Raleigh public safety center faces resistance

 Three local conservative groups want to put the pressure on the Raleigh City Council to hold off on a $205 million project to build a new public safety center and allow voters to decide if they want the 17-story building to be built.

The groups -- N.C. Institute for Constitutional Law, Wake County Taxpayers Association and N.C. Americans for Prosperity -- will hold an afternoon press conference to talk about the Clarence E. Lightner Public Safety Center project, a 300,000-square-foot project that will go before the Raleigh City Council at its upcoming meeting Feb. 2.

As proposed, the Lightner project would replace the current police headquarters at 110 S. McDowell St., and mean moving forward with a tax increase in the worst economic climate since the Depression. The new building would house police, fire, emergency communications and information technology departments for the city.

Mayor Charles Meeker, a Democrat, has been pushing to go ahead with the project, in order to cash in on $20 million in savings on construction and loan interest by taking out certificates of participation to pay for the Lightner Center and $250 million worth of public works projects.

But Meeker is facing resistance from several council members, including the lone Republican member of the council, John Odom, and new member Bonner Gaylord, an unaffiliated council member who has raised concerns about the size of the project.

The council has pushed off deciding on the Lightner project two times, but is scheduled to revisit it at their Tuesday meeting.

The Wake County Republican Party has called for the project to go before voters in a bond referendum, and other conservative groups have taken issue with the $705,000 budgeted for public art.

If the council goes ahead with it, it could mean approving an eight-percent tax increase phased in over the next five years that would stay in place for the next 25 years. That would include $250 million in public works projects and Meeker has asked to see if any increase could be held off until 2012. He's also asked city staff to reduce the art budget to third of the $705,000 that was budgeted.