{"id":8638,"date":"2011-09-15T16:52:57","date_gmt":"2011-09-15T20:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=8638"},"modified":"2012-10-05T11:40:11","modified_gmt":"2012-10-05T15:40:11","slug":"paul-fitts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/voter-guide-2011\/2011\/09\/15\/paul-fitts\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Fitts (R)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Age: 42\"\"<\/a>
\nCurrent occupation: Mortgage Lender with Academy Mortgage
\nWebsite: www.paulfitts.com<\/a><\/p>\n

How long have you lived in Raleigh?<\/em><\/strong>
\nAbout 20 some-odd years. I\u2019ve lived in Wake County over 40 years.<\/p>\n

Why have you decided to run for office?<\/strong><\/em>
\nA myriad of reasons. Number one, I\u2019m not happy with Raleigh\u2019s $1.3 billion dollar debt. I think that the city council, led by Mayor Meeker, could have chosen better times to spend money as opposed to just continually spending money until we were $1.3 billion in debt. They could have chosen needs versus wants. And I believe in job creation. I don\u2019t believe our current city council has done enough to spur Raleigh businesses to help them create jobs. I don\u2019t think our current city council has done anything at all to recruit businesses from other areas, and I think that\u2019s something they should look at doing.<\/p>\n

What do you think are the three biggest issues the City of Raleigh faces and how would you address those issues?<\/strong><\/em>
\nNumber one issue is jobs. What can we do to get job growth back in Raleigh? And number two, I think, again is our $1.3 billion debt. And the number three issue is, you want to maintain a good, solid police or first-responders force no matter what the economic situation is or what the climate is.<\/p>\n

What do you think are the best and worst decisions the current city council has made?<\/em><\/strong>
\nI can\u2019t say it as a onedecision thing, but I think the worst decision that they have made was a continual spending, even though the city was in debt. But, the best decision, I\u2019m not going to say it was really a best decision, but I\u2019ll say best intentions. Their intentions of building up Raleigh\u2019s downtown area was in hopes that it would \u201cspur economic development,\u201d but the proof remains to be seen on it so far.<\/p>\n

What do you think is the most important issue facing the city and how would you address it?<\/em><\/strong>
\nI go back to jobs. I still say our unemployment is over 8 percent. And we can kind of tie that back into the last question a
\nlittle bit. Did you ever see the movie Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner? And you kept hearing that little voice in the background, \u201cIf you build it, they will come.\u201d For some reason, I think Mayor Meeker heard that for downtown Raleigh. He\u2019s like, \u201cIf you build it, they will come.\u201d Well, I look at it as a little bit differently. I compare our economic environment to, the same way I would compare Duke, State and North Carolina. By far NC State has the best athletic facilities in the area. The difference between the three is that Carolina and Duke actively recruit the best potential players to play on their teams. They actively recruit them on a daily basis. NC State has lacked in those areas for their athletic programs. This analogy means that even though we have a great downtown, what has the Raleigh City Council done to recruit businesses to Raleigh?<\/p>\n

What do you think the city should do to house its public safety functions?<\/strong><\/em>
\nI do feel like there should be some sort of public safety center. I believe that every proposal they\u2019ve come up with has been an overspent, Taj Mahal design that\u2019s not needed, nor necessary. We do need a better facility
\ndowntown. It can be, you know, scaled down and made more practical.<\/p>\n

Since the city is already in a $1.3 billion deficit currently, I don\u2019t feel the need to spend money to go deeper in the hole
\nat this time just because we need a public service center. We can make do with other facilities until we actually become a
\nsolvent city.<\/p>\n

How do you feel about impact fees?<\/strong><\/em>
\nI personally want to see what the city can do with a better-focused, fiscally conservative council with our current
\ntaxes as opposed to trying to impose any more fees than we have to. I\u2019m hoping in the future with a broadened tax base …
\nthat we can reduce fees of any kind, and really try to make do with the taxes that we can normally generate by revenue purposes.<\/p>\n

What are your ideas for public transportation in Raleigh?<\/em><\/strong>
\nI don\u2019t have anything new outside the box. I\u2019ll grant that for right now. The Raleigh CAT bus system currently runs at a $16-million negative every year. And I\u2019ve heard that the infrastructure for light rail would cost anywhere between $800
\nmillion and $1.4 billion. I don\u2019t believe that that\u2019s a necessity at this time.<\/p>\n

A light rail system will only put us deeper into debt, and will put us deeper in the negative every year as far as how the budget is concerned. So, since it\u2019s not a necessity at the moment, it should be an idea that should be shelved until the city becomes a little bit more solid and then it becomes a little bit more necessary to look at it at that point.<\/p>\n

I think the buses could be used a little bit better. My numbers show about a 30 percent ridership on the CAT buses. If there\u2019s an increased ridership on the CAT buses, then obviously, you know, down the road, you could definitely look at
\na different transit system at that point, but I think the bus system should be completely sufficient for now.<\/p>\n

How do you think the city should plan to meet its future water needs?<\/strong><\/em>
\nIt\u2019s not just a City of Raleigh question really because Raleigh really distributes the water throughout Wake County to many other municipalities. There\u2019s nothing out there in our immediate radar that says we have to do something now. But eventually some of these other cities will have to be made a little bit more efficient on their own.<\/p>\n

The city has been given a million dollars to do anything that it wishes. How do you think the money should be spent?<\/em><\/strong>
\nI would try my hardest to use the money to promote an event that would become an annual event in Raleigh. It would be something akin to how the Kentucky Derby is run in Louisville every year. People go to Churchill Downs for that entire weekend. I would want to do something that would promote an event that would draw people to the city of Raleigh every year for a good weekend. They can come here, spend money, have a great time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Age: 42 Current occupation: Mortgage Lender with Academy Mortgage Website: www.paulfitts.com How long have you lived in Raleigh? About 20 some-odd years. I\u2019ve lived in Wake County over 40 years. Why have you decided to run for office? A myriad of reasons. Number one, I\u2019m not happy with Raleigh\u2019s $1.3 billion dollar debt. I think […]<\/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\/8638"}],"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=8638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}