{"id":14293,"date":"2012-10-12T11:36:50","date_gmt":"2012-10-12T15:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=14293"},"modified":"2012-10-12T11:36:50","modified_gmt":"2012-10-12T15:36:50","slug":"soil-and-water-conservation-district-supervisor-pat-lawson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/2012-general-election-voter-guide\/2012\/10\/12\/soil-and-water-conservation-district-supervisor-pat-lawson\/","title":{"rendered":"Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor \u2014 Pat Lawson"},"content":{"rendered":"

[media-credit name=”Pat Lawson” align=”alignright” width=”150″]\"\"<\/a>[\/media-credit]Patrick Lawson \u2015 Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor
\nAge: 45
\nOccupation: Real estate agent
\nCampaign website: http:\/\/patlawson4sandw.blogspot.com\/ <\/a><\/p>\n

Very few people know what the Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor does. How would you explain to voters what you do?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s a tough question, because I\u2019m not in to the job yet. There are five commissioners that run the office and I think there\u2019s about seven or nine people that actually report to the five supervisors, they\u2019re actually called supervisors. Three are elected, two are appointed.<\/p>\n

But basically, what they do is dispense funds on how to take care of our natural resources and so forth, whether that be water, land or soil or wildlife. It\u2019s more to create ideas or to implement ideas and strategies to comply with regulations. And, there\u2019s grant money and so forth that\u2019s associated with it. So, we use some of that money to help implement ideas. You know, it was created in 1935 by Roosevelt \u2013 the Conservation Act \u2013 and I don\u2019t think a lot of people know about it. I think your question was, \u201cwhat do you do to promote it\u201d? I don\u2019t think a lot of people know that the soil and water guys are there.<\/p>\n

So, what you\u2019re saying is, you would explain it to people by just, you know, the job description is something like \u201cfinding a way to comply\u2026\u201d<\/strong>
\nYes, that\u2019s right. It\u2019s non regulatory, so you\u2019re not implementing laws, or you\u2019re not creating rules, but you\u2019re trying to show how to combat \u2013 how to conserve natural resources in your given area. For example, when Roosevelt created it in 1935, that was because of the Dust Bowl. And the Dust Bowl, you know, all the soil was blown off the farms. So they created the act to come in and help farmers, you know, show \u2018em how to plant trees, put up fences, irrigation \u2013 to combat another disaster such as the Dust Bowl. So the same thing would apply here, but obviously on a much smaller scale.<\/p>\n

What are your priorities for the office if elected?<\/strong>
\nWell mainly just education, trying to get out there. Just like you said, most people don\u2019t even know what the department does. So our main focus would be, or my main focus, would just be to draw some attention to the office. And, you\u2019re also looking for grant money, state money, federal moneys, so you want to try to draw attention, to create, to bring in those moneys and to create more awareness of the office. And, to get out there and see people. I mean, right now, basically, I think everybody knows about it \u2013 the farmers know about it \u2013 but do they know about it in Johnston, just around the area? No, they probably don\u2019t.\u00a0 North Hills, when they\u2019re building something or they\u2019re doing a subdivision, they probably don\u2019t even know that we\u2019re even there when they could use us as a resource.<\/p>\n

Why should your constituents elect you?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s a good question. I\u2019ve got a lot of energy. I\u2019ve got a lot of background in Wake County. I\u2019ve been a realtor. I know the area. Five hundred and eighty-seven square miles in Wake County: I\u2019ve been probably to every corner of the county. My background is \u2013 does involve commercial construction \u2013 so I\u2019m involved with the construction process, know the process. And I just know what\u2019s going on in the county. I have a current website where I\u2019m your Raleigh tour guide, \u2018cause I try to follow everything that\u2019s going on in the area, and the building and the construction that\u2019s going on. Also, I bring a lot of energy to the department and I\u2019m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[media-credit name=”Pat Lawson” align=”alignright” width=”150″][\/media-credit]Patrick Lawson \u2015 Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor Age: 45 Occupation: Real estate agent Campaign website: http:\/\/patlawson4sandw.blogspot.com\/ Very few people know what the Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor does. How would you explain to voters what you do? That\u2019s a tough question, because I\u2019m not in to the job […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24056,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[968],"tags":[991],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14293"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24056"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14293\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}