Randy Voller’s follies show Democratic Party’s failures

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/05/22/2911153/vollers-follies-show-democratic.html

No offense to the people who are active in the North Carolina Democratic Party, but when they put Randy Voller in as party chairman, did anyone check to see whether he is a Democrat?

We know he was a four-time mayor of Pittsboro and chairman of the Chatham County Democrats. But we also know his biggest fans these days are Republicans. Voller’s misstatements, missteps and tax troubles have taken attention away from GOP stumbles and diminished Democrats as an appealing option. Republicans couldn’t have put a better man in the job if they had chosen the Democratic chairman themselves.

Voller was barely in the chairman’s job in February when the Associated Press revealed he has $286,000 in liens filed against him by the state of North Carolina and the IRS for back taxes and penalties. Voller said that the tax debt arose from slow sales in his family’s development business during the national economic downturn and that he’s paying it back.

Well, OK. Then he replaced the party’s interim executive director Tammy Brunner with himself and hired a friend, Jim Neal, as a national fundraising consultant at $7,000 a month.

Um, OK. Then Voller drew attention by saying Republican policies were “raping” the state. He apologized for his word choice.

Uh ... OK. Now the AP reports that in March Voller took a trip with Neal to Las Vegas during which Voller ran up $3,327 on an American Express card embossed with his name and the N.C. Democratic Party. He says he didn’t know the card was backed by the personal credit of Brunner. He’s paid off the balance in full with his personal funds.

OK, this should not be OK. The Democratic Party is entitled to run itself any way it wants. But it has a responsibility to offer a respectable and credible alternative to the Republicans and other parties. Right now, it’s offering a sideshow.

Voller is providing the follies, but it’s the state’s senior Democrats who are to blame. With Republicans in control of state government, top Democrats seem content to stand by and let the GOP lose its appeal to voters by overreaching.

If Democrats are sincere about their principles, playing the spectator isn’t an option, particularly when many of the party’s traditional supporters could be hard hit by Republican-backed changes in spending and taxes. The state Democratic Party shouldn’t be adrift. It should engaged. For that, its leadership must be effective, responsible and not Randy Voller.

Siler City’s Brookwood Farms barbecue on many school lunch menus

Barbecue is about as Southern as it gets, except for maybe fried green tomatoes, grits or sweet tea. Yet, it wasn’t too long ago that you may not have found traditional barbecue on very many school lunch menus.

When brothers Craig and Twig Wood, co-owners of Brookwood Farms, a barbecue maker in Siler City, became interested in expanding their business into the schools, they started the process by trying to understand why barbecue wasn’t a regular menu option.

The answer, they found, was a bit surprising. Students simply didn’t care for the barbecue being offered – often oven-roasted pork flavored with liquid smoke. “What we were told again and again was that traditionally, kids only want to eat chicken tenders and pizza,” said Craig Wood. The Woods figured a better, more traditional-tasting product, may sway students to give school barbecue another try.



To get started on product development, the Woods contacted staff members with the Food Distribution Division, who explained how the school lunch program worked and helped introduce them to some key contacts in the school nutrition industry.

“Our role in helping Brookwood get into the school lunch business was to steer them in the right direction, since this was completely new to them,” said Gary Gay, director of the Food Distribution Division. “The brothers have been able to take an idea and grow it into a successful part of their business plan, which is a win for the company and the jobs it supports, a win for the schools and a win for the economy.”

The Woods were able to gather feedback on the type of product that might appeal to students, meet nutritional guidelines and also be easy for cafeteria staff to prepare and serve.

In the 1980s when the company first decided to expand into barbecue, Craig Wood spent the better part of a year talking to pit masters and learning more about cooking techniques and how to infuse the rich smoky flavor into the pork. There were many different types of cooking fuel sources, but, he learned that time spent slowly cooking over hot coals or embers seemed to be the most common denominator to great-tasting barbecue. Once he gathered the information, Craig Wood set about building a pit, and through old-fashioned trial-and-error he perfected the techniques that are used today to create Brookwood Farms’ barbecue products. The company officially began cooking over pits in 1982, and entered the school lunch business in 2004.

