Consistency has its merits. You don’t have to think or raise your blood pressure when a local Progressive governance board makes a decision. Usually it will be screwy. Usually it will be slanted. Usually it will come from hypocritical elected officials with a surfeit of hubris.

So there should be no surprise to learn that on 25 May 2010, the Carrboro Boa meddled in the water and sewer boundaries in the unincorporated community of Efland, North Carolina, miles and miles away from Carrboro.

The Boa objected to a proposal in a small-area plan for Efland that would allow water and sewer service to an area along Bowman Road. Mayor Mark Chilton said he would not be in favor of approving a plan to allow for mixed-use development in the area because of its alleged historical significance. Somehow allowing Efland redidents to have more water and sewer would destroy historical sites that are so historical, no one has bothered to mark them, much less preserve them.

Not to be outdone in folly, Alderman Dan Coleman felt that giving water & sewer to people who have failing septic fields and have lived in Orange County for longer than Mr. Coleman has been alive aren’t entitled to these municipal services. Why? According to the Eco-Marxist, county ED policy is skewed toward recruiting national chain retailers and not in shoring up the local economy. Apparently, Mr. Coleman has never visited Efland and is not aware that Efland essentially has no significant local retail economy to shore up. (See Carrboro Citizen Efland Quidnunc Story.)

Imagine if Efland residents came down to Carrboro town hall to discuss the development of the northern transition area in Carrboro. Only delusional Progressives could fail to appreciate the icy reception Messrs. Chilton and Coleman would give them.

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.

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.

In most of North Carolina, a town that sits on thousands of cheap rental apartment units would not consider itself to have a problem with affordable housing.

However, Carrboro is most certainly not like the rest of the towns in North Carolina. Here, in a predominantly rental apartment community, affordable housing becomes affordable hosing of taxpayers.

At a recent town governance meeting, the Boa again demonstrated its keen grasp on the physical realities of Carrboro. Mayor Mark Chilton said, “We have a lot of people who are hurting at a lot lower income levels than we’re currently reaching. Our current system doesn’t ever encourage anybody to create affordable rental housing for people who live on social security/disability income.”

Really, what about the thousands of rental apartments that start at $600 per bedroom a month? Aren’t they affordable housing?

Alderman Jacquie Gist supported Mr. Chilton, saying, “We’re doing great at reaching graduate students and not that great at reaching truly, truly poor people and we got to turn that around. The Orange County partnership on homelessness is slowly working on that, but I’m tired of putting money towards grad students.” Pulpsters will remember that a few years ago Ms. Gist suggested welcoming the homeless into Carrboro with wine and cheese accompanied in the background with sonorous string music.

Mr. Chilton didn’t reserve all of his concern for the working poor. According to Mr. Chilton, the town should be worried about those making as much as $60,000 a year. “At a hundred percent of area median, you’re really stuck. You don’t qualify for any subsidy. You don’t qualify for any help.” As someone living on a trust fund, Mr. Chilton understands the pain of living within one’s means. (See N&O Affordable Hosing Story.)

Representing the not-visibly-employed in Carrboro, Alderman Sammy Slade offered his wisdom. “There’s also a way of seeing how we compare to other places, and how we are a place that doesn’t allow for people…with more means to be in this community.” Did Mr. Slade really run on a platform of increasing tenement housing for the not-visibly-employed?

No word on whether or not the Boa will ask for a special town law capping market housing pricing, thereby enabling more people to live in Carrboro.

No word on how much more “make work” will be created to keep the overstaffed Developer Service Department looking busy rather than reducing the staff to meet actual need.

No word on whether or not Carrboro will adopt the 140 West Franklin parking garage model, where non-affordable housing unit owners park in a private gated garage area, but affordable housing unit owners park in the public garage area. (See Article VI of the Development Agreement.)

As North Carolina deals with record unemployment, it’s easy to see evidence of the economic cocoon that is southern Orange County. Fed by tax receipts mainly mined from the 99 other counties in the state, the “local economy” is sheltered from the reality of double digit unemployment seen across the rest of the Piedmont.

In most of North Carolina, not raising the salaries of municipal employees with so many private employees unemployed is not seen as a “sacrifice” or a “partnering” with the unfortunate unemployed town residents. Municipal employee positions can be reduced just like private business employee positions.

Here in Orange County the thought of slashing municipal employee positions is to be considered in the same vein as slashing the fat pensions of those employees. Just don't even think about it.

At a recent Carrboro town meeting, Manager Steve Stewart remarked that last year and this year are two of the toughest he’s faced in 32 years of drafting budgets. Translation, he can’t give automatic pay increases for no increase in performance. He can’t just fund new programs on rampant unsustainable growth. “We’ll be lucky just to continue to do what we’ve been doing. I don’t see that there’s any room for new programs or expansion unless we cut somewhere else or we look at a tax increase being imposed.” (See Carrboro Citizen Love Story.)

Mr. Stewart said that paying for the opening and staffing of the new fire station on Homestead Road and a mandatory increase in the rate the town pays into the employee retirement fund are the biggest fiscal challenges. Mr. Stewart didn’t say that both of these eventualities were obvious to those managers with financial acumen.

In reality, the fire station operations “problem” is more than paid for by the over $500,000 in new taxes that came rolling into town coffers from the hundreds of households forced into the town of Carrboro through the progressive Northeast Carrboro Annexation five years ago. However, instead of saving any of that money for the purpose intended by state legislators (paying for the increased municipal service burdens from the new residents), Mr. Stewart has been spending that money on other programs. Why? His job is to hide the profligate ways of the town’s governance board.

The employee retirement fund “problem” reflects more than a downturn in above-average economic returns for the state pension fund during a boom. It also reflects an aging population of municipal employees and the unsustainable nature of the largesse of the pension awarded.

Think not? Ask yourself, how much would the average Chapelboro municipal employee have to be paid to put enough money into a 401(k) plan in order to yield the annual return represented by three quarters of their retiring salary? The answer is that you would be paying municipal employees on a pay scale of which equivalent private employees can only dream.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton displays his usual firm grasp of finances. “I feel like the town’s employees have been partners with the taxpayers in trying to deal with the recession. We need to find some way to make sure [the employees] are feeling the love.” (One can only assume that Mr. Chilton is referring to partnering with not only employed taxpayers but also unemployed taxpayers. By “unemployed”, the Pulp refers to those taxpayers not wishing to be unemployed, as opposed to the large body of willingly unemployed living in Carrboro.)

No word on whether or not Mr. Chilton and his fellow part-time elected officials will give up their Cadillac health care plans so as to benefit the employees they so love, not to mention foregoing their public servant salary for attending about thirty several hour meetings.

No word on whether or not Mr. Stewart will ever publish town employee salaries in amounts adjusted to reflect a 401(k) type retirement funding commonly forced on those dumb private business employees not on the municipal NCLM gravy train.

One of the mantras of modern progressivism is that transparency in government is good. The more an ordinary citizen knows about their elected officials and their reasons for decisions, the quality of the decisions will be better. However, here in Orange County, transparency is clear as the Eno River after a red clay gullywasher.

No better example can be found than in Carrboro, home of palocracy and good political deals for good political friends. Last month the Pulp reported on the use of ARRA funds to build bike lanes in boonyville as opposed to Estes Road, the most heavily used dangerous road for bikers in Carrboro. Turns out that Carrboro government is throwing $1,800,000 for a Veridia bike lane to the benefit of more than an elected official, Mayor Mark Chilton.

Pulpsters can be forgiven for having missed the fact that the spouse of a former Carrboro official is now in business with Mr. Chilton. Yes, Ms. Bronwyn Merritt Dorosin, wife of former Carrboro Alderman Mark Dorosin, former owner of the bar “Hell”, is now a “broker in charge” at Community Realty, Mr. Chilton’s real estate sales business.

Pulpsters will remember that Mr. Dorosin voted to approve the eight acre, Carrboro coal camp vernacular 46 unit development, Pacifica. The Boa (including Mr. Dorosin) turned a $50,000 town sidewalk gift into a $500,000 Hanna sidewalk/street widening charade for Pacifica developers. Of course, that vote helped not only Mr. Dorosin, but also former Carrboro Alderman John Herrera. How? Both Mr. Herrera and Mr. Dorosin were employees of the Self Help Credit Union (SHCU) of Durham, North Carolina. This organization did the financing for Pacifica.

Pulpster should also remember that the Pacifica developers included not only Mr. Chilton’s “employee”, Mr. Thomas Whisnant, but also Mr. Giles Blunden. In turn, Mr. Blunden also happens to be involved in the Veridia development. (Will SHCU finance Veridia as well?)

The Pulp can’t tell you ALL of the financially interested parties in either the Pacifica development or the Veridia development. Why? Carrboro government doesn’t require financial transparency in real estate development approvals. That’s right. Only the conscience of those involved is the regulator for disclosure. Instead of requiring ALL parties getting benefit from a development to be listed (including all owners of business entities), Carrboro allows opaque, throwaway development corporations and limited liability companies to file applications without disclosing all who benefit. So much for the progressive beacon of Carrboro government.

Can you imagine why progressive Boa members don’t require complete financial transparency on real estate developments that they oversee? Perhaps they don't want you to know that Community Realty, Mr. Chilton's firm, is the premier listing company for Veridia.

Say, where is the local media on the financial transparency issue? That is when some of them aren't reviewing their loan from the town officials they are ostensibly watching. Anyone? Anyone?

In most of North Carolina, library systems are countywide, paid for by all county residents, open to all county residents.

However, things aren’t usually normal in Orange County. Here we have little political fiefdoms, each intent on spending your money like drunken sailors on shore leave.

Currently there are two separate library systems in Orange County. One is a county system (OCPL) that is available to all county residents. The main OCPL facility is a brand spanking new, 23,500 square feet, two story building at 137 W. Margaret Lane in Hillsborough with a small branch in Carrboro.

The new $8,000,000 facility was built at a time of great economic hardship. Official policy is to excuse the timing of such expenditures as being beneficial to economically stressed taxpayers. In the words of the North Carolina’s state librarian, Ms. Mary Boone, “We're all worried about the economy and our future well-being. During economic downturns, usage of public libraries always increases. That is very much the case this time; we're seeing a dramatic increase, and nationally library usage is at an all-time high.” (See CHN Hillsborough Library Story.)

The other system is the Chapel Hill public library (CHPL), the most per capita used library in the state. However, only 60% of the CHPL service is by Chapel Hill Residents. A large percentage of the CHPL service goes to benefit adjacent Carrboro residents. That burden is forcing Chapel Hill government to consider raising taxes by about $30.00 annually in order to pay for operating costs. Although Orange County provides money to Chapel Hill for the CHPL operations, it’s only about 11% of the CHPL operating budget while the outside Chapel HIll demand is 40% of the services.

Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton doesn't like being asked to pay for services used by his residents. When asked about meeting with Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt, Mr. Chilton said, “I suppose we have to, although I do not look forward to it. I am no way – no how – never going to vote to put Carrboro into the same dysfunctional relationsip with either the County or Chapel Hill that the two of them already have with each other.” Mayor Chilton, an expert in dysfunctional relationships, prefers to create his own.

