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Pelissier wins at-large seat

Posted on November 6, 2008 by Staff

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

Democratic candidate Bernadette Pelissier defeated Republican Kevin Wolff for the at-large seat on the Orange County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday.

Pelissier received 48,037 votes, compared with Wolff’s 21,085, or 69.5 percent to 30.5 percent. She fills the seat of longtime Commissioner Moses Carey, who lost in the Democratic primary for state senate.

Pelissier won’t be the only new face joining the board of commissioners. Democrats PamHemminger and Steve Yuhasz, who ran uncontested, will also begin terms as commissioners, as the board expands from five to seven members. Hemminger represents District One and Yuhasz represents District Two.

Commissioner Valerie Foushee also ran uncontested and will begin a new term on the board.

Voters approved a referendum in 2006 that divided the county into districts and expanded the board from five to seven members. Board members new and old said the expansion would both benefit and challenge the board.

Pelissier said she thinks the expansion will be a great asset to the board.

“You have two more people who can be liaisons to the various advisory boards, who can reach out to the public,” she said.

The three new faces on the board will bring a fresh perspective, she added.

“When you have three new members, I think that means it’s an opportunity to just look at how we do business as a county government,” she said. “When you have the same people, you kind of get set in your ways.”

Hemminger, who recently submitted her resignation as chair of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education, said she looks forward to joining the larger board.

“I think the challenge is that there will be three newbies on the board,” she said. “I think there will have to be different kinds of dialogues going on.”

Hemminger said she would like to see board members utilize technology to improve communications with the public and one another, which will be especially important in a tight budget year.

Yuhasz said he believed the bigger board would change the way the commissioners approach county business.

“There will be a different way of doing business with more members,” he said. “I think it will be beneficial to the board to have a wider variety of opinions.”

Yuhasz said his first priority on the board was to represent the people of District Two and that he felt that one of the biggest challenges facing the board would be balancing the budget in a difficult economic climate.

Foushee said that while she didn’t place expectations on incoming board members, she believed the board’s expansion would change the dynamic on the board.

“What I expect the most is new energy,” Foushee said. “The two new members in terms of expansion will be a welcome change.… I think it’s going to work in the board’s favor.”

Foushee said she would like to see the board move forward with affordable housing, ending homelessness and bringing economic development that will help relieve the property tax burden.

Board Chair Barry Jacobs, whose term expires in 2010, said the board faces a great many challenging issues, including the budget, the waste transfer station, a new airport and more, adding that the expansion of the board could bring different insight on various issues.

“I think there will be a lot of enthusiasm. I think there will be a lot of challenging of assumptions,” he said. “I think there will be more of a sense of business and less of a sense of individualism.”
Foushee, Hemminger, Pelissier and Yuhasz will be sworn in as county commissioners on Dec. 1.

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