Welcome to the jungle

Justin:

You make an interesting point as far as judging people on their past merits. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about this specific issue; if someone ran a voter registration drive successfully, all that tells me is that, well, someone's really good at running a voter registration drive. I'm not convfnced that success in that arena will translate to success on Council.

But at the same time, I see how a reasonable person would reach a different conclusion.

And hey, if you want to talk about dorkily posting on OP: I'm in D.C. right now visiting a friend, it's 10:30 on a Sunday night, and look at what I'm doing. ;) The bars are so expensive!

[Finally: I should point out, like other journalists here have, that NONE of my postings reflect any sort of official (or unofficial, fo that matter) DTH position. Or even the position of the editorial board I'll run in the fall. They're my feelings, and mine alone.

On a related note, I haven't made up my mind about any of the students in this race -- or any of the nonincumbents, for that matter. I understand that some people thought my previous comments implied otherwise, but that's just not the case. I wish them all luck, and I truly hope all three of them absolutely dazzle -- the last thing any of us want, I know, is another uninspiring, bland student candidate who runs on a platform of adding hangover-cure breakfast spots on Franklin Street.]

Oh gosh, that should say "convinced" up there. Jeez.

I would like to expound upon Chris' most recent post. Chris and I often post on OP and any statement we make should not reflect an official statement of The DTH as he stated. However, I know that many people cannot help but lump the DTH ideology in with ours. For that reason most of the posts I submit will only be related to a clarification of something we cover. Chris, as head of the editorial page, is able to be more outspoken, but, as he pointed out, his views do not represent the DTH. In general his views only comprise one sixth of our Edit Board.

We, too, will be launching a blog in the fall and will hope to provoke, and participate in, healthy discussion such as on OP in that forum. Look out for that to-be-named blog, which will be linked off our Web site beginning with our first issue, August 29.

One suggestion that would make it easier for people to vote--if we could register near where we work, not where we live. Since election day is usually a workday for most of us, it would make it much easier if we could vote near our worksites. I know some people who work pretty far from their home precincts.

Also, is there some state law that prevents having a polling place on campus or in the hospital?

Anita,
Senate Bill 98, which will probably be voted on by the House this evening, will allow exactly what you are asking. (it would not change the voter registration process, though)

If the bill passes, there would likely be 10-15 places to vote in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, probably two of which would be in campus. Any voter registered in Chapel Hill Township (which is about the same area as the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school district) could vote at any of the locations.

Anyone know anything about Aaron D. Shah who filed for CH Town Council today? He's listed as a new employee with the School for Information and Library Science.

And even more interestingly, according to the SBOE website, he's a black Republican.

Could this be the acceptable black successor Edith Wiggins sought out to find earlier this year, as she related to the Chapel Hill papers?

I kind of doubt it. He's only on record as having voted in the 2004 general election- so I'm guessing he is new to the area.

When are the Chapel Hillians with long records of service to the town going to file to run in this election? Or won't there be many?

Interesting news about Aaron. I'm a student in SILS myself, and I don't know him--perhaps I'll run into him in Manning Hall. One clarification, Ruby: I think he just finished up (or is still finishing?) his undergrad degree at SILS, as an information science major. The current campus directory lists him as a senior, but I don't think new graduates have been purged from the system. It's also not very hard to find his webpage, if you poke around.

http://www.chapelhillnews.com/news/story/2630846p-9067408c.html
By PATRICK WINN, STAFF WRITER
CHAPEL HILL -- Aaron Shah, a 40-year-old recent UNC graduate, filed for Chapel Hill Town Council on Tuesday.
Though Shah hasn't followed local politics much -- he's been too busy with college and his family, he said -- he hopes to be a "positive role model" and use a council seat to reduce crime.
"I just want to make change in my community," he said.
Shah lives on Gomains Avenue in Chapel Hill's Northside neighborhood with his wife and six children. He has worked part-time as a substitute teacher with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and hopes to become a full-time substitute.

The family moved here three years ago from Charlotte, where Shah held two information technology jobs after working as a Food Lion meat cutter and self-employed painter through the 1990s, according to his personal Web site.

http://www.herald-sun.com/orange/10-630464.html
Shah, 40, moved to town with his family in 2002 to complete his course work at UNC's School of Information and Library Science. He lives on Gomains Avenue with his wife, Trina, and their six children, ages, 14, 13, 12, 7 and 5-month-old twins.

