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Let's take a look at the non-partisan elections on the ballot this November.
Local Judicial Races
There are plenty of judicial races, but there's only one local competition: The much discussed Superior Court race in which we get to pick two from a list of four. The candidates are The Hon. Carl Fox (former DA), The Hon. Allen Baddour, Attorney Adam Stein and The Hon. Chuck Anderson (currently a District Court Judge). Plenty has been said about this race already on another thread so I will leave it at that.
District Court Judge Joe Buckner is running for re-election, but is unopposed on the ballot. He certainly deserves and will get another term.
The state-wide judicial races are also non-partisan, although, as it happens, all of the races have one Democrat and one Republican running. There will be no indication on the ballot as to which party the judicial candidates belong to.
North Carolina Supreme Court
The Leadership Advisory Committee on Carolina North had an interesting discussion about housing as a part of Carolina North this afternoon.
Here are some prepared comments that I presented as a way of launching the discussion:
The housing problem at Carolina North is, in short, that the new workers at Carolina North will either live at Carolina North or they will live elsewhere and need to commute to the campus. There is not a great deal of vacant housing currently available within the Chapel Hill Transit service area (although there is some), so new employees will either have to occupy housing that is to be built in the Chapel Hill Transit service area, or they will have to live outside that service area and commute. Let's take a look at the scale of the problem:
The Ayers/Saint/Gross Development Plan commissioned by the University proposed to build the following:
So has anyone used the new Blue Urban Bikes yet?
For a $10 annual membership fee, riders can rent one and roll out for up to 24 hours.
"For people used to driving everywhere, this is an easy, cheap introduction to public transportation," said Chris Richmond of the ReCYCLEry, an amateur mechanics collective that will maintain the fleet.
The ReCYCLEry runs the bike-loan project with the Carrboro-based environmental group SURGE, which stands for Students United for a Responsible Global Environment.
Similar initiatives have cropped up in other college towns such as Davidson -- home of Davidson College -- Austin, Texas, and near Emory University in Atlanta, Ga.
- chapelhillnews.com | Cup of java and a bike to go, please
Congrats to Orange County for doing what no other government in the county has accomplished: hiring a woman as the top executive.
Here are stories in the Chapel Hill Herald and Daily Tar Heel, and here's the full press release from the county:
The Orange County Board of Commissioners has agreed to hire Laura Blackmon as the next Orange County Manager. Ms. Blackmon comes to Orange County from Osceola County, Florida, where she has served as assistant, deputy, or acting county manager since 2001.
Ms. Blackmon is an Alabama native and has a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Political Science/Public Administration from the University of Florida at Gainesville. She began her professional career as a high school Social Studies teacher before entering government administration.
She is married to Jerry Walters and she is 53 years old.
Since this is Orange County and since the primaries are already over, it's easy to think that the November election will be another ho-hum approval of the Democratic slate. This year that is not the case. In addition to a very competitive judicial race, Orange County voters will be asked to weigh in on a ballot measure to change the way we elect County Commissioners.
While I am quite ambivalent about this proposal, the County is not. They have appointed a District Election Education Committee (meeting Wednesday 10/18 at 5 pm at the OWASA building on Jones Ferry Road), will be holding two public forums on the proposal (7pm 10/18 at OWASA in Carrboro & 7pm 11/1/06 at Battle Courtroom in Hillsborough, and have established a website (http://www.co.orange.nc.us/OCCLERKS/DistElectWeb.htm)!
In 1954 the Orange County Board of Commissioners was expanded from three members to five members. Prior to and since that time, Commissioners have been elected “at large,†which means all registered Orange County voters could select from all candidates.
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