Democracy & Open Government
Tonight the Orange County Commissioners had a work session including two items related to technology. In the first, a consultant from the UNC School of GOvernment (how many of those are there?) presented Strategic Information Technology Plan which prioritized investments in tools for citizen engament and delivery of services. They also heard a brief update on the county staff's attempt to make agendas more electronically accessible through clean, searchable PDFs.
Sent to the Chapel Hill Town Council on 9-10-12:
Dear Chapel Hill Mayor and Town Council:
I wish to thank those of you planning to vote against approval of the Charterwood development on September 12, 2012. It shows your recognition of the terrible precedent being set by the developer’s legal maneuver of merely recombining property tracts in order to circumvent neighborhood rights associated with the protest-petition.
So far this week, my e-mail to the school board was trapped in their spam filter (and not discovered until after they voted on the subject of the e-mail), and then I went to a public hearing at which the county commissioners did not in fact accept public comment. Not a great week for civic engagement.
Unsurprisingly, names have started to surface as possible
applicants for Penny Rich's open Town Council seat once she leaves her post to
join the County Commission in January. Today I heard via Twitter that George
Gianciolo and Jon DeHart likely plan to apply for the position.
While I'm sure either of these men would provide a
thoughtful voice for Council, the unpleasant reality is that if either were
appointed, the gender breakdown of CHTC would be just two women and seven men
(including Mayor Kleinschmidt). Council would be comprised of just 22%
women, exactly the same representation as the NC legislature.
It's
embarrassing that a municipal government we proudly consider to be a model for
progressivism in our state could possibly have the same gender breakdown as our
backward-thinking General Assembly.
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