Citizen Will

Tag: chapel hill

  • Personnel Appeals Hearing Kerry Bigelow: Conclusion, Short Edition

    Some quick thoughts on tonight’s hearing (Personnel Appeals Hearing Kerry Bigelow: Evidence and Process). Was there clarity? No. Are some issues more understandable? Yes. Both the Town and Mr. Bigelow agree that he was a solid worker with a “good attitude”. Both agree that something changed when Mr. Bigelow filed an EEOC complaint when he […]

  • Personnel Appeals Hearing Kerry Bigelow: Evidence and Process

    It’s interesting to see the Librsary Meeting Room set up for tonight’s hearing on Clyde Clark’s personnel appeals hearing. There are 87 seats prepared for the public, four police cars in the front parking lot (one unmarked), six uniformed officers downstairs,me and fellow local activist Terri Buckner. Folks are trickling in – as of 6:40pm […]

  • Comprehensive Plan Refresh, A New Toolbox

    Probably the best Council comment during Monday’s Comprehensive Plan discussion came from Ed Harrison. Ed, who often relates how his neighborhood straddles the Orange/Durham county border, explained how Durham has newly integrated a set of tools in its comprehensive plan to guide both developers and staff. The effort was spurred, Ed said, primarily by the […]

  • AAA Bond Rating: Don’t Bet Against Clemson

    Chapel Hill’s AAA bond rating is noteworthy. The care our elected folks have taken to maintain it over a decade laudable. But is it fair to say, as Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt did yesterday, “it is almost, but not quite, as rare for a town our size to have a AAA rating by Standard & Poor’s […]

  • Comprehensive Plan – Compromise or Consensus?

    Last night Mike Collins and George Cianciolo (current and former heads of the Planning Board) laid out an interesting plan of action to move the Town’s planning process forward. Most importantly, they underlined the need for a more measurable, nuanced plan that works as an adjunct to the current Comprehensive Plan. Their plan also emphasized […]

  • Affordable Housing – Preferences and/or Priorities

    Big agenda this evening. I also commented on the proposal for creating a range of housing options as a consequence of implementing the inclusionary zoning ordinance. Other folks commenting included Anita Badrock, Operations Manager of the Community Home Trust and Rob Reda, the local director of Habitat for Humanity. For the last 6 years, I […]

  • Comprehensive Plan Refresh, Long Overdue

    The former and current Planning Board chairs made a concerted call for a long overdue refresh of the Town’s Comprehensive Plan. This refresh and elaboration on the existing plan is long overdue. I started calling for a re-evaluation 6 years ago when the original plan had an already scheduled a review of the underlying assumptions […]

  • Purest Form of Democracy: Raging Grannies to the Fore

    First big meeting of 2011 and, pre-meeting, an example of how Chapel Hill’s community expresses democracy in one of the purest forms as ten Raging Grannies filed in singing “We will not be moved…”. They and about 20 other supporters are here to remind Council that concerns over the Clark-Bigelow dismissal. This concerted effort sends […]

  • Lot $$$5 Lurches Forward?

    Council has been quite patient with their development partner RAM Development. The Lot $$$5 project has seen delay after delay, the basic tenets under which is was justified shifted substantially over that time. For instance, developers apparently didn’t need the Lot $$$5 project to whet their appetite for Downtown projects as three are on-going. Even […]

  • Recreation Fee Reduced Redux

    Last month I took my concerns about the proposed recreation fee structure amendments to Council (Parks Impact Fee: How Many (More) Goodies Do High Density Developers Need?). Tonight, Council revisits the proposal for possibly the last time. Unfortunately, the issues I raised Oct. 18th were ignored by staff. The reason I petition Council at their […]

  • Bolin Creek Beauty

    I’ve been highlighting the importance of treating the Bolin Creek watershed as a regional resource suffering from our piecemeal approach establishing adequate policies for its protection. The whole basin requires, and deserves, a greater level of cooperation between Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Orange County, Orange Water and Sewer Authority(OWASA), the State’s Divisions of Water Quality (DENR-DWQ) […]

  • Clark, Bigelow Out

    Following up on yesterday’s post(Chapel Hill Council: Union Busters?) the Chapel Hill News reports (Solid waste workers under investigation are fired) that Clark and Bigelow have been fired. They will have 14 days to appeal the decision. It appears Council was informed Wednesday night but, as per the Town’s rules, played no part in the […]

  • Chief Blue?

    Looks like only one of the five potential internal candidates for Police Chief expressed interest in the position: Chris Blue. Chris’ evaluation “will focus on the characteristics that have been identified that we need in a chief and the extent to which his behavior fulfills those characteristics. The basic characteristics we are looking for were […]

  • Chapel Hill Council: Union Busters?

    [UPDATE] Oct. 29th, 2010 Chapel Hill News reports that Clark and Bigelow have been fired. They will have 14 days to appeal the decision. It appears Council was informed but as per the Town’s rules played no part in the decision. The Council chambers were definitely rocking last night. The strange issue of Town employees […]

  • Chapel Hill Police Department’s Community Outreach – Round 2

    Looks like I’m stuck on “law and order” mode with the latest series of posts. The Chapel Hill Police Department is hosting an additional community outreach Nov. 4th, 4:30 and 5:30pm at Extraordinary Ventures, Elliot Rd. (INFO). The meetings present an opportunity to comment on and improve the department’s new strategic plan. The plan’s current […]