For the schools, Brookwood Farms smokes pork shoulders, which is one of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s commodity purchases. The frozen meat would normally be shipped to schools to use, but if schools choose to process with the company, that meat comes to the plant and is prepared for the schools for a manufacturing fee. The finished heat-and-serve product is shipped to schools in 5-pound tubs.



The company sampled its products at a special foodservice show geared for school systems and came away with a modest number of orders from child nutrition directors who tasted the product and decided to try it with students. Business took off, and now the company has its products in schools in 12 states.

The business’ focus on following a tried-and-true recipe and not taking cooking shortcuts is part of what makes the product popular with customers and school nutrition directors alike. Rachel Finley, school nutrition director for the Johnston County School System, understands the tradition of pork barbecue in the state and is happy the kids coming through the lunch line enjoy “barbecue day” in the cafeteria.

“When it comes to meat items, I like to offer things that kids normally find; if I am going to serve barbecue, then I want it to be pork barbecue because that is what they would be traditionally eating at home or out,” Finley said. “What I like about the product is the ingredient label is slim. There are no fillers, not a lot of added ingredients; just good old-fashioned pork barbecue and vinegar sauce. It is gluten free and with the plethora of dietary needs we have in the schools, it really meets our needs.”

In anticipation of upcoming nutritional changes to school lunches, Brookwood Farms has created a lower-sodium barbecue. Finley is happy the company has been proactive about these changes. She has sampled the product and plans to incorporate the lower-sodium barbecue into Johnston County school lunch menus this coming year. She thinks kids will like the new product.

Another plus for Finley is being able to work with a North Carolina company. “I like to keep my money in North Carolina if I can,” she said.

School lunch products are just one part of the company’s successful business model. While it has grown in geographic reach with its school lunch business, Craig Wood is happy to keep the business equation about the same, preferring a managed growth approach to business and ensuring the company does not to have all its eggs in any one basket or market sector.

In 2012, Brookwood Farms sold a total of 9 million pounds of barbecue through foodservice companies, retail stores, company restaurants in the Charlotte and Raleigh airports, and school lunch programs. Pit-cooked pork barbecue is far from the company’s only product. It also sells whole Boston butts, beef barbecue, chicken barbecue, barbecue chicken quarters and barbecue pork ribs.

The Wood brothers are proud of the business and how it has grown. It is a fourth-generation company, now that Craig’s kids, Craig II and Ashley, and Twig’s kids, Burton and Stephen, are involved in the business.

Pittsboro prepares for 7,000-acre technology park
http://www.wncn.com/story/22283444/pittsboro-prepares-for-7000-acre-live-where-you-work

Video here



PITTSBORO, N.C. - There's a huge new development on the horizon in the Triangle. A new technology area known as Chatham Park near Pittsboro is seeking official approval for its newly revised master plan.

Instead of being just a location for building high-tech office space, the project wants to create a live-where-you-work environment that will attract thousands of people to that part of Chatham County.

Chatham Park will encompass 7,000 acres between Pittsboro and the Haw River.

"I believe it will change the course of Chatham County in very dramatic ways," said Dianne Reid, who is the president of the Chatham Economic Development Corporation.

The project is the vision of Preston Development, which along with billionaire investor Jim Goodnight, have spent close to a decade buying up the land in the area that'll make up the region's newest technology park.

Right now, Chatham Park is all on paper; a collection of maps, documents and information that's part of a master plan for the live-where-you-work business park.

When it's completed, it will bring an estimated 55,000 people to the Pittsboro area.

"There will be townhouses starting at $175,000 or apartments you can rent by the month; all the way up to $1 million dollar homes for doctors, lawyers or whoever can afford it," explained Preston Development co-founder Tim Smith.

Right now Pittsboro is home to about 4,000 people.

"I'm concerned about the town and Chatham County being able to handle that sort of thing," said longtime Pittsboro resident Dan Clower.

And so are officials with the town of Pittsboro.

"Its infrastructure is old," says town manager Bryan Gruesbeck. "We are not only trying to make sure we have sufficient infrastructure for our current citizens and businesses but we have to plan forward to make sure that infrastructure meets the demands of development pressures and projects like this."

