To those who don’t have intolerant ideology and blind partisanship coursing through their veins, the moral and ethical way to fill a panel elective seat that's vacated before the election, but vacated after the filing period for that election, is to have the highest vote getter not elected to the panel to receive the vacant seat.

However, Orange County is all about intolerant ideology and blind partisanship.

Back in 2005, Carrboro had an alderman seat vacated by the election of the new mayor. The fourth highest vote getter for the three open alderman seats was Ms. Katrina Ryan. She didn’t receive the open seat. Instead, Mr. Dan Coleman moved from Chapel Hill into Carrboro and didn’t bother to file to run for alderman office. Instead he just had to lobby a handful of elected officials to be awarded the seat. How progressive!

In 2009 history has repeated the Orange Progressive tradition. Mr. Bill Strom went RVing, leaving his Chapel Hill town council seat vacant after the move permanently out of state one month BEFORE the filing period for an election that could have filled his seat. Six votes decided who would get Mr. Strom’s seat. How progressive!

The Chapel Hill Town Council gave the seat to Ms. Donna Bell, the latest political anointee. Ms. Bell, like Mr. Coleman, didn’t bother to run for office in November. Like Mr. Coleman, she and her husband, euro-Causcasian Mr. Jason James, only had to lobby the council to win. She didn’t have to campaign for months. She didn’t have to participate in any political election forum. She didn’t have to raise money. She didn’t have to write up any position statements.

She did have to write her good buddy, new Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt a one page letter asking for the seat. Why was Ms. Bell so much better qualified than Mr. Matt Pohlman, the highest vote getter (about 3400) not winning a council seat?

Race, the answer boils down to race. Ms. Bell is African-American. Mr. Pohlman is not. With the council’s only African American member (Mr. Thorpe) retiring, and with no African-American candidates bothering to run for office, the answer is clear to progressives. Racism is best fought by being racist.

Councilor Laurin Easthom displayed her famous insightful powers. She said her vote as a council member was more important than the about 3400 Chapel Hill voters voting for Mr. Pohlman. It must be a diifficult burden to live with so much self-importance.

Ms. Bell’s support of Mr. Kleinschmidt’s mayoral run had nothing to do with her appointment. Her contributions of time and money to Mayor Kleinschmidt, her name endorsement in ads, her distribution of campaign literature had nothing to do with her appointment. It's about race. You either are of the right race for maintaining cosmetic diversity, or you aren't.

Showing great fairness, every town council member personally called and “interviewed” Ms. Bell, while only four contacted Mr. Pohlman, none in earnest.

Showing his great wisdom, Mr. Kleinschmidt said, ”This is not a decision that is going to make everyone happy in the moment we make it. We just have to hope that once we make a decision that the service the person provides will be able to dissipate that anger.” It's like executing the wrong person for the right reason.

In most places in North Carolina, a sitting, politically progressive, elected official who sells their home to move permanently out of state one month BEFORE the filing period for an election that could fill their soon-to-be vacant seat would declare their intent and allow voters to decide their replacement.

But Orange County isn’t like most of North Carolina. Here, “progressive” political thinkers realize that the choice of municipal officials is a task best done by appointment of the anointed, by the anointed, for the anointed.

Despite every effort to strip real choice from the voters, elections might mistakenly allow diversity in representation. (As Pulpsters know diversity should be retricted to cosmetic purposes only.) Your betters know that having gained the power of incumbency, it’s much harder to unseat an anointed appointee. Look at how appointed Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman in 2007 was able to ride out vehicular assault charges as an incumbent, with the cooperation of his fellow board members and the “ever vigilant” local media, which happens to include Mr. Strom's spouse.

Pulpsters shouldn’t be surprised to learn Chapel Hill Councilor Bill Strom has “gone RVing” after selling his 714 Greenwood Road home, all to deprive Chapel Hill voters from voting on filling his vacancy. Mr. Strom sold his Chapel Hill home in early June. (He’s leaving for New York for unknown reasons.) But he didn’t announce his resignation until after July 14th, after the deadline passed for filling his remaining two year term by an election.

Retiring Mayor Kevin Foy knew about Mr. Strom leaving, as did most of his fellow councilors and the local media. (You didn’t know because the public isn’t deemed important enough to be told until its too late.) No one asked Mr. Strom to resign openly before July 14th. Apparently, no one “in the know” wanted his vacancy filled by an election.

