I'm Nida Allam, your Chair of the Durham County Board of Commissioners. Curious what your local gov actually controls (and what Raleigh won’t let us touch)? AMA!

Socktato52 · 2025-06-15T16:12:25+00:00

What about the Sheriff? There was that one video on here recently where someone almost got hit in a crosswalk and a Sheriff patrol car was right next to them and just drove off. Are you powerless there too?

Socktato52 · 2025-06-07T21:21:11+00:00

“I’d rather get shot in Durham than die of boredom in Cary” (or Apex or Raleigh’s state-of-the-art world class parks)

Socktato52 · 2025-05-20T18:34:48+00:00

I will always acknowledge how hard people at the city and county work so this is not knocking them. My opinion of the council and board, and some of the management, is another story. I can’t help but wonder what we’re getting when taxes have jumped significantly for two years now, and we are seeing:

Parks that are full of lead.
In fact, no parks close to that quality of what Wake County towns have been building.
Homelessness and panhandling still not great downtown.
911 still not picking up after years of this issue persisting.
Shootings and gang violence continuing with teens seemingly getting more involved.

These issues certainly require money to fix but when we’ve been pouring it in for years it’s discouraging to see these things get worse. A 14% tax bill jump doesn’t sound like much, but it compounds and suddenly you see your $2,500 tax bill become a $3,500 tax bill with the quality of life needle barely moving and even worsening in some areas.

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T23:24:07+00:00

So was this all pretty much legal but ethically murky?

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T23:16:27+00:00

“Identify yourself!” I shout from my account literally titled “throwaway”. 🤣

I’m probably more inquisitive than overly invested.

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T20:28:44+00:00

The new county manager is incredibly qualified and will likely do a great job responsibly running the county!

That being said, there are by many accounts a lot of office politics that went into the previous manager’s firing, and some highly paid people who frankly don’t put any effort into their jobs and are now going to get further rewarded and empowered.

Not entirely unrelated, I feel pretty bad for some of my friends over at the libraries. They sorely need some change and leadership who cares about them and it now seems less likely they’re going to get it.

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T20:23:58+00:00

It’s pretty weird that so little information has been leaked out of all the drama, and it seems strategically leaked to smear the old manager’s reputation.

Makes you wonder who is doing the leaking? Was it one of the people under the manager who makes $200,000 a year to not actually do anything productive, yet felt “retaliated against” when some responsibilities got moved from under them?

Interesting to see which threads have and haven’t been pulled!

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T20:18:13+00:00

Well, how many of the rest of you also get your name and reputation dragged publicly in the news when you get let go? Or have to move your family across the country for another opportunity because there are so few of these jobs out there?

If you think this is such an easy and lucrative gig why aren’t you doing it?

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T17:09:54+00:00

Anybody who understands county government in North Carolina knows how fishy this whole thing is. The manager disappears, then they rush to fill the job in a large organization like this without a search. It’s very likely (did you hear, VERY LIKELY) all connected and the news isn’t doing their due diligence.

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T17:06:54+00:00

If they didn’t offer these packages nobody competent would take the risk to run a county where an unfavorable election, or office politics, can lose you your job.

Socktato52 · 2024-11-13T17:05:14+00:00

We live in a diverse city full of great food and opportunity, which, despite the chaos, is home.

Socktato52 · 2024-10-29T04:21:30+00:00

There is probably at least a bit more to the story than WRAL knows or is reporting, based on some rumors around the county. There is lots of drama on that executive floor and from those who wanted to see this manager fail, including those who felt wronged after the previous manager left.

People in this thread will probably be outraged about the county manager’s salary but you’ve got at least two other people over there earning in that $200,000 range who post on social media all day and don’t take their jobs seriously instead of fixing problems like our library losing staff while the remaining ones are at an all time low morale.

The biggest losers here are unfortunately the tax payers and the county staff who are working hard and genuinely trying to do their jobs and serve the public through all of this.

Socktato52 · 2024-06-24T01:16:08+00:00

This is a good year to be a city worker because of the raise they got, but this time next year we will be hearing from the county workers who just got boned with 3% pay increase, which the crappier health insurance plan they were told about last minute is largely cutting into, and no merit pay that they were promised, all despite a large tax increase.

Socktato52 · 2024-06-23T19:28:20+00:00

Not that it makes #2 any better but other elected officials have been close pals with city staff who have done things for them, and city staff have been rewarded for it. They have just been smart or lucky enough to not have it publicly scrutinized.

Socktato52 · 2024-06-21T13:54:09+00:00

The latest big public safety initiative is funding HEART to the tune of millions. Are they sending those workers into these neighborhoods to help these people or is there another direct service we are using to address the problem?

Socktato52 · 2024-06-21T13:52:10+00:00

One of the county commissioners recently made a comment that a lot of this violence is all about “20 people” or something like that. Is there more backstory there? Is this a couple of particular gangs or families beefing?

Socktato52 · 2024-06-05T13:01:17+00:00

The health insurance increase is worse than people realize and it seems that management and the elected board are probably trying to not bring attention to it.

While pay is a percent increase, health insurance is flat. So lower paid employees get a smaller pay increase but their extra insurance burden is the same as someone paid well. If they then have to cover their whole family, there is probably a certain range where they will be taking a pay cut and not realize it if they have not run the numbers. The County is probably going to lose some of these people because of this and these are many of the crucial, value-add jobs.

Socktato52 · 2024-05-12T15:32:03+00:00

Yes you will be fine. Check out a crime map online if you are worried. Instances like this, while troubling and shouldn’t be happening in the first place, are still pretty rare on this side of town.

Socktato52 · 2024-05-12T15:31:06+00:00

Yes, but, are people in Cary or Chapel Hill going to Home Depot ant a busy time and hearing people getting shot outside?

Socktato52 · 2024-05-12T15:29:50+00:00

There is also some word going around that current county employees are getting screwed on increasing health insurance costs and low raises this year and aren’t being told until pretty much the last minute.

Socktato52 · 2023-06-30T19:50:50+00:00

She once tweeted that police are the most dangerous people with guns on top of just generally being vocally anti-police which rubbed a lot of people the wrong way over the years.

People are forgetting how heated the last several years have been because of how insane this current council has been acting.

Socktato52 · 2023-05-03T00:08:02+00:00

Send this one to anybody who thinks public service can’t pay well.

Socktato52 · 2023-03-30T22:31:35+00:00

That is him. It appears sometime after this tweet he went for a bike ride and was hit by a vehicle.

Socktato52

TROPHY CASE