May 2004

The Orange County School Board just appointed a former board member, Susan Halkiotis, to fill a vacated seat until the next election. Halkiotis says she has no intention of running to keep the seat after the fall election. Sounds like an example of good government in action, right?

Problem is, Susan is married to Steve Halkiotis, who is the Director of Auxiliary Services for the school system, plus he's an Orange County Commissioner (they fund the schools). This means she could be in a position to vote on her husband's salary, among other uncomfortable situations.

Board member Randy Copeland reminded the board of the nepotism policy they recently put into place.

The policy, he said, should not allow husband and wife to hold positions so closely dependent on each other. "I believe we're placing ourselves in a position of saying, 'don't do as I do, do as I say do,'" he said. "I would be strongly opposed to seeking Susan, even though she's experienced."

This is my attempt to blog the University's presentation to the Chapel Hill Town Council about their plans for Carolina North. It may be a little rough, I want to get the ideas up here as close to real-time as possible so I am writing things as they happen while I watch this meeting on cable.

It's 9:30pm and I just got home from a meeting to flip on the Town Council Meeting where they are listening to a presentation from UNC about plans for Carolina North. I was encouraged to see they were talking about how to forge a better relationship and work together to go forward. But this meeting does not look terribly friendly.

Now at the podium is Doug from UNC who is going over the same old crap we've heard about CN for a year.

OK, ViceChancellorforR&D Tony Waldroup is up. He is presenting 8 changes to the previous version of the CN plan:

1. He has good news about the school site: The CHCSS picked out a site for an elementary, and UNC is giving it to them.

The filing period is now closed and we definitely have an interesting primary ahead of us. Thanks to Chapel Hill Herald Editor Ray Gronberg for pointing out that the list of candidates is already available on the Orange County Board of Elections website (which, by the way has made no noticeable improvement since the last election day debacle).

So... who you like and why or why not?

I feel like we've been neglecting Carrboro lately. What's been going on there besides the proposed tax hike, the the great Hanger debate, and random shootings?

Most folks in this area are pretty informed about Middle East issues. Although it's a global issue, the Palestinian crisis affects our community because of our strong academic, friendship, and sometimes cultural global ties in this college town. Well, now's your chance to listen to and talk to people who have lived in the West Bank and have some insight on the crisis. Just FYI, this presentation is geared towards the Christian faith community. However, I've heard Marthame and Elizabeth speak and have really gained some new insights into Palestinian human rights issues through their work.

Here's the announcement:

Guest Post by Terri Buckner

According to the News & Observer, under a new proposal, each county would have the choice of opting into the state lottery. The details aren't provided in a newspaper article that I can link to but on the State of Things on May 11, it was stated that once 25 counties voted to participate in the lottery, the lottery would be implemented statewide with 25% of all revenues going to the schools.

According to the State of Things, those of us who are against the lottery are social conservatives. I'm against it because it's a regressive tax plan. What do others think? Should Orange make this a county referendum? What are the benefits/drawbacks to a lottery here in Orange Co?

7:41 pm: Here is some live, during meeting coverage of the May 18, 2004 Carrboro Board of Aldermen by me, Alderman Mark Chilton.

Hopefully this account will be more interesting than being present in person!

The meeting began with some introductory remarks from Bo Lozoff - the man who is starting a job-training bio-diesel production facility in Orange County. The Mayor referred him to the Public Works director to discuss the town purchasing bio-diesel from his new facility.

Now we are on the Consent Agenda. This is usually an amalgam of non-controversial items. Scheduling issues, minutes, two contract awards (engineering and health insurance). We are also changing the speed limit on part of Homestead Road.

I will report more in a few minutes.

8:19 pm: Now we are talking about adopting new parking standards downtown. We are considering giving developers the ability to pay the town in lieu of creating parking for their buildings.

I can't find any information online about WCHL's "2004 Chapel Hill-Carrboro Orange County Forum: A Sustainable Community." This is supposed to be some kind of Great Community Discussion, too bad they forgot to tell the community. Why isn't there any information about it in the local papers or even on WCHLs website? That's a real failure to be relevant, right there.

Here's the schedule:

8 am Growth - Town-Gown 2004, the Last Year, The Next Year and After
10 am Downtown - What to do about "The Gap" Gap
11am IFC Homeless Shelter Location - Homeless in Our Town?
12 noon Future of Downtown Carrboro
1 pm Violence and Crime - Has Crime Increased in Our Village?
2 pm Civil Rights - Is There Discrimination
3 pm Seniors - They Outnumber Our Kids!
4 pm Public Schools - Are Our Schools Good for Our Kids
5 pm What is a Sustainable Community (How Do We Build One?)

Update: the Today's Schedule page at WCHL was just updated while I was typing this. :(

I know, I know. Richard Florida's work on the so-called "creative class" has been one of the most over-used studies of the year. But he does have some good points. And one of the facts he most likes to put out there is that diverse regions with tolerant attitudes towards minorities. Our area became that much more appealing to gays last year when it became harder for the state to enforce laws that restricted what citizens could do in the privacy of our homes (Lawrence v. Texas). However, that could all change when/if the state legislature and voters pass a bill to further encode the discrimination by the state of gay people? That might just happen. There are 67 co-sponsors on a proposed amendment in the house that would not only ban gay marriage, but might also restrict the rights of municipalities and even private companies from offering benefits to unmarried partners. I wonder what the economic impact of such a move would have on some of our major cities?

This isn't politics, but it's terrifying nevertheless. The most saddening part is hearing a teenager in high school argue that throwing down some liquor is the only way to unwind after a hard week. How many harder weeks and months and years have some of us brought on ourselves by thinking like that?

I'm not as shocked by the idea of teenage drinking as I am by the professed attitude, expressed at such a young age: that alcohol is a routine comfort, and sometimes the only comfort.

I never believed in the scared straight bull. It surely never worked for me. But, damn, I'm sorry for some of these kids. There's a big world out there waiting to smack them around for no discernible reason during much of the next 70 years of their lives, and they talk as if they're exempt from the sorts of tragedies and miscalculations that we bring on ourselves.

Anyway, read for yourself:

High School Students Say Drinking Safe, Strictly Social

In addition to the many things the Herald-Sun does every year to get information to voters, they have now implemented candidate blogs. This is a great idea and it's a good compliment to the forums, editorials, and online "votebook" the Herald already provides (see below).

Greensboro journalist/blogger Ed Cone has some great insight and commentary about the candidate blogs. He has been evangelizing for political blogging for a while, so he should know! I think this is an innovative step for the Herald and I'm glad to see them do this. I hope candidates will take advantage of this unique opportunity to communicate with their potential supporters and constituents.

new user registration form, but then I remembered how many times the Herald's telemarketers called me, for years, trying to get me to subscribe. (After I had unsubscribed due to the H-S's conservative politics.) I'm going to think twice before I give them my phone number again.