Will Raymond for Town Council

Tapping into Chapel Hill’s talent, innovation and creativity.

campaign@willraymond.org
willraymond.org

209 Mt. Bolus Rd., Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919) 932-1380

Dear Neighbor,

It started with a streetlight. A few years ago I asked the town to fix a light shining brightly into my family’s home off Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. After months of bureaucratic runaround, I turned to Council for relief and unintentionally began a journey towards a seat on that same body.

I’m an engaged parent, homeowner, Carolina North watchdog, community technology advocate, exponent of a new budgeting process, and now a candidate for Town Council. Through detailed research, public advocacy, and personal resolve, I have already had more success in altering the path our Town follows than I once thought possible. Still, I know I can do more. My journey, in and beyond government, has prepared me to step forward to lead when others will not, to decide when others equivocate, to negotiate firmly even when others quail at a “gun held to their head”. I will be vigorous and forthright in my work to build on a consensual vision of our Town’s future – a future, I believe, that will reaffirm Chapel Hill as a Town for the Ages.

Here are just a few of my recent activities:

• proposed that the Downtown Economic Development Commission extend wireless Internet (Wifi) downtown (including into the neighborhoods of Pine Knolls and Northside) – a forward-looking effort to spur economic development while bridging our community’s digital divide.
• called for the Technology Advisory Board (on which I now serve) to actively shape our town’s future, to expand the use of collaborative technology, to improve operational efficiencies, to move to an open and non-proprietary infrastructure, to ensure open access to information now and in the future.
• dug into the town budget to identify cost savings, proposed a better process for monitoring expenses.
• worked to protect our civil liberties and prevent the privatization of police powers.

As your Town Council representative, I will:

• challenge UNC’s current administration to create a more imaginative, forward-thinking, and collaborative design for Carolina North.
• continue to bring my experience as an entrepreneurial Chief Information Officer of a multi-million dollar DOT.COM to bear on the town’s use of technology to heighten our economic profile and to strategically improve our operations, procedures, and infrastructure.
• creatively make Downtown a family friendlier destination by establishing a state-of-the-art play area in a prominent location.
• initiate quarterly budget reviews by the Council, by a standing citizen’s panel and by the community.
• issue quarterly fiscal report cards detailing expenditures to date, bond liabilitiesand bond draw downs so ALL of us can help keep town spending in line.
• support the goals of the Stormwater Utility but end its fee-based funding.
• continue to strive to “think sideways” and suggest solid business practices and established innovations to progressively and cost effectively enhance our Town’s quality of life.

If you share my goal of a vital, creative, diverse, innovative, natural and sustainable town, please help my campaign: volunteer for a few hours, display a yard sign, make a contribution (no more than $100, please), write a letter, and be sure to tell your friends: In 2005, Everybody Votes Raymond!

Yours,

Breaking news: Will’s campaign endorsed by UNC’s Students for a
Progressive Chapel Hill!