The Orange County Democratic Women hosted their municipal election forum last night. All Democratic candidates for Carrboro Board of Aldermen, Chapel Hill Town Council, and Hillsborough Town Board were invited. The moderators of the event announced that Amy Ryan and Sally Greene had conflicts and could not attend, while Paul Neebe did not notify OCDW as to why he did not attend.

Molly and I attended and did our best to provide some livetweets of the event, though that proved difficult at some points, as the forum turned into more of a discussion about halfway through. At that point, candidates and audience members divided up into specific municipalities for municipality-specific questions and answers. I was personally a little frustrated by the format, as I felt that it didn't allow for much discussion of specific issues confronting the towns and our county at large.

If you were unable to attend, you can review our tweets from the event below.

It’s standard procedure. When we need to find a new County Manager or Superintendent of Schools or other top-ranking staff member, a consulting firm (usually also non-local) is paid to winnow the field of applicants from across the country. Then the appropriate local body makes their choice and awaits the arrival of the new person, someone who has likely received training for employment administering homogeneous systems used everywhere in this huge, diverse country.

Granted, there are so many rules, legalities, and standard operating procedures in government that the priority may necessarily be to find someone who has proven adept at dealing with the bureaucratic labyrinth and standard policies.

By accepting this priority we are effectively saying that local knowledge of the history, people, policies, environment, and politics of our town, county, or school district is secondary to knowledge of how to govern according to the state or nationally prescribed norms and requirements.