According to Mr. Chilton, Carrboro can't afford to pay for using Chapel Hill's library. Acording to Mr. Chilton, Chapel Hill and Orange County should open a branch on Franklin Street, “putting library services in walking distance of much of the population, including low-income people of color who might have difficulty getting to libraries farther out.” (See CHN Library Story.) Curiously, Mr. Chilton is unaware that low income people of color can take a free bus ride from their neighborhoods to the library which is a distance of about two miles. Apparently, the race card is still a trump card in Chapelboro.

Mr. Chilton conveniently forgets to mention that he has been seeking a $2,700,000 OCPL branch in Carrboro, to be located all of about two miles away from the CHPL facility. (See Chilton Coleman Guest Column.) This branch palace will bear additional operating costs to the county.

Meanwhile, Chapel Hill Councilor Lauren Easthom isn't happy. “I suppose it is dysfunctional that we’ve been paying for Carrboro’s use of the library all these years. Where’s Carrboro in the picture? Why is it always our burden?” (See Herald Sun CHPL Story.)

No word on whether or not Alderman Dan Coleman will offer to screen Carrboro residents using the CHPL facility - ”Are you from Carrboro?”

One of the pride and joys of the local living economy movement is the Carrboro revolving loan fund (CRLF). Created by a grant of non-local state funds, the CRLF lends money at less than market interest rates to businesses that supposedly can’t get loans from private capital lenders.

Recently one CRLF recipient (Original Ornaments) went belly up in the hotly competitive Carrboro glass bead business. The town of Carrboro invested $70,000 in a small retail beading business in the midst of the worse financial downturn since the Great Depression.

Mr. James Harris, Carrboro’s ED director, foresaw no problem in issuing the owner, Ms. Schlatter, a loan of $70,000 from town coffers. He even foresaw no problem with Ms. Schlatter only putting up $25,000 in assets. (Try getting that debt-to-collateral ratio in the real business world.) The term was six years. The interest rate was 3%.

Turns out, that the Schlatter loan wasn’t the only undercollateralized loan approved by Mr. Harris in his rush to empty the CRLF coffers. Around the same time, Mr. Harris sent another CRLF loan to the Boa for approval. The business plan was to rent cubicle space in a common office in Carrboro. So many great businesses have been launched from coworking space. The loan was for $90,000 at 2% interest (a rate one–third better than even Ms. Schlatter got) over six years. The payment plan was interest only for the first six months, then interest and principal payments.

So what was the collateral for the $90,000 loan? It was $40,000 in home equity. The collateral was a second mortgage position on the business owners’ home.

Why would the town of Carrboro accept less than 50% collateral on a business that, unlike Original Ornaments, didn’t even have an inventory to help secure the loan?

The answer is simple if you recognize the time-honored tradition of Carrboro politics, reward your pals. Turns out that the requesting business, Yesh Thirty Seven LLC dba Carrboro Coworking, is owned by a married couple. Mr. Brian Russell is one partner. Ms. Ruby Sinreich is the other. Yes, it’s the same Ms. Sinreich who is a longtime friend of Mayor Mark Chilton.

Pulpsters will remember that as a college-educated, private secondary school educated, single female she received a low–interest loan from Empowerment, Inc. courtesy of Mr. Chilton. Ms. Sinreich denied that the loan was in return for her supporting Mr. Chilton in his run for Carrboro office. Ms. Sinreich also operates the local censored political blog known as Orange Politics. Despite, Ms. Sinreich never having lived in Carrboro, she's avidly supports Mr. Chilton in all of his developer/mayor schemes.

Pulpsters should note that as of June 2008, the town of Carrboro was sitting on over $400,000 in CRLF cash. Within the next year, the town had exhausted the fund. Here’s a table showing the wise dispersals creating dozens of well paying jobs and oodles of boodle in sales taxes, at least if you're Mr. Harris.

Note the Carrboro Raw “juice bar in a van” is so dedicated to repaying your loan money that it closed for business over the Christmas break.

No word on when the Boa will require Mr. Harris to produce an actual accounting that shows how much money has been given over the past decade to create exactly how much in additional tax revenue for the town.

Even streetwalkers for Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton better look twice when doublecrossing the path that runs up behind “Friends of My Backyard” backyards.

For years, Carrboro has lectured its citizens on the need to increase permeable surfaces within the town. Impervious surfaces increase stormwater runoff, and thus, are bad. The most environmentally sensitive areas, local streams and stream buffers supposedly need the greatest protection. (You can pick yourself up off the floor now. Yes, Carrboro has placed its densest recent residential development, Winmore, smack alongside Bolin Creek.)

The recent proposal by the town to build a concrete “transportation corridor” aka a “greenway” (large enough to take a police patrol car) alongside Bolin Creek on the OWASA easement between Estes Drive and Homestead Road might have seemed odd. Such a plan was recommended by Greenways, Inc., the consulting firm that planned this transportation corridor.

It didn’t seem odd to Mr. Dave Otto, co-chair of that FOMBY group, Friends of Bolin Creek (FOBC) and political streetwalker par excellence for Mr. Chilton. He wrote a guest editorial for the Chapel Hill News praising the concrete corridor.

According to Mr. Otto, “The primary objection to the GWI plan seems to be harm of pavement to the natural environment. However, the “natural environment” that the proposed greenway will replace is the existing OWASA maintenance road which is badly eroded, deeply rutted and a quagmire following heavy rain. A concrete surface would actually stabilize erosion of the roadway. To simply leave the existing “natural” surface is not an acceptable solution. No surface of soil, crushed stone or Chapel Hill gravel in the riparian corridor will withstand periodic flooding.

Another argument for pavement is handicapped accessibility. Wheelchairs, walkers, even crutches cannot be used on the existing muddy and rutted OWASA road. Should the elderly and handicapped be denied access to one of the most beautiful areas in Carrboro? Is it appropriate to reserve this place for those privileged to live in adjacent neighborhoods or physically able to negotiate the rugged terrain?” (See CHN Otto editorial.)

The editorial was printed and presented in the name of Mr. Otto, calling him the chair of FOBC. Unfortunately, Mr. Otto was only FOBC co-chair. Even more unfortunately, his co-chair, Ms. Julie McClintock, was dead set against a concrete transportation corridor.

Hell hath no fury like a co-chair scorned.

Mr. Otto sent a mea culpa to FOBC members. He acknowledged Ms. McClintock as co-chair. He acknowledged they disagreed on the proposed greenway. He said, “When I submitted the article to the CHNews, I clearly stated ‘this piece represents my personal opinion…FoBC is split on these issues…’.” He added that a correction would be printed in the newspaper.

He did not, however, attach a copy of the cover communication for his guest editorial, a communication that should have made these facts clear.

Curiously the CHN correction was neither as prominent as the guest editorial, nor forthcoming as to how such a mistake happened. In the words of CHN editor Mark Schultz, “A column by Dave Otto about the greenway path last weekend should have identified him as a ‘co-chairman’ of Friends of Bolin Creek and said the column represented his personal opinion, not that of the group. We have a correction running tomorrow, but it's out of date. The Friends named Julie McClintock chair after we went to press. Dave is now vice chairman. Julie or someone from the group will provide a dissenting view in an upcoming issue.” (See CHN Correction.)

More curiously, as of this writing, the online editorial still lists Mr. Otto as the sole chair of FOBC.

In response to the Otto editorial, one Carrboro resident wrote Mr. Chilton. “Could someone please explain to me why it is even a consideration to change these woods? I could understand making them a little more accessible to the community, but to pave any part of them?”

Mr. Chilton responded in his typically disingenuous fashion. ”At this point, all we have done is committed ourselves to the notion that we will create a paved greenway connecting Homestead Road with Estes Drive Extension. Two short sections were approved and are funded: 1) from Wilson Park to Estes Drive Extension and along Estes Drive Extension to the railroad tracks and 2) from Homestead Road to Chapel Hill High.

Whether the other parts of the greenway will be near the creek, near Seawell School Road or somewhere in between has not been decided and will probably not be decided until some funding for that part of the project is identified. At present there is no foreseeable source of funding available within the next five years at least. Consequently, I anticipate that the community will continue to have a lively debate about the merits of the various possibilities.” (See Whetten Chilton Letters.)

Mr. Chilton failed to tell the writer that the reason a paved concrete transportation corridor was being planned (plans paid for by the writer’s tax dollars) was to use non-town moneys to build the greenway. These funds are not only foreseeable, but also identified.

Mr. Chilton is just as forthcoming as his fellow bon vivant, Mr. Otto. Greenways, the company advocating the concrete corridor, also happened to have advised neighboring Wake County on its greenways. According to the Wake County Open Space plans (which include greenways), unpaved crushed gravel greenways can provide handicap access. “Type 3: Multi-Use Unpaved Trail Development This designation would apply to corridors that are capable of supporting a broader range of uses. Greenway trail development, if it occurs along a stream, would be located outside of the floodway. A variety of surface materials could be used, but crushed gravel is the most likely. These trails can be used by pedestrians, cyclists, equestrians and persons with disabilities (ADA).”

The leadership “Gunfight at the FOMBY Corral” was bound to happen. Spurs were strapped on. Someone was going down.

About one week after the Otto editorial was published, the following notice was sent to FOBC members. “Effective Monday, January 11, [Dave Otto has] stepped down from Co-chair to Vice-chair of the Friends of Bolin Creek.” Mr. Otto was too slow on the draw for Ms. McClintock, who is now the sole chair, and vehemently opposed to a concrete corridor.

Will Mr. Chilton’s mother, purported FOMBY friend, prevent a showdown between her son, the mayor, and the gravelly FOMBY shootists, set on protecting their backyards? Stay tuned.

In most of southern Orange County “shovel ready” construction projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Obama administration stimulus spending ) were approved and contractors started being solicited before the municipal election of 2009 in November. In fact, in NCDOT Division 7 (which includes Chapel Hill and Carrboro), most of the projects were being solicited for contractors by mid-October.

Curiously, there was one notable project which was not ready, namely TIP #U-3100B. The project was confirmed in April 2009, but no contractor had been solicited. What is U-3100B? It’s a project for providing bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and transit accommodations on Old Fayetteville Road in Carrboro (SR 1107) from NC 54 up to the McDougle two school campus at Strowd Lane (SR 1106). About $1,800,000 will be used to provide bike lanes and sidewalks along Old Fayetteville Road. Currently this less than half mile stretch of road has only about 50 residences, if you include the connecting block on Carol Street.

Why spend $1,800,000 on a half mile bike lane on a road with so few residences? As always, the answer in Carrboro can be found by looking at pals of the Boa. Turns out that favored Boa developers Mr. Trip Overholt and Mr. Giles Blunden are busy evicting affordable home households in a trailer park off Old Fayetteville Road and replacing them with expensive, dense “smart growth” communalists in a development called “Veridia”. Veridia is located between NC 54 and Strowd Lane.

