Interview for the Vacant Seat

Abby was one of five applicants out of fourteen selected by the Board of Commissioners for interview to occupy the vacant Commissioner’s seat. The following interview has been transcribed from the official Town of Wake Forest recording of the February 3 work session. Abby’s answers are true to transcript, and will have footnotes with analysis of the question and a refined answer as if she had had access to the question before the interview.
You can watch the Work Session video here . (1:01:25)

Abby Black (AB): Good evening, Commissioners and Mayor Clapsaddle. I want to first thank you for selecting me in the top 5 candidates for this vacancy. I am deeply appreciative for your trust, and I’m excited to be here.
I have lived in Wake Forest all my life and I plan to stay and raise a family here. I’m the daughter of hard working parents who have been residents and local business owners for 30 years. I grew up in our family business, and have learned a great deal about serving and helping others, and working in team environments. In our business, I’m currently a Private Cloud Administrator and Account Manager. On the media side of our company, I handle copyediting, illustration, and animation. Just as I give my excellence and commitment to my roles there, and will also give my excellence and commitment as a Town of Wake Forest commissioner.
I have a very good understanding of the delicate balance between necessary positive growth and the preservation of our town’s historic heritage, resources, and distinctiveness.
As far back as my teen years, I have been putting my passion for civics and community engagement into action. I have actively participated in the Town Open Houses and surveys. When the draft UDO was announced, I invested days to read through the entire draft UDO, compare it with our current UDO, and give feedback at Open Houses, online, and before the Board in public comment.
I am a proud graduate of Citizens Academy and Planning 101, both of which were tremendously informative in how the town functions and the intrinsic value of each individual department and the excellent, hardworking staff who keep Wake Forest running. These classes inspired me to become more involved, so I became a member of the Wake Forest Urban Forestry Advisory Board, and the Board elected me as coChair during the latter part of my term.
In addition, I’ve spent the last several years immersed in realistic simulated legislative sessions, where I write, present, defend, and debate legislation with peers while also learning historical precedents, effective communication skills, and further sharpening my team- and character-building skills. I recently completed a Fellows program which further strengthened my comprehension of environmental and economic policies at the state and federal levels, with a focus toward finding solutions in our constantly evolving society.
When I applied for the vacant Commissioner’s seat, I refreshed my knowledge by reading in full the Town Charter, the Capital Improvement Plan, and more. I appreciate the thorough job the Town has done for its residents by maintaining such a comprehensive website to make this information readily available.
I am an attentive listener, both a confident leader and supportive team player, and I will diligently represent all residents of Wake Forest. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to come before you. I’m ready for your questions.

Town Manager Kip Padgett (KP): How do you feel the role of a commissioner in balancing personal integrity, personal values, and perspectives, the town’s adopted policies and input from constituents when those are in tension, and can you an example from your prior public or community service?

AB: Can you repeat the question? I couldn’t hear it.

KP: How do you feel the role of a commissioner in balancing personal integrity, personal values, and perspectives, the town’s adopted policies and input from constituents when those are in tension, and can you an example from your prior public or community service?¹

AB: There’s always a balance between what the residents want and what the commissioners can supply within the jurisdiction of the power of the board. For example, while there’s a lot of people that are frustrated about traffic problems, DOT – the federal and state DOT manage most of the town roads. So the Board of Commissioners have to cooperate with those entities in order to make progress.

KP: Commissioners, are there any follow-up questions?

Commissioner Adam Wright: Can you share an example from your prior public or community service where you did have to weigh out something like that? And how did you choose your choice?

AB: In weigh – Just to clarify, to-

Commissioner Adam Wright: Like, just differing opinions, like you have somebody who, you know, say the public disagrees on you with something and you have a set belief and you’ve had to figure out how to navigate that difference.

AB: There’s always going to be discussions like that, it all depends on what the Board of Commissioners can do. In, while I was on the Urban Forestry Board, there’s a lot of discussion about what’s going to go on with the trees, how can you keep our tree canopy and maintain Wake Forest’s identity, and the main thing that we found was that the Urban Forestry Board mostly manages the town-owned trees, which are in the right-of-ways, and maintaining the canopy also falls on the hands of residents, which is why the Urban Forestry Board did a lot of public outreach at events like ForestFest, when we did the sapling tree giveaway.

KP: How do you stay informed about the needs and perspectives of different neighborhoods and demographic groups in our town, and how would you incorporate those perspectives into Board deliberations and decisions?²

AB: I do my best to attend the town Open Houses and I got to talk with residents and people there. I talk with the consultants and the town staff who are at the town Open Houses, and then we do discussions on the town progress, what solutions are being sought, what residents want to see coming, and it’s just super important that when the needs of the residents – that the needs of the residents are met while maintaining the authority of the Board.

