March 2015

This Week in Orange Politics: March 2-8

It’s another busy week for Orange County’s public bodies. The Carrboro Alderfolks will make several appointments and discuss the town’s affordable housing fund, while the Chapel Hill Council will hear about capital priorities. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board will consider designating over- and under-crowded schools for the next school year, the county commissioners will review their legislative agenda and consider approving funds for the Family Success Alliance.

The Hillsborough Town Board and county school board are both in recess this week.

Here’s the full summary:

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS

Regular Meeting: Tuesday, March 3, 7:30 pm @ Carrboro Town Hall
- The Board will consider making several appointments
- The Board will discuss proposed revisions to the Affordable Housing Fund

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL

How a Chapel Hill Town Council Vacancy is Filled

With the impending resignation of Chapel Hill Town Council member Matt Czajkowski, the OP Editors thought it might be useful to revisit exactly what happens in the case of a vacancy. The relevent code falls under Chapter 2, Article II of the town code of ordinances.

Since Czajkowski's seat is up for election this year, any person filling the seat would do so only until his successor is elected in the municipal election this fall.

When Art Reflects Reality (Even After 130 Years)

As I took my seat in the Paul Green Theatre last Saturday for PlayMakers Repertory Company’s production of An Enemy of the People, I had no expectation that the performance would resonate with the kind of local government discourse and behavior I see right here in Chapel Hill. Yet, as the play began and the story unfolded, that is exactly what happened.

Written by Henrik Ibsen in 1882 and adapted by Arthur Miller in 1950, Enemy tells the story of Dr. Stockmann, a physician who attempts to expose an inconvenient truth about his town, only to find himself and his family alienated, alone, and in danger as a result of his actions.

As the play reaches its climax, Dr. Stockmann makes a final attempt to convey his findings and alert his community to what he has uncovered. But rather than being able to speak freely, he is silenced from speaking about the issue at hand, which causes him to dive into a monologue condemning the tyranny of the majority, the silencing of his freedom of speech, and the hypocrisy of those around him who abandon their values in the face of inconvenient truths.

Implicit Bias Education Session

Implicit Bias Community Series

Session I March 19: Overview of and Evidence for Implicit Bias – Dr. Keith Payne, Professor, UNC-CH Dept. of Psychology

The session will be interactive and reflective to help participants understand the impact and manifestation of implicit bias on decision-making. Payne is part of a small community of academic scholars from around the world who are associated with Project Implicit – a multi university research collaboration to study implicit bias. The Payne lab studies social cognition—thinking and feeling about people and socially important issues. They are especially interested in the unintended and the unconscious. Using a variety of methods, from behavioral experiments to large scale surveys to mathematical modeling, they are turning up answers to questions like:

Why do people sometimes act in prejudiced ways even when they intend to be fair?
Do you have opinions or beliefs that you don’t know about?
How do people set aside unwanted biases and act the way they want to?
And what happens when that process breaks down?

Date:

Thursday, March 19, 2015 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Location:

Rogers Road Community Center, 101 Edgar Street in Chapel Hill

Implicit Bias Panel Discussion

Session II (April 21): Initiatives to Interrupt Implicit Bias

a. Panel

i. Sheila Kannappan, Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy at UNC – Combatting Implicit Bias in Admissions

ii. Jeff Johnson, Professor & Vice Chair for Diversity, Department of Chemistry at UNC – Combatting Implicit Bias in Hiring

iii. Chantel Johnson – RTI Survey Specialist and former MSW intern, City of Seattle Office of Civil Rights: Race and Social Justice Initiative

b. Small Groups

i. What have you learned?

ii. What might you implement in your organization?

Date:

Tuesday, April 21, 2015 - 7:00pm to 8:30pm

Location:

Rogers Road Community Center, 101 Edgar Street in Chapel Hill

Community Meeting on Affordable Housing and Community Development Needs

The Orange County Department of Housing, Human Rights and Community Development invites the public to join the discussion and voice opinions about affordable housing and community development needs and how to eliminate barriers to fair housing choices.

The meetings will be hosted by the Orange County HOME Consortium, which consists of the County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Carrboro.

