Transit
For better or for worse, our local media works hard to give equal air time to both sides of the story. Some may fault them as giving too much voice to an opinion which represents a small minority of residents, others may thank them for giving life to a discussion. Regardless of what you think, it's sometimes difficult to cut through the noise. So where does the community stand on the whole?
If you weren't paying attention at the end of the Chapel Hill Town Council meeting tonight, you might have missed some pretty shocking information. The controversial bus ad policy, the one that allowed the now-famous "end military aid to Israel" ads, was in fact not the policy adopted by Council just last year!
Here is a memo from Transit Director Steve Spade to Roger Stancil detailing the error:
When Transit needed a copy of the policy, I went to the June 13th meeting and used the policy that was included in the packet of materials rather than the policy provided in the supplemental materials that was approved by Council. As a result we have been using the draft policy rather than the one approved by the Council. In reviewing our communication since June 2011, we have consistently applied the draft policy rather than the one approved by the Council.
There were several edits in the policy approved by the Council, most significantly were the addition of two items in section 2.01 that excluded religious and political and social issue advertising.
It turns out that many people are uninformed or misinformed about the specifics of the transit tax and the plan. Foks don't even realize that there's a plan behind the tax referendum, and that a vote for the tax endorses it. If the
tax passes, the BoCC and TTA have the authority to levy the tax and
proceed with the plan. .
Without debating the pros and cons of transit , I hope that readers take a few minutes to
understand the plan. We sent the primer below to our mailing list. It includes
links to the plan and the financial information.
Primer on Transit Plan, Taxes and Fees
Voters will decide a 1/2
cent tax increase for transit. Please take a few minutes to learn about
this tax and the underlying plan before you vote.
Date:
Wednesday, November 14, 2012 - 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Location:
Committee Room, 2nd Floor of Durham City Hall, 101 City Hall Plaza, Durham
In a February work session of the county commissioners, Chapel Hill mayor Mark Kleinschmidt took the podium to present a sweeping overview of the past 25 years of his town's approach to land use planning. Speaking with the didactic urgency we now expect from Kleinschmidt when he's both prepared and fired up, the mayor encouraged the commissioners to maintain their commitment to long-term planning for public transportation by adopting the Orange County transit plan.
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