KP: Are there any follow-up questions, Commissioners? The next core question: A Commissioner sometimes receives complaints about Town staff. How would you go about making a determination regarding whether or not a complaint is accurate?³

AB: I would go to the staff member in question and ask for their side of thing, then I would ask for a meeting between the complaint – the person who issued the complaint and the staff member, and then see what happens so I have both sides of the argument.

KP: Any follow-up questions? The next core question: How do you feel that you and your job experience relates and uniquely suits you to this role?

AB: As a private cloud administrator, I have the knowledge of how public outreach is done through the website inside – I, in my extracurricular activities, such as the immersive legislative sessions, gives me first hand knowledge of how legislation effects the ability for government, for local governments to operate. And how the UDO is the basis, the cornerstone, for how the Board makes its policy decisions.

KP: Any follow-up questions? The next core question: Describe your community involvement and how you have given back to the Wake Forest community.

AB: I attended the Citizens Academy when it was first proposed, I was in the inaugural class, and it was an absolute, amazing thing, it was incredibly informative and I loved it a lot. I attended Planning 101, which gave me a more in-depth perspective of how the Planning Department operates, I also found that very educational, and the different solutions that the Planning Department has when incorporating new developments. I also appreciate that the Planning Department also has a developments map that allows the public to see what is in progress. In the community engagement, I did, after I did Citizens Academy I applied to the Urban Forestry Board because I was concerned about the canopy of Wake Forest and I wanted to do my part in making sure that the canopy was maintained. I planted my own trees in my own yard, I also gave away, helped give away the town trees at multiple ForestFests and did educational public outreach at different events such as the Wake Forest Garden Club Festivals.

KP: Any follow-up questions?

Commissioner Faith Cross: And how long were you on the Urban Forestry Advisory Board?

AB: I was there from 2022 until it was dissolved in October.

Commissioner Faith Cross: Okay. And you said you were the Co Chair?

AB: I was the Co Chair for roughly ten months.⁴

Commissioner Faith Cross: Okay. And did you do anything, did you make any special proposals when you were in that role?

AB: I did. I wanted to make – Because I saw that there’s not a lot of food publicly available, there’s not a lot of public gardens, where people can harvest food for people who are in need, one of my proposals that I gave the Board was an Urban Orchards. So the Town, so the Urban Forestry Board would cooperate, I proposed Parks and Rec, in planting different fruit and nut trees around Wake Forest, and also highlighting the fruit and nut trees that are already established in Wake Forest, like the persimmons and the pecans in Joyner Park.

Commissioner Faith Cross: Thank you.

KP: Any other questions, Commissioners? Okay, the next core question: What Town of Wake Forest boards and committees such the Planning Board or Board of Adjustments, or any other advisory committees, and/or Wake Forest community organizations have you served on, and what did that service teach you about Wake Forest?⁵

AB: I served on the Urban Forestry Advisory Board and it taught me that while the Town does not have complete control over everything that goes on, that the Town does do its due diligence in making sure that the public is informed about what the solutions can be.

KP: Any follow-up questions?

Commissioner Haseeb Fatmi: What about any other organizations beyond Wake Forest?

AB: Are you talking about my extracurricular activities?

Commissioner Haseeb Fatmi: Yeah, I mean, you know, the question was Wake Forest community organizations, do you have any other not Wake Forest community organizations that you want to talk about?

AB: The organizations such as advisory boards, I have not been a part of any outside of Wake Forest. I have attended other meetings,⁶ but I was a part of the Urban Forestry Advisory Board.

KP: Any other questions? Okay, the next core question: Looking ahead five years, what are the two or three most pressing issues facing Wake Forest, and how would your two years of service as a Commissioner help the community?⁷

AB: I believe the most pressing issues that are occurring now is that our traffic does not match our growing population and our infrastructure needs to be addressed. The development is an inevitability. I believe that it needs to be a smart growth, as defined by the EPA as a condensed urban development with optimum economic stability, and that includes making sure that people are able to get to those destinations. So, in order to do that, cooperation with outside entities such as the DOTs would need to be considered.

KP: Any follow-up questions, Commissioners?

Commissioner Faith Cross: Well, I think I would like to hear the second part of that question, how would the two years of service as a Commissioner help the community?

AB: I will love, happily work with you and the entities the Board works with in making sure that the needs of the residents of Wake Forest are met, that their voices are heard, and that the things that the Board can address within the jurisdictions are, in fact, addressed.

KP: Any other questions? Miss Black, that was the last of the core questions. You now have five minutes for a closing statement and the timer will start when you begin speaking.

AB: I’d just like to say that I am very appreciative of the time you have given me, thank you for selecting me as one of your top five finalists and I look forward to working with you in the future.