Imagine that? Of all the half mile sections of road in Carrboro that don’t have bike lanes (the far more densely traveled and populated Estes Drive between Greensboro Street and Seawell School Road comes to mind), the Boa picks the stretch that helps their pals. Sort of reminds astute Pulpsters of the $50,000 gift turned $500,000 sidewalk/street widening charade the Boa gave Mr. Blunden for developing 46 truly odd units in the just about eight acre, Carrboro coal camp vernacular development, Pacifica.

Can you imagine why Boa incumbents running for office in 2009 wouldn’t have wanted this project breaking ground and in the news in time for voters to be told? Say, where was the local media? Anyone? Anyone?

In most of North Carolina, a watermill was an early industrial age power plant and factory for processing material. Some mills ground grain, while others operated belt-driven machinery. The common element was that all required a steady flow of water for generating power.

Orange County isn’t like the rest of North Carolina. Here the dearth of historical monuments (outside the UNC campus) has led to progressively faux history complete with faux watermills. None other than Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton participates in the puffery of a two-bit, broken-down moonshine operation into a working watermill. Even better, he gets an award from the Friends of My Backyard for writing historical tripe!

According to Mr. Chilton “four water-powered mills once stood on Bolin Creek, the best preserved is the former Castleberry-Taylor Mill. The ruins of the mill, millrace and dam are just upstream of the Spring Valley neighborhood in Carrboro. The stone foundation of the mill is still quite discernable, but just 30 years ago some of the walls were also standing. On November 1, 1763, the Orange County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions granted permission to William Castleberry to “erect a Water Grist Mill on Boling's Creek.”

There’s only one problem with this historical gem that mirrors how progressivism is, at its core, faith in fantasy over fact. Bolin Creek doesn’t have a reliable enough flow of water to run a true watermill. Hydrologically, it’s just like the town through which it runs, all fall and no juice. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows that in order to run a full time mill on Bolin Creek, one would need to build a huge impoundment dam to assure a steady supply of water.

More than likely, the vaunted Carrboro “mill” was in reality a moonshine still operation. The pathetically small millstone operation at Bolin Creek was more than likely used to prepare grain or corn for alcohol fermentation for sale to UNC students. Now that's the perfect operation for Mr. Buck Taylor, late 1700s Orange County Court Clerk, and the first in a succession of many Carrboro town inebriates holding official positions, a true flowing of the waters.

Some traditions are just too progressive to lose.

Pulpsters are well aware of the self-serving, ineffective Carrboro environmental organization dedicated to preserving their backyards, aka Friends Of Bolin Creek, bka Friends Of My Backyard (FOMBY). In true Orange Progressive fashion, FOMBY has watched as Bolin Creek has been bulldozed up to its stream buffers by residential development approved by the Carrboro town government, all under the rubric of promoting “small town urbanism”.

There's no hypocrisy in praising the heaviest residential density in Carrboro alongside the steepest stream beds of Bolin Creek, at least so long as the bulldozing doesn't occur in their backyards. Fear of a scheduled connector road extending from Seawell School Road to Pathway Drive, aimed precisely at the cul-de-sac belonging to FOMBY president, Mr. Dave Otto has provided FOMBY leasdership with the intestinal fortitude to look beyond true environmentalism and into nobly saving their own backyards.

Despite Carrboro open space stream bed regulations that have systematically driven Carrboro's heaviest development onto Bolin Creeek, FOMBY has stood by, not silently, but perversely praising those who have openly heavily developed the Bolin Creek environment.

So what could be more fitting than FOMBY interjecting itself into the upcoming Carrboro municipal election. Yes, FOMBY has decided to bestow a completely surreal environmental award to that supreme Bolin Creek destructionist, Mayor Mark Chilton. A paragon of environmental virtue and patellar virtuosity, Mr. David Otto, has announced that FOMBY shall give Mr. Chilton an environmental award at a very public press conference, by sheer coincidence, just days before the Carrboro municipal election. How clever and so inscrutable.

Political whores or environmental stewards? Pulpsters can reach their own conclusions about FOMBY and its illustrious head giver of awards, Mr. Otto.

In most towns in North Carolina, having the state department of transportation (NCDOT) pay to expand a heavily used road and add bike lanes and sidewalks to boot would be considered a great deal. In most towns, government exists to serve the people, not to have people serve the government.

However, Orange County is different. Creating traffic bottlenecks to get people out of their cars is considered “enlightened government”. Your pain is town gain.

For the past six months the Carrboro governance board (BOA) has been in a micturation contest with NCDOT. The BOA wants what it wants and doesn’t see why NCDOT doesn’t change its statewide programs to suit Carrboro.

What does the BOA want? They want a major road leading from the rapidly growing Chatham County (Smith Level Road) to remain choked at two lanes. Just add bike lanes and sidewalks so that pedestrians and cyclists can watch the traffic jams safely.

What does NCDOT want? It wants to widen the road in anticipation of the road traffic projected over the next 25 years. The road is already crowded and slated to become more so. As an incentive, NCDOT would throw in sidewalks and bike lanes at the same time.

NCDOT has a program that can provide just sidewalks and bike lanes. Unfortunately, that Bicycles and Pedestrian Division can’t fund anything in Carrboro before 2011, and Carrboro may have to wait until 2017.

Immediate funds to improve Smith Level Road are available through another program called the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). The catch is that the remaining available TIP money from the last approved cycle is for enhancing roadways for the dreaded car, and not solely for installing sidewalks and bike lanes. Unfortunately, NCDOT doesn't appreciate that the BOA values respect for its opinions and wants, no matter how zany, above all else.

In the petulant words of Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, “[sidewalks and bike lanes] are not given the kind of weight or priority that roadway projects in other communities are given. I haven’t actually heard a reason why this can’t be part of the state TIP.” In other words, Mr. Chilton sees no reason why he shouldn't be accomodated, because, well, he's the mayor of Carrboro.

Unfortunately, Mr. Chilton knows that sidewalks and bike lanes can be funded by TIP. However it's up to the BOA to give NCDOT a priority listing for such a project. (Which begs the question, why didn't Mr. Chilton think enough of the sidewalks and bike lanes to include them in the currently funded TIP cycle?) Perhaps he has also forgotten that on 16 September 2008, he had the chance at a BOA meeting to add the Smith Level Road bike lanes and sidewalks to the town’s recommendations for the next funded TIP cycle (also 2011 to 2017). Too bad he didn't amend the list then to fund the sidewalk and bike lanes in the next TIP cycle, but then that would be showing subservience to routine, planning, and good governance.

As a public service, the Pulp offers to Mayor Chilton the following TIP link. Pulpsters can submit their own questions alongside those of the mayor.

Alderman Jackie Gist again most clearly reveals the creativity used by the BOA in addressing local transportation issues. If she can walk to her part-time job, why can’t you? “People will do what’s easiest for them to do. I would love to see it become a pain to drive a single occupancy vehicle because when it’s a pain in the neck people are going to change their behavior.” (See Chapel Hill News Road Story.)

Smugly pronouncing the BOA’s rejection of NCDOT aid, Alderman Dan Coleman states, “So the motion is, then, as “Mythbusters” put it, ‘We reject your reality and substitute our own'.” (Say, that doubles for a criminal defense too.)

That about sums up progressive governance in zany Orange County. Philosophy is based on an entertainment television show.

No word on when a resolution will be introduced to change the town name to “Cycleboro”.

In most communities in North Carolina, elected officials stay on top of critical municipal needs, such as having enough space to dispose of solid waste. However, as Pulpsters know, Orange County isn’t like most of North Carolina.

At way past midnight on the trash transfer station timeline, Chapel Hill mayor Kevin Foy suddenly has a thought about a site for the trash transfer station. How about putting it next to the Chapel Town Operations Center?

The reaction of the local media and other local politicians is as informative as it is entertaining. (See Chapel Hill Herald Epiphany Site Story.)

Rip Van Winkle's Hollow

On Friday, 8 May 2009, Mayor Foy led a select entourage around the 32 acre site off Millhouse Road. In his decisive and immortal words, “The question isn't whether we should put a transfer station there. The question is, is this something worth talking about?” Talk, it's the fragrant and somnambulant lingua orange of Pulpville.

None other than Commish Mike Nelson opines that “It can't be a shock to anyone that a waste transfer station in that location would be very strongly opposed by residents of northern Chapel Hill. It will take an inordinate amount of political will — in a town election year no less — to site the waste transfer station there.”

Dr. Rick Kennedy, a Nelson supporter, a family practice physician, a rural buffer resident, and a critic of those criticizing local government finally found something that he didn’t like about local government. Seems the issue only has to be at his doorstep (he lives within less than ¼ mile from the site) in order for him to “see the light”. In his words, ““People ought to share the things in the community that nobody really wants. Why doesn't that resonate here like it does on Rogers Road?”

“Physician heal thyself” has taken on new meaning. Perhaps Dr. Kennedy hasn’t yet attained the enlightment that comes from a constant flow of smelly trash trucks, the piquant essence of rotten garbage, and the sights of soaring flocks of buzzards.

What’s missing from the local media story of Mayor Foy's epiphany about locating the trash transfer station?

Even Commish Valerie Foushee, the Sphinx of the Orange County board recognizes something is amiss. In her words, the county asked the towns “months ago… and probably more than once” about a transfer station site. “Nothing was forthcoming.”

So what happened? Never fear. The Pulp will reveal a most southern of pastimes is to blame for the sudden awakening of Mayor Foy. He read the local obituary section. Lo and behold, the answer was revealed to him from an end of April 2009 item.

“Mrs. Julia Blackwood, 88, died Easter weekend at her home in Chapel Hill. Julia was born in Clinton, NC to Herman Stewart and Jenny B. Merritt. She came to Chapel Hill as the young bride of Eugene M. Blackwood. Soon after, she went to work as a secretary at the American Tobacco Company in Durham. (See Carrboro Citizen Blackwood Obit.

What does Ms. Blackwood have to do with a trash transfer station? Well kick back and follow how “bidness get dun” in Orange County.

The Blackwood family has owned property around Millhouse Road since 1752, before Chapel Hill was founded. They came under assault from the town in 1996.

After the firestorm surrounding then Chapel Hill Mayor Howard Lee forcing a landfill on to the Rogers Road community in 1972, Chapel Hill went looking for an alternative site for solid waste. It, the county, and Carrboro all thought they had the new site, Ms. Blackwood’s property on Millhouse Road.

The past is prologue in Orange County. As in the present trash crisis, the answer is revealed not at the beginning of the process, but in a surprise move at the end. In 1996, the politicians had a citizen group working diligently on site selection for over a year. Sixteen sites were considered. Then, magically, at the end, a 17th site (OC-17) was added, the Blackwood – Duke Forest site.

None other than Mr. Gayle Wilson denied hanky-panky in the latecomer OC-17 becoming the odds-on favorite back in 1996. Yes, it's the same Gayle Wilson who is surprised in 2009 by Mayor Foy’s magical announcement about the town operations center space, which just happens to be next to – you guessed it – the property of the now deceased Ms. Blackwood. Back in 1996, Mr. Wilson was the town of Chapel Hill’s solid waste administrator. In 2009, he's Orange County's solid waste administrator. (Any wonder the new county solid waste facility has just been built on Eubanks Road?)

