April 2010

The N&O just announced that NCDOT has agreed to build Carrboro's preferred design for Smith Level Rd, but is dropping their previous requirement that Carrboro must pick up the ongoing maintenance tab for the roadway if the town's preferred design is to be accepted.  

It has come to my attention that not all of you have seen the video that the Mayors of Chapel Hill and Carrboro made to convince Google to bring their fiber optic network to southern Orange County. It's really super cheesy, but a nice effort was made. I kind of think it would have been more engaging if the mayors weren't so scripted (not like either of them needs help gabbing) and if it showed some of the parts of the community that would benefit from high-speed Internet. 

Here's the video...

As usual, there's some good in the Independent Weekly's endorsements, and some bad, and... oh hey, there's a judicial race this year?  Wow, thanks for the heads up, Indy.

They recommend Renee Price for Commissioner District 2, and Barry Jacobs for the At-large district. I'm sure some of you readers will respectfully disagree and prefer Joal Broun, but I think she's fine where she is and I'd would rather see Barry continue his good work on the Board of County Commissioners.

The surprise for me was that they chose to endorse 28-year incumbent Lindy Pendergrass for Sheriff rather than former Hillsborough Police Chief Clarence Birkhead. There is no doubt that Pendergrass has served us well (for longer than some voters have been alive), but Birkhead seems more in line with Orange County values today.

For Orange County School Board, they picked Debbie Piscitelli, Anne Medenblik, Donna Dean Coffey, Laura Nicholson. But they didn't offer much explanation for not endorsing Brenda Stephens, I thought.

Here's the Indy's entire slate:

Hey Mark, what's all this business about you making UNC's Director of Local Relations hand over her contact list? All you're going to find out is who wants to know what UNC is doing, in other words: everyone. 

I understand you've also asked the Town of Chapel Hill to share all official e-mail regarding relocating the homeless shelter. I can kind of imagine what you're trying to get at there, but I doubt you'll find anything useful.  So maybe Mayor Foy and the Chancellor Moeser made some kind of arrangement to transfer this land, that's already publicly apparent. What does that prove?  How will that help your neighbors' cause to keep the Interfaith Council's Community House out of the neighborhood?  It almost seems like you want to intimidate public officials, Mark. I'm not sure why.

I'm a big supporter of the IFC and its mission.  And I support its desire to create a new type of facility, a transitional facility for homeless men and the need to relocate somewhere.  And I'm disappointed that there is opposition to the proposed site for that new facility.  But I also think that the dialogue has gone beyond civility and that the neighborhoods adjoining the proposed site are being unfairly demonized.  In the 12 years I have served on Town advisory boards I have seen many neighborhoods oppose many projects for many different reasons - some good, some bad, some rational, some irrational.

For a few weeks now, I have been compiling as much campaign finance information as was available to me.

Well, I finally finished. I have separated the information into three spreadsheets that I am sharing with the public: one containing candidate information, the other containing donor information, and the last containing itemized transactions from the donors to the candidates.

As I wrote before, it's difficult to find information on local elections. There is simply not a lot of money in play and the data is hard to get your hands on.

The Primary Election is in one week! (What a great time for a statewide news network to stop reporting and start begging, eh?)  Early voting is still on until Saturday at 1pm at the Board of Elections office in Hillsborough and at the Planetarium on UNC's campus. Remember: you can REGISTER and VOTE in one swell foop only if you vote early, and you can do it in either location. If you vote on Election Day (Tuesday, May 4) you have to do it at the site for the precinct where you are registered. (Check out a sample ballot.)

In Orange County, we'll be selecting members of the County School Board (not city schools, only county) and making partisan nominations for County Commissioner, County Sheriff, State Legislative seats. We'll also be joining the rest of state state in nominating candidates for U.S. Senate and Court of Appeals Judges, but the difference is that the winners of the Democratic Party primary in Orange County will be over the hump, whereas the battle for the Senate will be just beginning. 

Here are some of the resources we've put together on OrangePolitics this year to share information about the candidates...

Last week the upstanding Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors* announced they were endorsing realtor Joe Phelps for at-large County Commissioner (as well as farmer Earl McKee in district 2). How in-depth was the research behind this endorsement? They didn't even look at the other candidates.

The association said neither Jacobs nor Broun approached them about an endorsement.

“If we had been, we would have met with them and listened to their views,” Zimmerman said.

- Daily Tar Heel: "Realtor association at odds with Carrboro mayor over endorsement" April 21, 2010