money was wasted before the differences were settled.

The issue came back up at a March 19 meeting of the two often-feuding boards. County officials say local taxpayers lost at least $613,000 from the delays. The school system says the figure is more like $70,000.

On April 2, County Manager David Cooke issued a two-page memo and 11 pages of backup documents to support the higher figure.

Then at an April 15 meeting of the school board's facilities committee, board attorney Rod Malone made statements that appeared to lay the blame for the mess at the feet of the county's legal staff.

County officials took umbrage. In an April 22 letter (six pages with attachments), Malone admitted he misspoke when he said the county had initially rejected the plan.

At a meeting Monday, Commissioner Tony Gurley couldn't resist crowing, making sure reporters got a copy of Malone's mea culpa.

WakePol shudders at the thought of how much staff time and resources were expended on the dueling memos over who wasted money. But for those of you who are interested, you can read them here in their full splendor.

Cooke memo

Malone memo

Tomorrow, Raleigh's Public Works Committee will discuss the city's plan to spend $86 million to pump treated wastewater around the city. The plan, which was approved by the previous City Council in March 2007, is now being questioned by two council members, including Russ Stephenson. Stephenson doesn't support having the current utility rate payers pay for a system that will be used by large institutional and commercial water users. If Stephenson has a pet issue, it is getting newcomers to pay more of the cost of growth. Whether it be impact fees or utility rates, Stephenson frequently frames the issue in these terms.

At least one council member, Mary-Ann Baldwin, sees this as pitting long-term residents against newcomers. In an interview yesterday, she said it's dangerous for a large number of Raleigh residents to adopt the attitude that they shouldn't pay for things they won't use. "We do have to have a process, or at least a philosophy of, we're all in this together," Baldwin said. In the case of Raleigh's reuse water system, supporters say it will provide benefits to all city residents.

I'd be interested to hear what side of this argument WakePol readers fall on. Does Raleigh need to adjust many of its fees (not just impact fees) so that newcomers pay more for the expenses being created by growth? Is there a danger in politically framing issues as old-timers versus newcomers? What's an appropriate balance for the financial burdens being assumed by existing residents and newcomers?

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker has announced that he is supporting Illinois Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. In a phone interview yesterday, Meeker said he had the highest respect for New York Senator Hillary Clinton, but he described Obama as "something special" and an "inspirational leader." Meeker is not a Democratic superdelegate, so it's unlikely he's been getting regular phone calls from either candidate or their surrogates.

So far, Meeker's endorsement has not caused any Clinton supporters to call the Raleigh mayor Judas. Can Obama expect a bump in the polls because of the Meeker endorsement?

Councilman Thomas Crowder has been lobbying the Raleigh City Council to come up with a mission statement for the Capital City. At today's meeting, the council is expected to discuss a proposed mission statement put forward by Crowder. Municipal mission statements aren't out of the ordinary. Durham has one. There doesn't appear to be anything controversial in Crowder's proposal. (It says nothing about the right of citizens to use or not use garbage disposals.)

It begins by declaring Raleigh's mission is "to become a 21st Century City of Innovation focusing an environmental, cultural and economic sustainability ... We will welcome growth and diversity through policies and programs that will protect, preserve and enhance Raleigh's existing neighborhoods, natural amenities, rich history and cultural and human resources for future generations."

It will be interesting to see if the proposal elicits strong opinions from other council members. We've just had a contest to come up with new mascots for Raleigh problems. What should Raleigh's mission statement say?

On page 5A of today's N&O is a Washington Post story about a salesman filing suit against his employer for waterboarding him during a team-building exercise. The article is a must-read for any person who has ever either worked in sales or participated in "team-building" exercise. Among the many choice quotes: "Keep in mind, the last time we did a team-building exercise outside, we did an egg toss."

We ran an edited version of the story today, but you should really read the full story here.

Couple of interesting stories that ran in the Wall Street Journal in recent days. (You may need to be a subscriber to access these links.) Here's a story about the plethora of teardowns occurring in Greenwich, Conn. Granted, the comparison between inside the Beltline Raleigh and Greenwich is a bit of a stretch. Raleigh isn't the hedge fund capital of the world, and instead of tearing down 2,000 square foot ranch houses Greenwich is saying goodbye to mansions. Another teardown-related story can be found here. Max Weinberg, the drumer for the E Street Band, is angering some neighbors by subdividing his property. (And he's on the board of a conservation foundation!) I guess the Triangle equivalent of this would be if Clay decided to buy inside the Beltline and teardown a house.

And finally, here's a link to a story about how above average snow and rain in recent months has significantly helped the water supply situation out West.

We recently received an invitation to a "Garner Economic Development Showcase Event" taking place May 7. The event is designed to show people "firsthand Garner's economic growth prospects and quality of life."

What really caught our eye was not the possibility of taking a bus tour of Garner. Rather, it was the note on the invite that attendees will have the "option to experience the high-speed thrills of European-style go-karting."

Let's momentarily put aside the fact that the phrase European-style go-karting deserves an entire article. We assume the phrase is referring to the racing that goes on at RushHour Karting in Garner, as the final event of the showcase is optional test drives at RushHour.

But what exactly is European-style go-karting? Is it like Formula 1 and not like NASCAR? Is it racing without restrictor plates? Does it mean there will be no 4-wide racing?

Please explain. The future of Wake Politics depends on it.

In today's Life, etc. section we announced the winners of our mascot contest. The mascots are meant to represent municipal challenges. They include Sprawleigh, Cramsies the Sardine, Arby the Lonely Sports Arena and Mini-Meeker. We couldn't help but notice that Tim Lee, the N&O's illustrator of the mascots, decided to give Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker a healthy dollop of hair. Lee was even more generous that city's own drawing of Meeker for its "Meeker on the Move" feature.

