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Council seeks help on vacancies

Posted on March 11, 2010March 18, 2010 by Staff

Kirk Ross
Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL — When members of the Chapel Hill Town Council sit down to discuss issues with the local legislative delegation this morning, they’ll bring an additional request beyond the usual fiscal and planning matters.

Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt reminded the council at its meeting Monday night that trying to find a better way to select replacements for council vacancies is among the items under consideration.

During the closing days of the 2009 municipal election and in several meetings afterward, the council struggled with the rules in filling a seat left vacant after Bill Strom resigned on Aug. 1. Strom’s timing meant that seat could not be added to the ballot, and, under rules adopted in 1995 after a previous vacancy, the decision was left up to the council during an election season with an open seat for mayor and the potential for a large change in the composition of the council.

Kleinschmidt said he and his opponent in the mayor’s race, council member Matt Czajkowski, had a recent conversation about coming up with a new set of rules. The two had differed before and after the election over whom to appoint and why.

“Matt and I both agree that that’s not something the town deserves to have to go through again,” Kleinschmidt said, “and if there is a way we can provide a system to allow the community to get through the filling of a vacancy in a way they feel good about, then we should try to find that way.”

The mayor said that in addition to consulting with the legislative delegation, he would like to see the town gather together some options for how best to make the changes.
Donna Bell, who was appointed to fill the empty seat, said it will always be difficult to draw the line on vacancies close to an election.

She said the town should look at allowing voters to express their preferences through prioritized voting, where they could express the order of their choices.

“One of the things that might have made the process easier is if there was some true sense of how folks were elected,” she said.

Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos said the town may have some flexibility in changing the triggering dates under the current rules without going to the legislature, but that any major change to the town’s rules on elections would likely require approval by the General Assembly.

In other action, the council reviewed plans for a new Walgreens at the corner of Estes Drive and Franklin Street and approved a special-use permit to allow for construction of a two-story building on the corner.

After hearing concerns about how traffic would flow around the site, the council removed plans for a proposed median on South Estes Drive.

Also on Monday night, the council:

• received a petition from residents in Southern Village asking for a lower speed limit and other traffic-calming measures to reduce speeding;

• heard from residents who are organizing opposition to burning coal at UNC’s Cameron Avenue co-generation plant and calling for the town to get involved in the effort;

• approved changes to the town’s Land-Use Management Ordinance, including the addition of medical offices as an acceptable use for certain zones; and

• authorized the town manager to request from Orange and Durham counties the authority to issue pyrotechnics permits within town limits.

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