Carl Fox starts with the observation that 9 out of 10 people sitting in his court audience are young African-American males.
“What are we doing wrong that is causing so many males to end up in court and what can we do to fix the situation?”
Category Archives: Community
Here comes the judge: The Forum – Stein’s Question
What experience do you have?
Here comes the judge: The Forum – Baddour’s Question
What is the most important thing, if elected, you’ll accomplish over the next 8 years?
Adam Stein talks about how he can only serve about 1/3rd of a term (about 2 years).
Here comes the judge: The Forum – Question #2
What role should political parties play in judge elections?
Here comes the judge: The Forum – Question #1
Importance of community? Your role in the community?
Redistricting Referendum: Is Education Enough?
The League of Women Voters has asked me to speak at two forums in the coming weeks as “the opponent” to this referendum (because of my Sept. 2006 Chapel Hill News column “All Quiet on the Election Front”).
Moses Carey will argue for the referendum and I’m supposed to do 5 minutes on my opposition. Of course, I don’t have either the gravitas or the months of background Moses brings to this issue so it’ll be a bit of David and Goliath.
I’m trying to bend my schedule so I can make at least the first forum. More when I know.
Until then, here’s a press release (via Mark Peters and SqueezeThePulp) on the initial education efforts:
October 11, 2006
With upcoming discussions on the District Election Referendum, a web page has been created on the Orange County website to provide basic information. You may wish to consider this as a research source.
The page contains links to the following:
– Simplified wording of the issue
– Questions and Answers
– Maps
– Links to sample ballots (for the exact wording of the referendum)
– Information on educational sessions
The page can be found under “What’s New” from the main Orange County web page or the link below.http://www.co.orange.nc.us/OCCLERKS/DistElectWeb.htm
This link will be updated as additional information arrives.
Within the next week, brochures with much of the same information will be distributed to many public locations.
Here comes the judge, and the judge and the judge and the potential judge
I know, short notice of tonight’s (Wed. Oct. 11th, 2006) forum for Superior Court 15B candidates. The forum is sponsored by UNC’s Young Dems.
From Matt Liles OrangePoltics notice:
The Orange County Young Democrats will hold a forum with all four candidates for Superior Court on Wednesday, Oct 11th at 7pm in Room 4085 of the UNC School of Law.
Directions to the Law School are available at www.law.unc.edu. Parking is available in the lot adjacent to the law school after 5pm and additional parking is also available in the School of Government lot.
The candidates are:
- Judge Allen Baddour – current sitting judge (and a candidate I strongly endorse for November)
- Judge Charles Anderson – who I endorsed in the primary.
- Judge Carl Fox
- Attorney Adam Stein
I hope a few issues come up this evening:
- Mr. Stein’s inability to serve all but a fraction of a term (covered here and here by Duncan Murrell).
- Practical ideas for streamlining the court process (and maybe whack some of the costs out).
- Restoring some humanity to the justice system.
- The incredible amount of monies raised for this race (Stein is on track to beat $100K mark) and the distorting influence that has on future races.
Carl Fox, everyone tells me, has a lock. It certainly looks that way when you he spent the least, $26K, and raised the least, $28K, but was the top vote getter in the primary. That means a 3-way race among Baddour, Anderson and Stein.
Adam Stein has a quite respectable background, a solid list of endorsements, but when I talk to his supporters it always seems like they’re awarding a sinecure for a life of solid and praiseworthy work rather than enlisting someone with a strong vision for the courts future and the wherewithal to carry out the tasks before them.
This is an eight year job. Stein’s problem of a predictably foreshortened career on the bench should be addressed.
I’ve learned a bit about the work of a Superior Court district 15B judge over the last year. It is a tough job.
Our courts system is being battered, unfortunately, by rising demands. Hopefully this evening we’ll hear some innovative, practical ideas for addressing foreseeable stresses on our local court system.
Durham Literacy on the run…
As reported by local activist and former VISTA volunteer BrianR , the Durham Literacy project has to move and needs help:
The Durham Literacy Center in Durham, North Carolina who helps hundreds of people a year learn how to read and get a high school equivalency is being forced out of their building due to mold. The Hearld Sun has written a good article allerting people to DLCs serious need.
Please consider making a donation at Network for Good to help a program Brian describes as “AMAZING and important…for the Durham community”.
Local ‘bloggers Bora Coturnix and Paul Jones join to beat the drum.
OrangePolitics: Three Down, Many More to Go
Congratulations to Ruby, the editors and many commenters that have made local ‘blog OrangePolitics such a vital forum for our community.
Three years ago, less than a week into OP’s life, Ruby graciously permitted me to blather on about Chapel Hill’s red-light scamera fiasco. Over the years, though I know I’ve tested her patience, she’s continued to host my and other folks contrarian, at least to her, viewpoints.
