In this ten-minute rant, Chapel Hill Town Council Member Matt Czajkowski first lectures the entire room (which includes affordable housing experts and experienced elected officials) about basic economics, goes on to blame the town for home prices rising, and then just straight out yells at everyone for several minutes. Beware, this content is anxiety-triggering for me, possibly for others too.
In general most politician's campaign materials lack details. Its easy to say we're going to reduce taxes, but much, much harder to identify what to cut, so I'm not going to rule him out based on that. What did make up my mind, however, is his misunderstanding of mixed-use developments:
The race to be Chapel Hill's next Mayor is too close to call. Matt
Czajkowski leads Mark Kleinschmidt 45-44, a difference that suffice it
to say is within the margin of error.
The
key finding in the poll underscoring how divided the community is
headed into election day is that 49% of voters think the town is headed
in the right direction while 51% think it's off on the wrong track.
That should make for closely contested races both for Mayor and Town
Council.
I continue to be amazed by the number of people who tell me they don't see a huge difference between Mark Kleinschmidt and Matt Czajkowski. These folks usually describe themselves as "progressive"
(as do I, for the record) but they say they're voting for Matt based
on some single issue. Let me tell you, folks, I believe there is a
huge difference between these two mayoral candidates, and I think
anyone who is concerned with social, racial, or economic justice will find
themselves disappointed in a Czajkowski mayoralty.
The first statement you find on Matt Czajkowski's web site is:
"It is very clear that the property tax burden has become unsustainable. Many of the very people who have contributed to making Chapel Hill a special place are now being forced to consider leaving our town, counter to our cherished goal of preserving diversity at all levels."
Being an engineer and a numbers person I wondered two things. What was the data used to support the statement that diversity in the town was declining and, if so, what is the basis for connecting this to the property tax?
By now I have come to expect dissent from our newest Town Council member Matt Czajkowski. Whether it's defending power companies against the community's conservation efforts or resisting smart urban growth, Matt can be counted on for almost knee-jerk opposition to his colleagues' progressive ideas.
But he has now taken to personally attacking hardworking, knowledgeable, volunteers like George Cianciolo (aka George C here on OP). I served on the Planning Board alongside George, who also spent 6 years on the Chapel Hill Transportation Board, and has also represented us on UNC's Leadership Advisory Council and the regional Special Transit Advisory Committee. George is the kind of guy who probably spends more time in meetings than most people spend watching TV every week - and that's not even counting the research and preparation for doing the community's work.
The Chapel Hill Planning Board voted 6-1 to recommend the project to the council, and it was during board chair George Cianciolo's presentation that differences of opinion concerning the future needs of the town became apparent again.
There's been something floating around in my head since Monday night's council meeting. One item from the consent agenda entitled "Resolution Authorizing the Mayor to Request a Fee Waiver from Duke Energy
for Town Solar Energy Projects with 'Buy All/Sell All' Metering," sparked a mini-feud between Matt Czajkowski and Mayor Foy. Apparently, Duke Energy charges a rate for two-way metering that is significantly more than the rate they charge for a meter box on a typical usage-only application. As in, perhaps several times more. The exorbitant fee is putting a damper on the rate of return on the town's experimental panels on top of the fire station, and the mayor wanted to ask Duke if they could provide a more reasonable rate, whereas this is a rather experimental project, and is benefiting both Duke (who is getting the energy at peak usage hours, aka daylight hours), and the entire community, as per environmental benefits.