Although the project is being developed outside the Pittsboro city limits, the town retains control of the site because it's part of Pittsboro's extraterritorial jurisdiction.

That means is Pittsboro will still oversee things like zoning, planning and code enforcement.

"Chatham County will change whether Chatham Park comes or not," says Preston Development's planning consultant Philip Culpepper. "Chatham Park lets it be done in a planned community rather than just piecemeal."

The near-by Haw River and its tributaries are seen by developers as an integral part of the project.

Using a giant land-use map as a prop, Preston Development's Tim Smith points out some of the intended features.

"There's a trail in the future that goes all the way up the Haw River or to Jordan Lake. All the streams that flow through our property will have trails that go to the river or lake," he said.

"You'll be able to essentially walk from Pittsboro all the way down to the river or lake from anywhere in our project to water," declared Smith.

But, some are worried about how development of the land will affect the Haw River, which feeds into the Jordan Lake water supply.

"Jordan Lake has been on the on the impaired list, which means polluted water list, for the EPA since 2002," said Elaine Chiosso, who is the Executive Director of the Haw River Assembly. "It's hard to see how this won't just increase pollution rather than reduce it into Jordan Lake."

When WNCN reviewed the master plan for Chatham Park, we found plans for stream buffers, wetlands and use of reclaimed water.

"One of the main things we'll be doing is not allow the waste water that is treated to be dumped back into the river," declared Philip Culpepper. "We'll reuse the water to the fullest extent possible so what comes out of the sewage treatment plant it becomes irrigation water, industrial water and cooling water."

He says there are also plans to have certain retention ponds work to allow the water they hold to be returned underground to help replenish the aquifer beneath the Chatham Park.

Most people spend untold hours on the road driving to and from their jobs.

As more business develops in the Triangle, the traffic congestion on the roads gets worse and worse.

Chatham Park is designed to eliminate that by creating living and shopping areas with-in walking distance of people's jobs.

"This sort of takes it the next step with good jobs; not just retail or service jobs, but a lot of high-tech jobs," said Dianne Reid.

Downtown Pittsboro is small, which is part of its charm as wells as a disadvantage to some who live in the town.

Petra and Nick Beaulieu are town residents who would welcome a development that brought some services closer to home.

"We have three kids," said Petra Beaulieu. "Everywhere we go we have to spend money outside of our county. I would love to have more available here."

Adds her husband Nick Beaulieu, "I think it would bring good jobs. That gives a higher tax base to grow things and a better disposable income to support small business in downtown."

Pittsboro resident Dan Clower says he has concerns about the town becoming over-burdened by the development. He cites a personal example.

"The infrastructure is ridiculous. For sewerage, I had to go through my neighbor's house and down here and up here and through someone's property to get sewerage and here I am two blocks from the courthouse."

That and other issues have town officials looking closely at the impact of the project in several areas.

"Specifically making sure we have capacity to treat the waste water; to make sure we can provide clean water at a sufficient pressure for consumption and safety and making sure the quality of the water continues to be good and making sure our roads and streets are safe and drivable," explained Town Manager Bryan Gruesbeck.

The project would contain 1,000 acres of parks and open space and at least one watchdog group says it'll be monitoring how Preston Development will use the space.

"This is a huge parcel of land in the core of the Triangle and we'd like to see the natural areas of it protected and see open space protected as much as possible," said Chad Jemison, who is the executive director of the Triangle land conservancy.

"One of the main aspects of Chatham Park is the environmental quality of Chatham County and we want to enhance that not cause any problems with the environment," said Philip Culpepper.

Dave Clark is renovating his Pittsboro home by repurposing old materials. Conservation and environmental protection are big concerns of his.

"There's tons of ways for a new development to decrease waste," Clark said.  "People just have to be smart about it. It may not be the most cost effective way going in-but in the long term it'll benefit everybody."

The first public hearing on the developer's rezoning request for its latest master plan is still several months down the road and lots of folks will be watching.

"I like Chatham County the way it is, but if we could see some systems used that are innovative and something different; maybe we have a chance." said Elaine Chiosso.