Yes, there’s been some controversy over content. Some folks opening up dialogues on other forums. Others going silent. Yet others moving on to their own gigs. All together, though, OP, through the efforts of Ruby, the editors and its community, have maintained a high signal to noise ratio.
As I noted elsewhere, the “long tail†of OP reaches back through time to help folks work today’s current issues. It continues to be a critical resource for local activism.
Once again, congratulations Ruby.
And if you move OP to a CivicSpace platform, one small request: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don’t break your links!
Madison: Some Smoozing, No Snoozing.
At least, not much snoozing as participants have reported on local ‘blog OrangePolitics.org.
I appreciate the time and effort Mark Chilton, Gene Pease, Fred Black and Dan Coleman put into real-time reviews.
I hope some of our other “known” blog commenters (Anita, Linda, Aaron, Andrea, Diane ?) get in to the act.
[UPDATE:] Anita and Frances Henderson joined in.
UNC’s Board of Trustee Roger Perry: You’re Insulted?
UNC trustee and local developer Roger Perry said his sense was that UW-Madison officials essentially tell the community that the university’s mission requires it to do a certain project, and then everyone goes to work on preventing negative impacts, without trying to stop the project in general.
He said he’d like to get to that point in Chapel Hill, and that it can be somewhat “insulting” when someone not connected to UNC says they really aren’t convinced the university needs to do what it says it needs to do.
Perry is insulted when someone outside of UNC questions the whys-and-wherefores of campus development?
What the hell? Near quoting from the authoritarianism playbook, Perry says he likes a community that doesn’t question the diktat of the university – a community that just “deals” with the university’s negative impacts.
Perry appears to long for the day when citizens “shut up” and STOP SAYING they aren’t really convinced about what the university needs to do. My guess? It isn’t the citizen taxpayer questioning the “needs” as much as the citizen taxpayer that questions the “hows” that really inflames his ire.
The obvious sub-text is Carolina North.
The fine residents of our community, the hard-working taxpaying citizens of our State, deserve more than the University’s current flimsy assertions of positive financial, economic and social impacts. From a straight business perspective, for the investment demanded of our community and State, the return is hardly clear.
While I believe the University needs to expand, I have been quite clear that the justifications UNC, to-date, have offered up for Carolina North are, at best, fundamentally weak, at worse, downright disingenuous.
Roger Perry and the rest of UNC’s Board of Trustees absolutely must address the glaring absence of any reasonable, documented, calculable return on investment before I, a single North Carolina citizen taxpayer, will be convinced of the soundness of their plans.
Of course, this is the board Carolina North’s designated quarterback Jack Evans claims can’t handle reading a 15 page list of development principles for Carolina North.
What a trip for the Carolina North boys. Perry’s “shut up” is a fine bookend to Moeser’s reaction to “freelance dissent”.
Robert Seymour on Our Community’s Fit, Frail and Fragile
The fit 80+ year-old Robert Seymour has a short WCHL commentary [*MP3] on the Human Services Advisory Council’s 5-year master aging plan to help manage the greying of Orange County. He notes our county already has more than 18,000 residents over 60 years old – a figure sure to explode as the “baby boomers come on-line.”
More from Robert’s commentary [*MP3], tha Aging Advisory Board, the Orange County Human Services Advisory Council and county department on Aging.
There are numerous vacancies on the various aging related advisory boards. Please consider getting involved.
- Aging Advisory Board – 3 vacancies
- Human Services Advisory Board – 9 vacancies
Applications for these and other County advisory boards are here.
*MP3 with the kind permission of WCHL 1360AM
Madison Smoozefest: The Cost of Aaron Nelson’s Brickless Breakfast
The Chapel Hill News (CHN) just posted Lisa Hoppenjans’ initial article on the Madison trip (Lisa is one of three reporters bird-dogging the event).
Aaron Nelson once again weighs in on the importance of building personal relationships amongst the delegation:
“There’s certainly room to improve the quality and tenor of communication when we are in disagreement. When you have breakfast with somebody, it changes the nature of the relationship,” Nelson said. “It doesn’t change your disagreement. It just means you’re more likely to talk about it before you throw a brick.”
How much will that brickless breakfast cost?
With a few more details and “facts” than the HeraldSun article, the CHN provides the following nice breakdown of governmental expenditures:
Money spent so far by local governments to send public employees and elected officials to Madison, including airfare, ground transportation, hotel rooms and most meals.
Carrboro………………………….$6,920
Chapel Hill…………………….. $11,805
Hillsborough………………………$2,490
Orange County…………………..$5,588
The $26,803 doesn’t account for the nearly 20 UNC employees (at $1100-$1300 a pop). While the CHN mentions the $26,803 is the cost after the organizers “scholarship award” reductions, it doesn’t list who got the discounts. I’m interested. Maybe the organizers, in the spirit of transparency, will publish the complete breakdown of who paid out-of-pocket, who used institutional funds and who surfed on the public’s largesse.
