
{"id":4244,"date":"2008-12-12T07:07:05","date_gmt":"2008-12-12T15:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=4244"},"modified":"2008-12-12T07:07:05","modified_gmt":"2008-12-12T15:07:05","slug":"carey-retires-after-24-years-on-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/12\/12\/carey-retires-after-24-years-on-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Carey retires after 24 years on board"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>After 24 years on the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, Moses Carey attended his last official board meeting last week.<\/p>\n<p>Retiring after six terms on the board, Carey is proud of the work he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done with the commissioners. He admits there are things that he might have done differently, but believes the board has dealt with challenges appropriately.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel good about the contributions I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve made making this place the best place to live,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Carey, who lost in the Democratic senatorial primary to incumbent Ellie Kinnaird in the spring, said he looks forward to spending time with his family, while remaining involved in the community. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just going to take a little while to enjoy my grandchildren and continue to do volunteer work in the community,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For right now, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My wife and I will have to get used to me being home at night,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added, laughing.<br \/>\nLooking back on his time on the board, Carey says the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rapid growth has been the greatest challenge the board faced. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153For some reason, [people] are surprised that the county is growing. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not, because we work hard to make it the best place to live,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The greatest challenge is dealing with that encroachment out into the rural areas.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a real opportunity to try to channel that growth into areas where it can be accommodated. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m actually proud of the way that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve managed that growth.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Still, looking back there are things he might have changed, Carey said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are a number of things I probably wish I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done differently. I think the one that most people identify me with was that attempt to merge the schools.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Carey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s support for a merger of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro and Orange County school systems in 2003 drew strong opposition throughout the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I learned a lot in that process. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have done it had I known the outcome was going to be the same. I just couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t convince the people in this community that having two school systems in this small of a community with such a funding difference was a social-justice issue,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, adding that he might have approached it from a different angle if he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d known he would have met such opposition. <\/p>\n<p>Despite all the controversy, Carey notes that the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s social-justice goal, as well as its Department of Human Rights and Relations, came out of the defeated proposal.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Good things do come out of failed packages,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>While he won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t miss the night meetings that come with the job, Carey will miss his involvement with the people of county government. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve learned so much from the input that we get from the public and the opportunity to work with talented people&#8230;. You meet a lot of great people over the years. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll miss.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nBut, he reiterated, he will stay involved in the community. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Retiring around here doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that you go home and sit on the porch.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p><strong>A new board<\/strong><br \/>\nCarey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s retirement marks the end of one chapter of county government and the opening of another as three new members join the board, expanding the commission from five to seven members.<br \/>\nWith Carey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s retirement and the expansion, the board is in a period of adjustment and transition, Commissioner Barry Jacobs said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Moses is a good-spirited, good-humored, people-oriented person with a lot of common sense and a willingness to try and work through problems to solutions,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jacobs said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Government doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always come up with solutions that satisfy everybody, and Moses understands that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Jacobs and Commissioner Alice Gordon are the only board members who have served more than one term on the board. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to have to make more of an effort to put things in historical perspective,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jacobs said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The new members are intelligent and well-informed and seem to be geared to do the work, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different than having somebody sitting there who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen the same problem two or three times.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That will be an adjustment we all have to make. The danger is that we see the present in a vacuum.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nAs for the challenges the new board faces, Carey believes financing will be the most difficult. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The board has more demand for resources than the resources are available,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. The public\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire for services isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t consistent with its willingness to be taxed, Carey added, noting the defeat of the land transfer tax on the ballot in May. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Had that passed, the board would\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been in a much better position to finance some of the things that are going to be needed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. <\/p>\n<p>While he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s seen a range of economic climates over the course of his tenure on the board, Carey said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think any has been this serious.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Susan Dickson Staff Writer After 24 years on the Orange County Board of County Commissioners, Moses Carey attended his last official board meeting last week. Retiring after six terms on the board, Carey is proud of the work he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done with the commissioners. He admits there are things that he might have done differently,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4245,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions\/4245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}