“Progress” is a vector, a direction. It's not a goal or an accomplishment. Some progress is better for a democratic republic society with a tradition of individual freedoms as a whole, some is decidely not. It depends upon what one is progressing towards.

A very keen insight into the Progressive mindset of control was recently demonstrated at the 2010 legislative breakfast between the Carrboro governance board (the Boa) and the Orange County General Assembly delegation. If you think that Carrboro is weird now, then just wait until the Boa gets home rule.

According to the meeting notes, “Alderman Haven-O’Donnell brought up the issue of municipal home rule…Alderman Coleman proposed a model in which a municipality’s legislative delegation can approve local bills without having to go through the entire General Assembly.“

Home rule for Carrboro portends local income taxes (wanted by Alderman Lavelle), carbon reduction taxes or controls (wanted by Alderman Slade), local sales taxes (wanted by the whole board), restrictions on cars so as to drive you onto public transit (wanted by Aldermen Coleman and Gist), and a freedom to concentrate greater power to those imbued with the desire to issue resolutions on French fries and overseas military engagements while destroying their local economy.

If you thought that local Progressives can interfere and make your life miserable now, then just wait until they get home rule.

One of the hallmarks of local Progressives is the hypocrisy of the double standard. It’s okay for you to have a drug rehab center and a homeless men’s shelter next door to you. It’s not okay for them to be next to me or my friends. So it should come as no surprise to Pulpsters to learn that realtor/developer Mayor Mark Chilton has come out against endorsing not only a fellow realtor, but also a fellow Democrat running for county commissioner, Mr. Joe Phelps.

Mr. Chilton openly split with the endorsement of Mr. Phelps by the Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors (Association). In the words of Mr. Chilton, “Mr. Phelps has shown himself to be antithetical to city and rural planning.” Unfortunately, Mr. Chilton didn’t provide a single example to support his conclusion. (SeeDTH Chilton Hypocrisy Story.)

Mr. Mark Zimmerman, an Association spokesperson said incumbent Mr. Barry Jacobs never asked for an endorsement. He also said that Mr. Phelps was endorsed because he supports private property rights and economic development. But Mr. Chilton said the Phelps endorsement was aimed at realtors gaining advantage in Orange County at a time when development is a major issue.

What did he say? Can this be the same Mr. Chilton who has used his position and his friends on the Carrboro governance board to get personal advantage as a realtor in Orange County at a time when development was a major issue? Can this be the same Mr. Chilton benefitting from the multi-million dollar public road improvement outside the Veridia development he’s hawking as Veridia's realtor, instead of spending that money improving the Carrboro corridor on Estes Drive?

Perhaps Orange County can only afford one Progessive realtor politician lining their pockets at a time.

Pulpsters would think that local Progressives would be in favor of open, transparent government, particularly at the local level. You would think that local Progressives wouldn't want a repeat of the closed, back door, unfair process used by the Commishes to propose siting the trash transfer station on Eubanks Road. You would think that local Progressives would be in the forefront of questioning the closed, back door, unfair process used by the Chapel Hill Town Council to site the IFC men's shelter. You would be wrong.

None other than anarchist, censored-blog fascista Ms. Ruby Sinreich spoke out against those trying to disinfect the Chapel Hill government with sunshine. Ms. Sinreich singled out local school activist Mr. Mark Peters for daring to ask the Chapel Hill government for all emails relating to the shelter siting.

Ms. Sinreich's words do not need analysis. In a thread entitled ”Mark Peters is watching you”, Ms. Sinreich said, ”I understand you've also asked the Town of Chapel Hill to share all official e-mail regarding relocating the homeless shelter. I can kind of imagine what you're trying to get at there, but I doubt you'll find anything useful. So maybe Mayor Foy and the Chancellor Moeser made some kind of arrangement to transfer this land, that's already publicly apparent. What does that prove? How will that help your neighbors' cause to keep the Interfaith Council's Community House out of the neighborhood? It almost seems like you want to intimidate public officials, Mark. I'm not sure why.”

Mr. Peters responded to Ms. Sinreich in his usual open and respectful manner. ”It's really quite simple. There is no directory of local email addresses which we can use to find the email addresses of our neighbors. I was hoping that we could find some of our neighbor's email addresses in the list. I suspect that if you 'really' wanted to know why, then you would have emailed me or called me rather than blindsiding me on the front page of OP. Had you asked, then you could have at least added that to the initial article. Clearly this post is meant to intimidate me.”

On 16 April 2010, around 10:45 a.m. a gunshot rang out on a Chapel Hill High School bus.

Within hours of the arrest, the non-Progressive, regional broadcast media reported that the arrrested culprit was bringing a gun to school to get revenge for a lost fight with an “ABP” gang member. Friends of the arrested student said, ”The suspect had kind of lost the fight. So he came back to school with his own weapon and decided to get revenge and shoot back at the student. We didn't know when he was going to do it, but he said he was going to do it…That he was going to get revenge.” (See TV11 Broadcast.)

