Raleigh mayor candidate Janet Cowell answers our questions
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2024 Raleigh Mayor and City Council elections
Raleigh voters will pick a new mayor and City Council members this November. All eight council seats, including the mayor’s, are up for grabs, with all the incumbents except for current Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin seeking another two-year term.
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Raleigh voters will pick a new mayor and City Council members this November.
All eight council seats, including the mayor’s, are up for grabs, with all the incumbents except for current Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin seeking another two-year term.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5. Early voting runs from Thursday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Nov. 2. The race is non-partisan.
To help inform voters across the state, this candidate questionnaire is available to be republished by local publications in North Carolina without any cost. Please consider subscribing to The News & Observer to help make this coverage possible.
Name: Janet Cowell
District/seat: Raleigh mayor
Political party: Democrat
Age as of Nov. 5, 2024: 56
Campaign website: janetcowellformayor.com
Current occupation: President and CEO, Dix Park Conservancy until 10/4/24
Professional experience: NA
Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania; MBA, Wharton School of Business
Previous offices sought and held: Raleigh City Council 2001-05; NC State Senate 2005-09; NC State Treasurer 2009-16.
Please list any notable government or civic involvement.
I’ve served on Raleigh City Council, in the North Carolina Senate, and as North Carolina State Treasurer. During my eight years as Treasurer, I and my staff grew the state pension fund from $60 billion to $90 billion with an annual return of 7.5% per year allowing over a million state and local government workers and their families to enjoy a secure retirement. At the same time, I assumed management of the State Health Plan and maintained North Carolina’s AAA Bond Rating through a recession.
As CEO and president of the Dix Park Conservancy, I helped raise over $40 million in private funds in three and a half years to renovate and build park facilities and provide free public programs. I was a leader on environmental issues like recycling, tree protection, stormwater, and solid waste reform in the Senate and City Council. I’m also proud of my role in more recent years establishing OnBoardNC, which aims to promote women on corporate boards.
What City Council district do you live in? D
What is the top issue facing Raleigh now, and how would you address it?
Besides housing and affordability (which is addressed in the next question) the top issue is public safety and assisting our neighbors in need. Our police, firefighters and emergency personnel are understaffed and under resourced — they need competitive pay to recruit and retain quality personnel who can keep us safe. A mental health unit, ACORNS, was created in the Police Department in 2022. ACORNS, or programs like it, should be expanded so that trained psychologists and social workers can serve individuals needing social assistance and free up police officers to address security threats.
What is your strategy for increasing affordable housing in Raleigh?
Past councils have made progress on reforms to increase housing choice and supply, preserve and prolong the life of existing affordable units, and utilize city-owned land for housing development. They have also provided subsidies by passing an affordable housing bond. These are moves in the right direction. I would expand and diversify revenue for affordable housing subsidies by utilizing Tax Increment Financing, a tool that captures additional tax revenues generated from a defined district resulting from significant public-sector investments (e.g., transit or parks). I’d like to see more focus on assistance for long-term residents by partnering with no-profits and the business community to scale existing weatherization and home-repair programs.
Should the city be more aggressive about requiring affording units from developers or partner with nonprofits?
There are legal prohibitions in North Carolina against mandating affordable housing by developers. However, the city could use development agreements negotiated with developers — combined with city financial support — to create more thoughtful, integrated mixed-use and mixed-income developments. The city should work more closely with the Raleigh Housing Authority (RHA) to leverage city-owned land using tools such as project-based vouchers to which only RHA has access. This approach would result in longer-term, more deeply affordable units than the conditional-use rezoning process used now.
Do you think Raleigh can support concert venues both downtown and in Dix Park?
Red Hat should remain downtown and, as of this writing, City Council has approved the relocation and street closure that allows Red Hat to remain downtown. There is an amphitheater planned in the Dix Park master plan, but that amphitheater is envisioned to be smaller and less commercially intrusive than Red Hat. Think “Shakespeare in the Park” at Dix Park vs. national stars like Chappell Roan at Red Hat. For that reason, I believe two venues could coexist and complement each other.
Would you describe Raleigh’s growth as too fast, too slow or just right?
Raleigh is growing rapidly. We need to manage growth with thoughtful planning and be more proactive at anticipating and mitigating gentrification and displacement. Whether the growth is too fast, too slow, or just right depends on how prepared the city is to handle it. We’ll need to improve our infrastructure and utilities, increase housing stability for existing residents, and plan to mitigate environmental impacts on residents, waterways and trees.
Do you think Raleigh is losing too many historic properties? If so, how should this be addressed?
As a community we should identify the most unique and meaningful historic properties and work with the owners to preserve them. Communities of color often had fewer such buildings given historic discrimination and the wealth gap. We should preserve the legacies of communities such as the Fourth Ward (which was destroyed through 20th century “urban renewal”) through oral histories, historical markers, public art and other efforts.
This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 4:01 PM.