Shah is a substitute teacher for the city schools and an assistant coach for the junior varsity basketball team at East Chapel Hill High School. He said he became interested in local politics after seeing some of the problems afflicting the Northside area.

"There's a lot of crime in our neighborhood and we just want to make a positive impact on things," he said. "I want to make changes in my neighborhood and try to be a positive role model."

With the town of Chapel Hill facing potential future growth, Shah said he'd like to join the Town Council in order to have a say in how growth and development issues are managed.

"I see the positive things the Town Council can do," he said. "They're the positive voice for the community, so why not try to be a part of that?"

I wonder if Ruby or Joe or some of the other posters with Advisory Board or Town Council experience, or even those who cover Town Council operations on a routine basis (official or not) might share their thoughts regarding candidates with no prior experience in Town activities (i.e., advisory boards or attending Council meetings, etc.). I wonder if some of these candidates fully understand what is involved. Do they know how much reading and prep work will be required? What about meetings during the day? What about field trips to view sites firsthand?

Early on there were posts alluding to the lack of preparation of one Council member for some of the meetings. I believe that CAN sponsored a workshop awhile back to inform potential candidates of some of the things a candidate should be aware of. I don't know how thorough that workshop was or if any of these new candidates attended. Has anyone figured out how many hours per week that a Council person should be willing to commit to the position in order to give a credible effort? If not, I think that this would be a worthwhile number to have and to then ask each candidate if they are sure they can make that commitment (in addition to the obvious question regarding a 4-year commitment). I worry when I see a newcomer that they might not fully appreciate the amount of time that will be involved.

George,

I haven't been on the Town Council, but after 2 months on the OWASA board of directors I'm already very appreciative of the time I spent on Carrboro's Environmental Advisory Board, learning about the planning process and zoning ordinances.

There was a brief flurry of discussion on the difference between bureaucracy and leadership here on OP not long ago. What I am learning is that it's necessary for 'leaders' to understand the 'bureaucracy' in order to be leaders. If you don't understand the bureaucracy, you are left making decisions on the basis of staff recommendations and your own intuitions. For me, that would not be comfortable although I greatly appreciate all the time the OWASA staff has been willing to spend with me and I trust and respect their expertise. But I have to be accountable for my votes.

Making well informed, thoughtful decisions requires a relatively sophisticated grasp of the relationships between issues (most aren't independent of the others), the complexity of state and federal regulations, and the internal operations of the local government body. Since our state does not allow elected or appointed officials to abstain from a vote for any reason other than conflict of interest, I will be casting my votes for individuals who have some type of previous involvement with local government. IMHO, you can't lead or change the system unless you first understand how it works. I know others on this list will disagree with that statement, but heck, on this list, someone is going to disagree no matter what you say.

As far as time commitment goes, just reading the agenda and accompanying documents for OWASA takes about 3 hours per meeting (and we haven't had any big issues to address). Multiply that by about 5 for Chapel Hill Town Council; a little less for Carrboro.

Excellent questions George.

A short answer: I've heard a Councilmember I respect greatly comment that Council business was taking 90 hours a week. This was during the "peak" season of budget talks and the run-up to Summer.

There's quite a few meetings that the Council attends during the year. Here's this years calendar.

What type of meetings?

There's about 30-35 regular Monday meetings that go from 2.5 to 5.5 hours most Mondays of the year (except during the Summer break). I've found that it takes a couple hours to just review the agenda items in detail and maybe an hour or two to prepare any detailed response on a particular item (and that's if you've been following the issue you plan to speak on). If you plan to actively advocate a position at odds with the Council, like I have, expect to spend tens of hours a week on prep work.

Many weeks there are special meetings of the Council as a whole: legislative breakfasts, Lot #2/#5 development, Assembly of Governments, special planning meetings, deferred business, public hearings. Then there's budget season. To give you a sense of the time that can consume, during those recent budget "debates" I was spending about 12-20 hours a week attending the special committee's budget meetings and Council meetings plus following up on the details.

Then there's all the Advisory Board liaison work. Most Councilmembers are responsible for two or more boards. For instance, I know Ed seems to attend a number of Transportation Board meetings regularly. I know Sally spends time with her boards. You can check the minutes to see how much a particular member spends on their boards.

