{"id":20296,"date":"2013-09-13T14:00:31","date_gmt":"2013-09-13T18:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=20296"},"modified":"2013-09-12T12:07:02","modified_gmt":"2013-09-12T16:07:02","slug":"city-council-at-large-jason-spriggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/voter-guide-2013\/2013\/09\/13\/city-council-at-large-jason-spriggs\/","title":{"rendered":"City Council At Large: Jason Spriggs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jason Spriggs<\/strong><\/center>
\n\"Jason<\/a>
\nDistrict: At Large
\nAge: 31
\nOccupation: Businessman and Photographer
\nIncumbent: No
\nFacebook<\/a>
\nTwitter<\/a>
\nWebsite<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

Why should your constituents elect you for City Council?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Because I\u2019m different. I guess you hear that a lot. I think nowadays you don\u2019t even hear it as much as you used to. But I\u2019m different. I don\u2019t have a lot of the political clout a lot of people have. This is my first time running for an office this large. You know I work and live and go through the same exact things exactly like everyone else does. And we\u2019re talking about just the average family who\u2019s trying, who hasn\u2019t really reached that level of success and I\u2019m there amongst them.<\/p>\n

I think our voice has to be represented in City Council. So you look at City Council, you know, they do a good job\u2014I can\u2019t say they don\u2019t. I mean it\u2019s hard to come into a city like Raleigh and start saying, like you see on a lot of the other websites, \u201cHelp me make Raleigh this,\u201d I don\u2019t know. Raleigh\u2019s really, really on top of its game, but it\u2019s growing really fast; a lot of companies are coming in really fast. But the disadvantage of the average working people, the poor people, you know, I want to see them come up as well and I should be their voice. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s good to be amongst that atmosphere, because you get to hear things that are important that you don\u2019t get to hear on the news or in the emails you get from the city. You know, common things, like ripped off by taxes, just basic stuff. Maybe that\u2019s not a big deal to a lot of people, but if you have $50 and you have to feed your family and get to work. If the cab service is charging you $35, I mean it hits home. And you\u2019re just trying to get to work. Maybe the bus doesn\u2019t run way out to wherever, Cary or wherever. I\u2019m a voice that talks about those things that normally you would never really hear about as truly a concern of the city. Like grocery stores. You know, not being able to get to a grocery store. Having to catch the bus to go shop for groceries\u2014I\u2019ve done it. It\u2019s not easy to carry a bag of groceries for your family on a bus. But then you hear about these wonderful developments around the city and it\u2019s great. North, Northwest, it\u2019s fantastic. They get grocery stores and shopping centers, but you hear it\u2019s slower on the Southeast side. That\u2019s no good; you can\u2019t do that. You have to be fair. <\/p>\n

Many issues taken up by the state legislature have a direct impact on Raleigh. How can Councilors work better with the state legislature on those issues?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot going on, a lot of stuff getting passed, and people are pissed, I get it. I think what happens at the local level is we get a little bit too involved in the legislation. I\u2019m going to give you example. So the marriage amendment was a huge issue. It was extremely divisive. So we\u2019re splitting people on one side and the other. And then you have City Councilors coming out, you know, picking one side. But the city doesn\u2019t pick one side. Everybody\u2019s thinking different. And then even everybody wasn\u2019t even decided on how they felt. <\/p>\n

What I would love to is say, \u201cLook, you agree, you don\u2019t agree, but we have to really help our citizens in the change.\u201d So if it\u2019s a voter ID issue, let\u2019s make sure they get out and get their voter IDs or whatever needs to be done. I mean, it\u2019s legislation; you can\u2019t change that right now. That\u2019s what it is. A lot of stuff has been passed, and it\u2019s a big up cry. I get it, I understand. But let us help our citizens implement. <\/p>\n

Raleigh continues to grow at a good pace, which affects everything from our water quantity to our infrastructure. How do you feel Raleigh can become more proactive about managing that projected growth?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know. I think they seem to be doing a good job. When I was in Winston-Salem, they have this program called the \u201cCity of Winston-Salem University\u201d and you get involved and they take you through every single aspect of city government. And I was fortunate enough to be chosen out of the city for their program and there were just about 15 or 17 of us maybe. They take you through everything, through the water treatment plants, through every single aspect you can think of. To budget and planning, recreation department. I think one of my biggest concerns now is bringing a program like that to Raleigh. <\/p>\n

(Editorial note: The City of Raleigh runs a similar program called Raleigh Neighborhood College.)<\/em><\/p>\n

What do you think are the best and worst decisions made by the Council these last two years?<\/strong> <\/p>\n

I think the best decision was the small business initiative that Mayor McFarlane was pushing and got approved. I think a couple of years ago it got approved. Because it\u2019s not easy to start a business. You\u2019re fearful first off, you\u2019re fearful to leave your nine to five because you know that a good majority of businesses don\u2019t make it. And just the start-up process. We\u2019re talking about people who are working, who are good people, who may not have the best credit. And they\u2019re scared to even go forward because they are like look, \u201cI\u2019m not going to be able to get a business account, I\u2019m not going to be able to get a loan because of my credit.\u201d But that\u2019s not true. But they don\u2019t understand that. So the way the mayor set it up to where you can pretty much go to one place and say, \u201cLook I\u2019m applying for a business,\u201d and these are the steps. You\u2019re right here at the table so it\u2019s kind of like you have 10 different chairs and you don\u2019t have to leave the table. You can walk to each chair and they can help you through the whole process. I think that is one of the best decisions that they made. <\/p>\n

The worst decision? I can\u2019t think of one. <\/p>\n

Raleigh voters will decide whether to approve bonds for a transportation plan. Do you support the bond? If so, what would be your priorities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I mean what is a bond? I guess that\u2019s my question. And maybe I understand some myself, but does Raleigh really understand what they\u2019re buying into? The average person as myself, maybe you didn\u2019t go on Google yesterday and pull it up. What does it do for you? How are we paying it back? Who are we paying it back to? How is it paid back? Things like that. Things like, the city has investments that a lot of people don\u2019t know about. We are investing a lot of the money we put in\u2014who are those investments with? Are we getting returns on those investments? Those are the types of questions.<\/p>\n

So as far as the bond, maybe it would help a lot of things, but will it raise our taxes? Will it raise our county taxes? And that\u2019s a problem. Because a lot of people who are in the programs like Habitat for Humanity, they just bought homes and they\u2019re working with the program to put them in homes they can afford. So what happens if the bond is passed and they say that buses and things are going to be better? More people probably on the outreaches may have better bus service, or whatever they plan to do with the money. But what about the taxes? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Spriggs District: At Large Age: 31 Occupation: Businessman and Photographer Incumbent: No Facebook Twitter Website Why should your constituents elect you for City Council? Because I\u2019m different. I guess you hear that a lot. I think nowadays you don\u2019t even hear it as much as you used to. But I\u2019m different. I don\u2019t have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24025,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1389],"tags":[1862,310,1402],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20296"}],"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\/24025"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}