Jack Smith, candidate for Cary Town Council, District C
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Candidates for Cary Town Council, District C
Who is running for the Cary Town Council? Get to know the candidates running for District C.
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Five candidates, including the incumbent, are seeking the Cary Town Council District C seat.
The district covers the southern part of the Wake County town and is currently represented by Jack Smith, who was elected in 1989.
Challengers include Mary Insprucker, George McDowell, Renee Miller and Amanda Murphy.
Normally the Cary municipal elections are held in November of odd-numbered years. But last year’s elections were postponed due to a delay in the U.S. Census releasing redistricting data.
Early voting in the May 17 election begins April 28 to May 14.
To find polling places and full details on early voting, visit wakevotesearly.com or contact the Board of Elections at 919-404-4040 or voter@wakegov.com.
Name: Jack Smith
Age: 74
Occupation and employer: Founder/Owner of Custom Golf Travels, LLC, specializing in designing personalized golf packages primarily to Ireland and the U.K. Prior to that I have a 30+ year history of executive management experience, serving as a VPHR for a Fortune 50 company and 14-year owner of an organizational development company.
Education: BA Psychology
Political or civic experience: First elected to the town council in 1989. Now completing my eighth consecutive four-year term. (Longest serving elected official in Cary’s history.)
Campaign website: www.jackforcary.org
What is Cary doing right, and wrong, on managing growth?
‘Imagine Cary’, now in its sixth year, was a citizen intensive process that is our ‘playbook’ and now the foundation for driving affordable mixed use development for the next 25 years. What needs to improve is incorporating our extraordinary environmental initiatives into the playbook to ensure we do not go backwards on our nationally recognized earth-friendly programs.
What do you think Cary should do, if anything, to address racial injustice issues, and what kind of changes would you propose?
Cary is a welcoming and diverse community, that over 60 nationalities call home. My efforts to nurture a ‘culture of inclusiveness’ has helped Cary stay above the vitriol of outside special interest groups and divisive partisan politics impacting other communities. Having been born in Germany and receiving my U.S. citizenship in 1967, I know what it feels like to be an outsider and it has been a passion of mine since joining the Council to ensure all people in Cary feel welcoming and “at home.”
We can never rest on our laurels and recently Cary created a community based task force to focus on issues relating to human relations, inclusion and diversity in Cary with the sole mission to ensure fair treatment and promoting mutual understanding and respect amongst all our citizens. It is my hope this effort ensures racial injustice never finds a home in our community.
How should Cary increase the availability of affordable housing within the town?
Cary has a track record of collaborative partnerships to encourage and promote affordable housing with no compromise to our high quality of life standards. All citizens of Cary are entitled to all the benefits Cary has to offer and we’ve had extraordinary success partnering with nonprofits such as Habitat For Humanity and DHIC. We simply have to keep doing more. A challenge for Cary is we are 85% built out. Our best opportunities to provide more affordable housing are in the area of infill redevelopment, particularly in failing strip malls. A good example was the Glenaire Senior Living Community in their expansion onto a distressed shopping center.
Would you support a property tax increase for an affordable housing fund? Explain your answer.
No, but ... This is the classic out-of-context no-win ‘gotcha’ question that does nothing to advance solving the problem. And why would we raise taxes if we already have a fund set up addressing the problem? Clearly with the explosive growth of the region, affordable housing (as well as all housing stock) is clearly emerging as the top priority and a critical issue. Throwing money at the crisis without due diligence just fosters irresponsible spending without achieving a meaningful impact. My pledge: If we look at approaches that can deliver meaningful relief in a shorter period of time to improve the situation — then I will lead the charge to make it happen.
What new steps should Cary take to recruit businesses to the area?
Companies around the world call Cary home and our culture of innovation continues to attract new and emerging business as they know we have an highly educated citizenry who will not move because of our quality of life. Our formula is working yet we are always seeking out best practices to improve.
What is a specific need within your district? And how would you address this issue, if elected?
District C has a disproportionate amount of older neighborhoods and my priority remains focused on policies to improve their quality of life in the areas of ‘infill redevelopment’, ‘aging infrastructure’ and ‘stormwater management.’
If elected, what would your two or three priorities be during your first year in office?
My top two priorities are working on obtaining state and federal affordable housing and environmental funding grants to assist in addressing our region’s explosive growth. We are not an island and working in partnership with our adjacent towns we can make a difference.
What unique skills or life experience would you bring to town governance?
As the former 14-year owner of my own company (Organizational Capability Services, LLC) focused on helping companies improve their productivity, I have been blessed to be able to “apply my trade” in helping Cary grow responsibly. I take pride in my skill set helping Cary remain focused on strategic measurable long-term meaningful solutions and not to get caught up in populist movements with feel-good sound bites.
