Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
themselves. He feels they should move ahead and look at the options for districts and consider the legal <br />process for making this happen. <br />Commissioner Willhoit said that there are two issues here. One is the district representation <br />and the other is the cumulative voting and he is against the cumulative voting and not interested in pursuing <br />that in any form. In North Carolina there has been a move among counties for district representation in the <br />last number of years and in every case, that move has been the result of a court order or the threat of a court <br />order related to racial balance on the board. That is simply not the case in Orange County. It would be <br />difficult to draw a district that would be predominant black that would adhere to the principle of one person, <br />one vote. <br />Chair Carey made it clear that he did not propose this to try to insure black African American <br />or minority representation. This proposal will not do that and that was not his objective. It also will not <br />address those philosophical issues that were raised when there were five members of this Board from <br />southern Orange County. It will address some of the concerns and perceptions people have about whether <br />there is representation on this board from rural areas. It will insure rural representation. <br />Commissioner Crowther agreed that they need to look at this issue and come up with some <br />recommendations that may be feasible and applicable to this county. He feels that at some point they will <br />need the idea of townships being part of our system in having citizens represented from those townships. <br />Commissioner Willhoit feels that district representation will become a hot topic when there is <br />the proposal to merge the schools and that it makes sense to then have geographical representation on a <br />merged school board and at that time perhaps it would be the appropriate time to look at Commissioner <br />districts. <br />Commissioner Gordon said that this has come up at the Board's goal setting retreat and she <br />said at that time that she would be willing to at least discuss it but it was not discussed. She feels that <br />discussion at one of their goal setting retreats is a more appropriate time. She said that a core piece of the <br />proposal is to ensure rural representation from the more rural areas. She does not see how this goal can be <br />achieved with five districts. She feels that, looking at the population, it is important to be sure that one <br />person on this Board of Commissioners comes from outside Chapel Hill Township. It means that there must <br />be at least one, perhaps two from outside Chapel Hill Township which also means that if you use the one <br />person one vote logic, there would need to be three, perhaps four from within Chapel Hill Township. <br />Dividing into five districts would mean that a number of them would have Chapel Hill population in <br />them which might defeat the purpose of getting rural representatives. She feels that to address this problem, <br />they would need to think about fewer districts than five and maybe multiple memberships. She wants to give <br />the staff the flexibility of considering multiple member districts. The easiest method might be for Chapel Hill <br />Township to be a district and for the other townships to somehow be apportioned, while also allowing at large <br />representation. If this is referred to staff, she wants to add to the recommendation that staff tell the Board <br />about the legal requirements for the proportion of voters required in the districts. Also, she feels they should <br />ask staff to consider other alternatives than just 5 residential districts, such as 2-5 districts, multiple member <br />districts, and at large representation to make the districts come out mathematically correct in terms of <br />population. Five residential districts will not work. <br />Commissioner Halkiotis feels that this is not urgent, but an opportunity to gather information and <br />produce a report. This can be preliminary and can be enhanced, cut-back, added onto, etc. with all the <br />options in that report. He emphasized that he is an advocate for women's rights and feels that this Board <br />has been environmentally sensitive to all issues brought before the Board. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Crowther, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to first look <br />at all the options using a residential district election plan and then, if none of these are workable, to look at <br />other forms of election. They asked that the County Attorney and the County Manager gather information <br />and produce a report which details a plan to implement a Residential District Election Plan as soon as <br />possible. The report should include, but not be limited to, the legal authority of the County to take this action, <br />any state or electorate approval needed, costs associated with implementation, and a proposed process for <br />establishing district lines. <br />VOTE: UNANIMOUS <br />B. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT FOR 5011503 WEST FRANKLIN <br />Purchasing Director Pam Jones summarized the information in the agenda. <br />A motion was made by Commissioner Crowther, seconded by Commissioner Halkiotis to <br />approve and authorize the Chair to sign an agreement with ESM Associates for property management <br />services at 501 West Franklin Street for an amount equal to 6% of gross monthly rental.