Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Durham County / Durham / News Billboard lawyers continue INC infiltration
Posted by Lisa Sorg on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Durham's Inter-Neighborhood Council is scheduled to vote on the billboard issue tonight at 7, according to Bull City Rising. So it's not a coincidence that Patrick Byker, a lawyer for K&L Gates, the firm representing the billboard company seeking significant changes to the city's billboard ordinance, apparently is looking to get (re)involved in the INC. See below for his email to his neighborhood association. Craige Sanders, another K&L attorney, is already INC president.
> From: Patrick Byker
> To: list for members of the RNA
> Sent: Sunday, March 1, 2009 5:30:33 PM
> Subject: [rna] Patrick Byker serving as representative at InterNeighborhood
> Council
> Good evening, Rockwood Neighbors--
> Hope you all are doing well on this stormy evening. I'm sure I know many of
> the folks on the listserv even though Ingrid and I have not been on it for a
> while. For those of you in Rockwood who don't know us, we've lived at 2614
> Stuart (gray two story house between Steele and Woodridge) for almost 15 years
> now. Back in the day, we hosted one or two of the neighborhood meetings at
> our place.
> Anyway, one of my colleagues at work, Craig Sanders, is the current president
> of the Durham InterNeighborhood Council (INC) and as part of his leadership he
> is trying to get more neighborhoods involved in INC. So, assuming that no one
> would object, I paid the $25 annual dues for Rockwood, and I started attending
> the INC meetings last month. The INC meetings are on the 4th Tuesday evening
> of each month, from 7:00 to 9:00 at the Herald-Sun building on Pickett Road.
> Would anyone be interested in being an alternate?
> Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks a bunch!
> Warm regards--
> Patrick Byker
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I'm a Rockwood resident. Yes Byker appointed himself as delegate to the INC. He asked his neighborhood if anyone objected and no one did. He emailed the neighborhood on 3/11 about the billboard resolutions asking for input and no one responded. If his intentions are nefarious, we have only ourselves to blame. We have been negligent and apathetic. Today some actual fruitful discussion popped up on the listserv and several Rockwood residents will be attending the meeting to make clear our position on the billboard resolutions. I think it's a little early to be making claims about these individuals, my neighbors, and little irresponsible to sink ones teeth into a potential scandal before all the facts are in. I hope you're wrong about this "infiltration", and I admit that the way things line up it looks pretty juicy. But let's see how the meeting goes before we plant these seeds. I assume I will see you at the meeting?
The INC has been a well-respected organization, following diligent rules to ensure that the representatives take back any resolution to their neighborhood boards in order to get the board's approval. It doesn't sound like Byker's neighborhood has a board or anyone officially representing the neighborhood. Does Byker plan to just vote as he sees fit? This is against everything the INC stands for. In addition, considering his relation to the billboard industry and the development industry, he should have to recuse himself from votes related to either subject, in order to avoid conflicts of interest. The INC must ensure that their rules are followed and that no-one votes without properly representing a neighborhood and that neighborhood's views...otherwise the INC will lose all of its integrity. Over the last year or so, there have been murmurings that the INC is a pro-development organization, and several members have complained with the manner in which INC deals (or NOT) with environmental issues, particularly those related to development. Apparently this came to the fore last year when a member neighborhood introduced a resolution for more environmental protections in Durham's development ordinances. Rumor is that, after much controversy, the INC begrudgingly submitted a much watered down version of the resolution that essentially rendered it meaningless. For Durham's sake, I hope this very worthwhile organization will be spared from becoming a political venue for special interests.
well, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck . . . By the way, if RNA doesn't have a board and bylaws, then it can't be represented at the INC, since only organized neighborhoods have a seat at the table. If it does have a board and bylaws, it would be interesting to see what those say about INC representation. My own neighborhood association's bylaws, for instance, require that our INC representative be a current board member.
First Cragie Sanders, then Patrick Byker. Can Bill Brian be far behind? When the entire K&L Gates law firm goes to an INC meeting, can all of them still bill for it?
Kuods to the Rockwood Neighborhood Association for sending neighbors to tonight's INC vote to stop their self-appointed rep from voting for his client.
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