June 2007

I recently received the following question through our contact form. I thought this information would be of interest to a lot of readers, so I hope the writer doesn't mind if I answer it here.

I am wondering what the requirements are for running for local offices in NC. Specifically Hillsborough School board, Town council, and Mayor. I am looking to run for office but I don't know the age restrictions and am worried that I am too young. I am 19. I have looked everywhere for this information and can't seem to find it. Can you help me out? Thank you in advance.

I couldn't find the answer to the age question so I called my friend Mark Chilton, who was 21 years old when he was first elected to the Chapel Hill Town Council, and who is now elected as the Mayor of Carrboro. In addition to the requirement that you must live in, and be registered to vote in, the district that you wish to represent, the state also says that you must be 21 years old to hold office. Chilton pointed out that you do not need to be 21 to run, but you do have to come of age before being sworn in.

I was casually watching tonight's Chapel Hill Town Council meeting when Councilmember Jim Ward called out an item on the consent agenda that would grant expedited review to the proposed Eubanks Road waste transfer station. This is hardly a noncontroversial issue. In fact, the transfer station has been widely opposed.

I would like to know on earth this got on the consent agenda. When the mayor called for a motion for the resolution by itself, not a single Council Member would even make the motion! It died for lack of a mover. As Councilmember Mark Kleinschmidt noted, that is definition of what does not belong on the consent agenda.

Wow. Today I discovered the Counter-Cartographies Collective, a group at UNC using mapping and visual information to help us see our environment in a new light. One of their major works so far is the "disOrientation Guide" produced last fall. It's two poster-sized pages packed with useful and insightful content. Although it's designed for newcomers, any local veteran will learn something new from the new perspectives on things we thought we knew, and from the hidden information uncovered in these maps.

It seems that students, parents, and even the staff in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro School System are less satisfied than they were 5 years ago. I can think of a lot of reasons why, but I'm wondering, what's the prescription to make it better (short of massively funding programs that benefit all the squeaky wheels).

School staff members, parents and students from the fourth to the 12th grade responded to the poll, rating issues on a 10-point scale. According to the report, which will be presented to the school board at its meeting Thursday night, there were a few areas with particularly low ratings this year: Secondary students gave their lowest-ever rating for principals and teachers, and other staff gave their lowest -ever rating for the superintendent and for involvement/decision making -- 6.3.
[...]
The district did have its highest-ever scores in some areas this year, including secondary students' rating of quality of teaching and parents' rating of computer technology.

Breaking news via the Carrboro Citizen: tonight employees of Weaver Street Market are presenting a petition to the WSM Board of Directors against the proposed relocation to Hillsborough!

Just got a fax saying that a group of Weaver Street Market employees will call for a moratorium against the coop's proposal to move its food prep operations to Hillsborough.

According to the fax, more than 100 employees have signed a petition calling for the moratorium. It will be presented to the coop's board of directors at a meeting tonight at Carrboro Elementary School at 6:30 p.m.
- The Carrboro Citizen: WSM employees call for moratorium, 6/19/07

Kirk's got the text of the workers' faxed announcement here. (Fax?)

Sorry for not posting this sooner. The day job is kicking my tushy this week. The Historic Rogers Road Community Enhancement Plan Development and Monitoring Task Force (whew!) will be meeting tonight at 7:00 PM at the Homestead Community Center, 600 Homestead Road. This is the county's committee that I think is focused on how to remediate the current (and probably future) impacts of our landfill on the African-American neighborhood that has been denied relief for 30 years.

I was hoping to go, but I don't think I will be able to. I'd love if someone could go and report back!

When I retired from the Chapel Hill Planning Board, I said I would spend more time paying attention to Carrboro Politics. As promised, I am watching the Carrboro Board of Aldermen meeting (on TV). Tonight's agenda includes the changes at 300 East Main Street (redevelopment of the Arts Center/Cat's Cradle area).

I was thinking in Omaha over the weekend about the upcoming local elections and the media. It got me to wondering how often the various local elected officials appear in the newspaper, be it quotes in stories, op/eds they wrote, letters to the editor that mentioned them, etc.

So I decided to run a search to come up with those numbers for the Orange County Commissioners, Chapel Hill Town Council, and Carrboro Board of Aldermen. For the Orange County Commissioners the search ran from December 5th, 2006 when Mike Nelson took office through today. For the Chapel Hill Town Council it ran from December 5th, 2005 when Bill Thorpe and Laurin Easthom took office through today. For the Aldermen it ran from February 15th, 2006 (shortly after Dan Coleman was appointed) through today.

Here are the results:

Chapel Hill Herald/Durham Herald-Sun:

Moses Carey 56
Barry Jacobs 31
Alice Gordon 25
Mike Nelson 24
Valerie Foushee 11