Recycling is not left simply to bureaucrats in Orange County. Politicians and pundits are recycled too.

Guess who voted for the OC-17 landfill site? None other than then Chapel Hill Councilman, now Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton. As reported in the N&O in 1996, although Mr. Chilton was a “favorite of the local Sierra Club”, he voted for the OC-17 without any debate by the local enviromentalists. So did Carrboro Alderman Jacquie Gist, So did then Carrboro mayor, now county commish Mike Nelson.

Guess who was in opposition to the county picking any landfill site? None other than then Green Party member, now Democratic Party member and Carrboro Alderman Dan Coleman. In his words, ”the people in the Blackwood Mountain area come across as NIMBYs. I’m particularly troubled by sone of their suggestions that we should ship our waste somewhere else. Why should we take advantage of another community’s poverty?” Strong words for someone with no visible means of occupation, then or now.

Then as now, technical arguments didn’t matter. Who cares if the site was too rocky and had a slave graveyard? What really mattered was raw political power. The county’s mistake was in going after some Duke Forest land. The Commishes can steamroll working African-Americans and land grant farmers. But, they are revealed as eunuchs where it comes to facing up to the Duke power block.

So let’s go back to the present.

Ms. Blackwood dies. Mr. Foy reads the obits. Shazam! We have a new spot for the trash transfer station.

The local media doesn’t ask the searchlight questions.

“So Mr. Foy, where have you been for the past three years in the trash transfer station debate?”

“When did you first think about the town operations spot next to Ms. Blackwood’s property?”

“Did you really wait until she died to screw up the courage to announce the site, while her grave is still fresh?”

Yes, local progressive profiles in courage abound.

People vote not only with a ballot, but also with their bucks. A Carrboro apartment owner (Tar Heel Companies of North Carolina or “THC”) has just voted to remove its capital from Carrboro's municipal jurisdiction after being villified by the town elected officials.

The “good news”? By selling out, about 255 affordable housing units are being created in Carrboro by the Boa's latest innovative affordable housing policy, unequal enforcement of property rights. Town government distaste for non-pal property owners can be combined with their taste for affordable housing for people of the right diversity.

Last July, the Pulp told the Abbey Court story, an apartment complex of about several hundred units located off NC 54 in Carrboro on Jones Ferry Road. Boa members very publicly intervened with the ability of THC to control who parks in their privately owned apartment complex.

Near to Abbey Court is a makeshift day worker pickup location. The complex is also near a bus stop and has been used as an unofficial park-and-ride lot. The Abbey Court manager has been facing problems with cars in the complex that don’t belong to renters. In response, the manager has made the mistake of enforcing parking rules that included requiring official parking stickers issued by the complex and enforcing the parking rules by towing away offending vehicles.

In most towns in North Carolina, such enforcement would be no cause for government intervention. But Carrboro isn’t like most towns. When a car owner facing his car being towed in Carrboro endangers a child by stuffing them into the hooked up car, neither Mayor Chilton (who was present) nor the police intervene for the safety of the child.

In response to this incident, the Boa met in a highly unusual summer recess meeting on 31 July 2008. After much breast beating over the apartment complex owner’s exercise of control over a situation ignored by town officials, the chaotic state of parking at Abbey Court, the Boa was constrained by home rule limitations on their authority to passing an ordinance limiting towing fees to $50 in Carrboro. The ordinance also limited retrieval fees to $100 and $20 a day for storage.

On 4 August 2008, the carnage at Abbey Court continued with renters continuing to endanger towing truck operators who are complying with the law. Mr. Jesus Sanchez Basurto, 25, claimed he didn’t realize that a tow truck driver had put a boot on his car. He got into his car and tried to drive it away from the tow truck before it could hook up his car. When the car wouldn't move, Mr. Basurto opened his car door to see why the vehicle wasn't moving. He left the car in reverse. It lurched backward and ran up on the curb. Somehow he was pulled under his own car, and the car ran over his foot. The towing truck operator did nothing beyond having already put on the boot.

THC got the message loud and clear. Don’t expect to have the right to maintain control over your apartment complex without the Boa strangling that right.

THC has responded by deciding to remove its investment from Carrboro. It's test marketing six Abbey Court two bedroom, one bath condominiums at prices ranging from $54,500 to $59,500 (“as is”) or remodeled units for $79,500. (See Chapel Hill Herald Abbey Court Sale Story.)

Showing Carrboro town government’s concern for THC, Mr. James Harris, Carrboro's ED guru, said ”I'm just hoping they will follow through”.

No word on the next apartment complex owner the Boa will chase out of town, creating more affordable housing.

No word on reaction from Mr. Robert Dowling on the creation of affordable housing units in southern Orange County that he doesn't control.

No word on whether or not Abbey Court will be renamed “Carrborini Green”.

In most urban cities with dense growth farm animals have been excluded. Public health officials understand the link between humans and domestic animal diseases. They understand that bringing animal feces and people together causes communicable disease risk. However, in southern Orange County public health and safety is low down the pecking order when it comes to locavore chic.

What can be more satisfying than the sight of chickens in your neighbor’s urban postage stamp yard. Apparently the Chapel Hill and Carrboro governance boards are scratching new ground in raising the risk factor to humans in urban environments. They want their towns to be urban, but still want farm animals. In the words of Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton, ”I think the chickens around town help provide some food security to our community and are a good learning opportunity for children and adults.” (See Chapel Hill News Chicken Chic Story.)

The mayor is so right. Owning chickens affords Carrboro residents (even those not owning chickens) the “good learning opportunity” of being exposed to the following zoonoses, in this case, fowl diseases that are communicable to humans. The Carrboro BOA once again, as in the lonchera text amendment story, puts public health behind small town urban chic.

Here's a list excerpted from a University of Florida Pamphlet.

Avian Tuberculosis
Avian tuberculosis is caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium avium which is closely related to the human and bovine tuberculosis bacteria. In humans, M. avium infections can cause local wound infections with swelling of regional lymph nodes. The infection is most severe in immunocompromised individuals. M. avium is spread by ingestion of food or water contaminated by feces from shedder birds.

While most Mycobacterium infections are treatable with antibiotics, M. avium infection is the exception. It's highly resistant to antibiotics. Surgical excision and lymph node removal are often necessary to eliminate infection.

Chlamydiosis
Chlamydia psittaci is an unusual bacteria-like organism that affects more than 100 avian species. Chlamydiosis is primarily transmitted by inhalation of contaminated fecal dust and is spread by carrier birds, which act as the main reservoirs for the disease. The organism is excreted in both the feces and nasal secretions. Shedding is sporadic and is usually induced by stress. A carrier state can persist for years. The organism survives drying, which facilitates oral spread and allows transmission on contaminated clothing and equipment. Chlamydiosis can be transmitted bird to bird, feces to bird, and bird to human. Human to human transmission can occur, mainly by exposure to patient's saliva.

Colibacillosis
Colibacillosis is caused by Escherichia coli infection. E. coli is a bacteria which normally inhabits the intestinal tract of all animals. There are a number of different strains, many species-specific. Not all strains are pathogenic. Humans with colibacillosis usually manifest diarrhea which may be complicated by other syndromes depending on the E. coli serotype. These complications may include fever, dysentery, shock, and purpura (multiple small purplish hemorrhages in the skin and mucous membranes).

The incubation period is 12 hours to 5 days, although 12-72 hours is most common. Transmission is via the fecal-oral route. Colibacillosis is often food- or water-borne.

Cryptococcosis
Certain fungi prefer to grow in soils enriched with avian manures. Cryptococcus neoformans is one of these. The incubation period is probably weeks. Infections are seen in many mammals, but occur most frequently in humans, horses, dogs, and cats.

Transmission of cryptococcosis is usually by inhalation of this yeast-like fungus, although it can occasionally occur by ingestion. Humans can pick up cryptococcosis from exposure to old pigeon nests or droppings. In humans, cryptococcosis is manifested as meningitis or meningoencephalitis, and it is usually preceded by pulmonary infection with cough, blood-tinged sputum, fever, and malaise. The course of the disease is usually chronic. There is usually fever, cough, chest pain, and spitting of blood from the respiratory tract, followed by headache, stiff neck and visual disturbances.

(Technically, this disease is avian-associated, and not a zoonotic disease. The reservoir is soil and not the birds.)

Cryptosporidiosis
Cryptosporidiosis is caused by protozoa of the genus Cryptosporidium. Cryptosporidiosis normally causes respiratory problems in chickens and turkeys. It can also cause gastroenteritis and diarrhea. In humans, it causes abdominal pain, nausea, and watery diarrhea lasting 3-4 days. In immunocompromised people, it can cause severe, persistent diarrhea with associated malabsorption of nutrients and weight loss.

Eastern Equine Encephalitis
Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) is caused by a RNA virus in the genus Alphavirus, family Togaviridae. Outbreaks can occur in chickens. Abdominal distress and dysentery are the most obvious signs of exposure.

EEE is mosquito-borne. The virus circulates in a mosquito-bird cycle in which passerine birds (i.e., song birds such as swallows, starlings, jays, and finches) are the most common reservoir. The mosquitoes become infected and feed on birds, horses, and humans, further spreading the infection. In pheasants, initial infection is mosquito-borne, but additional dissemination occurs by pecking and cannibalism.

EEE usually affects persons under 15 or over 50 years of age. In adults there is a sudden onset of high fever, headache, vomiting, and lethargy, progressing rapidly to neck stiffness, convulsions, spasticity, delirium, tremors, stupor and coma. In children, EEE is typically manifested by fever, headaches and vomiting for 1-2 days. After an apparent recovery, encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) is characterized by quick onset and great severity follows. Retardation or other permanent neurologic consequences are common in survivors.

Histoplasmosis
Histoplasma capsulatum is another soil reservoir issue. Histoplasmosis can affect humans, dogs and cats.

The incubation period is 7-14 days. Most cases in humans are asymptomatic. Disease may be manifested in three forms: acute pulmonary (most common), chronic cavitary pulmonary, and disseminated. The acute pulmonary form is influenza-like and lasts up to several weeks. It is characterized by chills, chest pain, nonproductive cough, fever, and malaise. The chronic form occurs in people over 40 and resembles tuberculosis. It is characterized by a productive cough, pus-like sputum (material expelled from the respiratory passages), weight loss, and shortness of breath. The disseminated form occurs in the very young or the elderly. Lesions include enlarged spleen and liver, and mucosal ulceration. The disseminated form of histoplasmosis can be fatal if not treated.

Transmission occurs by inhalation of spores produced by growth of the mold. Histoplasmosis is not a communicable disease. The reservoir is the soil, especially when enriched with droppings. Wet the area and wear a face mask or respirator when working in suspect surroundings. Spraying the soil with a formaldehyde solution has been used to kill the fungi. (Technically, this disease is avian-associated, and not a zoonotic disease. The reservoir is soil and not the birds.)

