Ruby Sinreich's blog

Local tax comparison

Take this with a big grain of salt, as the study comes from the right-wing John Locke foundation (who are constantly in the papers, in spite of the fact that they have shown that ideology trumps ethics in their "research").

According to the Locke Foundation, the per person tax burden in other towns amounted to:
[- $2,424 Holly Springs;]
- $2,198 in Morrisville;
- $2,055 in Chapel Hill;
- $1,991 in Durham;
- $1,976 in Cary;
- $1,945 in Hillsborough;
- $1,935 in Carrboro;
- $1,891 in Knightdale;
- $1,875 in Wake Forest;
- $1,866 in Fuquay-Varina;
- $1,816 in Raleigh

Embezzlement charges against school board member

Does anyone know this Dennis Whitling fellow? Apparently he is a member of the Orange County School Board, and has been accused (not convicted) of embezzlement by a former employer. I know nothing about this and I don't want to jump to conclusions. Anyone have insights on this?

A Durham Police Department investigator applied in December for access to Dennis Alan Whitling's personal bank account information, writing that Whitling may have stolen more than $58,000 from a law office where he worked from 1984 to 2007, according to a search warrant.

[...]

Tuesday, Whitling slipped into the regularly scheduled Orange County School Board meeting 10 minutes after it started and left the room during the break before closed session at the end of the night. During the time for board comments, he did not offer any comments on the investigation.

MLK Day events

I am filling up our calendar with all the major events related to Martin Luther King day that I can find. Do you know of others? Just go to http://orangepolitics.org/node/add/event to add it.

Tag your entry MLK Day and we'll have a nice collection of events at http://orangepolitics.org/tags/mlk-day.

Will the new waste-transfer search be any different than the last?

The County Commissioners are starting the new search process to site a proposed waste transfer station, just as they received official notice of an environmental justice complaint filed with the EPA in 2007 by the landfill neighbors.

Before getting to the search the board met in closed session to discuss a newly received notification from the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Civil Rights that a formal complaint had been filed.

The complaint alleges racial discrimination on the part of the county, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, the Orange Water and Sewer Authority and the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

County Attorney Geoff Gledhill said officials will not publicly discuss Eubanks Road until they decide on the board's response.

To avoid similar protests this time, the board will serve as the search committee but will work with Olver Inc., a Charlotte-based consulting firm that specializes in environmental issues and waste facilities.

Commissioner candidates emerging

Filing for the Orange County Board of Commissioners election begins February 11th. Of the folks rumored to be considering a run, Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board Chair Pam Hemminger has been at the top of the list, and on Monday the Orange Chat blog made it official. Another likely candidate is Bernadette Pelissier of the Orange-Chatham Sierra Club (and formerly of the OWASA Board). I've also heard rumbling about an African American challenger from the county, and of course incumbent Valerie Foushee is expected to run for re-relection as well.

An interesting question emerges about which candidates will run in their respective districts, and which will go for the at-large seat. District 1 (Chapel Hill & Carrboro) will be electing 2 seats, while the rest of the county will elect one person from District 2.

With Moses Carey Jr. running for state Senate and two additional seats on the county Board of Commissioners, we'll have some new faces on the board next year.

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