Wake County leaders lay out agenda

Raleigh, N.C. — Wake County commissioners, City Council members and six mayors came together Monday to discuss their wish list of new local laws.

"What we're asking for is an expansion of our extraterritorial jurisdiction," Wendell Mayor J. Harold Broadwell said.

Up for discussion during the Wake County delegation annual meeting was everything from additional funding for bus service, to annexation and water concerns. 

This year, several mayors also talked about what has become a contentious topic: school board elections.

"We do have a lot of problems in our school reassignment," Cary Mayor Harold Weinbrecht said.

Some leaders said they want a law that would have board members elected at large, not by district. That way, those opposed to school reassignment would have more of a voice.

“This is a big county. We have 13 municipal governments and the county government,” said Sen. Richard Stevens, R-Wake. “So it is certainly an important part of the process that we listen to our locally elected officials."

State lawmakers only have a little more than a week before the deadline to decide which local bills they will draft or support.