ethics
I was pretty surprised to read in the Independent that the new principal at Chapel Hill High has been copying large passages of text by other people and passing them off as her own memos, letter, and policies. What really shocked me, though was her indignant response:
"I'm not under the impression that I can't use that," [Sulura] Jackson said.
"This is not anything that I'm selling. This is not anything that I'm
using for personal gain."
She is presumably being paid for serving as the pricipal, but she's trying to say that if she's not being graded, it shouldn't matter. Is this what we're teaching high schoolers?
And I was also disappointed, but not terribly surprised, to see this incredible response from the school system's rep:
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools spokesman Jeff Nash referenced the
school's transfers when discussing Jackson's case, blaming the public
allegations against the new principal on "disgruntled folks over there
who don't like change."
Last week, I received a press release about the 2011 endorsements by the Anderson-Thorpe-Chapman Breakfast Club (quoted in its entirety at the end of this post). Unfortunately, the statement raised more questions than it answered. I spoke by phone with my friend Nate Davis, corresponded with NAACP representative Rob Stephens, and also e-mailed Fred Battle and Al McSurely, but was not able to get any answers to my questions. If candidates and the media are going to tout these endorsements, I think we should know a little more about where they came from.
Last week the upstanding Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors* announced they were endorsing realtor Joe Phelps for at-large County Commissioner (as well as farmer Earl McKee in district 2). How in-depth was the research behind this endorsement? They didn't even look at the other candidates.
The association said neither Jacobs nor Broun approached them about an endorsement.
“If we had been, we would have met with them and listened to their views,” Zimmerman said.
- Daily Tar Heel: "Realtor association at odds with Carrboro mayor over endorsement" April 21, 2010
Does the town of Chapel Hill have a code of ethics? For my ethics class in my Public Administration program I need to extensively review a public or non-profit's code of ethics. I've found this below, but I need something a little more substantive than 3 paragraphs.. at least a full page or two or more. I've been search the Town of Chapel Hill website to no avail, but I figure maybe some other OPers might have more experience using the (semi-recently redesigned) website and could point me in the right direction. Thanks for any help anyone can provide!
This is being released to the press today:
Jim White, Chair of the Orange County Democratic Party and Bill
Knight, Chair of the Orange County Republican Party issued the
following joint statement today:
Last week a mailing was sent to residents of Chapel Hill that was
supposedly from an organization calling itself “CHC PAC.” There is
apparently no such political action committee registered with the
Orange County Board of Elections and no contact information or mailing
address on the postcard. The postcard is designed to look like a
mailer supporting mayoral candidate Mark Kleinschmidt, and contains
attacks on mayoral candidate Matt Czajkowski.
I'm not even sure if this is a story, but it seemed interesting to me. It seems that UNC's new chancellor Holden Thorp was a partner with an RTP-based venture capital business that supports biotech start-ups. The chancellor had planned to continue his role there, but his brother Clay Thorp (who went to UNC with me) is the general partner there and felt it would be best to cut official ties.
Thorp is no longer a venture partner at Durham’s Hatteras Venture
Partners, says his brother, Hatteras general partner Clay Thorp. And
Holden Thorp’s equity stake in Hatteras has been put into a blind trust.
Clay Thorp says the decision was made as Holden Thorp took over the top spot at UNC on July 1.
“We decided mutually that it was best for him to have no formal role,” Clay Thorp says, “and to avoid any confusion.”
Holden and Clay Thorp still have informal discussions about science
and business, Clay Thorp says. But that’s as far as Holden Thorp’s
relationship with Hatteras goes.
Former Orange County School Board Member Dennis Whitling is now on probation and owes $106,138.24 in penalties after being convicted of embezzling funds from a former employer. His jail sentence was suspended but he'll also have to do at least 100 hours of community service.
[Cross-posting a good story about push-polling on the Transfer Tax (which the commissioners discuss tonight)at BlueNC by Greg Flynn.]
Orange County residents have been on the receiving end of dubious push poll telephone calls recently, described by one recipient as:
...what may very well be the most egregious violation of research ethics I have every experienced. The questions were all about transfer tax in Orange County and it was sleazy. The company was named TDM Research in Birmingham
TDM Research, associated with Democratic political consulting firm The Tyson Organization, whose clients include Bob Etheridge, has been responsible for other dubious push polls in Florida and Virginia in the past.
Today, in a news report by WRAL's Cullen Browder, posted on WRAL.com, House Speaker Joe Hackney was "linked" to convicted felon Bladen County business man Ron Taylor by the fact that his name appeared below Taylor's on an invitation to a political fundraiser. Taylor was convicted in 1982 of accepting a bribe while serving in the statehouse and also pleaded guilty of plotting to setting a rival's tobacco warehouse on fire.
Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of government watchdog group NC Policy Watch, was quoted as saying "It's a little troubling that, in this era of public mistrust of government and all the ethics scandals, that our leaders wouldn't be a little more careful about where their name is used."
Speaker Hackney says he plans to uphold his promise and attend the fundraiser.
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