Mark your calendars for Monday, December 1, 2 pm. The newly elected Stan Norwalk will take the oath of office as a Wake County Commissioner, giving the Commissioners a 4-3 Democratic majority. He’s pro-schools. As you can see from this entry on conservative Joey Stansbury’s interesting — if slanted :) — Wake Community Network blog, some who attend on Monday may not be so pro- as Stan. They’ll be in red. Dems wear blue?

The North Carolina Homeowners Alliance, an astroturf group for the real estate lobby, has sponsored this robocall (MP3 file) against Wake County Commissioner candidate Stan Norwalk, blasting him for a “radical tax plan.” “Did you know that Stan Norwalk has never seen a problem he couldn’t solve with a new tax?” the call says.

The Realtors group is still sore over Norwalk’s efforts to support the real estate transfer tax as an alternative to further property tax increases to pay for schools, roads and other infrastructure.

Norwalk’s campaign fired back with an email to supporters, seeking contributions to run his own radio ads. “The real estate lobby is desperate to maintain their control over the County’s tax policies through Kenn and by intimidating others on the Board of County Commissioners,” the email said. “The lobby wants the full burden of infrastructure to fall on working people rather than on them. I am a direct threat to their twenty year record of control.”

The Wake Commissioners have CASA’s embattled George’s Mews housing project on today’s agenda, the N&O reports, after tabling it three weeks ago when just one of the eight commissioners seemed ready to support it. The idea of a subsidized apartment building for low-income folks — some with mental disabilities — has met vocal opposition from many in the surrounding Brooklyn-Glenwood neighborhood of Raleigh, though some residents have spoken in support. The site is on Glenwood Avenue near Wade Avenue.

Apparently, Wake County Commissioner Kenn Gardner’s dip in the pool is too much for The News & Observer’s endorsement committee. The paper backs Democratic challenger Stan Norwalk for the District 4 seat.

Kenn Gardner finally answered questions yesterday about his work as architect-designer for the Triangle Aquatics Center in Cary and his opposition (but now he says it wasn’t really opposition) to a rival Cary Aquatic Center. He talked to the N&O’s Michael Biesecker; doesn’t sound like Biesecker was persuaded that Gardner had no conflict of interest when he pursued public grants for the TAC. And why did Gardner mislead the public about his deal with TAC? He said in public he had “not beeen paid a dime” and was “donating” his services while knocking the Cary project. Turned out he expected to be paid, and was paid $244,355 by TAC. Not a lot of money, actually, given the scope of the TAC project. But not nothing either, Commissioner.

Note to N&O: Ask Gardner for a new photo, eh?

The Raleigh Council said yes a month ago, but without a public hearing. So yesterday the Wake County Commissioners, after an emotional two-hour public hearing, said whoa — before we vote, we think the Raleigh Council should hear what we heard from the neighborhood. Maybe they’ll change their minds. Well today, the Raleigh Council voted yes again, 7-1 (Isley), and again, there was no hearing. Ball back in your court, commissioners.

The voting, and non-voting, was about the 26-unit apartment building on Glenwood Avenue that nonprofit housing provider CASA wants to buy, fix a little, and offer to persons with disabilities (eight units) and low-income working folks (18 units). CASA is applying to Raleigh for $926,000, the county for $566,000, toward a total project cost of $2.14 million. It needs both bodies to say yes. Residents of the Brooklyn-Glenwood neighborhood are opposed to CASA’s takeover plan by about a 4-to-1 margin.

Not clear what the commissioners will do next. When Commissioner Lindy Brown moved yesterday to approve the grant, no other member seconded her motion. Turned out, when someone asked, that only Brown and Commissioner Betty Lou Ward had taken a first-hand look at George’s Mews. The other five members hadn’t.

Kenn Gardner would like you to know that he did not “misuse his office.” But for those who have fallen prey to the “mistaken perception” that he did, the Wake County Commissioner would like to “offer an apology,” reports the N&O.

“I love Wake County too much to even think about doing something like that,” said Gardner before yesterday’s meeting of the Wake County board.

The above statements mark the first time Gardner has publicly addressed allegations that he used his office to advocate for a Triangle Aquatic pool project that, as it turns out, he benefited from financially.

But while Gardner isn’t admitting guilt,  it seems that he’s been chastened:

Later in the meeting Monday, when an item on $10 million in funding for a pool project in Cary that would compete with Triangle Aquatic came up on the agenda, Gardner recused himself from the discussion and abstained from the vote.

The News and Observer reports that the Wake County Board of Commissioners is likely to decide today whether to contribute to the cost of a proposed housing development in one of Raleigh’s most historic poshest neighborhoods. The Community Alternative for Supportive Abodes (CASA) plans to convert 26 one bedroom units at the George’s Mews complex in the Glenwood-Brooklyn district into rent-controlled apartments for low-income workers and the disabled. Both the Raleigh City Council and the Community Housing and Revitilization Committee have already approved the project, but some neighborhood residents are not at all enthused at the prospect of living near a CASA site, arguing that adding another subsidized housing development in the neighborhood will reduce property values.

Others residents have been a tad less diplomatic.

“It goes contrary to the whole neighborhood,” said Brent Horton, 30, who lives in the Cameron Village Condominiums off St. Mary’s Street. “There are other places in Raleigh where that type of development could be placed.”

Erin Callahan, 33, a real estate broker who rents a nearby duplex, was more pointed.

“There are plenty of places in southeast Raleigh that could host something like this,” she said.

CASA’s option to buy the property expires Tuesday.

The row between Wake County Commissioner  Kenn Gardner and the non-profit he says owes him hundreds of thousands in back-pay has ended, reports the News & Observer.

In exchange for dropping his lawsuit, the Triangle Aquatic Center (TAC) has agreed to pay Gardner $25, 000, a relative pittance compared to the $400, 000 he was demanding for his role in the design of a Cary private pool.  The settlement has not, however, stopped TAC officials from filing a countersuit seeking damages for what they say are the pool’s architectural failings.

Meanwhile, Gardner, a one-time TAC board member, remains tight lipped amidst accusations that his public advocacy of–and compensation for work on–the TAC backed project constitutes a conflict of interest.

Can’t Wake County’s board of commissioners and school board just get along? Awhile back, the Wake Ed Partnership and the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce proposed a way for the two warring bodies to go forward in harmony: Let the commissioners control school construction, which they try to do anyway. Meanwhile, commissioners increase school funding. Deal? Or -

Not gonna happen, the N&O reports today.