December 2004

Guest Post by Terri Buckner

Rickie White, one of OP's founding authors, is moving on to a great new job in Washington, DC. While we will miss Rickie's knowledge of and love for Orange County's environment as well as his progressive views on issues of social justice, we wish him all the best in his new job and his new home. Thanks for everything, Rickie.

Guest Post by Terri Buckner

The recent debates over the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery and, to a lesser extent, the protection of 3 unmarked graves behind Brewer Lane in Carrboro illustrate the importance local residents and elected officials place on historical preservation. Rather than discussing the protection of a particular building or site, let's explore historic preservation in more detail and see if we can't come up with some recommendations of our own to provide local officials.

Two members of the Hillsborough Town Board are accused of communicating via their PDAs during a meeting. It's unlikely they really did unless they have really fancy PDAs (most of them don't communicate with the outside world independently). But what are the implications of the open meetings law when you have open wireless networks in both Chapel Hill and Carrboro Town Halls?

If a member of the Board or Council posts something to a website or sends an e-mail during a meeting, would that be a violation? What if one of their colleagues also visited that public website during the meeting? What if a constituent sends an e-mail to their repsentative lobbying them on a issue they are voting on during the meeting?

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday, December 18, 2004

Two weeks ago, the International Worker Justice Campaign and UE-150, the N.C. Public Service Workers Union, sponsored a public hearing on the need for collective bargaining rights for public sector employees. The testimony at that event, from numerous university and Chapel Hill employees, was unsettling to say the least.

It has been pretty well established that certain blue collar job categories both at UNC and with the town have historically had a disproportionate number of African-American workers. These workers have suffered under difficult working conditions, poor pay, discriminatory promotion policies and grievance procedures that are often stacked against them.

Those were some of the topics discussed by workers at the recent hearing. Particularly harrowing were the descriptions of the effect of some of the chemicals that cleaning crews are required to use at the hospital. Exposure to these chemicals has caused respiratory problems, nosebleeds and other health problems. Some workers were coughing up blood.