Finally, there's the many organizations like the MPO, etc. that various Councilmembers participate in. Bill Strom and the TTA, Sally Greene who's liaises with 8 different boards, The Mayor (who seems to "bilocate" at times) meets with DEDC, other "external" governmental entities and has time for the ceremonial aspects of the job (like the MLK ribbon cutting, etc.), etc. You can get a sense of this from each members "biography" page - accessible here.
This is also a good place to research the types of member vocations.

Now, if you're a dedicated, conscientious Councilmember, I can easily see how you could easily spend 80-90 hours a week, at peak times, on Town business. I know I easily spend 10 to 45 hours a week on Town related issues - and I tend to focus only on a few key issues (HWA, budget, technology, some SUPs, etc.).

George, you're comments about the current crop of Candidates got me to thinking about who I've seen attending Council meetings, board meetings, UNC outreaches (BTW, another one coming up soon - look here), etc.

Of the current slate of "official" Council candidates, excepting the incumbents, Laurin Easthom is the one that stands out for having "walked the walk". I've seen her at many of the Council meetings in the last couple years. She's petitioned the Council on quite a few occasions. Besides being a Transportation Board member, she's also attended numerous other Town-related meetings.

It could be the Jason Baker and the others have attended these meetings and I just don't recognize them but the "local wonks" ("the usual suspects?") start to stand out after a bit - like TerriB, Ruby, etc.

I hope the new candidates have both the "stomach" for early meetings, late meetings, dull meetings, contentious meetings and the conscientious commitment to prepare appropriately.

It's going to be a tough slog over the next four years. I don't think we can afford "seat warmers" on the Council.

Hope that get's the discussion flowing George.

Ruby, I agree with what you wrote above. But, I have applied to a several boards that I found interesting and on which I think I could be of use. No dice, all full. I even applied to several new boards with almost no membership, and still haven't heard anything. In looking for an outlet I have turned to one issues group that I really like, NC Committee to Defend Healthcare, and have been snooping around some others. In addition to blogging, which is for my own personal satisfaction.
So, if anyone else is frustrated that the boards seem full, look around, there are many other opportunities.

Terri, Ruby, Will:
Thanks to all for responding. You all added valuable input. Will, you did a great job of summarising the time elements (which I hoped you would because I know you've attended so many of the Council meetings). My concern is that some of the candidates may not realize what they're getting into in regards to the level of commitment required. We've seen that happen with several advisory board members but a resignation here is, of course, less of a problem that a Council resignation. I actually petitioned the Town Council to ask the Town Staff to poll advisory board members as to how much time, on average, they spend on board business and to then publish that information with notices of board vacancies so that applicants know what they are getting into.

The time element is astounding. I started attending Chapel Hill Town Board meetings in August of 1971 a week or two before I finished my undergrad degree (my diploma says August 1971), and missed only two or three in the two years before I was elected in 1973. I got appointed to the Human Relations Commission in 1972, and in May of 1973 while a 1L in law school was nominated by the Democratic Eexecutive Committee to fill a vacancy as county commissioner, but the commissioners deadlocked 2-2 on my nomination so that dead-ended. So when I ran for town board, I was pretty well known.

Even with all that, I was floored when I got on the board and found out how much time it took. Routinely it was 20-30 hours per week, and at budget time 40-60. By 1979, I was working in Raleigh full-time at a job that required 60-80 hours per week at the same time of the year as the town board took 40-60, so I resigned from the Town Council in the middle of my second term.

My favorite line about the length of town board meetings in Chapel Hill comes from Ross Scroggs in 1972. The board meetings started at 7 pm, and a lot of times ran until 1 or 2 am. Ross would get up and leave at midnite, saying "The Board of Aldermen meets on Monday, this is Tuesday".

Serving on boards is only one way to be involved, and it is unlikely that any new ideas will spring from them, IMO, since they are appointed by the powers that be. They are, also, advisory boards, with no real power and questionable influence. In other states, zoning boards, et al, can actually vote and do affect change in their communities.

Take the NTA advisory board, for example, which was never even given the Carrboro annexation issue to consider before it was voted on. They probably could have pointed out some of the obvious flaws in the plan like the two house that were annexed into Carrboro, with their driveways remaining in Chapel Hill, because of their familiarity with the neighborhood.

For their to be any change in town, there needs to be someone other than the usual suspects participating on boards that can actually implement policy.

