Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

I am a life long resident of Raleigh and attended public schools. I graduated from Wake Forest University with a BS in Business Administration in 1976 and have been a small business owner for the past 30 years as an insurance broker representing clients in the areas of health care, employee benefits, life insurance and Long Term Care. I received my RHU degree from Northeastern University in 1992.

My wife and I have two daughters, who also graduated from the Wake County School System, attended college and now work in Raleigh.

In addition to my business life, I have served on the Raleigh City Council, and served as Mayor of Raleigh from 1999 to 2001. Currently, I am serving on the Wake County Board of Commissioners. In addition to that service, I have been a member of the WakeMed Board of Directors and served the YMCA as a Board member for the Hillsborough Street Y.

Other board memberships include the 200 Club of Wake County, Chairman of the CIAA Basketball Tournament Steering Committee, and Raleigh School Board Oversight Committee.

As a current member of the Wake County Commission, I am seeking re-election to my position because I believe that the residents and taxpayers of Wake County want public officials who will address their concerns and manage the assets of the county in a responsible manner even in difficult times.

We are dealing with many issues of concern for Wake County residents such as building as new mental health facility, starting the construction of a much needed court house and expanding our EMS service to include new and advanced life saving techniques. We have also purchased land necessary to create the new Little River Reservoir and purchased additional land for new schools to ease overcrowding. Our award winning Library system continues to be a priority.

We have accomplished all of this while working hard to maintain our core services such as the Sheriff's office, Health and Human services and provided much needed support for Wake Tech.

I have worked hard to make sure that the citizens of Wake County are well served while holding the line on spending. We passed our last two budgets without tax increases even though we have been facing very difficult times financially.

I know that the number one issue for Wake County is the economy and that we need to promote new jobs and opportunities for our citizens such as the new Novartis Plant in Holly Springs and the Credit Suisse operations center.