Perhaps that special feeling comes from Chapel Hill having a special 1995 town ordinance exempting it from normal state law. Elsewhere in North Carolina, any vacancy occurring more than 90 days before an election (August 4th in this election) can be filled by that election. However, in Chapel Hill any vacancy coming later than three days before the candidate filing period ends (July 14th in this election) is filled by appointment of the Town Council. How progressive.

Unfortunately, some local residents are still deluded, thinking that elections are preferable to appointments. Ms. Teressa Jimenez has urged Councilors to amend the 1995 town ordinance so that the eight filed candidates for council can now run for Mr. Strom's seat, along with those of incumbents Ms. Easthom, Mr. Harrison. Mr. Kleinschmidt, and Mr. Merritt. ”The timing of [Mr. Strom's] announcement comes across as sneaky and perhaps circumspect.” Apparently, she doesn't know that in southern Orange the person reporting the sneakiness is the problem, not the sneakiness.

Chapel Hill Councilor and mayoral candidate Mark Kleinschmidt admitted he had heard “speculation” regarding Mr. Strom, but he denied any conspiracy. ”People are going to infer crazy theories. Maybe he wanted the council to appoint his replacement. People are going to assume that it's a bad thing. We don't know that to be true.”

Perhaps conspiracy theories swirl because Mr. Strom reportedly lived in a Winnebago after selling his home and before selling out representative democracy in Chapel Hill.

See the Carrboro Citizen Fond Farewell Story.)

Only in southern Orange County can you tell a news story about a church moving and completely miss the underlying story of much greater import. As reported in the N&O, the ostensible story is that the St. Paul AME Church of Chapel Hill (St. Paul’s) is moving from its central location off Rosemary Street to distant Rogers Road area, home of the Orange County landfill and the once-declared spot for the trash transfer station once the landfill is full. See N&O St. Paul’s Story.

St. Paul’s move involves, as many politically connected real estate moves do in southern Orange, public largesse. In this case, St. Paul’s move is reported to involve improvements to publically-owned land available from the local Orange Progressive political triumvirs (the town of Chapel Hill, the town of Carrboro, and Orange County). In particular, the private St. Paul’s church may be getting water & sewer courtesy of the Chapelboro school board.

How? A new elementary school may be placed on a tract of publically owned land south of the Eubanks Road landfill, an area known as the “Greene Tract”. (This landfill area is ground zero for the environment injustice actions of the Orange County commishes.) But the local media reports only a feel good story of a coming church community center, an athletic field, and affordable homes.

Luckily, Pulpsters know that if you squeeze the pulp in Orange County, there’s so much more to tell, so long as you’re not a stenographer.

First, one should know who’s a most important parishioner of St. Paul’s, someone in a political position to help it receive a flow of blessings. That person is none other than Orange County Commish and State Senate candidate Moses Carey.

Second, an astute observer should ask the question, why is St. Paul’s moving in the first place? The reported reason is that it’s landlocked. That’s an odd statement considering all local politicians are favoring greater density and more urban design, moves that will landlock and overburden many existing churches. More importantly, St. Paul’s is right next door to the new high rise and high priced, grass roof development “Greenbridge”. So St. Paul’s current Merrit Mill Road land is worth a lot more now than just two years ago. It’s ground zero for a profitable sell-out for development of ”Greenbridge II”, as opposed to home to an affordable housing complex for St. Paul’s parishioners.

Third, one should look at what St. Paul’s and its friends have been doing. What hasn’t been reported by the N&O? What’s not part of the pre-arranged press release?

Part of the answer is that a friend of Commish Carey has been buying up parcels at the intersection of Purefoy Road and Rogers Road since 2003, some 20 acres all told. The map above shows where “X” marks the treasure spot.

The red parcels are the recent St. Paul’s purchases for its proposed “campus”. (See county GIS PINs 9870540416, 9870543735, 9870544583, 9870459243, and 9870545947. See Orange County GIS map system.) St. Paul’s purchased these five parcels, totaling about 20 acres, for about $650,000 in August 2007 (or about $32,000 per acre). That’s not a bad deal considering a similar parcel on Homestead Road, about a quarter of mile away, sold for $60,000 per acre two years earlier (2005). But the seller to St. Paul’s, Mr. Thomas C. Tucker didn’t do so badly either.

Mr. Tucker purchased 14 of those acres just four years earlier (2003) for about $300,000, or about $22,000 per acre. That’s a 50% profit in four years. He purchased the other two properties, about 6 acres, about two years later (2005) for about $25,000 per acre. That’s a 50% profit in two years! Such profit-taking is not unheard of in southern Orange, witness the 50% within months profit made off the optioned selling of what is now known as MLK Park to the town of Carrboro, a deal involving an employee/partner of now Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton.

