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The current contract calls for the city to pay $500,000 a year with a 1.5 percent annual increase to lease a portion of the property for fair market value. Raleigh intends to build a park on the property.

The bill would put an end to plans to move state Department of Health and Human Services employees. Any revenues from the property lease would go into a special fund for mental health.

Pat McCrory, don't quit your new day job. The governor-elect started his speech at the Economic Forecast Forum on Wednesday playing the part of stand up comedian but bumbled the jokes. (Listen to the audio below.)

He walked to the podium with a list hitting at the Capital City -- fitting with Charlotte residents thinking that their city is really the center of the state's universe, if not the entire Eastern Seaboard.

The setup: Since being elected, McCrory said he's "learning the Raleigh ways." ("Because I'm an outsider," he explained, trying to perpetuate his campaign mantra.)

His first Raleigh joke: "The definition of an elevator in a state government building really means take the stairs," he said to mixed laughter.

Raleigh Congressman Brad Miller, a Democrat, on his way out the door as a casaulty of the GOP redistricting, offered his thoughts about how bad the gridlock has become in a recent Slate piece.

Miller wrote: "When did I know that this current Congress would be rough? Election Night 2010. I thought in late November and December, in the lame duck after the 2010 election, I thought the Obama administration was wildly unrealistic about how it could get along with the new Congress. They’d been inside the Beltway bubble and had no idea how extreme the Tea Party folks were, and that part of the Tea Party ethic was: Never compromise. They felt betrayed by people like Bob Bennett, Dick Lugar, Lisa Murkowski, and even Orrin Hatch—though he’s changed that tendency—who compromise."

Read more about his disappointments with the Obama administration and his self-proclaimed Blue Dog status (despite his progressive reputation) here.

Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane will chair the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition, a bipartisan group representing the mayors of the state’s 28 largest cities, The N&O's Matt Garfield reports.

The panel was founded by Gov.-elect Pat McCrory during his tenure as mayor of Charlotte.

The post gives McFarlane a visible statewide role on issues facing North Carolina's urban centers, particularly economic development, taxes, transportation and public safety.

A month after his election, Gov.-elect Pat McCrory remains employed at a law firm that lobbies state government even as he establishes his administration and controls a $660,000 pot of taxpayer money.

His dual role creates a potential conflict that makes government watchdogs uncomfortable. Another ethical move McCrory should consider, they suggest, is putting his assets in a blind trust. Read full story here.

More political headlines:

--Legislators seeking to eliminate $2.4 billion the state of North Carolina owes the federal government to help pay jobless benefits are prepared to unveil a proposal they also say would put the state unemployment insurance program on firmer financial footing.

A state Republican Party attack on Raleigh's parks and greenway system drew former Mayor Charles Meeker back into the political fray on Tuesday. 

Meeker called a news conference at his downtown Raleigh law office to refute a pair of GOP mailers that criticize Democrat Sig Hutchinson, who is running against Sen. Neal Hunt in suburban Raleigh's District 15.

The ads are false or misleading on several fronts, Meeker said.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will make a public appearance in Raleigh on Saturday, a GOP source confirms this evening. Final arrangements are still being made, and additional details will be forthcoming.

Pawlenty is on the short list of potential running mates for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

UPDATE: Here are those details: Pawlenty will attend something called a sports parents roundtable at the Polar Ice House in Cary around mid-day, and then head to North Raleigh for the opening of the new "victory office" on Spring Forest Road later in the afternoon.

Raleigh voters are receiving an interesting survey about a potential Democratic primary between state Reps. Deborah Ross and Grier Martin.

The survey -- apparently conducted by an outfit called Voter Rollcall -- is asking voters whether gender make a difference in who they would support, if all other things are equal. Of course, in a race between Ross and Martin, close friends and political allies, most things are equal, except gender. The two lawmakers are double-bunked in 2012 by the GOP-led redistricting but both have vowed to seek re-election. Further details about the call and its sponsor were not immediately available.

In the first meeting of a new term, the Raleigh City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution opposing a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in North Carolina.

The 6-2 vote drew applause from about 30 people in the audience. "To me, it's all about supporting families," said John Saxon, an assistant minister at the fellowship. "Families come in all shapes and sizes. We ought to be about recognizing and supporting all the different kinds."

Council members John Odom and Bonner Gaylord voted in the minority. Odom, the council's lone Republican, said he thinks marriage is between a man and a woman.

While the state legislature was debating the same-sex marriage amendment earlier this year, three Triangle municipalities - Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Durham - took the symbolic step of opposing the measure, according to the gay rights group Equality North Carolina. Read more on the Raleigh decision here.