Gang member? What gangs are infiltrating city school? According to a city school spokeperson, they aren't aware of any gang members operating in their schools. Ignorance is bliss.

Here's a Pulp hint for the city school board members. Read the two most recent 2008 and 2009 reports from the Governor's Commission on gangs in North Carolina. Even for Progressives, sometimes ignorance isn't bliss.

In most of North Carolina, an attorney representing a town would not represent a real estate developer actively developing in that town, even if the representation was for a development outside the town. After all, there’s the concept of the appearance of impropriety. There’s also the natural question, how can one truly advocate for and against the interests of the same person contemporaneously? How can one truly advocate for the best interests of town citizens against the interests of a developer that one is advocating for in an adjacent town?

However, Orange County isn’t like the rest of the state. Here, there can’t be corruption. Here, there can’t be conflicts of interest. Here, there can’t be appearances of impropriety. Progressives are pure of motive. Thus, these things just can’t be, even when (to those living in the non-Progressive world) they exist.

So, it should not come as a surprise to Pulpsters that Mr. Michael Brough, who simultaneously served as the Carrboro town manager and the Carrboro outside contractor town attorney (a situation in which he completely agreed with himself on all decisions), is once again pushing the boundaries of representation. Mr. Brough continues his two decade plus representation of Carrboro. A reign so successful, no citizen knows how many millions of dollars he's received to give advice that consistently places Carrboro in court to the benefit of Mr. Brough’s wallet.

As Carrboro's most expensive attorney, he's seen local developer and local political campaign contributor Ms. Carol Zinn come before the Carrboro governance board (the Boa) many times with multi-million dollar development projects. When Ms. Zinn appears, he must give advice to the Boa, advice that one would hope often conflicts with the interests of Ms. Zinn. He's supposed represent the interests of the Boa. In turn, theoretically (now don’t laugh), that means he's supposed to represent the interests of town citizens. However, it would be wholly naive to believe that Ms. Zinn's interests are always aligned with town citizen interests.

Turns out, Mr. Brough sees no problem also representing Ms. Zinn when she has problems with the adjacent twin town, Chapel Hill. (How convenient to have helped then Mayor Ellie Kinnaird stop the town merger movement back in the 1980s.) Yes, Mr. Brough represents Ms. Zinn in her battle over the proposed Ayden Court development in Chapel Hill. Mr. Brough wrote Chapel Hill staff attorney Mr. Ralph Karpinos concerning an alleged trespassing by Town Councilor Ed Harrison on Ms. Zinn’s property.

Mr. Harrison indicates that Ms. Misty Buchanan, a botanist with the N.C. Natural Heritage Program, and he visited ground zero in February 2010. However, he asserts that he never left adjacent UNC land to wander onto Ms. Zinn’s land.

Mr. Brough claims that just because of the visit (which is described as a trespass) Mr. Harrison may have lost his objectivity. Apparently Mr. Brough doesn’t want to forgive us our trespasses, preferring to lead us into temptation. According to Mr. Brough, Mr. Harrison might not be able to consider the merits of any future proposal for Zinn’s land “without having a fixed opinion prior to hearing the matter,” as required by law. (SeeN&O Forgive Us Our Trespasses Story.)

Curiously, Mr. Brough can maintain his objectivity in representing against Ms. Zinn in Carrboro, while representing for Ms. Zinn in Chapel Hill. However, Mr. Harrison has lost his objectivity by strolling on land next to Ms. Zinn’s.

In true progressive fashion, Mr. Karpinos found the loophole to restore Mr. Harrison’s objectivity. Ms. Zinn didn’t have an active development request in front of the town of Chapel Hill while M. Harrison perambulated. Thus, Mr. Karpinos may have provided Mr. Brough with his excuse as well. Appearances of impropriety be damned. So long as Ms. Zinn doesn't have an active development in front of Carrboro while Mr. Brough is actively representing Ms. Zinn in Chapel Hill, all is well. How progressive!

Here’s a fascinating note from Mr. Karpinos. According to him, you are free in Chapel Hill to walk on any other person’s land as you desire.unless the owner tells them otherwise, as with a “No Trespassing” sign. So start checking out all those fancy residences in Meadowmont and the Oaks. Until you're told to scram, it's OK!

No word on what Mr. Karpinos will say to the town governance board if “No Trespassing” signs sprout on all the residential yards of Chapel Hill as a result of his opinion.

