NCLM Southern City Volume 71, Issue 2, 2021

NCLM.ORG 31 Robinson was born and raised in the suburbs of Washington DC, and began her career in that area. Over time, Robinson felt her and her family’s quality of life declining due to the rapid growth of the DC area, so she picked up and moved to Cary. About a year later, again facing the prospect of precipitous growth now in her new hometown, Robinson acted once more, this time as a citizen advocate. She listened to her neighbors’ concerns about traffic, land use, home prices, and the many hurdles that accompany increasing populations, and she shared in those worries. It was not clear, though, who was voicing those concerns to a larger audience. So, on her own, she took them to council meetings personally as a representative for her neighborhood. “I was here about a year when I started getting engaged by watching and attending council meetings,” Robinson said. “I was intrigued by the impact that our leaders had on the quality of life of our citizens.” Her presence was noticed. A year or two later, as Robinson recalls, she was tapped to join a growth management taskforce, and then a short time afterwards, she was asked to submit her nomination for a vacant seat on the council. At the time, Robinson, who now works in town at the software company SAS, was running a small business doing data modeling, but the clientele was almost all private companies. Her proximity to Cary's local government was all her own doing. Here again, the central themes shine through. When deciding whether to move forward with pursuing a council seat, she leaned on the values instilled in her by her mother, Phyllis, a product of a coal mining family that, as Robinson said, taught her to “speak up for those that either could not or would not speak up for themselves.” That was coupled with civic-minded lessons from her father, Bill. Ultimately, she went forward, and was selected for the seat. “I credit them for making me the person that would do this,” Rob- inson said. Towards the end of her first two years, still working at her com- pany and approaching her first election, Robinson and her husband Paul were expecting their third child. To better manage that limited time, Robinson decided to temporarily not accept any more contracts for her business until after the election, which she expected to lose. She won. It was the first of five successful elec- tions for Robinson and the beginning of a 10-year period where she dedicated full-time hours to the role. Robinson’s NCLM presidency began as her local government career started—by listening to concerns and taking them forward. She reached out to each member of the League board for a one- on-one call to hear the most pressing problems in each member’s community and to get their perspective on the key issues of the state as a whole. The calls were scheduled for 30 minutes. Many lasted hours. And each of those calls resulted in extensive notes, which Robinson kept and referenced continually. “I wanted everyone, including those who were new, to feel like they were an integral member of a working board that was going to get something done,” Robinson. “It was important for me to get to know each individual and to hear from each person about what he or she was seeing.” Local Leadership: Board Profile On the whole, people will look back and say, ‘Wow, what a year of sacrifice and loss in our communities ,’ and that is right. But with that being said, there were also some major benefits. » Jennifer Robinson , Cary Councilmember continues on page 32