
{"id":5081,"date":"2009-03-05T11:46:28","date_gmt":"2009-03-05T19:46:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=5081"},"modified":"2009-03-05T11:46:28","modified_gmt":"2009-03-05T19:46:28","slug":"board-limits-campaign-contributions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/03\/05\/board-limits-campaign-contributions\/","title":{"rendered":"Board limits campaign contributions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>By Susan Dickson<br \/>\nStaff Writer<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/em><br \/>\nThe Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted unanimously on Tuesday to limit campaign contributions to $250 for candidates for town elected offices. <\/p>\n<p>According to the ordinance, anyone accepting a contribution from an individual for more than $250 would be fined the amount in excess of $250. Exceptions to the ordinance include contributions from a candidate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spouse, partner, parents, brothers or sisters.<\/p>\n<p>No one spoke against the limits in the public hearing or in board member discussions. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think that participatory democracy is good democracy, and I think that if you have a small cap then you will have more people involved,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d resident Jenny McMillan said. <\/p>\n<p>Board members said they strongly supported the limits. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m very much encouraged by limiting the cost of democracy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d board member Joal Hall Broun said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be a democracy that you get what you pay for.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nBoard member Randee Haven-O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Donnell agreed. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It keeps overall campaign costs down,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153To me, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really important&#8230;. When you neutralize the costs, then you have everyone on a more level playing field and the entire campaign season doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get out of hand.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Under North Carolina law, campaign contributions are limited to $4,000. The North Carolina General Assembly approved a charter amendment last summer allowing Carrboro to limit campaign contributions to $250.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The more I think about this, the more I enthusiastically support it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d board member Jacquie Gist said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen some things happen in neighboring counties where big money has come in in order to influence elections in a way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really against the best interest of the grassroots and the community.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Also at the board meeting, town attorneys provided board members with an update of a case involving a dispute over a residential apartment that town officials say they never knew about. Mayor Mark Chilton said that the board would not normally discuss litigation publicly, but chose to do so after an article in the Herald-Sun addressed the issue.<br \/>\nThe town contends that Marilyn Kille, a resident of Peppermint Spring Farm on Old Fayetteville Road, installed an apartment in a barn built in 1997 without getting the proper permit or paying required impact fees. <\/p>\n<p>Kille maintains that the town knew about the apartment and inspected the building during construction.<\/p>\n<p>Following the update, Chilton and Kille engaged in a sharp exchange.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This was nothing but a charade to deceive the people of the town of Carrboro,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kille said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You know that. I hope you can sleep well tonight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Chilton replied, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You are the person who has deceived the people of the town of Carrboro and cheated the taxpayers of Orange County&#8230;. I paid the school impact fee when I built my house.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Susan Dickson Staff Writer The Carrboro Board of Aldermen voted unanimously on Tuesday to limit campaign contributions to $250 for candidates for town elected offices. According to the ordinance, anyone accepting a contribution from an individual for more than $250 would be fined the amount in excess of $250. Exceptions to the ordinance include&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5082,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5081\/revisions\/5082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}