Announcement from Randee Haven O'Donnell

Some decisions are simple and complex at the same time.

Community folks who are desperate not to lose my voice on the Carrboro Town Council have asked why I am not seeking reelection.

My answer is both simple and complex. Simply, I’ve been elected to serve five continuous times on the Carrboro Board of Alderman and the renamed Town Council. I’ve been in the room and at the table to guide our “little engine that could” hometown through expansion of her municipal boundary and the densification of her population. In my capacity as an elected Town official, I have engaged as a community organizer to build and fortify the community as we became the progressive stronghold we are today.

I am passionate about Carrboro and my Council work and continue to feel so. I am humbled by the gift of having served with my community folks and treasure all of our work together for our beloved hometown.

At this time, I encourage new voices to step up, collaborate and represent our beloved hometown community through its governance.

The more complex response is that at this unprecedented and urgent moment in American and human history, I am at a crossroads. Our democracy and the rule of law we have relied on and taken for granted is being dismantled from within the walls of all three branches of our federal government.

Town government is not designed for nor is it equipped to respond to the dismantling of the federal government and reshaping it into an imperial presidency. How and whether democracy prevails depends on us, the people.

It is time to invest more deeply in community awareness, action and advocacy. I feel called to act in a different capacity, one that furthers education, seeks to motivate and mobilize our citizenry to be resilient and face the challenges ahead together.

There are three areas I have been working on that demand more time and an expanded work effort than a Council seat allows:

• Human Rights, Women’s Reproductive Rights, Tenants’ Rights

• Climate, local stormwater mitigation and resilience, environmental preservation, protection, conservation

• Water quality and quantity and PFAS pollution

The personal is political. I am proud to be a Boomer, to have marched with Coretta Scott King to continue the good work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights and voting rights. I marched and advocated for LGBTQ+ and human rights and women’s reproductive rights and was present during anti-war and Stonewall protests.

I came of age in the Woodstock Nation. I worked to organize the first Earth Day events in 1970 and have been an environmental and science educator ever since. I am a certified diversity and multicultural education trainer and have served on the NCDEQ Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board.

In British Columbia, I was a farm worker, mentored by Manitoban Native North Americans, there I learned how to advocate for day laborers and organize a strike for higher wages. From that experience, I visioned the El Centro Center for Employment and Leadership in Carrboro.

All of these experiences prepared me for the work I have undertaken here in Carrboro and North Carolina. I have always addressed contemporary issues of my time and sought to engage all voices.

Now is the time for me to repurpose that early activism with the leadership skills I have developed on the Town Council. Therefore, with the urgency of this kind of community work in mind, I am not seeking reelection.