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LETTER: Come to the table

Posted on September 29, 2011September 28, 2011 by Staff

Editor’s note: This letter was received prior to the Monday night Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, where Mark Peters said he would attend committee meetings.
Recently, Mark Peters of A Better Site characterized the committee working to create a Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) for the IFC’s new Community House at 1515 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. as “biased” and lacking transparency. He also said:

“The project’s developer has stacked the good-neighbor plan committee with its supporters and has limited or denied participation of neighbors who live near the shelter. The last few meetings have been observable to the public, but citizens are prohibited from recording meeting discussions and the drafts documents have not been made available to the public before meeting.”

As a member of the committee, I strongly disagree with Mr. Peters’ characterizations. If Mr. Peters were to actually attend a committee meeting, he would see that the members represent a wide range of opinions and express them freely. We spent two lengthy meetings hashing out meeting protocols, during which we vigorously debated the pros and cons of video or audio records of meetings (among other issues). For a number of reasons, the committee ultimately decided against video and/or audio recordings, but the written minutes are thorough and extensive. In addition, in response to Mr. Peters’ complaint that United Church is not a “neutral” location, to date we have met in three different locations, all well publicized in advance and close to the site so as to be accessible to anyone from the nearby neighborhoods who would like to attend.

Mr. Peters was invited numerous times to participate in the GNP committee, either as a full member, as an alternate or as an observer. To date, he has declined to attend, so it is puzzling that he feels he can speak with so much assurance about the committee’s “bias” and “lack of transparency.”

Everyone participating on the committee is committed to and serious about our responsibility to craft an excellent Good Neighbor Plan, because we care about our town, our neighborhoods and the men who will be served at Community House. To date, each of us – volunteers all – has devoted almost 12 hours to this effort in meetings alone, plus additional time to read and comment on various draft documents.

While we are giving our time, our energy and considerable thought to this process, Mr. Peters sits on the sidelines, lobbing complaints. Once again, I urge him to come to the table and struggle with the rest of us as we respectfully debate, disagree and finally resolve many vexing and difficult issues in a good-faith effort to do the right thing for our community.

Eleanor Howe
Chapel Hill

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