Let the games begin!

Joal, Dan, and Lydia would certainly be getting my three votes if I lived there!

I usually decide after everyone files and I have an opportunity to review their platforms, etc.

Mark, you'd be an awful king-maker ;-)

Tom,

Please point out where I said that I would vote for any BOE candidate at this point. None of my posts say that I would vote for them. Rather, I comment on characteristics that I have observed each person to have.

There is a big difference between analyzing and endorsing and I hope that as a newspaper columnist you understand the difference.

M

I would also like to point out that I have been out of town and intend to comment on other candidates as I catch up on things, so any absence of comments to date on other candidates should not be construed as intentional.

Also, I did not endorse any city school board candidate in the last election. Not sure what I will do in this cycle yet.

(I was multitasking and my previous post was not in response to your 9:08 am post.)

My comments that you quoted are observations on my experience with those candidates. You omitted my comment that I did not know Gary, which means that I will be taking the time to get to know him, which is precisely my point in my initial response to you above.

Frank Abernethy has filed for Carrboro BOA. He lives down here in the southern part of town.

I'm focusing on the start-up tasks of my campaign but I hope to have a website reasonably soon. Meanwhile, I'll share a story I wrote for Urban Hiker a few years ago to give you a bit of summer reading! I'll let you know when my website is up.

http://www.urbanhiker.net/archive/january04stories/UH-01_04(burroughs).pdf

Whoops-- the link I gave is broken. You might try this link and click on the January 2004 issue.

http://www.urbanhiker.net/uharchive.htm

Can anybody tell me what the implications are of the entry in the last column of the County website that lists candidate filing? When under or over $3000 is listed there, what does that imply the candidate will do differently? Does the County give candidates something for saying they will spend less than $3000? Why is the number the same even though the size of the electorate for each race is different?

Joe and Kirk,

Going back to the discussion on the lack of research resources, I just found this site: http://oldbaileyonline.org. This is a beautiful example of what the Chapel Hill Technology Advisory Committee had hoped we could achieve with official town documents. Our goal was to add dynamic searchability to all town documents.

Penny Rich announces as a candidate for the Chapel Hill Town Council

I am announcing today my candidacy for a seat on the Chapel Hill Town Council.

The privilege of serving the people of Chapel Hill will enable me to bring this city back to its fundamental principles of a government that is progressive, accessible and will represent the people's will.

My six-year term on the OWASA Board of Directors has enlightened me on the importance of being diligent about our water supply. I will tackle the broader issues with the same tenacity I exhibited at OWASA, and achieve the desired objectives for this government and the people.

Many Chapel Hill residents come from other parts of the country to enjoy the charm and beauty of this city. Our goals should embrace healthy and sustainable growth, without forgoing the special character that makes Chapel Hill a unique place to live and raise our children.

Chapel Hill should have a thriving downtown, with prosperous small establishments and adequate parking. It should encompass the business center of our town. The vision should include beautiful public areas alongside bustling cafes, restaurants, bookstores, theatres and markets. One of my priorities as councilwoman is to make the downtown area an attractive location, and focus on promoting the patronage of our businesses.

Town Hall needs to reach out to our citizens, and strive for a more representative government. This process will embolden us to become a more harmonious community, and move us forward to a brighter future.

Chapel Hill should remain true to its roots as a sharing community where no one goes hungry or homeless. Diversity and differences should be valued and supported.

Bio

Member of the OWASA Board of Directors, 2001-2007. Vice Chair and Secretary of the Board, Chairperson of the Human Resources Committee and Natural Resources Committee as well as serving on the Community Outreach, Art, and Property subcommittees.

Active in the Inter-Faith Council's Community Kitchen. Former member of the Chapel Hill Technology Advisory Committee and former President of the Chapel of the Cross Pre-School Board of Directors.

Professional: Self-employed as a personal chef and food columnist with Southern Neighbor and other print/broadcast media.

Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts, Pratt Institute. Master of Arts in Communication Technology, New York University.

Originally from New York City. Lived in Ft Lauderdale and New Orleans before moving to Chapel Hill with her family. Penny and her husband Christopher Voorhees have two sons, Mikko 12 and Brody 10.

This year's spending will be interesting as it represents will probably be the closest data point for the voter-owned, publicly financed election trial. If you look at the last election cycle, there was quite a gap between the 5th place finisher (me) and 3rd/4th place.

When you mix in the incumbent factor - enhanced media visibility, established name recognition - it'll be interesting to see how the community calibrates the funding mechanism.

Sharon Cook, a planning board member and resident of The Highlands, has filed for Board of Aldermen.

The first iteration of my website is up: www.miaburroughs.com

Any suggestions for improvements/additions would be most welcome.

