Lame duck Chatham Commissioners ain't done yet

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.
...
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.

"Let me get right to the point," said Chatham resident Margie Ellison. "We do not trust you, your maps or your fake map drawing process. It appears the committee and the majority of commissioners aim to divide our votes and make the African-American vote invisible."

Many claim district voting will disenfranchise black voters. The county used district representation until 1975 and in that time did not elect a black representative, said commissioner-elect Carl Thompson. In the time since then, four black commissioners have been elected.
- heraldsun.com: Chatham board votes to redraw district lines, 8/22/06

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Comments

And I thought the ill-conceived Orange county districting plan couldn't be topped.

You still have time to truck down to Pittsboro for the "spillover" hearings on districting. It might be worth it, though, from watching Bunkey on WRAL5 , you might expect simmering disinterest.

Another development with the Chatham Commissioners that I don't think has been mentioned---A recent vote of theirs is to require a complete and full buy out of the county manager if he is terminated for any reason, even for cause. Pretty sweet deal for the manager, pretty sour for the taxpayers.

http://www.newsobserver.com/133/story/466688.html

As reported in today's N&O:

Bunkey Morgan has joined the ranks of a skateboarding bulldog and a rock band dancing on treadmills. The outgoing chairman of the Chatham County commissioners is starring in a video on YouTube.com. But not by choice.

Check out Mark Barroso's video here

Let's hope Chatham voters can continue to rid the county of parasites.

Ticks will not be eligible to vote in the primary election, but will be able to vote in the general election. That's my synopsis of the proposals to redistrict.

And that's all you need to know about that, folks. Ticks.

To think I worried about the OC being districted. I didn't think how doing so would lessen ticks ;-)

I have researched this issue finally so I could be informed about how to vote on this issue. I am all for growth in Chatham County. I own property here and have long wondered when Northwest Chatham would join the rest of the world in having a shopping center less than 5 miles from home? The trek to Wal Mart is about 20 minutes from where I live. Chatham County is huge folks! There is plenty of room for growth and development without using the Race Card here as a straw man to block the redistricting issue.

Democrats misunderstand that in order to have nice schools and jobs, the community must attract good businesses which will earn Chatham County more tax revenues to build better and newer schools!!!

Growth and development is a good thing. I think playing the race card is typical of Democrats in this area. Trying to frighten black voters into voting NO so they won't be disenfranchised by redistricting. Come on now. That is like using quotas to fulfill obligations to all the races for hiring and not hiring on the sake of merit. To be elected, one should demonstrate leadership and conviction to core principles. One should be thinking of doing a good job for the community. To be elected to an office, race shouldn't matter. What matters is substance.

Now I believe that the reason people such as Bunky Morgan and those who can spark good growth and development in Chatham County would like voters in each area where such growth and development might take place to be able to decide for themselves. NOT have all the decisions made by the liberal and popular vote of East and North Chatham county. They are stopping growth here by voting NO to things that would improve our neighborhoods in Northwest Chatham county, which has no sewer system or running water in most places.

Frankly I came here in 1992 and wondered why there were so many trees! The tick population is horrible. But once people started harvesting the tree crops out there the ticks began to lessen just a bit. I say, harvest your trees and cut the tick population and decrease the threat of lyme disease. Besides trees grow faster around here than grass does! They grow back faster than you can cut them down! I spend hours mowing my pasture each year to stop trees from growing back on it.

So I will vote YES to redistrict so I can vote for development and improvements to my part of Chatham County. My property value can only go up. My road was finally paved two years ago!
I look forward to more improvements as we gain a voice if we vote YES for redistricting.

 Wow. Just... wow. I've joked with friends for years, sarcastically saying, "We can't have all these damned trees around!" every time I saw another subdivision or Wal-Mart going up, but I didn't actually believe that was the sort of thing on anyone's mind. You really "wondered why there were so many trees"?? Really??! 

I have to ask now, seriously, if there are people out there who wonder why there's so much oxygen in the atmosphere... can't have oxygen, you know... breeds mosquitos!

--- Brian Moore for President, 2008! [http://www.votesocialist2008.org]

 

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