Agenda - 03-21-2006-9a - Laserfiche WebLink

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DRAFT 4 l1 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1.3 14 ]s 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 .30 .31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 Dolly Hunter lives in Bingham Township, She opposes Proposal 5 because it is the same if not worse than the present election system, She said that it just perpetuates the existing system with an even Tess chance of rural representation, She said that the rural residents should be able to elect who best represents their interests and it is not logical to let Chapel Hill decide who represents the rural residents. She said that a logical and fair method would be to have each district vote for their candidates in the primary and elect their Board members in the general election. Afive-member Board should have no at-large members and have two members from the rural district and three from the Chapel Hill district. A seven- member Board should have two members from the rural district and five members from the Chapel Hill district or a combination of at-large and Chapel Hill residents.. Regardless, she said that each district should be able to elect those who represent them best. These methods would maintain the majority, but protect voices that otherwise would not be heard. She is also concerned about the transition process, She suggested that the 2008 election, with the five- member Board, have one rural district seat filled and the seven-member Board would have two rural district seats filled. Then, in the 2010 election, with the five-member Board, the remaining rural district seat would be filled and the seven-member Board would have the remaining at- large seats filled. She said that the rural seats would need to be filled sooner than later. She suggested that the referendum have a third box that says, "In favor of district voting, but not of this proposal.," She said that in the final report of Shaping Orange County's Future, the number one top ten critical issue was putting community building first by changing the election process, including looking at increasing the size of the Board to make the Board more representative of the rural County citizens. She said that all County Commissioners do a great jab with issues that treat all citizens equally, such as social services, but when it comes to land use, it feels the County Commissioners make decisions that favor the Chapel Hill voters that elected them and not the rural people, She made reference to an article in the News and Observer yesterday where Senator Ellie Kinnaird was quoted, "If you are the incumbent in power, you want to maintain that in the next election., It's the nature of an organization to maintain itself." She said that if the County Commissioners feel that they truly represent the rural people and they want to make the election process in Orange County the best that it can be, they will make a district voting resolution of integrity and not incumbency, Bill Ray said that he is representing the American Legion and he commended the County Commissioners for getting started on district representation. He said that they have not gone far enough. He spoke in favor of more districts and seven County Commissioners. He lives in northern Orange County and it has been 20 years since they have had a County Commissioner living to the north of Hillsborough. Representative Bill Faison distributed a letter and materials to the County Commissioners, He lives on a farm in Cedar Grove and he said that he loves every, body in Orange County, but he represents the people that live in the 75% of Orange County that does not include Chapel Hill and Carrboro. He said that there is a problem in the way they elect County Commissioners. He said that Chapel Hill and Carrboro makes up 2/3 of the population of the County, but the County also has a small town area of Hillsborough and Efland and rural areas. He said that beginning 13 %Z years ago, there was an agenda item almost identical to the one they have tonight. A task force grew out of this item that one year later reported back to the County Commissioners that, "the current system does not provide for fair and equitable representation for all the citizens in the County," A proposal grew out of this for a district at- large method of election, increasing the County Commissioners from five to seven, with five elected from districts and two elected at-large. The County Commissioners did nothing with regard to this proposal. Four years later, the matter came up again by Commissioner Carey, who said, "a plan to provide district representation would increase the probability that citizens who live in the rural areas will have a reasonable chance of being elected," In response to this, the County Commissioners did nothing. Six years later, the issue was brought up again by