David Marshall's seems to be running sans platform, an interesting choice for a new political face. He has a very republican "smell" to him, and I think that will quickly end his political carreer in Carrboro. It's just my hunch, but somebody with his bio might be looking at an office ouside of our fair town, and using this campaign as a dress rehearsal.

Robert,
I concur with Ruby's suggestion about contacting the elected officials directly to let them know of your interest in a particular board. The other thing you can do is find out when the board meets, go to the meeting, introduce yourself to the members and tell them you'd like to be considered for appointment when a vacancy occurs. Since many of the boards make their own recommendations for appointments it helps to let them know your interested. Another advantage in attending a meeting is to see what the board actually does and to find out how much time might be involved. Many board meetings are probably a lot less exciting than people might imagine and often involve fairly mundane tasks. It really helps to know what you might be commiting to. As you can see from some of the above posts, some of the positions that people are becoming candidates for involve a substantial time commitment - it might range from as much as 20-80 hr/week on a Council or BOA.

Yes George, CAN did that workshop the spring before the 2003 elections. As I remember, every panel member spoke about the time commitment, as well as the other pressures and demands on office holders.

What we didn't have a chance to get into is that if these part time positions are becoming full time plus jobs, what can/should we do about it? Remember Mayor Foy mentioned this as a factor in considering to run for reelection. If you have a job and a family and any outside interests, it makes it tough to serve at the 90 hour a week level. Maybe observing this as a member of a board is the reason why so many experienced and talented board members don't seek elective office. Fortunately though, some do.

One compelling explanation for the growth in the time commitment is our structure itself. The council-manager form of government like we have quickly gained acceptance among cities of all sizes and seems to be the most popular form in American cities of more than 10,000 population. The increase in time commitments has been reported in many cities. Some observers note that rather than just acepting the inputs from the "experts" or leaving operational details to the manager and the staff, council members get very involved in details and spend a lot of time becoming subject matter experts on the agenda items before them. Of course, this is understandable behavior for council members to want to understand what they are voting on, but it also helps to understand why these are full time part time jobs now.

I think those who serve on boards know these things, as well as the frustration of feeling the full brunt of "no good deed going unpunished!"

Does anyone have any good theories about why experienced, committed, proven community leaders aren't filing for Chapel Hill Town Council? It's quite depressing for me to look at the Chapel Hill list. Are people staying away because they feel like Chapel Hill government is dysfunctional (I just made that up) or are people generally happy with the staus quo and don't care? I would like some insight into what's up with Chapel Hill.

Fred: The Fitzsimon file at NC Policy Watch addressed this same issue at the state level on Monday. Our state legislators, like town officials, are also part-time employees. It's really pretty amazing that we get such high quality candidates given the time-demands involved.

Katrina--I had no inside connections with the "powers that be" when I was appointed to the IT committee or Carrboro's environmental advisory board, and I believe both advisory boards have generated new ideas that are progressive in nature and practically achievable. While your cynicism about advisory boards may be correctly placed in some instances, I don't think its generalizable.

WillR--a lot of folks, myself included, watch council meetings on public access TV so physical presence in the council room may not be a helpful benchmark of involvement/interest.

Terri, good point about watching on TV (something I might do more of when we have Internet streaming of the various meetings).

I guess you could make an argument that if someone had enough interest to trundle down to the Town's Council chambers and gets up and speaks before the Council is showing a more active interest in affairs than someone watching from home and who might drop an occasional email. Then again, maybe sitting on the couch and emailing your rep is more effective than spending 3 minutes demonstrating your passion advocating for a particular position.

George and Ruby,
Thanks for the advice, I think I will go and sit in on some meetings this year. I appreciate all your help.

Katrina,

I am not running sans platform. I am simply spending an enormous amount of time visiting folks, reading reports, and getting a handle on the issues. This due diligence is what I would expect from a newcomer in town politics.

As I told Jacquie Gist in another thread:

"Jacquie, your questions–and the questions of every Carrboro citizen–are important to me, which is why I made the press release. You can read this release on Jackie Helvey's website, www.carrboro.com. I know that this press release only begins to answer your questions. Yet, as with every political race, positions on issues are best discussed one at a time. When all the dust settles just before elections, I guarantee you that every one of my positions on key issues will be known, dissected, discussed, debated, and either accepted or rejected by the citizens of Carrboro."