Democratic chair questioned over Las Vegas trip
http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/article_cd650636-c285-11e2-9c2f-001a4bcf6878.html


RALEIGH - The head of the N.C. Democratic Party is facing questions about credit card charges made during a March trip to a Las Vegas casino to watch basketball games with his old college buddies.

Records obtained by The Associated Press show state Democratic Chairman Randy Voller made $3,327 in charges to Southwest Airlines and the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on an American Express Business Gold Card embossed with his name and that of the N.C. Democratic Party. He said he's paid off the balance in full.

Voller, a Pittsboro real estate developer with a recent history of financial problems, had asked for the card shortly after he was narrowly elected as chairman in February.

What Voller says he didn't know was that the business card was backed by the personal credit of then-Interim Executive Director Tammy Brunner. He had just decided to replace Brunner, whose employment ended two days later.

In an interview with AP, Voller said he believes a portion of the Vegas charges, including a $557 dinner at a restaurant within the casino, were justified because he asked friends from across the country to give to the party and was therefore networking with potential political donors. He was also accompanied by Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill Democrat and friend hired as a national fundraising consultant.

After questions arose about the trip, Voller said he used personal funds to pay off the entire $5,434 balance on the credit card on May 6. He still plans to list a portion of his costs for the Las Vegas trip as an in-kind donation from himself on the party's campaign finance disclosure report to the N.C. Board of Elections.

"There were no party funds expended on any of that," Voller, 44, said of the Vegas trip. "I have fixed the situation."

The credit card charges are the latest dust-up for Voller, who the AP reported in February had $286,000 in liens filed against him by the state of North Carolina and IRS for back taxes and penalties. Voller said his family business was a casualty of the national economic downturn and that he is making regular payments toward his debts.

Earlier this month, Voller was forced to apologize after telling a group of Democratic women attending a banquet that Republicans are "raping" the state with their policies.

Voller said this week he is simply being aggressive in trying to remake and refocus a staid political party largely swept from power in the November election. Republicans now control the governor's mansion and both houses of the state legislature for the first time since Reconstruction.

Many of the Democrats' traditional sources of political donations have dried up as their influence has waned. Those money woes are likely to be worsened if GOP lawmakers eliminate the option for North Carolina residents to donate a few dollars to the political party of their choice by checking a box on their tax returns. That nets Democrats about $1.5 million annually.

Voller said the money problems have prompted him to take cost-cutting measures at party headquarters, including replacing Brunner and eliminating two staff positions. He said he has also launched an audit of $800,000 in past credit card charges made by staffers and paid with party funds.

Voller suggested his Vegas charges were leaked in an attempt to quash that investigation.

He has made an annual March Madness trip for more than a decade to meet with friends from his time as a student at basketball-crazed Indiana University, he said.

"To make such a big stink over something that never cost the party a nickel and could have a big payoff if the people I met with decide to throw a fundraiser in their hometowns of San Francisco, Chicago, New York and so forth, it seems like cutting your nose off to spite your face," Voller said. "The real issues we need to look at are how much money did we spend in the past, what did we spend the money on, were we in the red and, if so, how do we fix it." [In other words, Randy is saying, "look at everyone else BUT me.]

Voller said Neal accompanied him on the Vegas trip as part of his duties as a fundraising consultant. Neal did not respond to a message seeking comment. His consulting contract with the party pays him $7,000 a month, Voller confirmed, though only one payment has been made so far.

Brunner was named as the party's interim executive director after her predecessor was forced to resign in August amid allegations of sexual harassment involving a staffer.

Her attorney, Jack Nichols of Raleigh, said he was not free to speak about the events surrounding Brunner's March 20 departure, citing a confidentiality agreement with the Democratic Party signed as part of a severance package. Nichols did confirm the charges on the AmEx Gold Card issued to Voller on Brunner's credit had been settled.

With Brunner gone, Voller named himself as interim executive director in addition to serving as chairman. He says he is accepting only $1 in salary while the search for a permanent replacement continues.

A group of Democrats recently signed a petition asking the party's senior leaders to remove Voller as interim executive director for what they say are violations of procedure and his efforts to solidify power by naming close allies to key positions.

