Interview: David Ellis, County

David Ellis

County Manager Wake County

How is Wake County preparing for the arrival of Apple?

One of the things we have focused on since 2017 is the need to increase and preserve affordable housing, given the significant growth we are experiencing. With the arrival of Apple, we need to ramp up that commitment. Our county has a relatively low cost of living, ease of mobility and a mixture of urban, suburban and rural living. Traffic is manageable in the county and we want to keep it that way. Since 2016, we have been actively developing a transit plan. The transit referendum and transit tax in 2016 allowed us to get out ahead of problems that other states have experienced. Those actions allowed us to draft a more than $2 billion plan for the next 30 years, which includes commuter rail and four bus rapid transit lines.

What strategies are in place to attract businesses?

When a company comes to a community, it’s not necessarily true that they bring a lot of people with them. Companies come to Wake County because the talent is already here. Our education continuum has long been a priority for our Board of Commissioners. It begins with our youngest residents. In this year’s budget, we’re funding pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds to help prepare them for a successful start to kindergarten. Wake Technical Community College is another vital part of the continuum, giving many students their first foray into higher education. Our growth has been fairly consistent over the past six years, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon.

What is your outlook for Wake County and the local economy?

We are cautiously optimistic. There are a lot of good things going on but, at some point, the federal funds and stimulus will dry up. At that point, I think we will shift back to what normal looks like. Our budget team is cautiously optimistic that we will still see growth in Wake County, but that growth will be lower than what we are used to seeing.

Young professionals are attracted to the Triangle market due to its enlivened arts, culture and restaurant scene.

( ) universities, multimodal transport facilities and top human talent.

The region’s tech and IT industries are also gaining momentum, with several notable startups establishing a footprint in the Triangle area. SAS, Cisco, Siemens, Microsoft, Lenovo, IBM and Red Hat are just some of the companies that see the value in Raleigh’s tech talent base. To meet the needs of private industry, North Carolina State University’s Institute for Advanced Analytics introduced the country’s first Master of Science in Analytics. Life sciences jobs are highly paid, highly skilled positions and there is no shortage of them in the Triangle. Its reputation as a huge technology hub means life sciences have the infrastructure needed to grow and innovate within the market.

The government and nonprofit agencies are also doing all they can to continue attracting talent to the area. More of the region’s universities are focused on creating specific degree programs concentrated on the necessary skills for the Triangle’s target industries. In Durham, the Office of Performance and Innovation is working to remove barriers to employment for those who have been involved in the justice system, expanding the potential workforce as widely as possible. The city of Raleigh, the town of Cary and a host of companies that include Google Fiber and Facebook Reality Labs are also working ( )