The comment that I have a very republican "smell" to me brought a smile to my face. I tried to think what public knowledge about me would lead someone to think that. Service to my country as a member of the military? Service to my community as a uniformed Police Officer? That I am a graduate student at Duke university?

Have you checked my voting record? Have you talked to me personally about issues like the environment and gay, civil and human rights? Have you asked me why I went to Afghanistan and Iraq, and whether I opposed one of those actions? Perhaps my political odor was detected in praising former Republican Senator John C. Danforth (who lambasted the republican party for coddling to the ultraconservative Christian Right)? My father would be happy to hear that I have the republican "smell". I apologize for disappointing you both.

Win or lose, I hope my campaign will help to dispel the stereotypes and attenuate the polemics that pervades our present divisive culture wars.

David Marshall

Terri,

I didn't know you were on the environmental board. You're the perfect person to ask, since I've been drafted as a Carburban.

I'm curious- Did the environmental board get a preview of the Winmore development before the BOA voted on it, given it's proximity to Bolin Creek ? If so what was their reccomendation?

What about the plans to build a municipal gagrage on the Adams tract ? Was it the environmental board who reccomended that plan be scrapped?

Has anyone submitted a proposal for the portion of Carolina North( about 1/3) that is situated in Carrboro ? What does it include ?

If we have any lurking members of the Econmic development board, I've got some questions for you too. I have so much to learn about my new town.

David,

Please take no offense at my comment. I am a moderate, though very partisan Democrat. I've worked in politics for a loooooong time. ( My mother recuited me to work for John Anderson in 1980.) I know a conservative when I smell one, not that there's anything wrong with that. I'm just wondering how it'll play in Carrboro. You're registered as an independant, but it'd be tough to check your actual "voting" history, since this country has secret ballots.

I read the information on Carrboro.com. It's biographical, but gives little insight into your views on local political issues. I read the link you provided. Senator/Ambassador/Father Danforth states his opposition to the protection of marriage amendment, but he certainly makes no plea for broadening gay rights - Pretty milquetoast, all in all.

For the record, I can live with an old school conservative. So, I'm not using the term as a negative label. It's just a different political philosophy than mine. I'm glad you're running. It'll make campaign season much more interesting than listening to the same Carrboro chorus over and over.

Mary,
I'm guessing (as you can see from some of the above posts) that the time required to do a credible job keeps a lot of potential applicants from running. And not just the time required to campaign but the time required if elected. It's not like you can "try it out" and if you find it requires too much time you can just walk away (at least we hope not, but I think that's the concern some of us have expressed regarding candidates that haven't been in the trences yet.
Although many positions may be listed as part-time I think the analysis that WillR provided suggests that they are anything but that. That's why I was surprised that so many citizens seemed to think that the CH TC was unwarranted in giving themselves healthcare benefits equivalent to full-time. I would be surprised if any of the Councilpersons work only 20 hr/week (on average) in their elected capacity. I myself felt that the added healthcare benefit is one that they readily earn.

Katrina,

I'm not offended (I know it's hard to see me smiling through a blog, but I was!). My writing is sometimes, as a friend once put it, "Victorian", by which I assume he meant overly formal, because english is my third langauge.

My family and most of my buddies in the military think I'm a "raging liberal" because of my belief in certain social issues. For instance, I am against capital punishment for every reason imaginable. I think that to discriminate against someone because of their sexual orientation is silly and dangerous.

People who hear that I have served 18 years in the military, that I was a police officer, that I get a lump in the back of my throat when I hear the star-spangled banner, or that I want to include all views in policy decision-making, label me conservative.

I'm smiling most of all because I am used to hearing the liberal accusation so much that it's comforting to be marked as a conservative. :)

Thank you for welcoming to the race.

David

GeorgeC,
I've felt for a long time that we could actually save money (in the end) by paying our mayor and TC a living wage. We could attract high quality politicians with educational expertise. We could eliminate the need for so much consulting. Our town is too important to leave in the hands of amateurs with no time to spend on their elected positions. We're pretty lucky that we are able to attract some very good people who are willing to work for next to nothing. This year I feel Chapel Hill is running low on its luck... Carrboro is faring much better.

Gerry, what is your take on why the time commitment to serve on the council is so demanding? I guess I am just curious if there are ways to streamline processes or ways to reduce the time commitment so that government service doesn't seem so overwhelming to some. for example, are our issues that complex, are our procedures as efficient as they could be---etc???

