![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/Randall-Williams-headshot.jpg\" "\\"Randall")
<\/a>Randall Williams<\/p><\/div>\n
How long have you lived in Raleigh?<\/strong><\/em> Why have you decided to run for office?<\/strong><\/em> What do you think are the three biggest issues the City of Raleigh faces, and how would you address them?<\/strong><\/em> The second thing goes along with that one and that is just to be fiscally responsible. I think one way you do all that is to keep taxes low, and listen to businesses to what you can do to help them be more productive. I think my experience overseas and here have taught me that a strong business sector solves a lot of social ills.<\/p>\n The third thing is the mayor needs to set the tone for the city. So much of politics now is divisive, almost driven by an anger by people who disagree with you and that\u2019s just not who I am. I\u2019ve spent my whole life both here and in the Middle East trying to get people to work together. I think Raleigh has historically been like that, but in the last couple years, I think we\u2019ve gotten away from that some, and not just Raleigh, but the whole area, and I think that diminishes all of us when we can\u2019t resolve your differences with civility.<\/p>\n What do you think are the best and worst decisions the current city council has made?<\/strong><\/em> If you talk about the current council being the last couple years, the last four years or so, I think they\u2019ve been very thoughtful and forwardthinking in that, and that\u2019s good.<\/p>\n What do you think is the most important issue facing the city, and how you plan to address it?<\/em><\/strong> I think all the candidates would say the same thing, it\u2019s growth. I just think we probably differ a little bit on our approach What do you think the city should do to house its public safety functions?<\/strong><\/em> The second thing I was against it for is that I don\u2019t know, I served a lot of time overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I just think it\u2019s a bad idea to put all of your nerve center \u2014 communications, fire, police \u2014 in a 17-story building.<\/p>\n How do you feel about impact fees?<\/strong><\/em> What ideas do you have for public transportation in Raleigh?<\/em><\/strong> But on the other hand, I think Raleigh has to do its part as a regional entity if the other ones are going in that direction. You know the [proposed sales-tax increase] referendum is $900 million, of which $400 million is for buses, so certainly I think we can all agree on the $400 million for buses, regional buses. It\u2019s the other part that I think is kind of out of our control, but clearly, all of the other entities put up the money for it. You know, I think it\u2019s been reasonable for Raleigh to do its part in planning where the things are going.<\/p>\n How do you think the city should plan to meet its future water needs?<\/em><\/strong> What do you think the money should go to?<\/strong><\/em> Age: 54 Current occupation: Obstetrician\/Gynecologist Website: www.randallwilliams.net How long have you lived in Raleigh? 22 years Why have you decided to run for office? I think that one of the most important things facing Raleigh is leadership that could help people work together and develop consensus. I think we have some great challenges ahead. I\u2019ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24038,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[378],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8623"}],"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\/24038"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8623\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n22 years<\/p>\n
\nI think that one of the most important things facing Raleigh is leadership that could help people work together and develop consensus. I think we have some great challenges ahead. I\u2019ve worked with all sorts of people for my 22 years, delivered lots of babies \u2014 Republican babies, Democrat babies, Independent babies \u2014 and gotten to know a lot of people, and I just feel one of the skill sets I have is getting people to work together to try to meet those challenges.<\/p>\n
\nI think the first one is obviously the economic situation. I think the mayor has to do everything he can to create a favorable business climate, attract jobs, increase the jobs that are here, increase customers.<\/p>\n
\nWell I think the worst decision that they entertained was the public safety center. I just think that in this economy, to build a $200-million public safety center and raise taxes, with the economic reality of the times, that wasn\u2019t a good move. I also have problems with it being a 17-story building downtown. I spent a lot of time overseasand I just think to put your nerve center in a 17-story building a la Oklahoma City bombing, the World Trade Center, I just think there\u2019s probably a better way to approach that. The city\u2019s done a good job with their current council with the comprehensive planning.<\/p>\n
\nGrowth. From the standpoint that there are supposedly 200,000 more people to come, 400,000 here, and many people
\nmove here. That growth is a good thing, but it creates all sorts of issues, and one of those is how to plan for that growth. Right now we have $1.2 billion in debt and that\u2019s quadrupled in the last 10 years and people would argue that that has been around the whole idea of trying to accommodate that growth, but I believe very strongly as a fiscal conservative that you just got to keep taxes low to attract businesses to provide jobs for all those people coming, or all you do is just strain the resources you have\u2014the roads, the water, education.<\/p>\n
\non how you manage that and that\u2019s my approach.<\/p>\n
\nFirst of all, you know, I\u2019ve talked with [Raleigh Police] Chief Dolan, and I\u2019ve talked with [the city manager], and clearly there\u2019s a need for facilities. We haven\u2019t spent money on that. I would have voted against the public safety center because it was going to be another $200 million in debt and raise our property taxes by 8 cents.<\/p>\n
\nI think it\u2019s a nuanced answer, and by that I mean it certainly, you have to work with staff to understand that clearly the people who are paying them are getting a benefit, but often the community at large is getting a benefit, so I think you have to be balanced in that.<\/p>\n
\nWhen we talk about public transportation, we\u2019re talking about federal, state, county, and then regional authority, and then the City of Raleigh. Now, of all those things, one entity that doesn\u2019t probably have any role in paying for it is the City of Raleigh. If you look at everything out there, it\u2019ll come out light rail, buses and referendums \u2014 it\u2019s all on the county level. So, I think that given all those factors, I\u2019m always very sensitive to the cost of those, and that\u2019s going to be first and foremost an issue for me.<\/p>\n
\nI think once again regionalism. I think you need to do everything you can to stay out of watersheds if you can and to me it seems we have plenty of areas that have concrete on them already that you can redevelop. So, I guess my answer would be again really to work well with others with regionalism and be really sensitive to trying to emphasize redevelopment. The city has been given a million dollars to do whatever it wishes.<\/p>\n
\nI probably would think long and hard about using that money in some way in a job promotion program to attract businesses to Raleigh. So I guess I would \u2026 work with the Chamber [of Commerce] to say, \u201cwe\u2019ve got $1 million dollars, we need to get jobs and industries and businesses here, help us figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"