The contest was inspired by Raleigh's creation of Rainy, a raindrop that is supposed to help us conserve.

Anointed by Wake Board of Commissioners chairman Joe Bryan as "Mr. Greenjeans," Sig Hutchinson opened his presentation on the acquisition of land for the Little River Reservoir with an truly epically bad joke.

Hutchinson, an all around thumbs-up environment guy and architect behind some of the crucial land purchases held up a red poster-board "J."

After a couple of guesses from the commissioners (Tony Gurley: "It's sure not for the Jayhawks.") Hutchinson said, "It's a red letter day!"

Commissioners went on the approve the plan to add more than 600 acres to the reservoir, in spite of the use of a worn out visual gag.

Last night the city Planning Department held a meeting where attendees were asked to comment on pictures of teardowns. The point, according to city planners, was to gather up information about what type of teardowns people feel are problematic. The "Visual Preference Survey" was the planning department's latest attempt to move the teardown discussion forward. Was it helpful?

We won't really know until planners reveal the results of the survey in a month or two, but there appeared to be one glaring problem with the whole exercise. A good chunk of the 70 or so people who attended appeared to already have very strong opinions about teardowns, and whether the city should do anything to regulate them. Some are open and eager to have more regulation. Others find it down right unAmerican. So, basically the planning department collected a bunch of information from highly partisan folks whose thoughts on the issue it already was very familiar with. It's hard to believe the sampling of people in attendance last night is representative of the whole city.

The teardown issue has become so contentious that it's clear the Planning Department is going to great lengths to come up with a fair and open process for studying it. Whether these efforts bring the city any closer to a consensus about what to do remains to be seen.

As we mentioned earlier, last week's Newsweek included an item about Raleigh's new garbage disposal ban. It led off with an anecdote about how a corvette had been swallowed by a geyser caused by a sanitary sewer overflow. We were naturally skeptical that such an event had recently occurred in Raleigh, and it turns out it didn't.

Public Utilities Director Dale Crisp said he spoke to Newsweek's reporter, but didn't mention any such event, nor did the reporter ask Crisp about the corvette incident. In an e-mail, Crisp said: "If she had, I would have told her this did not happen in Raleigh and did not happen as a result of an SSO [sanitary sewer overflow]. There was a storm sewer sink hole in Hickory a few years ago that swallowed a corvette and one last year in Greensboro caused by a water main break."

As someone who subscribes to lots of national publications, I admit this is one of my pet peeves. National publication parachutes in to cover a story and ends up misrepresenting or getting something completely wrong. But then I suppose Hickory, Greensboro and Raleigh are all considered part of the grease-loving South, and thus it fit nicely into the angle of the story.

In Saturday's TriPol (read below) we raised the issue of downtown hotel rooms, and whether there are going to be enough near the convention center when it opens this September. The city has a lot riding on the new convention center being a success. Should city officials be concerned about a deteriorating economy delaying projects that are crucial to the convention center's success?

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What happens when downtown revival plans run into a credit crunch? The Raleigh City Council could soon find out.

Last week Mayor Charles Meeker and the council approved a development-agreement extension with Empire Properties, which is building a 22-story hotel-condominium near the new convention center.

The project, called The Lafayette, was expected to provide much-needed hotel rooms when the convention center opens in September. The convention center's own Web site even touts The Lafayette as one of the "exceptional accommodations" right next door.

With the latest delay, The Lafayette isn't likely to open until May 2010, five months later than originally projected.

The council has already given extensions to other downtown projects, including a 25-story tower at Hillsborough and Dawson streets that is not even under construction despite being conceived in 2000.

While Meeker would like no more extensions given, he conceded Friday that the city may have little, if any, leverage with developers if the economy continues to deteriorate.

Any delay in new downtown hotel rooms is likely to be good news for the Marriott Hotel opening on Fayetteville Street, but bad news for visitors who may have to triple up at The Clarion or stay in another part of the city.

With the City Plaza at the south end of Fayetteville Street also delayed until 2010, "Be patient" might be an appropriate message for conventioneers when they begin arriving in the fall.

Councilwoman Mary-Ann Baldwin is holding a series of meetings with residents. The first one happens Saturday, April 5 at 217 Hawthorne Road and is for the Cameron Park/Cameron Village community. The announcement says the purpose of the meetings is "to listen to citizens' thoughts on issues and concerns facing the City of Raleigh."

Those interested in attending should email baldwincommunitymeetings@gmail.com

The latest issue of Newsweek includes a blurb about the Raleigh City Council's decision to ban garbage disposals. Headlined "Garbage In, Garbage Out," the piece explains the reason for the band and some of the backlash against it. Public Utilities Director Dale Crisp and Councilman Rodger Koopman are both quoted. (No, Koopman did not mention the war in Iraq.)

Strangely, the article also mentions an incident last year when cooking grease caused a tall geyser to explode through the ground and swallow a Corvette. Huh? Does anybody remember a Corvette-eating geyser exploding in Raleigh late last year? And if that truly happened, why didn't the city mention it as a reason for the disposal ban when it was announced? At least they would have gotten the support of Corvette owners.

Who doesn't love a good mascot contest? The N&O is asking readers to come up with mascots to address specific issues within the Triangle. The contest comes on the heels of the city of Raleigh creating Rainy, a raindrop who is supposed to encourage residents to conserve water.

Surely some of our more creative-minded citizens can come up with the Rainy equivalent for tear downs, impact fees, garbage disposals, etc. You can post your ideas here.