If it really takes that much time , then we as a community need to have a conversation about whether we need full time representation by our council and mayor. I can't support expecting someone to work full-time for part time pay. We miss a lot of talent if we do that, because a lot of people simply cannot afford to 'donate' that much time.

Jason, I'd still like to hear how you will manage to be a full-time student and still manage the hours (which WillR pointed out can be substantial) required of a full-time Councilperson (it may be called a part-time position but let's start dealing in reality). I understand that you might have put in 60+ hrs/week in voter registration but that was probably for a period of months and here we're talking about a 4-yr term. I'm not saying it can't be done but I would guess that your most important priority right now is getting your degree. If it isn't then I guess I'd like to know what is. And please don't take this message the wrong way - I'm glad that you're interested enough to take the effort to run.

For candidates who haven't previously been involved in local government, through committees or advisory boards or as staff, the time commitment is going to be much higher since they will have to spend inordinate amounts of time slogging through legal documents, technical reports, and historical documents--in preparation for agendas and other current information.

For those candidates who don't have previous experience, I would be interested in knowing how you plan to get up to speed on issues such as stormwater, transportation, neighborhood conservation zoning. Do you have trusted friends/advisors to rely on? Have you been following these issues and feel like you already have a strong understanding of the legal, technical, and human implications for each? Have you taken courses that you feel have provided you with a strong enough background that this isn't going to be a problem?

Yeah that was my second junior year, if you want to look at it that way, Ruby.

I think it's patronizing to suggest that Jason or other students wouldn't know how to manage their own time or have a sense of how much time is involved in public service. Indeed, I think students have more time for stuff outside of school. Students' schedules are often much more flexible than traditional 9-5ers.

for what it is worth, my third year in law school while on the Chapel Hill Town Council I went at most once each week (out of 3) to each class. Council was more important than law school. I didn't make law review, but as many doors opened as closed. Every council member has to set priorities.

At graduation, my 3L income tax prof told me she had a policy of taking 10 points off the final grade of any student who never came to class, but since I had a 100 on the exam, taking off 10 points still left me with an A for the class. (law school grades generally are based 100% on the final exam in a course -- that's pressure)

Anita,
I think that in a town like Chapel Hill one of the reasons it takes so much time out of the day to be an elected official is the time involved in listening to be people, and in feeling like you have to be 100% prepared for EVERY agenda item.

Early on, it took 25-30 hours to serve on the council, attend
meetings, read the information packet, visit the development
sites that we would vote on, and attend an occasional ribbon-cutting.
After a few years, I could reduce that to 15-20 hours, by
understanding what was important and what was a detail
better left to the staff. If the council is diverse, both
by town geographically and by career, things are easier
because you don't have to be an expert in everything, provided
that there are people you trust who can guide you.
A councilmember must be a generalist, dealing with issues
that he is really into, as well as those that he has less
personal interest in.

If a councilmember accepts every invitation and injects
himself into every issue, the job can easily swell to more
than full time. But that's his/her choice. The structure
of government is designed so that the council does not
run the day-to-day operations of the town, and a
councilmember who hangs out at town hall will get involved
in the daily details that he would better leave alone.
A micromanaging councilmember is not a good one.

When Rosemary Waldorf became mayor and she and the
majority of the councilmembers did not hold full-time
jobs, things began to change, both in increased hours and
the desire to hold full council meetings during business
hours. Several of us rebelled againt this process, with
mixed success. There is a lot to the phrase "Work expands
to fill the time alloted".

One of the best things the council did was to legislate that
no agenda item could start after 10:30 at night. It made
the meetings more efficient and avoided the problem
that Durham had, wherein council members are making
important decisions at 1am. You may remember that
there is a Home Depot on the boulevard
because one of the Durham City Council folks fell asleep
before the vote, and though she was against it, her
non-vote counted as a yes, and Home Depot passed 7-6.
She was (correctly) villified in the Herald-Sun in political cartoons. That hasn't happened here, at least not yet.

Can a UNC full-time student serve successfully? Yes if
he/she decides that schoolwork will suffer somewhat.
Depending on the student, that may be a valid
tradeoff, because, especially in some majors, town
service can be a very valuable and relevant education.
At UNC with
low tuition and no requirement that he must earn his
degree in 4.5 years max, it is reasonable
for a student to decide that he'll have, as Mark said, a
second junior year.