The Orange County HOME Consortium and the Town of Chapel Hill are preparing the FY 2015-2019 Five Year Consolidated Plan and FY 2015 Annual Action Plan for use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnership (HOME) funds as required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In order to determine the most pressing needs and to develop effective strategies to meet those needs, HUD requires a Consolidated Plan. By attending these meetings, the public can help to identify priority needs and strategies in the areas of affordable housing, homelessness, special needs and community development and how funds are to be received over the next five years to help address needs identified.

The Plan details housing needs of very low income, low income and moderate-income families, and population groups with special needs in addition to outlining the strategies and plans for addressing those needs. The Plan can also serve as a foundation for the development of a long-range, strategic affordable housing plan for the participating communities.

As part of the public input and planning process, a survey is available online to obtain more public input in identifying the needs and ideas on how residents would like to see funds budgeted to address needs with CDBG and HOME funds received, as well as identifying and addressing any impediments to fair housing choice.

Click on the link to take the confidential survey (en Español).

For more information, please contact the Department of Housing, Human Rights and Community Development at 919.245.2490.

Date:

Tuesday, March 10, 2015 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Location:

Hargraves Community Center, 216 N. Roberson Street, Chapel Hill

Growth & Development

affordable housing

Community Meeting on Affordable Housing and Community Development Needs

The meetings will be hosted by the Orange County HOME Consortium, which consists of the County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Carrboro.

Click on the link to take the confidential survey (en Español).

For more information, please contact the Department of Housing, Human Rights and Community Development at 919.245.2490.

Date:

Wednesday, March 11, 2015 - 3:00pm to 5:00pm

Location:

Whitted Human Services Building, 300 W. Tryon Street, Room 250, Hillsborough

Growth & Development

affordable housing

Community Meeting on Affordable Housing and Community Development Needs

The meetings will be hosted by the Orange County HOME Consortium, which consists of the County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Carrboro.

Click on the link to take the confidential survey (en Español).

For more information, please contact the Department of Housing, Human Rights and Community Development at 919.245.2490.

Date:

Wednesday, March 11, 2015 - 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Location:

Whitted Human Services Building, 300 W. Tryon Street, Room 250, Hillsborough

Growth & Development

affordable housing

Community Meeting on Affordable Housing and Community Development Needs

The meetings will be hosted by the Orange County HOME Consortium, which consists of the County and the Towns of Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Carrboro.

Click on the link to take the confidential survey (en Español).

For more information, please contact the Department of Housing, Human Rights and Community Development at 919.245.2490.

Date:

Thursday, March 12, 2015 - 12:00pm to 3:00pm

Location:

Seymour Senior Center (Auditorium), 2551 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill

Growth & Development

affordable housing

Durham-Orange Light Rail Project Public Meeting

Triangle Transit will present the results of their environmental studies, from the UNC Hospitals station to the Duke station alternatives, at 4:15 p.m., 5:15 p.m. and 6:15 p.m., followed by an open house when project staff will be available to answer questions.

The data presented and public comment received will be used in several key decisions to determine the recommended alignment alternative.

More information can be found at www.ourtransitfuture.com. Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvpAa0EOCE8&feature=youtu.be

Questions or concerns can be emailed to info@ourtransitfuture.com; if you need special accommodations to participate in the public meeting please call 1-800-816-7817, at least one week prior to the meeting.

Date:

Wednesday, March 18, 2015 - 4:00pm to 7:00pm

Location:

Friday Center for Continuing Education, 100 Friday Center Dr, Chapel Hill

This Week in Orange Politics: March 9-15

This week, in Carrboro, Board of Aldermen will discuss tourism and the master plan for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. In Chapel Hill, the Town Council will meet to talk about bike/ped infrastructure at Ephesus-Fordham on Monday, Obey Creek on Thursday, and the future of the Southern Village Park and Ride Lot on Friday. In Hillsborough, the Town Board will consider adopting a new Vision 2030 plan. Here’s the full summary:

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS

Work Session: Tuesday, March 10, 7pm @ Carrboro Town Hall
- The Board will receive a report from the Carrboro Tourism Authority
- The Board will also discuss next steps for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park Master Plan
- The Board will also receive an update on the zip code boundary review

CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL

State Elected Officials Town Hall

State Representatives Verla Insko and Graig Meyer and State Senator Valerie Foushee will hold a town hall to answer questions and talk about the legislative agenda for this session.