That controversy intensified last week when Democratic strategist and media consultant Frank Eaton of Winston-Salem posted an online video questioning Voller's handling of party finances and the "bullying" of party staff. Eaton also made reference to the credit card charges from Vegas and pricey contracts awarded to Neal and public affairs consultant Michael Carmichael, calling for a "full investigation" by party leaders.

While I am perplexed at Randy Voller's recent actions, especially his questionable use of a Democratic Party issued credit card to fund a trip to Las Vegas to watch March Madness with old college buddies, I feel that it should be recognized that Randy Voller is a person who has his share of flaws, but also a lot of fine attributes.   Recent coverage and comments portrays him as the devil himself, which is really not fair, in my opinion.

Trust me, I have every reason to not like Randy Voller.   Several years ago, my now ex-husband, Richard Bullock, a good friend of Randy's, left me for a much younger woman who worked for Randy.  Randy sided with Richard in the ugly and bitter separation and divorce that followed. 

Time, thankfully, heals a lot of pain, and I can now reflect on the entirety of Randy Voller and say that he is a person with many good qualities that should not be overlooked or downplayed even as he is under close scrutiny for his recent actions.   Despite our painful parting as friends, I have to say that I have always known Randy to be a person who honestly cares about the poor and most vulnerable among us.  He has always stood up for the average person who is struggling in difficult circumstances.  I have watched as his heart broke as he dealt with the death of his infant daughter Lily and I saw how this tragedy made him an even more empathetic and compassionate person.  I know that Randy stood by and supported my flawed ex-husband as Richard struggled with a drug habit.  It certainly wasn't in Randy's best interest to be closely associated with someone using illegal drugs, but Randy was a loyal friend as he continued to provide Richard with work in spite of his impairment. I know that Randy has a kind, caring and generous heart, and I saw countless instances over the 10 plus years or so that he was also my friend in which he lent a helping hand to someone in a tough circumstance, with no expectation of receiving any recognition in return.

Randy may not be the right person to be mayor of Pittsboro, or chair of the Democratic Party.  He may have made errors that must be addressed and made right. I will leave that to others to decide.   I just know that he is a caring person with a strong sense of social justice.  Please remember that even as his recent actions are scrutinized.   

I was at the Chatham BOC meeting last night.   There was a crowd of about 25 "well behaved*" people there in support of more funding for Chatham County Arts....or maybe less of a cut.

Their theme was the Chatham Arts brings in more business....and is good for Chatham business.   

My thought is, if true why do we have to confiscated money from people to pay for it then?   Surely business can see the benefit of the Chatham Arts has to their business and if the Chatham Arts people put a fund raising campaign together they would be able to fund their projects. If they don't...well then they have nobody to blame but themselves if business suffers.   


Anyone know how much they were asking for?


*I don't say "well behaved" to be condescending.   There truly was none of the usual eye rolling, loud outburst, and grunts and groans for the peanut gallery. 

This topic has been moved to North Carolina.

http://chatham-county-nc.com/bulletinboard/index.php?topic=29407.0

Anyone have any experiences yet serving jury duty at the new justice center?  Was wondering specifically about how difficult it is to find a parking spot there??  Seems like the lot there (and the one across the street) could fill up fairly quickly.

http://capitaltonight.news14.com/2013/05/16/strategist-calls-for-investigation-into-nc-dems-chairman/

Wow.

Picked up the paper today, and found it interesting that a project that was supposed to be finished in March continues to drag on. Have a friend that lives on Hillsborough Street, and when I had dinner at Oakleaf a few days ago, leaving around nine, I could not help but notice that it looked like a football game was going on, with all the lights.

Now, the project has gone over budget. Mayor Voller, who sparsly attends meetings these days (though he and George Lucier loved to rake others over the coals for not attending) due to his other job, stated, "We need to send a note to the county that they are going to have to cut a check."  This from an absentee Mayor.

Project, according to Commissioner Farrell, is already 5 months behind schedule. Glad Randy is there to oversee his projects. Now there is a chance that we may get Jeffrey Starkweather to be the Mayor, despite his job as Randy's Parliamentarian minion. I would say some change is needed indeed, just not the change they are offering.