I was penalized in that there was almost no overlap between
my computer engineering career and town government.
On the other hand, half of the stuff that the council does
is numeric and it really helps to be good with numbers.
Also the trained rigorous thinking that comes from
engineering is extremely valuable.

Finally, I never could come home after a meeting and
go straight to sleep. Adrenline does flow during
those meetings, even for an experienced person, and it
takes time to wind down, so that the next
morning it was tough to get to work at eight o'clock.

Joan,
I don't think we were trying to patronize Jason. When an announced candidate is employed, we usually don't ask them, rightly or wrongly, whether they are planning on keeping their job. Most people, however, assume that students don't plan on being students (officially-enrolled, that is) forever and that they will, at some point, be moving on. Moving on may be going to graduate school, getting a job, or whatever. It may or may not involve a change of residence but it often does. One's plans for when they move on are obviously dependent on how their student time is allocated so I think the question is not unreasonable. I think Jason has answered it and I think several posters have provided their own experiences to suggest that a student can certainly find the time if they are willing to make the necessary sacrifices.

Will and Joe's comments point to the increasing expectations we have of our town council. If we expect the TC to behave as staff, we need to pay them more; otherwise, we're limiting citizen participation to the privileged few who can afford to be on council (or the unrealistic few who go on faith).

I think we need to be realistic and acknowledge that technology has given us the likes of WillR and Terri Buckner, who know light years more than the ordinary citizen of the past. It's almost an imperative nowadays that TC members spend more time on their jobs--- unless they don't mind public displays of ignorance. It's time to address the changing roles and expectations of elected officials and modernize compensation.

Greetings to everyone in the land of Orange County, and please forgive the slowness of my response. In fact this is my first go at blogging, although I hope to get plenty of experience over the next few months.

I regret that my first introduction involves responding to misinformation and explaining myself, and I REALLY hope that my future correspondence are of a more positive discourse. I look forward to responding to questions, and generally learning as much as I can from those who are willing to share their experience, knowledge, and wisdom. But first to respond to the carelessly publicized misinformation that I intend to change my voter registration…

For the record, I WILL NOT be changing my party affiliation simply because it is not the most popular affiliation to have in Chapel Hill. To do so would be disingenuous and opportunistic. I would also like to hope, naively perhaps, that someone would not prejudge me based upon a label that our flawed bipartisan system dictates that we lump every issue on a national scale into one camp or the other. This is a nonpartisan race and the issues facing the next Council don't often fall into a left-right, party ID paradigm (not that I fall into those categories so easily myself since I have never met a Republican that I entirely agreed with, nor a Democrat with whom I entirely disagreed).

As far as voter history goes, it is true that I did not vote in 2003. At that time I had only recently transferred to UNC and did not feel that I knew enough about Chapel Hill's local politics to cast an informed vote for Town Council. I personally believe that the only thing worse than voter apathy is voting for someone without knowing why. One of my biggest campaign initiatives, therefore, will be to inform students and residents alike what the issues are, and where I stand on each one.

With Jason and me in the race, along with any other students who decide to throw their hats into the ring, I hope that more students will pay attention to this election than ever before. I enjoyed my meeting with Jason, and I believe that he is as serious about the responsibilities involved in the path that we have chosen as I am. Once we show ourselves to be informed and serious, we hopefully will encourage a habit of local political involvement among both the permanent residents and the students alike.

Since one of the Council's primary objectives is planning the developmental future of Chapel Hill, I am making it one of my priorities to focus on intelligent and collaborative growth. This race is going to be about ideas, dedication, and leadership. Wanting the best for the town in which I live should have nothing to do with national politics. In fact, I sincerely hope that Chapel Hill never follows the path of polar politics where individuals lose sight of respecting one's neighbor, and their neighbor's right to have different perspectives themselves.

I'm working on developing a web presence right now, so my campaign should be online very soon. I can also be reached at walker.rutherfurd@gmail.com

I have enjoyed reading the many different perspectives, I look forward to getting to know as many people as possible, and I hope the outcome of the elections in November, how ever the turnout, will benefit this great town for years to come.

Sincerely,

Walker Rutherfurd

A challenger has also filed in the race for Mayor of Hillsborough:

Stevens Tom of 213 W. Tryon St, Hillsborough 27278

Anyone know anything about Tom Stevens?