Included is a funny recollection by former Chapel Hill Mayor (and my neighbor) Jonathon Howes’ of the power of a similar trip:
Former Chapel Hill Mayor Jonathan Howes went on several of the Public-Private Partnership trips. Howes, now at UNC as special assistant to the chancellor for local government relations, said things residents see now in Chapel Hill were specifically influenced by those trips.
The idea for the Downtown Commission, which has evolved into the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, came from what a similar group of participants learned about in Boulder, he said.
Well, that trip to Boulder was over 25 years ago and not all the folks on 1991’s Council were happy about it.
Council Member Andresen inquired about the Town’s annual membership dues to the Public-Private Partnership. Council Member Werner said approximately $1,200. Mayor Howes stated that the Public-Private Partnership was an organization composed of community leaders, serving as a forum for discussion of ideas of mutual interest. Council Member Werner expressed concern that it was not a Council-wide decision to join the Public-Private Partnership. Mayor Howes said that specific information on memberships was outlined in budget detail information. Council Member Andresen suggested that Council Members provide reports on the out-of-town public official trips in the future. Council Member Herzenberg noted that a full report had been made on the PPP’s trip to Boulder, Colorado. Council Member Andresen said that decisions concerning memberships such as the PPP should be made in a more open manner. Mayor Howes said that if the PPP took any future trips, the Council might wish to consider a resolution on funding and related matters.
The actual evolution was: Downtown Commission (strangled by Mayor Foy’s lead to defund), the unfortunately acronymed Downtown Economic Development Corporation (DEDC/”dead sea”) and, now, the Downtown Partnership (DPC).
Though quite effective sponsoring downtown events, handling recycling, sprucing up Franklin St. the Downtown Commission hit a bump when they endorsed a draconian panhandling ordinance (and produced the interesting 2002 Kaufman report on downtown’s homeless “feeding frenzy of bars, casual restaurants and tourist/university gifts”).
The DEDC, much more University oriented, hit a major bump, including the principled resignation of their chairman – attorney and former officeholder – Bob Epting, when they insisted on carrying out the public’s business behind closed doors.
The DPC, under Liz Parham, has done a much better job. Excepting some inherited issues with 501c3 status/conflict of interest, the DPC, more than a couple decades after the Boulder trip, is living up to its promise.
May the flowers of Madison bloom somewhat more quickly.
Madison Smoozefest: Aaron Nelson’s “Phone Call”
Fred, one of the Madison attendees, over on OrangePolitics said he didn’t like my suggestion, given the organizer’s professed desire to “build relationships” – establish “synergies” amongst the group, that, for a few folks, there was a bit more to the Madison trip than simple learning or altruistic desire.
Chamber of Commerce director and trip sponsor Aaron Nelson pegs it pretty well: “”You get to spend a lot more time with each other,” Nelson said. “And there’s something really important about the shared experience.”
“The second reason is to build relationships among our community leaders,” Nelson added. “The hope is that when you get back, and you have an issue you need help with, you can pick up the phone and call the guy you sat next to on the plane for four hours.”
Once again, as we see from today’s soon to evaporate HeraldSun, the “shared experience” (smoozing) was of driving importance to the organizers of this event.
Now, of course, other attendees have different primary goals: inclusionary zoning, how a university building a research park deals fairly and honestly with neighborhoods, downtown economic development – even panhandling.
Again, we have a great crew attending. I fully expect the time, effort and more than $100,000 spent on this trip to yield benefits for our community.
But let us not pretend that Aaron Nelson’s “phone call” isn’t part of the calculus of the Madison event.
Whether that “phone call” benefits the community, as I imagine one between Mike Collins of Neighborhoods for Responsible Growth (NRG) and UNC’s Chancellor Moeser might, or not, will be measured in time.
The Best Things in Life…Carrboro’s Musicfest
Wonder if this Carrboro event will end up in Chapel Hill Magazine?
This weekend’s Carrboro Music Festival should be great especially if the weather holds.
The 9th Annual Carrboro Music Festival is September 24, 2006. Our day long, free festival will feature numerous musical styles at 21 indoor and outdoor venues including The Carrboro Century Center, Cat’s Cradle, Weaver Street Market, Armadillo Grill, Open Eye Cafe, The ArtsCenter, and the Carrboro Town Commons. The outdoor sites will feature music until dark, while some of the indoor venues will go until midnight. As always, the event focuses on a myriad of musical styles with 150 different musical aggregations, ranging in size from solo artists to a seven piece World Music band.