By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
With Election Day just seven weeks away, the Carrboro municipal races shifted into high gear with the first in a series of election forums and a candidate for Carrboro mayor calling for Alderman Dan Coleman to step down.
The first forum of the season was held at Carrboro Town Hall Monday night and included candidates for alderman and mayor. The forum, sponsored by the Sierra Club, featured some fireworks early on with mayoral candidate Brian Voyce’s opening statement.
Voyce said he would not seek the group’s endorsement, then went on to admonish the organization for its record of backing candidates who he said had not been responsive to the concerns of the Rogers Road neighborhood about environmental justice.
The neighborhood, adjacent to the Orange County Landfill, has been battling a proposed waste transfer station and has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice against Orange County, Chapel Hill and Carrboro.
Voyce urged the Sierra Club to suspend its endorsement process.
“I ask local Sierra Club leaders and members to engage in a period of deep introspection. I ask them to review their string of past candidate endorsements, endorsements that cover all of our local officials who have overseen the infliction of environmental injustice upon the Rogers Road community. I ask them to acknowledge their role and fix the Sierra Club endorsement process so that such injustice never stains our communities again,†Voyce said in his opening statement.
He then left the forum.
Sierra Club chapter chair Bernedette Pelisser said Wednesday she was taken aback by the statement, particularly since the group has not been working on the issue and the decision about the transfer station was made by the county commissioners and not the Carrboro Board of Aldermen.
“I don’t mind someone taking a pot shot at us because of some stand we’ve taken, but we haven’t been involved in the issue,†she said.
The rest of Monday’s two-hour forum focused mainly on issues of how the town can work to reduce its waste stream and carbon footprint, encourage more bike and pedestrian connections, and how development on the northern side of town needs to include commercial spaces in order to reduce trips and automobile emissions.
The forum was attended by Mayor Mark Chilton and mayoral candidate Chuck Morton, along with aldermen Coleman and Joal Hall Broun and aldermen candidates Sharon Cook, Katrina Ryan and Lydia Lavelle.
Ryan and Cook did bring the issue of Rogers Road up again, with both saying they do not think the neighborhood received fair treatment and that they will push for the county to reopen its landfill search.
Among the other highlights of the discussion:
- Chilton said that the new Jordan Lake stormwater rules, better infrastructure for bikes and long-range public transportation planning were the chief environmental challenges facing the town.
- Morton said that the town should continue to grow up and not out and wants to see a grocery store and greater commercial development to serve northern areas of town.
- Lavelle said that she will work to improve and maintain the town’s system of trails and greenways.
- Ryan called for the town to create an energy office to improve its own energy efficiency.
- Cook said she will work to make sure there are adequate sidewalks and other connections so that more high school students can bike and walk to school instead of drive.
- Coleman said he would like to see the town encourage residents to reduce the amount of waste they produce.
- Broun said she wants to see the town encourage smaller homes and wants to crack down on households that use excessive amounts of water for irrigation.
- All of the candidates agreed that the town should not pursue pay-as-you-throw garbage collection.
Voyce on Coleman
Monday’s speech wasn’t Voyce’s only appearance at Town Hall this week. Speaking before the Board of Aldermen at their Tuesday meeting, Voyce called for Alderman Dan Coleman to step down pending the resolution of his recent arrest after an altercation at Hank Anderson Park with a volunteer at a cross country meet.
Coleman is facing a misdemeanor charge of assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly bumped his car into the legs of a volunteer who was trying to prevent traffic from crossing the runners’ route. Coleman has said that his account and the volunteer’s differ and that he hopes to resolve the issue. The volunteer, Amanda Kotecki, was not injured in the incident, but later testified before a magistrate who found probable cause to charge Coleman.
In an interview with The Citizen Wednesday afternoon, Voyce said he hoped Coleman would voluntarily step aside until the issue is resolved and that to do so would not be an admission of guilt. Although Voyce has been critical of Coleman in the past, he said his call for him to step down was not personal.
“This has nothing to do with Alderman Coleman as a person,†Voyce said. The issue, he said, is what is the right thing to do under the circumstances.
At the meeting Tuesday, members of the board of aldermen did not comment on Voyce’s request. Coleman and Chilton declined to be interviewed about it.
“I don’t mind someone taking a pot shot at us because of some stand we’ve taken, but we haven’t been involved in the issue,†she said.
Wow, I thought this was the Sierra Club we were talking about. Is this not part of their interest?