Jim was thanked and recognized for his continued interest and participation in town affairs. As the only non-sitting candidate for the Board of Commissioners at the board meeting Monday night (October 16th), Jim was commended by the board for his proposals and participation and thanked for his attendance at past meetings. In response, Jim sent the following to the board:

"It has always been my nature to attend board meetings, when I first retired from IBM in 1987 and returned to my home town Rockingham, I made it my business to attend County Commission, Town Board, School Board, Community College, United Way, and a number of other organizations meetings to be informed. Subsequently I served on The Richmond Memorial Hospital Board, The Richmond Community College Board, The Richmond County Board of Education, along with a number of other organizations. The night that I first attended the Rockingham Town Board meeting with my friend G. R. Kindley as Mayor, after sitting almost to the end of the meeting G. R. asked "Jim do you have an issue?" My response was "No just doing my civic duty." G. R. continues to do his civic duty on the NC Board of Transportation and was the mover behind the new Interstate 73/74.

I am very concerned about the participation in our organizations by our citizens and have proposed and will continue to propose a Civic Index for our community and the region. In my opinion on the School Bonds (see web site) I chose not to support them and challenged any that did support them to make a personal commitment to get very involved in School affairs at all levels.

The Civic Index I founded in Richmond County resulted in almost 200 residents getting deeply involved in a six weeks study of where we had been, where we were, and where we wanted to go. This Index, facilitated by Dr. Bill McCoy, Director of the Urban Institute at UNC Charlotte, resulted in a significant number of recommendations and implementation of a majority.

It was my pleasure tonight to publicly thank the Town Staff for their support in Candidate's Briefing held last week. My recommendation is that it be continued and expanded to include a briefing prior to candidate filing to encourage our good people to run and a series of Candidate Briefings prior to election and invite the public to attend. This not only prepares the candidates to hit the road running but would afford the public a valuable opportunity to learn more about the workings of their government. You have experienced many comments from citizens that show additional knowledge would be welcome. Because of my attendance at Town Meetings since arriving in Cornelius in 1998 I feel that I am a much better citizen and do not attend just for a special case and then head for the door.

It was an opportune time for me to add my comments to the other residents who were pleading for action on the Animal Shelter. As I stated, I had the occasion last week to visit for the first time and was distressed to see a building of many years housing about 6 runs for dogs and six cages for cats. While there one of the cats escaped from the cage and I assisted the Animal Control Officer who had her truck parked there to recover the cat. In the truck was a very cute little dog and the control officer said that because the other dogs were very large and some quarantined the only place possible for this cute little dog was a cat cage (they were all filled up) and so other disposition had to be made of this beautiful animal.

She described how in the winter the cages were covered with plastic to provide some protection from the weather but as freezing weather occurred the cement floors would freeze and it was impossible to keep them clean.

Hopefully we can accelerate the project to give the animals proper facilities.

As I commented at the beginning of the meeting under Citizen Comments, from the Candidate Briefing it was very obvious that a majority of the items for commissioner consideration in the future relate to finance and legal. There was further evidence of that at tonight's meeting in that almost all the items on the agenda were either finance and/or legal related or both. The Board discussions pointed out the need for experience in legal and financial matters.

I spent 12 years of my life in legal (I am not an attorney) and eight of those years were working with some of the most outstanding counsel in the legal profession as they represented IBM in the Department of Justice trial and my subsequent assignment to Europe for the EC case. Of course my educational and work experience was primarily in the finance field.

Thanks to all the staff and commissioners and the Mayor who asks some very valid and pointed questions for their service and dedication. I had a choice to stay until 11:15 -- you did not -- just like the meeting not too long ago that went until after 1 AM.

I am proud of the Town of Cornelius and intend to continue to support its government whether elected or not. Many of my friends and associates say "Good Luck on the Race" and my response is not sure whether that is winning or losing but in any event I'll support Cornelius.

Thanks again for your comments and service."

Sincerely,

    Jim Hicks