Salmonellosis
Salmonella bacterial infection is endemic to chickens in the USA. It’s why you take such care with raw egg preparations. Most animals are susceptible to salmonella infection. This bacterial disease has common clinical symptoms including diarrhea, vomiting, and a low-grade fever. Infections can progress to dehydration, weakness, and sometimes, especially in the very young or very old, death. In severe cases there can be a high fever, septicemia (blood poisoning), headaches, and an enlarged painful spleen. Focal infections may occur in any organ, including heart, kidney, joints, meninges (membranes which surround and protect the brain and spinal cord), and the periosteum (fibrous membrane of connective tissue which closely surrounds all bones except at the joints).

The incubation period is 6-72 hours, although 12-36 hours is most common. Salmonella are transmitted by ingestion of food contaminated by fecal matter (fecal-oral route). Excretion of the bacteria commonly varies from a few days to weeks. In some instances (e.g., S. typhi, typhoid fever) infected persons can shed bacteria for life. S. enteriditis in avian fecal material is able to penetrate eggshells, and may be present in uncooked eggs.

While down on the farm chicken flocks are regularly tested for disease and their environs sanitized against disease propagation, within the more urban environs of southern Orange they can roam free from knowledgeable safe handling.

No word on what, if any, testing will be required for chicken flocks residing within town limits.

To avoid overkill, the Pulp is not going to report on the avian flu threat presented by chickens in close associations with urban living quarters. You can read more about this public health issue at the following sites, CDC and FAO.

Early Warnings Of Unsustainable Taxation
For years the Pulp has had postings beating the drum on how unsustainable it is to expand your local taxes faster than the income of your citizenry. It’s simple economics really. If you double the taxes while citizens increase their median income by half, then you are reaching ever deeper into their pockets. At some point there’s little disposable income left. Their homes are mortgaged to the hilt. However, in a “facts optional” political atmosphere, it’s what you want and how you feel about getting what you want that matters.

None other than Mr. Mike Nelson proclaimed while running for commish in 2006 that people in Orange County “want a high level of services and that requires taxes”. That was back when he had to explain how Carrboro taxes (not tax rates) more than doubled under his mayoral leadership.

Back in the open forum days of the Pulp, the usual crowd of political apologists (Mr. Fred Black, Ms. Terri Buckner, Mr. Joseph Capowski (as “Weaverguy”), Mr. George Entenmann, Mr. Marc Marcoplos, and Ms. Ruby Sinreich) all sung the praises of Mr. Nelson and howled about how Orange County was different. Here people wanted the “high level of services” and knew they must pay more for them. The fact that other counties and towns offer equal or better services at lower tax burdens was assiduously ignored.

Cracks Show As Even UNC Professors Feel Your Pain
The cracks in the Orange tax-and-spend foundation are finally showing. In a recent Chapel Hill News editorial, Mr. John J. Pringle, (C. Knox Massey Professor of Finance (Emeritus) at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC) laid out the case supporting the Pulp’s proposition. Orange County had practiced, and is practicing, unsustainable taxation. Mr. Pringle pointed out that median house prices in the US averaged 2.1 times median income for two decades prior to 2001. Housing prices almost doubled to 4.1 times median family income post 2001. When the housing bubble burst by late 2008, prices had fallen by 25% for the bubble peak, according to a widely used national home price index used by Mr. Pringle.

Mr. Pringle cites his personal experience, “since 1993 when we moved into our house, our property tax has increased 249 percent, while during this same period the consumer inflation index increased 46 percent. Over the 15 years, inflation has averaged 2.5 percent per year, while our property taxes have increased by an average of 8.7 percent per year. In a single year, 2005, our property tax increased 42 percent, and from 2000 to 2008 more than doubled.”

Did income keep pace with this taxflation? No. “During the peak years of the housing bubble, from 2000 to 2006, house prices nationally rose 88 percent, while personal income rose only 30 percent. Social Security income is tied to the Consumer Price Index, which rose 17 percent.”

Orange Tea Party?
Will an “Orange tea party” tax revolt happen, much like what happened in Boston, Massachusetts in 1773? No. Unlike King George III, our local politicians are much more skilled in straddling fences and speaking out of both sides of their mouths.

Most importantly, the local media and political apologists will be sure not to place any responsibility for the present tax mess on incumbent local officials. Without someone connecting the dots, “It just happened”.

Mike Nelson – Archtypical Politician Without Responsibility
Sociopathic behavior is acceptable if exhibited by a politician. Deception, dishonesty, feigned interest may still be repulsive for many in personal interactions, but as a society, we accept such behavior in our politicians. It’s considered “part of the game”. It’s okay to say one thing and do the opposite. It’s okay to pretend to be what you aren’t. It’s okay to say you’re against tax rises while promoting a new tax.

After a decade of doubling the tax burden in Carrboro, in 2006 Mr. Nelson ran for the commish spot as the next rung in his climb for political glory. When questioned about his taxation record, he confidently responded that here people want a “high level of services” and know “they must pay more for them”. In part, his confidence exuded from a reliance that no one in the local media or political establishments would question his statement. The fact that other counties and towns offer equal or better services at lower tax burdens would not be mentioned.

After being elected in the Democratic primary, Orange County having one party rule, in 2007 during his first commish retreat, Mr. Nelson opined ”We need to dig down and find out really why we've had 18 years of tax increases. Eighteen years in a row is a long time.”

Then one year after speaking aloud about 18 years of tax increases, in 2008, Mr. Nelson was advocating for another tax. Mr. Nelson, like his successor as Carrboro mayor, Mr. Chilton, advocated vociferously for the ill-fated and highly rejected local option transfer tax. He even used the case of his retired elderly mother to support taxing home sales even more, claiming he would raise property taxes less, even though the proposed tax wasn't requried to be revenue neutral. Eluding Mr. Nelson’s steel trap financial mind is the fact he has raised the county tax burden more than the funds the transfer tax would've yielded. (See Carrboro Citizen Nelson Transfer Tax editorial.) Quite an accomplishment Mr. Nelson has achieved in less than one term in office as commish.

Retreats must be especially insightful times for Mr. Nelson. For in 2009, one year after asking for the transfer tax increase, Mr. Nelson again felt bad about county taxes. He noticed that the county is spending faster that county property taxes are rising. (Mr. Nelson ignored the fact that property taxes are rising faster than median income.) He was concerned that county spending would rise 5.8% annually over the next five years while property values were projected to rise just 3.9%.

In Mr. Nelson’s immortal words, ”I have a fundamental, philosophical, ideological problem with the way this organization had done budgeting. It's brought about tax increases.” This revelation comes from the person who oversaw a doubling of the Carrboro tax burden, far outpacing both median incomes AND property values in Carrboro. (See N & O Nelson Philosophy Story.)

A Hope For Change - Coming Campaign Converting The Image of Tax-and-Spenders Into Fiscal Conservatives
With 2009 bringing about a confluence of a local municipal election and a severe recession sliding into a depression, Pulpsters should be alert in looking for the coming campaign to remake the image of local incumbents. Local media and political apologists will create a wave of disinformation portraying incumbents as “holding the line”, “showing a tight fist”, and the ever popular “making the painful cuts” with regards to local budgets, and thus, local taxes. That these incumbents used the good times to build a bureaucratic infrastructure unsustainable even in the good times, much less the bad times, is irrelevant. That they raised your taxes way beyond increases in your income even in the good times is, likewise, irrelevant.

Pulpsters should not expect to hear cogent explanations as to why taxes have risen so in the last decade, except, of course, here at the fiercely non-partisan Pulp.

In most North Carolina towns, the mayor, the town manager, the town attorney, and the town clerk would notice if their email didn’t have receive a copy of a general notice to the town email listserv notifying the media and the public of a town public meeting subject to state “sunshine” laws. Not so in Carrboro, where Mayor Mark Chilton, Town Manager Steve Stewart, Town Attorney Mike Brough, and Town Clerk Sarah Williamson all “forgot” to check on the local media notice of Town’s annual BOA and staff retreat. Apparently, the fact that it's an election year has nothing to do with the error. (Pulpsters should note that these meetings are not only attended by the local media, but also by interested citizens, some of whom might be considering a run for local office.)

According to Mr. Chilton, the Town had a problem sending official notification to anyone outside of Town Hall, beyond that is a piece of 8.5” by 11” paper stuck on a bulletin board in Town Hall. According to Mr. Chilton, that’s all that’s needed to comply with state law. (You can read the law below and decide for yourself.)

State law requires that the public be informed of the retreat. In particular state law requires, in part, that Carrboro send a written notice to the media. The law reads that such a notice should “… be mailed or delivered to each newspaper, wire service, radio station, and television station, which has filed a written request for notice with the clerk or secretary of the public body or with some other person designated by the public body. The public body shall also cause notice to be mailed or delivered to any person, in addition to the representatives of the media listed above, who has filed a written request with the clerk, secretary, or other person designated by the public body. This notice shall be posted and mailed or delivered at least 48 hours before the time of the meeting. The public body may require each newspaper, wire service, radio station, and television station submitting a written request for notice to renew the request annually. The public body shall charge a fee to persons other than the media, who request notice, of ten dollars ($10.00) per calendar year, and may require them to renew their requests quarterly.” (See NCGS § 143 318.12.)

How the notice snafu happened wasn’t fully explained. (See Carboro Citizen Story.) More importantly, how did the mayor, the town manager, the town attorney, and the town clerk each miss the fact that none of them received a copy of any email from the town IT department notifying the media or public of the meeting? If the Carrboro IT system doesn’t send these officials such a notice, then why not? If it does, then why did none of these people notice that no one came to the meeting? Why did that not seem strange?

One curious reaction to this “clerical error” is that of former Carrboro Alderman candidate and BOA pal Catherine DeVine, who said, “The town manager shouldn't have to apologize for meeting with the mayor and BOA without members of the press in attendance. They need this freedom when there's hard stuff to discuss out of the public eye.” Of course, the illegality of such an action is of little concern for Orange Progressives. After all, the “right” people are in charge. They only have your “best interests” in mind.

When the retreat started, Messrs. Brough, Chilton, and Stewart and Ms. Williamson all knew that no one from the local media was there. They knew that was an unprecedented occurrence for a town retreat, much less one held before an upcoming election and in a time of economic turmoil. Yet, they went ahead with the meeting anyway. This misfeasance begs the all important question, why was the meeting not adjourned? Why did they knowingly hold a meeting when even a UNC journalism student knows proper public notice wasn't given to the media?

In the world of southern Orange County, the easiest way to solve a problem is to “study” the problem and then, as a result of that study, declare it not to be a problem.

The Carrboro BOA maintains that high standard of problem solving in its latest pronouncement that parking is not really a problem, just one of perception. According to the BOA, demand does not exceed 85% of capacity in Carrboro. Thus, the merchant complaints are unfounded. Thus, the BOA can continue to strip parking from downtown infill projects. Thus, the town doesn’t need to build a parking garage. Thus, the endless minutes you spend circling the blocks in Carrboro’s business district are your problem, not theirs.

As reported in the the Chapel Hill News, Alderman Joal Hall Broun declared that the town should not encourage parking everywhere. ”We should ask ourselves how much do we want to encourage parking and how much of it do we not want to encourage.” Well said for someone who drives to every town meeting and has plenty of parking at town hall for her to do so.

