The past two weeks have been very busy with constituent service requests, and a work session on Hotel Occupancy Tax.     I had a very hectic week so here is a recap of the past two weeks.

IdeaFund:  John Cambier, Managing Partner of IdeaFund Partners, a local Venture Fund, met with me to express his frustration with the recent votes of the General Assembly, most notably, the elimination of the Qualified Venture Tax Credit, which provides tax credits to investors, up to 33 percent.

The elimination of this tax credit, and cuts to education, have been discouraging to investors, and some of the portfolio companies have expressed an interest in leaving the Triangle and those looking at coming here, after funding, have indicated to John that they do not want to come to the Triangle area.     This trend reflects poorly on the General Assembly’s and Governor Mccrory’s committment to job creation.

Triangle Rock Club:    I had a wonderful meeting with Joel Graybeal at Triangle Rock Club.   He has some good suggestion on the Town permitting process but is very excited about the progress he is making with the expansion of the Morrisville facility, along with the new office opening in North Raleigh.

Rinku Das: Met with Rinku Das, a new Providence resident, whom was very interested in serving on the Parks and Rec Advisory Committee, and other Town Boards.   She is a professional dance teacher, focusing on classical Indian dance so she may have an interest in getting a program started with the Town.    I have asked Diana to send her a list of Advisory Boards that she can look at and see when there will be openings down the road.

Karishma Desai: Karishma is a recent NC State graduate, who is interested in interning with the Town, in the PIO area, or Public Relations.   I am going to see if staff may be interested in a part time intern to help with some of our constituent requests.

Immigration request:   Another immigration request on a lost passport.    I have set up a call with the Indian Embassy to expedite.    This citizen cannot visit back to India unless he gets a new passport but the Embassy will not recognize his Indian documentation and paperwork.    I hope we can get this issue resolved as soon as possible.

Triangle Cricket League:  I met with the Triangle Cricket League Executive team to review the Shiloh Fields as they would be interested in getting part of the fielded reseeded with new grass.   There are some ideas on refining our amending our rental agreements with the Cricket League, along with how we may be able to also better accomodate rain delays.    I am setting up a meeting with Jerry Allen and staff to discuss and also going to set up a meeting with Public Works on the field maintenance status.

Dipak Patel:  Dipak Patel, CEO of Salient Learning, an education training and consulting organization, and a Morirsville citizen, is very interested in partnering with another organization or entity to start a charter school.    We are going to meet in September as he will provide a plan but also is looking forward to our Council discussion on the High School, locating in Morrisville.

Very interesting Office Hours and it is always great to meet with these citizens!