Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
issue of the number of Board seats, seven is a trend in North Carolina. In 1953, Orange County <br />went from three to five members, largely in response to population growth. There has been <br />significant growth since 1953 and he thinks it is time to increase the number of seats to seven. <br />He supports aseven-member Board with a proposal similar to Representative Faison's or a <br />five-member board with a "district vote", with one of those candidates voted on only by the <br />residents of the district. <br />Dolly Hunter lives in Bingham Township. She opposes Proposal 5 because it is the <br />same if not worse than the present election system. She said that it just perpetuates the <br />existing system with an even less chance of rural representation. She said that the rural <br />residents should be able to elect who best represents their interests and it is not logical to let <br />Chapel Hill decide who represents the rural residents. She said that a logical and fair method <br />would be to have each district vote for their candidates in the primary and elect their Board <br />members in the general election. Afive-member Board should have no at-large members and <br />have two members from the rural district and three from the Chapel Hill district. A seven- <br />member Board should have two members from the rural district and five members from the <br />Chapel Hill district or a combination of at-large and Chapel Hill residents. Regardless, she said <br />that each district should be able to elect those who represent them best. These methods would <br />maintain the majority, but protect voices that otherwise would not be heard. She is also <br />concerned about the transition process. She suggested that the 2008 election, with the five- <br />member Board, have one rural district seat filled and the seven-member Board would have two <br />rural district seats filled. Then, in the 2010 election, with the five-member Board, the remaining <br />rural district seat would be filled and the seven-member Board would have the remaining at- <br />large seats filled. She said that the rural seats would need to be filled sooner than later. She <br />suggested that the referendum have a third box that says, "In favor of district voting, but not of <br />this proposal." She said that in the final report of Shaping Orange County's Future, the number <br />one top ten critical issue was putting community building first by changing the election process, <br />including looking at increasing the size of the Board to make the Board more representative of <br />the rural County citizens. She said that all County Commissioners do a great job with issues <br />that treat all citizens equally, such as social services, but when it comes to land use, it feels the <br />County Commissioners make decisions that favor the Chapel Hill voters that elected them and <br />not the rural people. She made reference to an article in the News and Observer yesterday <br />where Senator Ellie Kinnaird was quoted, "If you are the incumbent in power, you want to <br />maintain that in the next election. It's the nature of an organization to maintain itself." She said <br />that if the County Commissioners feel that they truly represent the rural people and they want to <br />make the election process in Orange County the best that it can be, they will make a district <br />voting resolution of integrity and not incumbency. <br />Bill Ray said that he is representing the American Legion and he commended the <br />County Commissioners for getting started on district representation. He said that they have not <br />gone far enough. He spoke in favor of more districts and seven County Commissioners. He <br />lives in northern Orange County and it has been 20 years since they have had a County <br />Commissioner living to the north of Hillsborough. <br />Representative Bill Faison distributed a letter and materials to the County <br />Commissioners. He lives on a farm in Cedar Grove and he said that he loves everybody in <br />Orange County, but he represents the people that live in the 75°~ of Orange County that does <br />not include Chapel Hill and Carrboro. He said that there is a problem in the way we elect <br />County Commissioners. He said that Chapel Hill and Carrboro makes up 213 of the population <br />of the County, but the County also has a small town area of Hillsborough and Efland and rural <br />areas. He said that beginning 13 ~/z years ago, there was an agenda item almost identical to the <br />one they have tonight. A task force grew out of this item that one year later reported back to the <br />County Commissioners that, "the current system does not provide for fair and equitable <br />representation for all the citizens in the County." A proposal grew out of this for a district at- <br />