The blue parcels represent land purchased by Habitat for Humanity of Orange County (HFH), yet another Orange County tax exempt organization. In December 2005, HFH purchased these 17 parcels (about 21 acres) for a total of about $420,000, parcels with there own environmental constraints being pushed through the system in an odd way. That’s a purchase about the same time as Mr. Tucker, a purchase at about $20,000 per acre. But then, these HFH parcels aren’t on the corner of Rogers Road like St. Paul’s purchases.

The green parcel represents the 104 acre, publicly owned Greene Tract (not 164 acres as reported by the N&O). Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Orange County jointly own the Greene Tract. In the past, the Chapel Hill Town Council said in a 2002 concept plan that it wanted to build affordable housing on 18 acres and keep the rest undeveloped. But public memory is essentially absent in transitory Chapelboro, where the local media rarely calls forth the detailed history of any subject, a role for which the Pulp is glad to fill in.

The yellow parcels represent the publically owned Orange County Solid Waste properties, which include the Eubanks Road landfill. While the red parcels and blue parcels were changing hands, Commish Carey lead the decision to place the new Orange County trash transfer station on Eubanks Road, in the yellow parcels. Already depressed by the landfill next door, also in the yellow parcels, the trash transfer station site kept land prices on Purefoy Road below the market elsewhere in Chapel Hill, even though the landfill was due to close soon.

In Mr. Carey’s words, “All roads lead to Eubanks.” When his church (St. Paul’s) collected Rogers & Purefoy Road corner from Mr. Tucker, the trash transfer station decision was final. It was going on Eubanks. Since the St. Paul’s purchase, a new search has been opened. Now it may not go there.

Fast forward from August 2007 to March 2008. After quietly purchasing the about 20 acre campus at the corner of Rogers & Purefoy in August 2007, St. Paul’s wants to build a “campus”. Under preliminary plans submitted, a 51,000-square-foot main building would hold a 600-seat sanctuary, a fellowship hall, classrooms, offices and a day-care center in the west wing. The east wing would house a community center with a gym, locker rooms, a teen center and senior center. On the rest of the campus, the church would build a four-story senior housing center with 50 units, about 30 affordable homes, an athletic field, basketball and tennis courts, and a cemetery. About 175 parking spaces will be built around the main building and serve the church, community center and senior housing building, because the new site is miles from existing parishioners. (So much for walkability.)

Chapel Hill town councilman and Task Force co-chair Bill Strom is typically reserved about the proposed campus. ”Personally, I was impressed with the broad range of programs that the master plan lays out, from traditional worship to the community center, day care, senior housing and lots of active recreation. It seemed to me like they were taking a really thoughtful approach to some of the environmental constraints on the site.” There are no details on the environmental constraints on the campus at the corner of Rogers and Purefoy.

For those who doubt that St. Paul’s campus announcement is part of yet another well orchestrated southern Orange political deal worked out well in advance of you finding out, you should ignore that at the same Task Force meeting Chapelboro school board members announced that they want to build the district's 11th elementary school on the environmentally sensitive Greene tract. It’s 2008 and they want to open a school there in 2010, yet they are just announcing the location in time for the May primary.

So what’s the rush? The Rogers Road Task Force has been trying to mollify the people along Rogers Road for ten years from the joy of living near their toxic neighbor, the Orange County landfill. Why the dual private/public announcements now?

Commish Carey needs to counter charges of environmental injustice leveled at him by the Coalition to End Environmental Racism (CEER). (See Hot Orange Environmental Injustice Story.) The filed USDOJ complaint of environmental injustice stands out on his resume like an ink stain on a white shirt. He’s running against Ellie Kinnaird for a state senate seat in a primary on May 6th. He needs cover. Besides, the legal use of public lands and public money to enhance his friends and his church would shore up his political base. Yes, the gagging smell of trash on Purefoy Road has been replaced by the smell of cash. All roads, including Dorothy’s yellow brick road, truly do lead to Eubanks, just as candidate and Commish Carey has been saying for over a year.

NOTE: Pulpsters should note that the above referenced N&O story is irredeemably garbled. Task Force attendees confirm that St. Paul’s isn’t talking about using the Greene Tract at all. It’s the Chapelboro school board that’s talking about using 14 of the 18 buildable acres of the Greene Tract to build an elementary school on a school site (ES#11) with extremely poor road connectivity, as can be seen from the map above, but with extremely high political connectivity.