Name as it appears on the ballot: Jonathan Lambert-Melton

Age: 38

Party affiliation: Democrat

Campaign website: jonathanmelton.com

Occupation & employer: Lawyer/Mediator, Gailor Hunt Davis Tayl0r & Gibbs, PLLC

Years lived in Raleigh: 20

  1. Given the direction of Raleigh government, would you say things are on the right course? If not, what specific changes will you advocate for if elected?

Yes, like most rapidly growing cities, we have our challenges but also many opportunities.  We must continue to plan for our growth. Not planning for growth won’t stop growth from happening, it’ll just cause us not to grow well.  For years, our city and region did not build enough housing to keep up with demand or invest in transit. We were behind on these issues, but we’re on the right path now.  We’re working to make it easier to build more housing overall, including housing that is more affordable to folks at different stages in life, like duplexes, townhouses, and tiny homes.  We’ve partnered with the County to preserve existing affordable housing, and we’re working with nonprofit housing providers and land trusts to build new affordable housing. We are also making strides in implementing the Wake County Transit Plan, including increasing regular bus frequency, adding more shelters and benches, and starting construction on bus rapid transit.  There’s more work to do, but we can’t go backwards to doing things the old way.

  1. If you are a candidate for a district seat, please identify your priorities for your district. If you are an at-large or mayoral candidate, please identify the three most pressing issues the city faces.

Our three most pressing issues are public safety, housing, and transit.  We don’t have enough officers to fill existing vacancies, and we haven’t added new officers to keep pace with population growth.  We need a fully-staffed, well-funded police department to address crime and safety issues.  I also think we ask our officers to respond to calls they’re not always best-equipped to handle, and I support establishing an alternative response unit, that would be separately funded and housed outside of the police department, to respond to certain non-violent calls.  This alternative response unit would reduce work for our officers and allow them to focus on crime and actual safety issues.  I also think our officers should be able to afford to live in the neighborhoods where they serve; to accomplish that goal, we need to increase pay and also work to reduce the cost of housing.   

For housing, we must continue to allow more types of housing to be built in more places, increasing supply to help stabilize costs and ease pressure on vulnerable neighborhoods.  These types of housing include single family homes, duplexes, tiny homes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), townhouses, apartments, and cottage courts. But increasing supply will only address part of the issue. We must also work to increase affordable housing, through providing subsidies for those who need it most.  We’ve been allocating funds from the 2020 Affordable Housing Bond and partnering with nonprofit housing providers to create more affordable housing units.  We’ve also implemented affordable housing density bonuses near transit to incentivize private developers to build more affordable housing.   

Providing safe, reliable transit is easier to accomplish when we build denser, more mixed use neighborhoods.  And reducing car dependency is achieved by increasing access to transit and multimodal transportation, giving folks safe options to get around without a car. 

  1. What in your record as a public official or other experience demonstrates your ability to be effective as a member of the city council and as an advocate for the issues that you believe are important?

In my full-time job, I’m a North Carolina Board Certified Family Law Specialist and certified mediator.  I help individuals navigate difficult personal circumstances with a goal to find compromise solutions. On City Council, I’ve chaired the Economic Development and Innovation Committee during a period of time where we’re focused on supporting our small businesses, specifically downtown, as we work to rebuild and rebound fully from the pandemic.  In my role as chair, I’ve helped us navigate and advance numerous initiatives, such as permanent outdoor dining, implementing a social district, and increasing funding for more public art, crosswalks, wayfinding, and cleanliness.  Also, in general on City Council, I’ve led on complex issues involving partnerships with other elected bodies and community groups, such as the enactment of our nondiscrimination ordinance, adding an LGBTQ liaison to our police department, and establishing an eviction assistance clinic for low income residents.  I also led on reforms to ease burdens on small businesses, by advocating for accessory commercial units (ACUs) for certain home-based businesses, as well as removing the restrictive requirements for live/work. I also led on bringing back scooters and investing in other non-car infrastructure, like establishing an e-bike voucher program that is launching this fall. 

  1. In 2021, the Raleigh City Council enacted a missing middle policy to allow for the construction of new, diverse types of housing across the city. More than 2,000 newly-allowed units have been added to the city’s housing stock under the policy, yet there has been pushback from residents, including lawsuits. Do you support Raleigh’s missing middle housing policy as is, or do you think it needs amending? If you feel it needs to be changed, please explain. 

Yes, I support our missing middle housing policy.  Allowing more types of housing to be built across the city will increase supply and help reduce costs.  It also helps prevent sprawl; sprawl is an unsustainable growth pattern that causes loss of trees and increases our tax burden as we attempt to provide infrastructure and city services in more remote areas.  Building more housing closer to existing employment, retail, and amenities is a more sustainable way to grow.  However, after hearing and seeing some concerns by neighbors and discussing options with our planning staff, I do support a few changes to our existing missing middle housing policy, specifically I would support adding some infill compatibility standards, like those that exist for single family homes, to help new missing middle projects fit in better with their surroundings, as well as changes to incentivize tree preservation and planting with some missing middle projects.  These changes should address some of the tension we’ve felt in the past couple years while not substantially hindering the uptake and utilization of the missing middle policy.

  1. Raleigh has many funds, programs, and partnerships in place aimed at addressing affordable housing, but still has a deficit of some 23,000 affordable units. What more can the city do to secure affordable housing, and what more can it do to ensure that low-income residents don’t face displacement?

We can continue to identify vacant and underutilized city-owned land and make that land available to nonprofit affordable housing providers for construction of new affordable housing.  We started this work in the past couple years, and we’re seeing success.  At some point in the near future, the city should also consider another Affordable Housing Bond.  Funds from the 2020 Affordable Housing Bond have been transformative for providing more permanent affordable housing, including the King’s Ridge development that is opening soon and contains hundreds of permanent residences for folks who have experienced chronic homelessness.  I also think we can do more to incentivize the private development of more affordable housing; near transit we’ve implemented affordable housing density bonuses, which allows private developers to build additional units if a portion of those additional units are made affordable to 60% of the area median income for 30 years; this is a new program, but we’re seeing early results, with hundreds of affordable housing units permitted recently.  These affordable housing units are being paid for entirely by the private development community, which allows our public subsidies to go much further to help folks.  I would like to see these incentives expanded in more places.  

To combat displacement, we need to increase our overall supply of housing, and diversify our types of housing citywide to relieve pressure on our most vulnerable residents.  Data shows us that communities are more affordable and diverse, and the rate of displacement is lower, when housing of all types is available in abundance.  While we continue to work to increase our housing supply to reduce pressure, we must continue to fund programs to help folks stay in their homes, like the owner/occupied rehabilitation assistance fund and the fund for preservation of naturally occurring affordable housing.  I also think the State can and should expand their property tax relief programs to help more folks.

  1. The recent resignation of GoTriangle’s CEO raises questions about the future of the county and regional transit strategy. How do you see the future of transit in Raleigh when it comes to Bus Rapid Transit, microtransit, and commuter and regional rail projects?

For decades, Raleigh developed and grew in a mostly suburban, sprawled manner.  We have a lot of single family homes in cul de sac neighborhoods, often without sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes, and certainly configured in a manner that makes it very difficult to provide a frequent transit system.  Shifting our way out of this unsustainable development pattern and providing an integrated transportation system within Raleigh and with the neighboring communities in the Triangle has been difficult and many proposed ideas have fallen short throughout recent years.

I think it’s important for folks to know that we do already have some train service connecting the Triangle.  “NC By Train” (operated by Amtrak) consistently sets or breaks ridership records, such that additional train service was allocated last summer.  We are nearing a point that this existing service operates every couple hours which provides a great deal more functionality, and if more folks were aware of this service and used it, I think we’d get even more frequency. If it could get to every hour, it would essentially function more like a commuter rail service.  Layered on top of the existing service is the planned S-line, high speed rail that will better connect Raleigh with nearby  communities, like Wake Forest, and eventually on to Richmond and DC.

This is a great start, and likely as far as we’re going to be able to go with train service at this time, as the federal government has indicated (during our efforts to fund and build a new commuter rail line) that they’re not willing to fund additional train service, at least not until population density increases to support new service.

That means we also need to look to supplement with bus service.  In Raleigh, we’re building North Carolina’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service, with four lines radiating out of downtown.  Two of the lines will connect to neighboring municipalities, Garner and Cary, and I would like to see more of this regional BRT service expanded, specifically to provide a connection to the airport and to the newly-named Lenovo Center (formerly, PNC arena), Carter-Finley Stadium, and fairgrounds area.

Regarding bicycle and pedestrian connections, we are working to create a system that connects throughout the Triangle and across Wake County.  We recently opened the Crabtree Creek West Greenway Trail which was a missing link connecting as far as the American Tobacco Trail in Durham, through Raleigh, to Umstead park.   We need to fund and build these missing connections quicker.  Also, as part of our efforts to build BRT, we are looking at the areas around the planned BRT stations, filling in missing sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes so folks within the first and last mile of BRT stations can safely access the transit.  I remain an advocate for increased funding for bike lanes, sidewalks, and multi use paths.  We need to provide folks with safer options to get around, which reduces traffic for everyone. 

  1. A common complaint from residents is that the city council doesn’t do enough public engagement, with the plan to relocate Red Hat Amphitheater being one recent example. Do you agree with this assessment? If so, what more should the city government and council do to engage residents with city business? 

Yes, there is always room for improvement.  For a long time I think community engagement in Raleigh was a noun, a place you had to go to engage. It should be a verb, an action embedded in all of our processes and continuously worked on for improvement.  We are making meaningful strides to increase and change how the city engages with the public.  A few years ago, we created the first ever Office of Community Engagement. That office has worked hard to meet people where they are, often, to help exchange information.  Recently, we approved the City Manager’s reorganization request, which elevated and expanded that office to now a full Department of Community Engagement.  More staff resources will be provided and their work to engage with the public more frequently will also expand.  We also funded a community engagement bus and van to go into communities and meet people where they are.  Not everyone has the time or resources to attend a City Council meeting or a neighborhood meeting, and we need to keep working to bring engagement directly to more folks.  As far as what individual City Council Members can do, I personally host community office hours nearly every month at a local business where anyone can come talk to me about any topic of interest. I also summarize our City Council meetings and email and post those summaries to help keep folks informed.  I’m also responsive to emails and social media requests.  

