Elections

I went up to Hillsborough at lunchtime today and I saw Jacquie Gist, Mark Chilton, Mark Kleinschmidt, and challenger Laurin Easthom file for Carrboro Alderman, Carrboro Mayor, and Chapel Hill Town Council respectively. I understand Kevin Foy came by and filed for Chapel Hill Mayor shortly afterward, and Ed Harrison also dropped his hat in the ring a little later.

The Board of Elections has a nice little chart to help you keep track, check it out: http://www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/CandJuly05.htm

I am happy to inform you (before the papers do) that Mark Chilton is officially a candidate for Mayor of Carrboro!

Here is his statement posted here on OP earlier today:

With Mike Nelson stepping down, I am officially running for Mayor of Carrboro this fall. I held a short press conference this morning at Carrboro Town Hall about this and I am sure the papers will report the details tomorrow, but here is a short synopsis of what I said this morning.

1) The Northern Small Area Plan needs to be completely re-worked. 2) We should take up the Friends of Bolin Creek's challenge to create a Bolin Creek Preserve. 3) We must take a number of steps to strike a balance between increasing our commercial tax base and protecting existing neighborhoods. And 4) we need to rewrite a number of rules related to affordable housing including the Density Bonus, downtown performance standards, and voluntary annexation standards in order to increase affordable housing development in Carrboro.

I also talked some about my view of the role of the Mayor. In short I believe that I will play three roles as a Mayor - a listener, a mediator and a leader.

Chapel Hill Herald, Saturday June 04, 2005

Recently I was asked what I thought the issues would be in this year's Carrboro elections. I didn't have a ready answer. As I considered the question, it seemed that no one has been putting new ideas on the table for Carrboro lately.

Recent elections have functioned as referenda on the policies of the existing board, policies that have evolved over the past decade or so. This year, things have been pretty quiet.

Alderman Alex Zaffron hit a nail on the head recently when he suggested that the best thing the board had done lately might have been hiring Steve Stewart as town manager. Stewart has brought in his proposed 2005-06 budget without a tax increase.

It has long seemed that if there was an issue that could unite the diverse groups who are unhappy with the status quo, it was Carrboro's tax rate. Property taxes in Carrboro have tracked at some 20 percent above those of Chapel Hill despite the smaller town turning to its larger neighbor for a number of amenities.

This year, under Stewart's proposed budget and thanks to a modest increase in Chapel Hill, the gap will close a bit.