Also, I have a campaign email address now: mia@miaburroughs.com

Tom,
Assuming this is the same Matt Czajkowski, here is some additional background:

Durham, NC – May 16, 2007 – Aldagen, Inc., a biotechnology company advancing a pipeline of clinical-stage regenerative therapies, today announced that Matthew E. Czajkowski will serve as Chief Financial Officer. Matt brings more than 25 years of financial management expertise with both private and public companies and within the banking industry. Mr. Czajkowski previously served as Chief Financial Officer, Senior Vice President Finance and Administration, Pozen, Inc. Mr. Czajkowski took POZEN public, successfully raising $80 million
during extremely challenging market conditions. Most recently, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer of aaiPharma Inc. where he participated in the successful turnaround of the company. His background also includes Managing Director (New York), SG Cowen; Managing Director-Head of Corporate Finance, Wheat First Butcher Singer, Inc.; Head of Mergers and Acquisitions for Asia and Australia, Goldman Sachs & Co.; and Associate, Bankers Trust Company.

Katrina Ryan is also going to file.

For Aldeman or Mayor Kirk?
JAcquie

Heh, at the moment it looks like I would have been the youngest candidate yet again had I thrown my hat in the race this year. The closest contender in the Council race this go-round is still over twice my age. For making up less than a quarter of the town's population, you folks 45 and older sure manage to make yourselves heard. :)

"For making up less than a quarter of the town's population, you folks 45 and older sure manage to make yourselves heard."

Jason, your thoughts about why this is?

I'll let Jason answer your question George C... but my answer, I'm 36, to why people older than 45 run for office is property ownership. When people settle down, buy a house or condo, start a family, they start caring about politics. (or the effect politics has on their environment and wallet) The reality that tenacity is your ally sets in.

There are amazing exceptions to this 45 and over rule like young candidates Ruby, Jason, and Mark Chilton.

If there were more idealist young people like Jason and Tom voting/running the political landscape of our community would be radically altered. I think it might be for the better too. Experience isn't the only prerequisite for good leadership. IMHO

I know this is a very complicated topic that involves all kinds of psychological perspectives as it relates to age and aging....

So who is going to organize the liberal student voting block this year?

Katrina Ryan filed for Board of Aldermen.

George,

From the perspective of someone who has both tried to mobilize young voters in local elections, as well as conducted voter registration and get out the vote efforts during even-year elections both on campus and in student-heavy neighborhoods, I have to say, there is no good answer. I agree largely with Brian, though. Those young people who vote and get involved seem mostly to do so because of an interest in activism and making progressive change, whereas "older folks" (and I use this term loosely - certainly I know many people who are young-at-heart and fit more closely the demographics of my generation) seem to be more likely to get involved because of personal interest. When I decided to run in '05, part of my decision was the hope that as a young person, I could connect and engage with students and others who are typically apolitical. However, like many who run, I had imagined myself being much more charismatic and a much more effective campaigner than I actually am. I'm still hoping for the Mark Chilton of Generation Y to pop up, but I don't see it happening.

Whereas the activist crowd might care if Chapel Hill is governed well years after they leave, many voters do not, and apathy seems to run rampant among those who don't see a personal benefit, even ever so small, from voting and getting involved otherwise. Unfortunately, I've yet to find any magic bullet to make more people care about politics from a communitarian perspective, but if you happen to have any ideas, I'm all ears. I don't mean to imply that people my age aren't doing great things in the community, but more often than not they're staying out of local electoral politics, and their tacit absence from local policy formation is upsetting.

Good luck to all the candidates. I personally believe it is better for the community not to have uncontested seats. I hope everyone, candidates and supporters alike, will agree to maintain a degree of respect for one another throughout this campaign. One person's vitriol is music to another person.

Jason, I think your 2005 experience shows once again what an
astounding and unique victory Mark Chilton's was in 1991.
Mark wasn't elected by UNC students -- no one ever has been.
No UNC student body president or political group has been
able to rally the UNC students to vote, even now with voting
at Morehead planeterium. Somehow it's easy to get lots
of students to register, but to actually vote is something else, I guess.

Mark was elected by the usual white-collar homeowner crowd
of Chapel Hill, those who cast the bulk of the votes.
He appealed to them then, and still does today. I don't know
when the next UNC student will run for local office, but she
will possibly win only if she targets her campaign to the
usual suspects, not to the students.

Joe, I think you're absolutely right about Mark's '91 victory, but somewhere along the line I had to decide whether I was running to win or running on the principle that students ought to have a greater voice in local issues (along with, of course, some fairly age-neutral principles involving transportation, land use, and the environment). I waivered between the two, and by doing so, in the end never engaged either a traditional nor a new constituency. I learned my lesson, but (obviously) I'm opting not to see just how well I learned it, at least this time around the block.