As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the return of Mr. Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, it’s important to remember the small role Orange County had in ensuring that the maturation of the next indoctrinated communist in Cuba. As a six year old, Mr. Gonzalez was found floating on an inner tube off the coast of Florida. His mother drowned trying to cross the Florida Strait so as to escape Cuban repression to reach America. Mr. Gonzalez’s extended family in Miami sought his legal custody, arguing that the boy’s mother died trying to get him to the freedoms of America, and was going to stay with them when she arrived with Mr. Gonzalez. The South Florida Cuban immigrant community embraced him as a symbol of the struggle of ordinary Cubans to flee the oppression of Fidel Castro's communist regime.

However, Mr. Gonzalez’s father wanted him returned to Cuba. The father was assisted in his cause by Cuban dictator, and model Progressive, Fidel Castro. (After all, who knows better what is best for how the Cuban people should live than the privileged Fidel Castro.) By allowing Mr. Castro to turn the young boy into a propaganda symbol, in true palocracy fashion the father was showered with being “more equal than the others”. Suddenly, the father was made a member of the Cuban National Assembly, just like Mr. Dan Coleman being appointed to the Boa.

Helping to ensure that Mr. Gonzalez was raised as a model communist was none other than Commish Mike Nelson. Yes, as then-Carrboro, Mr. Nelson had the uncontrollable urge to fly to Miami (home to the glamorous South Beach bacchanalia) and to march in the streets for Elian’s right to be a model communist. Thankfully, he controlled his urges long enough to have the Boa issue one of its powerfully effective and famous meddling-in-other-people’s-affairs declarations. In February 2000, the Boa passed a resolution demanding Elian’s return to Cuba.

Why a non-Hispanic mayor from a small town in Carrboro with no familial ties to the Gonzalez family should be injecting himself into the Gonzalez affair continues to remain a mystery. However, in those days Mr. Nelson had a penchant for flaunting symbolism against the regressive President George W. Bush administration. He had the following swastika flag displayed in his office in town hall, behind his desk.



Mr. Gonzalez, now sixteen years old, attends a communist military school defending “his revolution in the youth congress.” His defense has been enhanced by the presence of a Cuban State Security monitoring station next to his home. (See Gonzalez Update Story.)

In most of North Carolina, elected officials are painfully aware of the record almost 12% unemployment rate. They’re painfully aware of the businesses that have shuttered never to return. They’re painfully aware that most private businesses didn’t raise wages last year, aren’t raising wages this year, and may not raise wages next year.

However, Orange County isn’t like the rest of North Carolina. Here, Progressives rule. Here, Progressives prattle on about a local living economy while living off the benefit of an extractive non-local economy. Here, the economic engine of UNC extracts taxes from the 99 other counties in the state.

Pulpsters may be dismayed but not surprised to learn that Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton doesn’t appreciate the effects of unemployment outside his town, doesn’t care about the businesses stupid enough not to suck off the government teat, and doesn’t care one hoot about securing town services at prices approximating that available in the private sector. After all, we’re talking about Progressives. Don’t pay what the market bears, pay what you think the market should bear. Never contract out a service that can be done more expensively by government bureaucrats, preferably by government bureaucrats with fat benefit packages.

All it took for Mr. Chilton to support raising wages in the greatest recession since the Great Depression was a report from a hired consultant (Springsted, Inc.). John Anzivino, Springsted senior vice president declared that 28 employees, (about 19% of the workforce) are paid less than the firm’s suggested minimum salary requirements. How did he come to this conclusion? By talking to the employees!

Each employee was given the opportunity to pimp and pump the value of their job. Springsted, a private firm that tells public employees what they want to hear, then compared Carrboro compensation to other public employers including state employees. OWASA employees, and Orange County employees. He didn’t bother to compare services to regional private employers offering the same services.

One can only wonder who directed Springsted to ignore the compensation paid private garbage collector versus public garbage collectors. That might have led to the obvious confirmation of numerous other studies showing that public employees received substantially more in benefits than their private counterparts.

Bottom line, the minimum wage should be increased to $11.82 per hour. Improving low-wage employee salary would cost the town $26,191 annually (about 0.5%). Bottom line across the board, Springsted recommends increasing the entire Carrboro payroll by $380,785 (about 5.5% of the total payroll). Almost an hour of discussion and nary a word about the private wage situation was uttered.

Showing his sense of social justice, Mr. Chilton said government workers deserve to earn a living wage. Apparently, what happens to private employer wages is of no concern to public employers.

No word on how much money Carrboro paid Sprinsted to raise the minimum wage while also paying the finance and human resources department payroll who are responsible for settign the minimum wage.

No word on why the $26,000 isn't coming from a reduction in wages of the top town staff members.

The latest government food assistance numbers paint a revealing montage of the current economic conditions. In North Carolina, about one in seven people use food stamps from the government to eat as of March 2010. That places the state as having the seventeenth highest percentage of the state's population using food stamp users.

The good news is that North Carolina is not as bad off as Mississippi or Tennessee where one in five are using food stamps. The bad news is that SNAP participants increased in North Carolina by 20.5% from January 2009 to January 2010.

Here’s a table showing the numbers: