Name as it appears on the ballot: Janet Cowell 

Age: 56 

Party affiliation: Democrat 

Campaign website: janetcowellformayor.com 

Occupation & employer: President & CEO of Dix Park Conservancy, Jan 2021-Sep 2024 

Years lived in Raleigh: 27 

1. Given the direction of Raleigh government, would you say things are on the right course? 

Overall, Raleigh is heading in the right direction. We have a high quality of life, vibrant and diverse neighborhoods, and residents who make this a special place to live. Raleigh’s rapid growth has brought new opportunities and wealth to our city but has resulted in displacement and burden for some. The challenge for Raleigh is managing our continued growth in a way that maintains our quality of life but does not further exacerbate inequality and increase the cost of living. 

We need to invest in additional infrastructure, housing, and protections for those at risk of being priced out of our communities. The city must diversify housing options to meet the needs of our varied households, create greater subsidies for affordable housing, staff our law enforcement and first responders with the personnel needed to keep us safe, and strengthen environmental protections. 

For Raleigh to be a city that works for everyone, we need to make these investments now.

2. 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. 

1. Raleigh is experiencing a housing crisis. Everyone in Raleigh is feeling the effects of our city’s rapid growth. The cost of housing has skyrocketed and is preventing teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, and others who serve our community from being able to live here. I’ll work to solve this problem by diversifying housing options across the city and increasing subsidies for affordable housing. We must also be willing to invest in our infrastructure such as water, sewer and public transportation to reduce traffic congestion. The City should work with nonprofits like DHIC and others in the space that have specific mandates to work with low-income families to build affordable housing and create home ownership opportunities that generate wealth for families. 

2. We need to keep Raleigh residents safe. I’ll support our law enforcement officers by ensuring they have appropriate personnel and competitive pay to fill the large number of current vacancies. Increasing affordable housing options and enabling first responders to live in the city they serve will improve recruitment and retention. Law enforcement should also have the same degree of accountability as any other city department. I’ll ensure our police officers can focus on crime and work to build and strengthen partnerships with the state and Wake County government to allow mental health providers and paramedics to be involved when someone is experiencing a crisis that is not necessarily a crime. 

3. Raleigh’s open spaces, green spaces, and parkways provide some of the most beautiful parts of our city. They are also cultural hubs and gathering spaces for neighbors that foster connection, creativity, and economic development. I will work with the City Council and Wake County to refine and enhance programs to protect the tree canopy, waterways, and develop management plans for public spaces. I’ll also work to reduce city emissions and address climate resiliency for our city so no one is left behind after a natural disaster. 

3. 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? 

I’ve served in public office for fifteen years, including on the Raleigh City Council, in the State Senate, and as State Treasurer. I’m proud of my successful record of managing the state pension fund and health plan as Treasurer and making progress on education and environmental issues in the Senate and Council. I have executive leadership experience in both government and the private sector and a track record of working with others to get things done. 

For the past three years, I served as President & CEO of Dix Park Conservancy, working in partnership with the City to create Dix Park. During my tenure, we raised over $40 million in private funds and completed privately-funded renovations of the Greg Poole Jr. Chapel at Dix Park, the stone houses and visitor center (thanks to NC SECU!), and a major public art program (including the fabulous Duke Energy collaboration with Thomas Sayre on the sunflower transmission poles on Lake Wheeler Road.) 

I want to use the optimistic, innovative spirit that has helped improve Dix Park and scale it to transform Raleigh. I understand that for us to tackle our challenges, we’ll need to collaborate with the business community, non-profits, Wake County, the state, and the federal government. I have the relationships and knowledge to form these partnerships and accomplish big things. 

I have been endorsed by the Wake County Democratic Party, the NC Police Benevolent Association, the Raleigh Police Protective Association, the Capital City Fire Fighters, Equality NC, NC AFL-CIO, Raleigh Wake Citizens Association, NC Sierra Club, Carolina Forward, and the Wake County Voter Education Coalition.I appreciate the confidence these esteemed organizations have in me to be an effective leader and advocate for Raleigh and its residents. 

4. 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. 

Raleigh needed to increase the ability to build housing; affordable housing and reforming zoning regulations are critical parts of achieving that goal. Essential to assessing missing middle reforms is good data, including spatial maps so we can understand where new housing units are being built, whether they are already in oversaturated neighborhoods, which housing types are being built, amount of public

subsidy, how long units are guaranteed to be affordable, how many units are being lost, how many units are being preserved, etc. 

My understanding is some of this data is not being presented because of the lawsuit that has been filed challenging Missing Middle. It is also my understanding that there are some obvious target policy areas for reform but those too are on hold because of the lawsuit. Between the legal matters and the inability of city staff to speak with candidates, I won’t be able to fully assess individual reforms until — God willing, creek don’t rise — duly elected. 

5. 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? 

While recent Raleigh City Councils have made some progress on the cost of housing, more can be done. The Mayor and Council should fight for better community benefits to accompany new housing development. We can strengthen the City’s partnership with Raleigh Housing Authority (RHA) to produce more deeply affordable housing units in higher quantities by taking advantage of tools (like project-based vouchers) that only the RHA has. 

State law prevents municipalities like Raleigh from mandating the construction of affordable housing in private developments, so we have to be more creative in our approach. As a former NC State Treasurer, I understand the financial tools the City can use to accomplish our goals. I am an advocate for using Tax Increment Finance (TIF) as a tool that has been successfully deployed in Charlotte and Durham to provide additional subsidies for affordable housing or property tax assistance for residents at risk of displacement. 

The City should partner with the business and non-profit community to scale existing programs like home weatherization/repair and property tax assistance to help vulnerable residents. Local groups like the faith-based One Wake coalition are creating innovative solutions that the City should work to further and scale up. The City should partner with trusted institutions like churches to provide financing tools for residents who want to take advantage of capturing the benefit of improving or redeveloping their own property.

6. 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? 

The coming federal investment in Bus Rapid Transit and the S-Line connecting us to Richmond are welcome steps toward creating more transit options. As new residents move here, we should prioritize growth near transit lines and utilize existing infrastructure in ways that save taxpayer dollars and improve walkable/bikeable neighborhoods. 

Investments like BRT help reduce our car dependency and free up existing car infrastructure for current residents by reducing traffic congestion – a win for those who travel by car and those who travel using public transit.The City should continue to leverage federal dollars for similar projects, helping us increase transportation options and reduce carbon emissions in ways that would be too expensive for us to fully fund alone. 

7. 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? 

I supported keeping Red Hat Amphitheater in Downtown but agree that public engagement on the South St. closure was lacking and led to Council being presented with suboptimal choices. 

We know that many voices are underrepresented at city hall, including renters, young people, and low-income residents. The City needs better technology to enable two-way communication with residents through mobile applications and other means that don’t necessitate attendance at scheduled meetings. Limiting engagement opportunities to in-person attendance at Council restricts who can participate and makes it harder for residents to make their voices heard. 

The City voted to reinstate CAC’s. The new Council should work on implementing this and increasing the participation of underrepresented groups through CAC’s in their first 100 days.

The City should improve its website with better tools like maps and metrics that make it easier to understand progress on important issues like housing, public safety, and transportation. 

8. 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? 

The City has taken important steps to address concerns about crime in Downtown but work remains to be done to make residents, visitors, and businesses feel safe.

Investments to raise pay for police and fully staff the department should remove the need for the private security firm currently in place as a stopgap measure. Our security should be the responsibility of Raleigh police who are accountable to the public. 

Downtown Raleigh has a unique relationship to the General Assembly because it houses so much of the state government and its workforce. There are currently 20 blocks of “dead zone” in Downtown that have no retail, which is a challenge the City can’t address alone. As a former State Senator and Treasurer, I would like to work with the state to create land leases and new opportunities to diversify Downtown land use. 

Another possibility is collaborating with Raleigh colleges and universities to expand their Downtown footprint. Shaw and William Peace should further integrate with the surrounding community, and we should explore opportunities to give schools like Wake Tech or NC State a presence Downtown. In a similar vein, the City should leverage outside resources, like federal grants, to connect nearby parts of the city to Downtown. By linking neighborhoods to amenities and decreasing reliance on car travel, we can make Downtown more accessible and attractive to more residents. 

9.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 support the leadership of Chief Estella Patterson who was appointed in 2021. In her tenure, RPD has enacted critical reforms including: 1) the establishment of the ACORNS unit, which pairs clinical psychologists and social workers with police officers to respond to calls requiring social service expertise and 2) de-escalation training for all officers. To further her efforts, we need to secure competitive wages for officers. The department has too many vacant roles and is losing qualified, well-trained officers who leave to work in other municipalities. I support further training for officers to meet the highest standards of conduct and ethics. We also need to pursue innovative, compassionate solutions for mentally ill individuals who are at greater risk of adverse police encounters. 

10. 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? 

Emergency calls that direct police toward individuals experiencing mental health crises take officers away from stopping crime, where their time and skills are best spent. Durham leaders and residents have endorsed their HEART response program as a success and Raleigh should explore creating a program that is independent of the police department. I’m an advocate for data-driven decision making – if the evidence suggests that a similar program could make Raleigh residents safer, we should act. 

11. 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? 

I will not propose any more changes to Raleigh elections. There are benefits and drawbacks to moving city elections to even-year elections. There will be greater turnout but it is harder and more expensive to compete with up-ballot races for voters’ attention. I understand the public’s frustration with multiple changes to local elections, because there was not sufficient opportunity for public input regarding the changes. I am generally not in favor of designing elections by public referendum given the complexity and high likelihood of unintended consequences.