However, Mayor Mark Chilton warned that the town may have to spend some money on parking. That’s not a problem for him as the town subsidizes UNC for a major part of the Chapel Hill Transit bus system. In fact, Carrboro pays far more per capita for that system than the town of Chapel Hill.

Curiously absent from the local media coverage is the mention of who actually conducted the study. The study was not conducted by a traffic engineering firm. The study was conducted by a UNC student group as part of a class exercise.

The non-certified engineers found that if you include the entire downtown area, then current parking demand does not exceed the ideal of 85% occupancy. However, they also found that current parking demand does exceed ideal occupancy in certain “subzones”, at specific times of day. They also found that demand is projected to increase with future developments. As pointed out repeatedly by the Pulp, the students found there will be a parking shortage in the sub-zone around the five story condo/hotel 300 E Main property after it’s developed.

Cherry-picking only the supportive findings from student project reports, that’s the sound progressive basis for making parking planning decisions in Carrboro.

Summer can be the silly season for politicians. But in Carrboro, the Boa works relentlessly to polish its reputation for unequal enforcement of the law and the shredding of private property rights to aid its friends. First we had the intervention of the Boa into the ability of the owner of an apartment complex to control who can park on private property. (See Pulp Abbey Court Parking Story.)

Now we have Mayor Mark Chilton and Alderman Lydia Lavelle interfering with the right of another apartment complex owner to provide security for its tenants. Estes Park is an apartment complex of several hundred units located off Estes Drive in Carrboro. It backs up to a railroad right of way (located in Chapel Hill) that heads south into Carrboro. Estes Park residents expressed concern to the complex management about children playing around the railroad tracks behind the apartments. Management responded by building an eight foot high, chain link security fence topped with barb wire alongside the railroad right of way. The fence provides a barrier between the railroad right of way (referred to errorneously by Mr. Chilton as a “trail”) and the apartments. According to Estes Park manager Mr. Brummett, the fence was also designed to protect residents from “security issues” (translation, homeless people camping in municipally owned woods) that have migrated off the railroad tracks. Many Estes Park apartments have been broken into by homeless people. Also, at least one Estes Park resident was mugged by someone fleeing across the railroad tracks.

In most towns in North Carolina, such security measures would be no cause for government intervention. However, the Estes Park owners made the mistake of cutting off access to Carrboro usufructers and trespassers living in the Village West development.

Mayor Chilton expressed dismay at the perimeter fence because it blocks a “frequently used path for walkers and bikers between northern Chapel Hill and downtown Carrboro”. Mayor Chilton has gone as far as to express concern over the new fence’s legality. He ignores the fact that plans are currently in the final stages for a sidewalk stretching from Estes Park to North Greensboro Street, a sidewalk that doesn’t include apartment complex land. (See Carrboro Citizen Fence Story.) In Mr. Chilton’s words, “The barbed wire, in particular, seems kind of hostile. This is not a prison camp or anything.”

Fueling Mayor Chilton and Alderman Lavelle’s efforts are the misleading class warfare statements of Carrboro’s usufructers. Although Estes Park apartments rent for only about $450 to $600 a month (a cost equal to about one half of a mortgage payment for an average Village West condominium, $154,754 in 2006) Village West resident Mr. James Coley wrote Mayor Chilton saying, “Can anyone really believe this is not partly about race and class?” (See Chapel Hill News Estes Park Fence Story. Also see N&O Estes Park Fence Story.)

Pulp readers are used to the convoluted logic of southern Orange. Village West owners have to look at the barbed wire fence. Unlike the Estes Park residents, on average, they don’t have English as a second language (ESL). They have higher incomes. They don’t have a barbed wire fence in their neighborhood. So they charge the Estes Park owners with race and class bias in order to be able to remove the unsightly eyesore and to be able to trespass across the homes of ESL, lower income residents.

The fence story has encroached into the world of the self-absorbed Friends of Bolin Creek (FOBC) “environmental” organization. (See Phictionary.) Reacting to the cutting of trees along the railroad right of way alongside the verdant backs of their suburban homes, FOBC members have also complained to Mr. Chilton. His response has been, “[t]hey cut down several trees for that stupid [e]stes [p]ark fence, [i] think. [c]hapel [h]ill also removed a few dead and downed trees recently.”

Once again Mr. Chilton is completely clueless. UNC has purchased about 8 acres in Carrboro/Chapel Hill for a new rail spur. The railroad is cleaning out its right of way all along Chapel Hill and Carrboro down to the new spur to be constructed.

The Carrboro Boa (see Phictionary) works hard to earn its reputation for unequal enforcement of the law and the shredding of private property rights to aid its friends. The latest example of such behavior is the intervention of the Boa into the ability of the owner of an apartment complex to control who can park on private property.

The “Trampling of Human Rights” Incident

Abbey Court is an apartment complex of about several hundred units located off NC 54 in Carrboro on Jones Ferry Road. Near to the complex is a makeshift day worker pickup location. The complex is also near a bus stop and has been used as an unofficial park-and-ride lot. The Abbey Court manager has been facing problems with cars in the complex that don’t belong to renters. In response, the manager started enforcing parking rules that included requiring official parking stickers issued by the complex and enforcing the parking rules by towing away offending vehicles.

In most towns in North Carolina, such enforcement would be no cause for government intervention. In this case the Abbey Court complex manager won't give parking stickers for cars with body damage. Moreover, they won’t give stickers to car owners who can't produce registration and other paperwork. However, the Abbey Court owners (Tar Heel Companies of North Carolina) made the mistake of enforcing its rules against illegal immigrants, the “cause célèbre” of ciudad del santuario (sanctuary town) Carrboro. Residents say the policy discriminates against the mostly Hispanic residents, some of them illegal immigrants, who can't comply. If only the residents had all been pasty white, impoverished Anglo US citizens, then the Boa could have ignored their plight.

Feeling emboldened by Boa support for illegal immigrants, Abbey Court residents took on the towing company hired by the Abbey Court owners. A resident threw a bottle at a tow truck removing a vehicle. More dramatically, a male visitor grabbed his daughter and stuck her in the back seat of his car, a car which had been hooked up already for towing. He wanted to keep it from getting towed using his daughter's physical endangerment to do so. Mayor Mark Chilton got a call about 10 p.m. on a Thursday evening from an Abbey Court resident. He and Alderwoman Jacquie Gist got up and went to Abbey Court immediately. According to Mr. Chilton, the driver unhooked the car with the endangered child, ”but only after demanding (and receiving) a $100 cash payment from the owner of the car.”

Mr. Brad Chandler (Chandler's Towing) disagreed with the Mayor’s version. According to Mr. Chandler, the tow truck operator had already hooked the white Nissan Sentra to his truck when the owner ran out of an apartment carrying a child in a car seat, a fact now confirmed . The child-endangering parent had been visiting someone at the complex. After the vehicle had been hooked up for a tow, the child-endangering parent opened the driver's door and snapped his child in to the back seat.

According to Mr. Chandler, ”We didn't hook to a vehicle that had a child in it. The people were outside screaming, 'Put the kid in the car, put the kid in the car.' ” Mr. Chandler said the tow truck driver requested payment because the car was violating the complex's vehicle policy.

Neither the Mayor nor the Carrboro police so much as warned the “muy macho” child-endangering parent regarding his use of a child to stop a tow truck. However, in finest southern Orange traditions, the Orange County Office of Human Rights and Relations is investigating the apartment complex owners and the towing company.

The Boa Strikes

In response to this incident, the Boa met in a highly unusual summer recess meeting on 31 July 2008. After much breast beating over the apartment complex owner’s exercise of control over a situation ignored by town officials, the chaotic state of parking at Abbey Court, the Boa was constrained by home rule to passing an ordinance limiting towing fees to $50 in Carrboro. The ordinance also limits retrieval fees to $100 and $20 a day for storage.

The “Trampling of Humans” Incident

On 4 August 2008, the carnage at Abbey Court continued with renters continuing to endanger towing truck operators who are complying with the law. Mr. Jesus Sanchez Basurto, 25, claimed he didn’t realize that a tow truck driver had put a boot on his car. He got into his car and tried to drive it away from the tow truck before it could hook up his car. When the car wouldn't move, Mr. Basurto opened his car door to see why the vehicle wasn't moving. He left the car in reverse. It lurched backward and ran up on the curb. Somehow he was pulled under his own car, and the car ran over his foot. The towing truck operator did nothing beyond having already put on the boot.

See Herald Sun Towing Story.

The ostensible story in the local media is simple. As reported, “The town of Carrboro may soon join its neighbor to the east in keeping campaign contributors – and the candidates who accept their money – on a short leash.” (See Herald Sun Campaign Contribution Story.) The Boa can limit contributions in Carrboro elections to $250 per person per candidate, down from the state limit of $4000. Also, now contributors giving only $50 must be identified, as elsewhere in the state. (The Boa didn’t get the as low as $1 limit it originally wanted.)

A local Orange Progressive politician also tells a simple story. According to former Green Party member, little blue choo line cutter, vehicular weapons expert, tax-exempt business profiteer, and Carrboro anarchist alderman Dan Coleman, ”Carrboro elections have in the past been and are currently very affordable, This measure [allowed by recently passed S488], if we enact it, will allow us to keep them that way.”

Unfortunately, there is no sign of any problem with campaign contributions in Carrboro elections, except the use of outside district moneys. (See Lavelle Big Spender Outside Influence Pulp story.) The only person spending more than $3000 in an election in 2007 was Alderman Lydia Lavelle.

State Senator Ellie Kinnaird, who filed S488 in March 2007, is reported as saying “I think both Carrboro and Chapel Hill, and Orange County, want to be leaders and they believe strongly in campaign finance reform. They don't want money to influence elections.” Unfortunately, Senator Kinnaird is clueless in that she can’t give an example of where money has influenced an Orange election, choosing to ignore the use of outside district moneys by Commish Mike Nelson in his 2006 election campaign.

In order to take advantage of SB 488, the Boa must hold a public hearing and enact an ordinance. If adopted, the contribution limit ordinance sunsets 60 days before the next election. A new limiting ordinance can be adopted between 150 days and 60 days before filing for that next election.

Here’s the real story.

In order to maintain power in Carrboro elections, the Boa asked their favorite state senator to file an anarchist bill that would have allowed the Boa incumbents to maintain power by limiting campaign contributions to as little as $1 per person per candidate. The Boa would have been able to lower the contribution disclosure limit down to $1. The Boa could have done so at any time, even in the middle of an election, as many times as the Boa wanted. That’s what seemed fair and reasonable to Senator Kinnaird and to the Boa.

Unfortunately for Senator Kinnaird and the Boa, there is a state representative with Carrboro constitutents who doesn’t drink Orange Progressive Cool-Aid, Representative Bill Faison. Mr. Faison is responsible for changing S488 from a carte blanche maintaining power tool for the Boa into a law that supposedly is needed for a “problem” that Mayor Mark Chilton acknowledged to Representative Faison doesn’t exist. Mr. Faison required the contribution floor be no lower than $250, removed the $1 campaign contribution disclosure power, removed the ability of the BOA to change the limit during the election, removed the ability of the Boa to change the limit more than once in an election cycle, and imposed a sunset provision requiring reenactment before each election cycle.

