
{"id":9300,"date":"2010-03-11T11:06:34","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T19:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=9300"},"modified":"2010-03-18T09:26:30","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T17:26:30","slug":"council-seeks-help-on-vacancies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/03\/11\/council-seeks-help-on-vacancies\/","title":{"rendered":"Council seeks help on vacancies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>CHAPEL HILL  \u00e2\u20ac\u201d When members of the Chapel Hill Town Council sit down to discuss issues with the local legislative delegation this morning, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll bring an additional request beyond the usual fiscal and planning matters.<\/p>\n<p>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.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<\/p>\n<p>Kleinschmidt said he and his opponent in the mayor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Matt and I both agree that that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not something the town deserves to have to go through again,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Kleinschmidt said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<br \/>\nDonna 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One of the things that might have made the process easier is if there was some true sense of how folks were elected,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n<p>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rules on elections would likely require approval by the General Assembly.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>After hearing concerns about how traffic would flow around the site, the council removed plans for a proposed median on South Estes Drive.<\/p>\n<p>Also on Monday night, the council:<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 received a petition from residents in Southern Village asking for a lower speed limit and other traffic-calming measures to reduce speeding;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 heard from residents who are organizing opposition to burning coal at UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Cameron Avenue co-generation plant and calling for the town to get involved in the effort;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 approved changes to the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Land-Use Management Ordinance, including the addition of medical offices as an acceptable use for certain zones; and<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 authorized the town manager to request from Orange and Durham counties the authority to issue pyrotechnics permits within town limits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When members of the Chapel Hill Town Council sit down to discuss issues with the local legislative delegation this morning, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll bring an additional request beyond the usual fiscal and planning matters.<\/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-9300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9300","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=9300"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9320,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9300\/revisions\/9320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}