Is there a local election this year?

Last night 12 candidates for Carrboro, Chapel Hill, and Hillsborough Town Councils/Mayor met with residents at the Carrboro Library to discuss local politics. The evening, hosted by the Orange County Democratic Women, began with an introduction from each candidate. Although the introductions were supposed to be limited to 90 seconds, the time limit failed on the very first introduction and continued throughout the full roster.

The format for the forum was “speed dating.” Chairs were arranged in 9 (?) small circles, each with 9 chairs, and every 10 minutes the candidates rotated to another group. Poor turnout by residents meant that some groups were very small (one only had 2 people). The low turnout wasn’t a surprise. After all, there are no challengers for any of the seats except Chapel Hill Town Council and even then only one seat will be challenged. Technically, there is a challenger for Carrboro mayor but that individual doesn’t have a website, hasn’t completed any questionnaires, and didn’t show up for the forum.

The small groups were not organized by town, so candidates weren’t necessarily speaking with residents from their town. This was explained as acceptable due to the close relations and similar concerns for Chapel Hill and Carrboro, but it meant (IMHO) that the discussions stayed generic and somewhat shallow. For example, I believe every single candidate raised affordable housing as an issue. But the two towns have very different approaches/concerns since Chapel Hill manages the public housing for both towns and they work directly with UNC on some of their affordable housing projects. They also have town-owned land, a huge advantage that Carrboro simply doesn’t have.

My question for the first few candidates who came through my group was how they expect to pay for adding more affordable housing, greenways, the Carrboro Downtown Plan, and other aspirational plans. In case you aren’t aware, both towns have spent down their “reserve” (savings) accounts and have raised property taxes so high that people are moving away due to the high cost of living. To me, that signals both towns are (financially) broke although one candidate took exception to that description. I decided to stop asking the question when it became clear there is no plan and no good ideas for now.

But it’s the question more people need to be asking. Not because it will impact voting decisions, but because we need a plan. Carrboro has invested in their downtown redesign plan, both towns have hired contractors to redesign their land use plans (LUMO for Chapel Hill and UDO for Carrboro), and Chapel Hill is committed to their Complete Communities design. All great ideas that have already consumed large investments of time and money for both towns.

Whatever happens, new development will be coming to the area–unless the federal government continues to slash research and development funding. One candidate speculated that we have at least one more year before those budget cuts show up in our local economy (I think the county commissioners might argue that the cuts are already impacting us). The North Carolina Legislature is adding their own idiotic decisions into the brew by eliminating the ability of the Chapel Hill Town Council to zone UNC property.

Given the overwhelming daily turmoil created by our federal government, the state’s continued efforts to punish “progressive” communities, and the lack of competition in this local election, it’s not surprising that this election is not a top priority for voters. But the local financial challenges are significant with both the state and the federal governments pushing more and more of the human service costs down to our county and municipal governments. It’s going to take a community to address those budgetary reductions–or at least to hold the hands of those stalwart individuals who have put themselves forward to find a path through the morass.