So why isn’t the story of the reining in of an abusive anarchist Boa bill told in the local media? The answer is quite simple and in keeping with local politics. Mr. Faison is not in the favored political circle for southern Orange. So he shouldn’t get favorable media coverage. Moreover, his truly progressive actions highlight the abusive nature of the original overreaching bill wanted by the favored faux progressive anarchist Boa politicians.

The real lesson from this story is that the absence of “home rule” power for Carrboro forced an unreasonable, overreaching, anarchists bill to be recrafted into a tolerable, more reasonable bill. (“Home rule” refers to the ability of a local municipal jurisdiction to define its own powers. North Carolina doesn't allow “home rule”, and thus, the Boa had to go to the General Assembly to get the powers set forth in S488. But for a moderate legislator from Orange County (Mr. Faison), Senator Kinnaird and Representatives Insko and Hackney would have rammed through the original anarchist bill.)

Four days after the local tax transfer vote fails in the primary election (see Pulp Local Transfer Tax Vote Story), the local media announces that home sales in the first quarter of Orange County for 2008 are 38% less than that of one year ago. That decline is triple that of one quarter ago (13.4%).

Conveniently, the local steno pool doesn’t report numbers that bear out the fact that revenues from transfer taxes are variable and depend upon the economy until after the primary election. Transfer tax variability was not reported to voters during the primary election by either Carrboro Mayor Chilton’s ad hoc developer shilling machine ,“Orange Citizens for Schools and Parks”, the city board of education members, the Chapel Hill town council members, the Carrboro Boa, or any of the County Commishes. Yet, over $100,000 in taxpayer money was spent on voter education.

See Herald Sun Home Sales Story.

The Orange County Commishes spent Wednesday May 7th toweling egg off their face as a record voter turnout defeated the land transfer tax option in a referendum vote of 2 to 1 against the tax. Pulp readers remember that the Commishes spent $10,000 to poll citizens. See ( Pulp Commish Poll Story).

That pricey poll revealed that 53% of the people polled opposed the local transfer tax. But the Commishes went forward with a $100,000 “educational” campaign to push the tax. They recruited every city school support organization (school board, PTA boards, et cetera) with the “promise” (a non-binding board resolution) to use the estimated $3,000,000 in local transfer tax funds for schools and parks. The implied threat was that without the tax, you can forget about full funding. The Commishes recruited political allies such as Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton to organize Orange Citizens for Schools and Parks to spread propaganda and not to tell the full story about the tax, how renters didn’t pay the tax and how developers such as Mayor Chilton took profits while leaving a $300,000,000 capital burden for you to pay.

Despite every major Orange Progressive openly supporting the tax, it was turned down. The two thirds opposition was higher after the educational campaign than before. The $10,000 poll revealed 53% opposition with many undecided. The undecided apparently decided to oppose the tax after being educated. Even after rigging the vote to be during what many believed would be a poorly attended May 2008 primary election, as opposed to the better attended November 2008 general election, the Commishes couldn’t get their tax.

Now the big question is, will the Commishes provide $3,000,000 in funding for schools and parks through raising the county property tax. If the school and park need was so great that a new tax was mandated (as Commishes and their supporters represented), does that need remain so great that they will raise property taxes?

Local media-described ”newly elected” Democratic commissioner at-large and local transfer tax advocate Bernadette Pelissier (running against Kevin Wolff in Novmber) showed her complete lack of financial understanding by saying ”I think the land transfer tax was put on too late in the whole process. I wish that the General Assembly had actually made it a tax more on new homes because there's a misperception that it's only for the seller to pay it, when it really can be in the closing costs and paid by the buyer.” Amazingly, Ms. Pelissier was against a fully burdened impact fee during her election campaign and for the transfer tax. Pulpsters, unlike Ms. Pelissier, know that the transfer tax was put on the primary election at the behest of the Commishes. Pulpsters also know, unlike Ms. Pellisier, that the Commishes could have asked, but didn’t, for the option of a higher impact fee from the General Assembly. Clearly, lack of knowledge is not a barrier to being elected in Orange County, so long as the candidate makes you feel good.

Showing her non-profit, tax exempt financial acumen, Ms. Pelissier says ”I'd really like the commissioners to look at increasing the impact fees, though that wouldn't solve all of the problems.” Kenan business school professors are still pondering the meaning of this statement.

Developer Dream Team water carrier and Chief Commish Barry Jacobs, speaking through a yolky beard and albumen facial mask, said, “I'm appreciative to the people who tried to take up the ball for the notion that local government needs more funding options. And in this case we only got to arrange for this option, which had the deepest pockets available opposing it. The notion that local government should have local alternatives is still important and still needs to be pursued.”

No word on the next tax to be brought to you by the Commishes.

Tax-exempt expert, pollo asado eater, Carrboro developer & realtor, bourgeoisie rentier, black bag campaign poster expert, Carrboro mayor, and now water use guru Mr. Mark Chilton comes to the rescue once again of fellow developers/water profiteers (see Phictionary), with his bag of political magic tricks. Mayor Chilton uses his political office to hold a Boa vote on the local transfer/home equity tax.

On 22 April 2008, under the hypnotic gaze of Mayor Chilton, the Boa passed another in its famous string of non-binding and meaningless resolutions about issues not discussed in any Carrboro election.

Throughout the entire riveting discussion, not a single Boa member mentioned any of the following facts regarding the local transfer tax:
1) City schools need over TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS in unfunded capital spending over the next five years.
2) Orange County has an impact fee for new homes. Unfortunately, that fee is not high enough to offset the capital burdens of a new residence.
3) OC has been in a steady growth pattern for the past 20 years and will maintain that path for the next 20 years.
4) County government doesn’t keep a future capital cost balance sheet.
5) Not one Orange County municipality requires a financial impact statement (municipal capital and operating costs) when making residential housing approvals.
6) Currituck County (with a local transfer tax since 1985) recently asked for a TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLAR PER HOUSE impact fee, almost three times the Orange County impact fee.
7) Despite assurances from county commissioners and luminaries, the tax is NOT dedicated to “schools and parks”.
8) Renters aren’t subject to the tax. Carrboro is two thirds renters.
9) Smart landlords aren’t subject to the tax. Landlords can sell the business owning title to their rental units, thereby avoiding any transfer tax.
10) The tax is highly cyclical. When the economy turns down, so do transfer tax revenues. Such revenues in Dare County (another model county cited) halved in the recent economic downturn.
11) Even with this tax, more scheduled imbalanced growth will bring us full circle to more unfunded capital debt for schools.

“Dance with bricks” trespasser and chief issue teaser Alderman Randee Haven-O'Donnell captured the Boa’s mood, saying that real estate is Carrboro’s biggest business, so business (sic??) should support schools and parks. (Sorry Pulpsters, there's no Phicitonary translation for this Orangespeak statement available.)

Hot off his magical act tour shilling the unpopular local transfer tax for Orange County commishes, tax-exempt expert, pollo asado eater, Carrboro developer & realtor, bourgeoisie rentier, black bag campaign poster expert, Carrboro mayor, and now water use guru Mr. Mark Chilton comes to the rescue once again of fellow developers/water profiteers (see Phictionary), with his bag of political magic tricks. At the 31 March 2008 meeting of the Orange County, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill municipal governments meeting attended by representatives of Chatham County and Durham County, Mr. Chilton waved his magic wand over the water problems facing local governments.

Mr. Chilton didn’t speak about conserving water by limiting local growth for developers. He didn’t speak about defining a carrying capacity for the region. Instead, he spoke about residents using less water. The answer is user conservation. ”We don't have a water supply problem, we have a water demand problem.” According to Mr. Chilton, Jordan Lake isn’t the answer to the region's water concerns. While calling for other municipalities to conserve and not tap an additional reservoir, he advocates OWASA (his town’s local water supplier) building an additional reservoir courtesy of local residents and not local water profiteers (the Stone Quarry reservoir, about the size of the University Lake reservoir) in the Jordan Lake watershed.

For Mr. Chilton, water demand is created not by those building housing (fellow water profiteers), but by those occupying housing (residents). This Orange Progressive nuance is matched by his insistence that adding high housing density in one area while temporarily lowering housing density in another area to offset the population increase in the former area until the buildout is completed in the former area, then increasing housing density in the latter area is somehow maintaining the status quo. (See Hot Orange Carrboro Density Story or Poet Lariat - DeNScItY... the magic of small town urbanism.)

No word on whether or not Mr. Chilton realizes the irony in his wisdom in his prestidigitation fingerpointing. The water captured by OWASA for Carrboro is in the Jordan Lake watershed, and thus, not only depletes the water available for Jordan Lake, but is, in essence, a tapping of Jordan Lake.

No word on whether or not Mr. Chilton, an expert in land options, has an option on a Joshua tree import business.

See Chapel Hill Herald Water Guru Story.

See Hot Orange Chilton Disses Durham Story.

Tax-exempt expert, pollo asado eater, Carrboro developer & realtor, bourgeoisie rentier, black bag campaign poster expert, and Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton is practicing his political ”old black magic act” again. He’s organizing a transitory ad hoc committee to advocate for passing the Orange County commishes’ unpopular local transfer tax. This “Citizens for Schools and Parks Committee” (composed of commish friends that can engage in advocacy) will dissolve on 6 May 2008, election day!

The punitive and discriminatory nature of the local transfer tax will be placed in a magical issue framing black box by Mr. Chilton in front of your very eyes. He will wave his tax-exempt wand. Poof! The tax will be transformed into a call for supporting schools and parks (aka greenways for friends of their back yards in Carrboro).

Rest assured, only the truth will be harmed in this magical act.

No word on why Mr. Chilton, who was so concerned about raising taxes in Carrboro during the last municipal election less than six months ago, is now championing a new tax.

No word on whether or not the “Citizens for Schools and Parks Committee” will tell residents that residential growth promoted by Mr. Chilton is raising their municipal taxes, growth that profits developers like Mr. Chilton.

Where but deep down the “rabbit hole” of southern Orange politics can you have the local media present two articles with two conflicting viewpoints on the same day in the same media outlet with no questions asked?

In an article on the problems facing city schools, the Chapel Hill Herald quotes Steve Scroggs, assistant superintendent for support services and director of the district's long-range facilities committee, on the impact of continued growth in southern Orange on the city schools. ”We don't project our growth stopping – we're not at a plateau, We're really driving the numbers up as we [the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro] increase our density.” (SeeCHH City School Growth Story.)

Oblivious to these true statements of reality, along hops the ambilingual (see Phictionary) white rabbit of southern Orange, dense developer, bourgeoisie mill house rentier (see Phictionary), and black bag campaign poster expert, Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton, a mayor who gladly approves dense infill developments for his employees.

Mr. Chilton doesn’t see the world the way Mr. Scroggs does. He chides other Triangle governments about their growth. (Perhaps Mr. Chilton’s knowledge is imperfect because he doesn’t send his children to city schools. In a climate change conscious decision, they commute miles away to private school, instead of walking to the elementary school literally across the street.)

