Government

In July, I wondered what people were thinking about the Inter-City Visit and Leadership Conference to be held in Madison, WI by the local "Community Leadership Council" on September 24-26. I considered participating in it, and in fact my husband and I both applied for scholarships to attend.

However, in addition to the fact that we did not receive the amount of scholarship requested ($1,300 for two of us, for a conference costing $2,190), the timing of the trip is singularly bad for us, and we simply cannot attend without throwing our lives into disarray. But! Just because the bloggers aren't going is no reason to for all of us who are staying home to miss out on what I'm sure will be interesting experiences for the folks in Madison.

I have suggested to the director of the Chamber of Commerce that they either set-up their own blog for the travellers or use OrangePolitics to help document the trip as it happens. The offer still stands...

Just in case any of our neighbors in Chatham County had any shreds of a doubt about whether Bunkey Morgan is the head of a power-hungry cabal with no concern for ethics or democracy, not to mention smart growth...

Late Monday night following a public hearing, the Chatham Commissioners voted 3-2 to redraw election districts. The change means Patrick Barnes shares a district with newly elected commissioner George Lucier and will not be allowed to run for re-election when his term expires in 2008. He instead will have to wait until 2010 to file to run office again.
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The county now is divided into five districts. Commissioners must live in the district they represent, but all voters elect all commissioners.

At a meeting last month, commission Chairman Bunkey Morgan proposed redistricting and district representation, saying he was prompted by county Republicans to suggest the change.

During Monday night's public hearing, supporters and opponents argued their cases before the commissioners.

As if in answer to his own question ("Council hegemony" what are you talking about?), this week Councilmember Cam Hill was quoted in the Daily Tarheel insinuating that his colleague Laurin Easthom is not a "team player" because she is often on the losing end of 8-1 votes.

I will chalk up the rude tone of his comments to the DTH's patented 18-year-old filter (in which almost every direct quotation in the paper sounds as if it came out of the mouth of a college student) and instead address the substance. Ever since I have been on the Chapel Hill Planning Board, I have been on the losing end of many of the split votes we've had - usually 8-2 or often 9-1. And yet I don't believe a single member of the Board thinks I'm not working with them toward the many goals we share. In fact, my colleagues unanimously elected me as their chair last year!