
{"id":6933,"date":"2009-09-03T12:22:22","date_gmt":"2009-09-03T20:22:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=6933"},"modified":"2009-09-03T12:22:22","modified_gmt":"2009-09-03T20:22:22","slug":"council-to-meet-friday-on-strom-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2009\/09\/03\/council-to-meet-friday-on-strom-replacement\/","title":{"rendered":"Council to meet Friday on Strom replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Chapel Hill Town Council will hold an early-morning meeting Friday to review a plan and timeline for naming a replacement for former council member Bill Strom.<\/p>\n<p>Strom, whose term would have expired in 2011, resigned Aug. 1, after the end of the filing period for this fall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s municipal election and during the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s summer recess.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The special meeting was called to allow the council to review a proposed land purchase on Weaver Dairy Road in closed session. <\/p>\n<p>Foy also sent a memo to council members outlining a proposed process and timeline for filling the seat. In it, he recommends setting Oct. 2 as the deadline for applications to be filed. The council would review the applications at its Oct. 12 meeting and could submit names for nominations. Applicant presentations would be held on Nov. 9. In the memo, Foy points out that the presentations are optional, but are a traditional courtesy extended to the applicants. <\/p>\n<p>Under town ordinances, the mayor is required to provide official notification of a vacancy on the board at the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s next regular or special meeting. That triggers at least a 30-day process required for the council to put out the call for a potential replacement, review qualifications and officially nominate candidates.<\/p>\n<p>The council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first meeting back from its break was scheduled for Sept. 14. But Foy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s call for a special meeting to go into closed session to review a land purchase on Weaver Dairy Road means that the notification will take place on Friday before or after the closed session. <\/p>\n<p>Although Strom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s timing prevented placing the seat alongside the other four council slots on the ballot this year, it did not stop electoral politics and the bid to fill the vacancy from being intertwined.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after word circulated of Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s special meeting, council member Matt Czajkowski, who is running for mayor, said he strongly disagrees with the timing of the meeting. In a note to Foy, he cautioned that the short notice and early-morning hour \u00e2\u20ac\u0153will generate even greater skepticism toward the process.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Fellow council member and mayoral candidate Mark Kleinschmidt said Czajkowski\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s note was unfortunate and that his opponent was trying to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153stir the pot\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by questioning the mayor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s timing.<\/p>\n<p>Kleinschmidt said without evidence to the contrary, he would take the mayor at his word that the meeting to talk about the land purchase was necessary and not an attempt to jumpstart the selection process.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It basically has zero to no effect on the process,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said, adding that the nominations will still take place before the election and the nominations and selection after the meeting.<\/p>\n<p>Some town council candidates also said they were concerned with the timing and indicated they would not put in an application for the seat.<br \/>\nJohn DeHart said he would continue \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to try winning a seat by the electoral process.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>DeHart said the mayor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to call a special meeting and Strom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to resign after the filing period were strikingly similar.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more than coincidental the way they timed it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Penny Rich said she disagreed with Strom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s timing as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I do not know what motivated Bill Strom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to vacate his town council position or what influenced his timing. In a democracy, there is nothing more fundamental than the right to vote and thus choose your representation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rich wrote in an email to The Citizen. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I believe his replacement should be decided by the citizens, and that is why I will not be submitting my name for appointment to his position.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Matt Pohlman said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to see the council appoint a temporary replacement soon.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The current Town Council should appoint someone immediately to fill the vacancy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c stating explicitly that this position is to be\u00c2\u00a0interim until the new council is elected on November 3rd,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Pohlman wrote in an email response.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Once the new council is seated, they will select the council member to fill Strom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s empty seat for the duration of his term.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Kirk Ross Staff Writer The Chapel Hill Town Council will hold an early-morning meeting Friday to review a plan and timeline for naming a replacement for former council member Bill Strom. Strom, whose term would have expired in 2011, resigned Aug. 1, after the end of the filing period for this fall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s municipal election&#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":[356,363,276,365,364,366,367,369,368],"class_list":["post-6933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-2009-election","tag-bill-strom","tag-chapel-hill-town-council","tag-john-dehart","tag-kevin-foy","tag-mark-kleinschmidt","tag-matt-czajkowski","tag-matt-pohlman","tag-penny-rich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6933","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=6933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6935,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6933\/revisions\/6935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}