The Orange County Democratic Women hosted their municipal election forum last night. All Democratic candidates for Carrboro Board of Aldermen, Chapel Hill Town Council, and Hillsborough Town Board were invited. The moderators of the event announced that Amy Ryan and Sally Greene had conflicts and could not attend, while Paul Neebe did not notify OCDW as to why he did not attend.
Molly and I attended and did our best to provide some livetweets of the event, though that proved difficult at some points, as the forum turned into more of a discussion about halfway through. At that point, candidates and audience members divided up into specific municipalities for municipality-specific questions and answers. I was personally a little frustrated by the format, as I felt that it didn't allow for much discussion of specific issues confronting the towns and our county at large.
If you were unable to attend, you can review our tweets from the event below.
Issues:
Comments
democratic forum domestic violence/ selling town land/police
There was also a follow up question from the audience to Chapel Hill candidates about domestic violence and the role of the police. ( I did not weigh on on that question, but others stated that of course police have an important role and that it is important to make sure that victims feel comfortable about reporting assaults etc. Also there was support for creating a domestic shelter in Chapel Hill since the nearest one is in Durham. Just a plug to praise my mom who passed away in 2009: Among the many things she did, she volunteered at shelters in Ohio and interviewed victims of domestic viololence. She wrote a book about her findings.) There was another question on whether to sell town land, hire more police and build a new police station. Everyone agreed that we need to repair/build new the police station.(Question about when we could have a bond/funds.) Most felt it was good to sell some town land for that purpose but I wanted to use our land for affordable housing or save it for later. Most felt that given the increased crime in the downtown that we needed to hire more police. I wondered if more police could be shifted from neighborhoods to the downtown. (I am aware that neighborhoods seem to cycle through B/E and then patrols increase for a while, they are moved and crime increases again.) Perhaps there can be more cooperation with the UNC police in the downtown area. Loren
Republican should not have been excluded
Since this is a non-partisan election, the Republican should have been invited. It is the graceful and democratic thing to do. And no-one should be afraid to allow someone to present their ideas.
Not invited
I was at the Central West Focus Committee. Gary Kahn