  1. Downtown Raleigh has had a rough five years following the COVID pandemic with the transition to working from home and business owners reporting an increase in crime and other issues. Many see keeping Red Hat Amphitheater downtown as a positive step; what else does the city need to do to help downtown with its recovery and plan for its future?

A couple years ago, as we were emerging from the peak of the COVID pandemic, the City Council approved funding for a downtown economic development study in partnership with the Downtown Raleigh Alliance (DRA).  An urban design firm was hired to complete the study and spent considerable time engaging with business owners and residents downtown, as well as other partners to develop a series of detailed recommendations.  In recent months, those recommendations were presented to the Economic Development and Innovation Committee and subsequently the full City Council.  The recommendations include revitalization of Fayetteville Street and bolstering the downtown storefront economy, repositioning the downtown office market, improving minority and women-owned business opportunities, and identifying catalytic projects that could spur energy in the downtown area.  What the city needs to do now is fully implement the recommendations of that study.   We have already taken steps to implement a few key parts, including allocating funding to redesign and revitalize Fayetteville Street, removing the old newspaper and magazine kiosks to create more space for outdoor dining and adding new lighting, art, and public gathering spaces.  We also approved funding for the Convention Center Expansion, new, permanent Red Hat Amphitheater, and a 500-room full service Omni Hotel (all catalytic projects that will spur energy downtown).  It’s important that we keep folks on our City Council who have knowledge of this work and an eagerness and willingness to see it completed.  I am committed to getting it done and doing everything we can to support our downtown and small business owners.  

  1. Since 2012, the City of Raleigh has paid more than $4 million in settlements to 47 individuals, families, and estates related to RPD officer’s use of excessive force and other unconstitutional interactions. What are your thoughts on the current culture at RPD? For what changes would you advocate to improve the culture of policing in Raleigh, if any?

I believe the culture of RPD improved when Chief Patterson was hired a few years ago.  She is a very community-focused Police Chief, and folks will tell you she’s everywhere.  Her leadership style sets a great example for the department.  She has also advocated for additional funding, to recruit and retain good, qualified officers.  I would like to see a return to community policing, where officers live in the communities where they serve.  I think this helps build trust and safety.  To do that, we need to pay our officers more and continue to work to reduce the cost of housing.  I also support our Police Advisory Board; we just received an update of their work over the past year and approved their work plan at a recent City Council meeting.  They have a full board with leadership roles and meet regularly. They’ve already reviewed and submitted recommendations on nearly half a dozen RPD policies, and they have many events planned for the next year to help facilitate more connections and trust between RPD and the community. 

  1.  Some municipalities, such as Durham, have seen success with crisis response units that deploy trained workers to respond to non-violent behavioral health and quality of life calls for service. Should Raleigh consider such a crisis response program that’s NOT housed in the police department? 

Yes, and we’ve been working to get this done for a few years.  Durham’s HEART program has four key parts: Crisis call diversion, where mental health providers are embedded in the 911 call center; community response teams, where qualified workers respond to calls for non-violent behavioral health and quality of life issues; care navigation, where social workers follow up with folks after they encounter a police officer to help connect them with need-based care; and a co-response team, where officers and qualified workers respond to calls together.   In the most recent budget passed in July, we funded three of these parts: crisis call diversion, care navigation, and co-response teams. The final, missing part is the community response team, and our City Manager’s office is actively working with Wake County to coordinate implementation of this part.  Since Raleigh does not have a health department, we must partner with the County on this initiative to provide EMT and ambulance resources.  At a recent City Council meeting, we approved the City Manager’s reorganization request, to create a new department to house the community response team, entirely outside and separate from RPD.  It is my goal and expectation that this new community response team will be funded in the upcoming budget and up and running within the next year. 

  1.  The next city council will transition from two-year to four-year terms with staggered elections. What other changes, if any, should the city council make to how voters elect its members? Should any additional changes be put to voters in a referendum or should the council make those decisions?

A change I would support is ranked choice voting, however I believe implementing ranked choice voting is a long term goal.  First, the NC General Assembly would have to amend State law to allow ranked choice voting as a permissible type of election.  Then, we would have to work with both the Wake County Board of Elections and Durham County Board of Elections (some Raleigh precincts are in Durham County) on new technology to implement ranked choice voting.  Another possible change that I’ve heard discussed by members of the community is whether City Council Members should be full time positions and paid a full time salary.  We could certainly expand our pool of candidates if we made it more accessible to serve on the City Council.  I do not have a strong preference about whether or not any future changes should be put in a referendum or decided by the City Council; the law that allows the City Council to directly make the changes also provides the public with the opportunity to collect signatures to put the issue on the ballot instead, however, I understand that collecting in-person signatures is a challenging task.