Here’s a hard job: make decisions that impact each community member, and try to assess the best possible choices for the entire community. Burlington City Council members are tasked with just that every day and work to make their decisions beneficial.
Celo Faucette has been a council member for the past six years. He previously worked at LabCorps for 35 years, staring in 1969 before retiring in 2005. When he started at LapCorps, he said there were only 10 to 12 employees. Faucette has lived in Burlington his entire life, and said he wanted to dedicate his time serving the city.
“I thought I needed to bring something to the table to make the city better,” he said. “Why live in a community when you’re not doing anything to help?”
After retiring from LabCorps, Faucette worked in various Burlington City council committees, such as the Traffic Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission. He said working with budgets, helping clients and customer service experience in these positions prepared him for his government work as a council member.
Half of his time working is spent preparing for City Hall meetings. This entails researching topics and assessing community concerns. He said the rest of his job time involves meeting with various committees in the City of Burlington. Other times he attends community events, sometimes cutting ceremonial ribbons to commemorate new buildings or locations.
Like Faucette, Burlington Council member Bob Ward takes care in preparing for council meetings.
He also knows the importance of reliably serving the community.
“From day to day, it is important to be available to talk with citizens when they call about their concerns,” he said.
Before being elected to the council, Ward served as city attorney for 39 years. In this position, he worked closely with the city council. When he became a council member three years ago, he knew his past experiences would help him succeed.
“As part of my duties [as city attorney] I prepared ordinances and helped develop policies for the City of Burlington,” he said. “I believe this service provided me an ideal opportunity to learn about serving on the City Council.”
In addition to working as city attorney and as a Burlington city council member, Ward was an adjunct professor teaching state and local government law and administrative law at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, North Carolina State University and North Carolina Central University School of Law.
Another key city council member is Harold Owen, the city manager. He has held this position for 12 years. Prior to this job, he was the human resources director for Burlington’s Recreation and Parks Department.
His job as city manager is to advise city operations and council policies. He said he is not a politician, but like council members, he works to serve the needs of the public. But he said the money to help others is not always there.
“People have a number of services, and having the finances to address these is tough,” he said.
Faucette and Ward said the council is currently working on a few projects. For example, they are in the process of arranging a Burlington public transportation system. Although Faucette is happy with its progress, he said some additional changes can improve Burlington.
“We need to get more industry and jobs in Burlington,” he said. “That is our no. 1 priority.”
He also said building a civic center, which are usually publically fuded, in Burlington would be ideal. These are usually publically funded. The City of Graham has a civic center, and according to The City of Graham website, various organizations have hosted events there, such as the Graham Rotary Club, Graham Optimist Club and the Graham Lions Club, among others. Faucette believes building one in Burlington would benefit the community.
Owen believes that greater citizen age diversity will improve Burlington.
“I’d like to see more of our young people in the community,” he said. “We need really bright and innovative minds to live here.”
All three men said they enjoy working for Burlington despite the jobs’ pressures.
“The greatest challenge is clearly understanding and being prepared to address issues that are presented to the City Council and to make those decisions that will best serve the interests of the citizens of Burlington,” said Ward.
“I truly want to work with the public,” said Owen.
“I enjoy meeting new people and finding out what their concerns are,” said Faucette. “You can’t please all the people all the time, but I’ve done a very good job.”