Date:

Sunday, March 15, 2015 - 3:00pm

Location:

Main Branch of the Orange County Public Library - Hillsborough

This Week in Orange Politics: March 16-22

It’s another busy week for Orange County’s elected bodies. The Carrboro Alderfolks will consider Shelton Station after a celebratory bike ride, while the Chapel Hill Town Council will take public comment on Obey Creek. The Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board will review the district budget for the upcoming year, while its county counterpart will receive that district’s accreditation exit report.

The county commissioners will get an update on the transit plan and talk employee benefits for the upcoming fiscal year. The Hillsborough Town Board is on break this week

Don’t forget to join us Friday at Hot Tin Roof in Hillsborough for our quarterly happy hour.

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS

Affordable Housing: Policy Tools & Best Practices

In its ongoing series on affordable housing, the Town of Chapel Hill hosted Michelle Winters, senior visiting fellow at the Urban Land Institute’s Terwilliger Center for Housing last Tuesday to talk about the policy tools and best practices for affordable and workforce housing.

Winters began her presentation discussing housing trends nationwide and specifically talked about the recent surge in renter households that is expected to continue into the future. The most important takeaway: Half of all renter households are at least moderately cost burdened, meaning they spend at least 30% of their income on rent. This statistic highlights why housing professionals have broadened their discussion of what affordable means in recent years to include a range, all the way from homelessness to just below market rate. As the town’s executive director for housing and community development, Loryn Clark, put it: housing needs to be affordable for everybody.

NC Pork Council

Has anyone else been getting phone calls from Karen of the NC Pork Council and also junk mail? We have received two phone calls and one postcard during the past week. Is some new lobbying effort going into the the state legislature to change rules about hog farms and waste lagoons? Our rural buffer and other rules limit large scale hog farms in Orange County. I hope no one is trying to make things worse.

Running for Re-Election!

Serving on the Chapel Hill Town Council has been an enormous privilege. We’ve accomplished a lot over the past four years, but as residents remind me every day, there’s still a lot we can do to improve and strengthen our community.

That’s why I’m announcing the launch of my campaign for re-election to the Chapel Hill Town Council.

I’m proud of what we have achieved over the last four years. A stronger food truck ordinance, expanded access to our Community Center pool and a single-family stormwater ordinance that actually works all have had a positive impact for our community. The Glen-Lennox development agreement, new zoning in Ephesus-Fordham, as well as exciting projects in downtown like LaUNCh Chapel Hill and a redeveloped University Square will bring new jobs and expand our economic tax base.

This Week in Orange Politics: March 23-30

Solid waste financing will be the topic this Thursday when all of Orange County’s governing boards meet in Chapel Hill. That meeting will be immediately followed by a joint meeting of the county commissioners and Chapel Hill Town Council, where Rogers Road and a potential bond referendum will be among the topics up for discussion.

The Carrboro Alderfolks will be discussion the use of body cameras by police officers, while the Chapel Hill Town Council takes on community development block grants and Obey Creek. The county commissioners will meet with our state legislative delegation, while the Hillsborough Town Board will hear Mayor Tom Stevens’s state of the town address.

The county school board will discuss filling its current vacancy, while its Chapel Hill-Carrboro counterpart is own break.

CARRBORO BOARD OF ALDERPERSONS

Possible New Living Wage Policy for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools

On April 9, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools will present an unprecedented living wage policy for full and part-time employees to the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

According to School Board Member James Barrett, the idea for a living wage policy emerged from a cost-savings discussion during the summer of 2014 to move some school janitors from district to contract-based employment. In doing this, the city would save money at the expense of a drop in wage for workers.

The unanimous board-approved wage decrease from about $11.50 to $9.50 an hour infuriated Barrett, who was not present for the vote.

“I raised a fuss about it,” he said. “I didn’t think it was acceptable to give our lowest paid employees a twenty-percent cut while at the same time giving our highest paid employees—our administrators—a three-percent raise.”

Later in September, Orange County Commissioner Mark Dorosin continued the discussion of a living wage for both employees and contractors in a joint meeting between the school board and the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

The Northside Initiative: How It Developed, How It Will Work

The Jackson Center’s Executive Director, Della Pollock said it better than I could in a recent letter to Northside neighbors and friends:

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