According to developer Chilton, the state government should ”take Jordan Lake off the table” unless other governments adopt “Keep It Weird” Carrboro land use policies. Mayor Chilton says “And until our neighbors are exercising the kind of self-restraint that Orange County has been pursuing – and doing so in a legally binding way through joint planning agreements – it doesn't seem wise to me to give those local governments still more access to drinking water, If we're going to pay millions and millions of dollars to pull water out of there, and what we're doing is continuing [to grow as] we've always done, and getting to the point where even that isn't enough, what's the point?”

There’s only one problem with this white rabbit story. Carrboro is pushing to increase its density, to build more homes in the land it set aside for growth. There’s nothing in its joint planning agreement that stops Carrboro from infilling to Manhattan densities. (See Carnahan Story.)

During the fall 2007 municipal election, all non-incumbent Carrboro candidates (excepting Ms. Lydia Lavelle) pointed out that a moratorium was imposed by the sitting Boa (including Mr. Chilton) for the specific purpose of increasing density in Carrboro. In a forthright display of Orange progressive logic, Mr. Chilton said that he would propose decreasing density west of old NC 86, so as to yield the same number of residents as were currently zoned prior to the moratorium. The declared “decrease in density” was a bone thrown to behind-the-scenes drafter of many Carrboro town zoning ordinances, treasurer of vehicular weapons expert Alderman Coleman’s campaign, former Alderman, Orange County planning board member , commish in his mind, and friend of his back yard (see Phictionary), Jay Bryan, who lives west of old NC 86 in Carrboro’s dreaded planning jurisdiction).

Only one problem, Mayor Chilton isn’t willing to sign his legislative legerdemain into law. When questioned on whether or not the western decrease would be permanent, Mr. Chilton admitted that it would just be until the area east of old NC 86 was built at the new highly increased density, than the area west of old NC 86 would suffer the same dense fate. So in the end, Carrboro will grow more after Mr. Chilton’s moratorium then before it. In keeping with his demonstrated propensities, Mr. Chilton is incapable of telling a complete and accurate story. He just wants to feed Carrburban heads with what they want to hear.

Local media reports none of this information, preferring to play the recumbent role of dutiful stenographer. The mayor who has increased population in the face of an exceptional drought, the second such drought in a decade, a mayor who asks people to adopt a semi-arid lifestyle in Carrboro, local media portrays that mayor as a force curbing development. Local media truly are blue pill swallowers, as well as dispensers.

No word of thanks from Mayor Chilton on how Durham stood ready to bail out Carrboro for Carrboro’s emergency water needs during the 2001-2002 drought by pumping 3 million gallons of water per day from Cary through the city's system to OWASA when OWASA's lakes fell to 32 percent full on 11 October 2002.

No word from the city of Durham on when it will proclaim “Mayor Chilton Ingrate Day”.

No word from local media as to why no mention is made of Mr. Chilton’s town needing (through OWASA) to build another deep waterhole (the future Rock Quarry reservoir, about the size of University Lake) in order to feed the profits of Mr. Chilton.

No word from Mr. Bryan explaining why he opposed the village mixed use dense development at Winmore in 2003, but now supports three additional village mixed use dense developments in northern Carrboro.

No word from Mr. Chilton on what property interests he has in the area being rezoned.

In related business news, stock of Del Monte Foods, owner of the Milk Bone brand, and Proctor & Gamble, owner of the Charmin brand, both traded slightly higher last week in regular trading.

See CHH Mayoral Propaganda Story.

Residential taxpayers find no shelter from the relentless Carrboro Boa facilitation of developers’ profits in “Keep It Weird” Carrboro. Local media “watchdogs” snore on.

Parking has been a mess in “Chapelboro” for years (See Poet Lariat - You Look for Parking All Night Long.) So why, all of the sudden, is the Boa anxious to get its coils around the “parking problem”? Supposedly this problem didn’t exist in the 2007 Carrboro municipal election, at least for every Carrboro candidate that won election. Why is parking in “walkable” Carrboro suddenly an emerging value? From whence does the groundswell come?

For answers, it’s like Watergate, just follow the money trail. Developer Boa friends are getting ready to break ground for the 300 Main Street project and the Alberta project. Cheek-to-jowl parking in Carrboro will become bunghole parking with the loss of spaces during construction of these projects. What’s more, the Boa has decreased, not increased, the number and the size of parking spaces (particularly publicly accessible spaces) that these projects must provide at the expense of the developer, on their sites.

In a more hum-drum town, the governance board might require a developer in a prime urban location, one in the heart of the commercial district, to provide adequate parking (private and public) in order to get a project approved. You make the demand. You service the demand. These not-so-cool governance boards might even require such a developer to purchase and to build parking off site from their project if there weren’t enough on-site parking spaces.

However, governance doesn’t work that way in Carrboro, where your tax money keeps Boa friends smiling. In Carrboro, it appears that a developer can even get the town to line them up a staging area for their construction project. There is no visible plan for construction staging for the substantial multi-story 300 Main Street project. Where will the project construction workers park? Where will materials be dropped off? Where will structural steel reside pending erection?

To the rescue comes Carrboro “Developer Service Department” co-manager and “anemic economic development” director, Mr. James Harris. He has told the Boa at its 12 February 2008 work session about “a potential new parking lot behind the Kentucky Fried Chicken where Rosemary and East Main streets meet”. The Boa eyes have been transfixed at the glowing image of 26 more diminutive parking spaces for their developer friends, at no cost to their friends. (That’s 26 newly downsized parking spaces thanks to Boa code changes reducing the area of a parking space.)

In keeping with the Carrboro town staff tradition of under-informing the public, Mr. Harris has said that these spaces would cost you about $100,000 to $200,000. However, that’s just for stormwater management. He adds that the site is in such bad condition that it can't be used as a parking lot now. Mr. Harris fails to give you the full bill for turning this “bad lot” into a real parking lot, albeit one hidden behind a fast food restaurant.

Veteran taxpayers feel the Boa squeeze coming. They remember the Hanna Street sidewalk.

When the Boa approved the Pacifica project submitted by their local developer friends, and in some cases, by their employees, the Hanna Street sidewalk improvements required by that project were only supposed to cost about $100,000, with half that cost ($50,000) being borne by the Pacifica developers. But in Carrboro, there are estimates for media consumption, estimates for Boa approval, and there is reality. The twain rarely meet.

The town manager (Mr. Steve Stewart) never has reported the entire final cost of the Hanna sidewalk (over at least $250,000) to the public. That butcher’s bill probably won’t include the time value of Carrboro Public Works personnel working on the project in addition to the payments to a private contractor. Moreover, Mr. Stewart hasn’t reported publicly whether or not that the Pacifica developers (one of who is an employee of dense developer, bourgeoisie mill house rentier, and Carrboro mayor, Mark Chilton) have actually presented the town with a check for half of the entire cost (now much more than $50,000), as promised and provided in the original Boa approvals for Pacifica.

This Harris proposed, just off Main Street town parking lot will be purchased at your expense with your tax dollars. But the lot isn’t ready for use by you now. Serendipitously, it just happens to sit across the street from the 300 Main Street project. So it stands ready to be used in the interim by the 300 Main Street developers as a staging area for their construction. It will stand ready after completion, through your tax subsidies, to serve the owners of 300 Main Street. It’s only natural. To the Boa, it’s only logical to let Boa friendly developer use an otherwise idle piece of land. Friends helping friends. Your taxes at work in Carrboro.

Speaking ambilingually (out of both sides of his mouth), Mayor Chilton wants the 300 Main Street and Alberta projects to collaborate with the town for free parking, without acknowledging that the Boa has reduced the parking spaces in town while approving these projects.

Mayor Chilton will take money from you to invest in more downtown parking spaces for his developer friends. He expects you to pick up part of the burden for parking in the historic business district. He doesn’t expect his developer friends to shoulder the entire burden, although they get the entire profit. He will not be handing you a return on your investment in the foreseeable future. A tax-exempt business expert, Mayor Chilton is quoted as saying that ”[Taxpayer subsidized parking for business and commercial/retail property owners] is about economic vitality as well as how [Boa developer friends will] bring in more businesses.”

Speaking in political tongues, Mayor Chilton is reported to say that Carrboro shouldn’t have as much free parking as Chapel Hill's downtown ”because that helps Carrboro stay competitive in terms of downtowns.”

Private school teacher, “friend of her back yard”, intuitive for-profit business expert, and Carrboro alderman, Randee Haven-O'Donnell revealed her deep concern for the lifestyle stresses of Carrboro’s struggling low wage employees by suggesting that they shouldn’t be able to park a car near their place of employment. If you work in Carrboro (and aren’t an owner or Boa friend), then you should ride in a van pool from park-and-ride lots to the six short-block long Carrboro “downtown”.

No word on the timing for transitioning the “developing” off Main Street town parking lot from a developer construction staging area into a town parking lot for the 300 Main Street owners.

No word on whether or not Alderman Haven O’Donnell will start riding in a van pool either to Boa meetings or to her employment.

No word from any alderman as to why business and property owners in the historic business district, those who reap the profits from that district, aren’t taxed with a business district tax to provide the solution to the parking problems they create.

See N&O Parking Discussion.

In a sympathetic “puff piece” presentation of the plight of lonchera operators in Carrboro by reporter Meiling Arounnarath, the N&O manages to publish an article about Carrboro's anarchistic food purveyors (Pulp reference Carrboro Mayor Finds Solution to ED Mobile Eatery Problem, Just Don't Enforce Local Public Health Laws) without a single mention of the food safety risks presented by town government acceptance of uninspected loncheras not tied to a licensed and inspected commissary.

Likewise, the N&O is completely silent about the non-payment of taxes by loncheras, mirroring the concern for public safety and non-residential tax revenues exhibited by tax-exempt expert, pollo asado eater, and Carrboro mayor Mark Chilton.

No word on whether or not Carrboro will be accepting non-payment of town property taxes for those non-recognized ethnics just trying to take care of their families.

See N&O Taco Friendly Story

During the Fall 2007 elections, Mayor–elect, Carrboro developer, Carrrboro rentier, and realtor Mark Chilton got upset over how the Chapel Hill Carrboro Chamber of Commerce asked him a question, ”the foundation [of which] was clearly a simplistic connection (trumped up by the Chamber staff) between housing prices and the Rural Buffer.”

Mr. Chilton claimed “The Chamber has been showing increasing hostility toward the Rural Buffer, claiming among other things that the Rural Buffer severely limits the supply housings in the two towns and drives land costs up to their dramatic levels.”

Demonstrating commanding knowledge, Mr. Chilton told the Chamber that “the main cause of high housing prices around here is that it is such a nice place to live. Unless you increased the housing supply around here to the point that the market was dramatically overbuilt, housing prices would remain high no matter what kinds of development restrictions were eliminated.” According to Mr. Chilton, “the Chamber staff was loathe to admit that private enterprise was at all the source of the problem. I pointed out the prices are pretty much just as high in northeast Chatham County where (until last year) development was allowed to pretty well run hog wild. No, said the Chamber: There are plenty of inexpensive dwellings for sale in Chatham.”

To prove his point, Mr. Chilton conducted an MLS search of houses for sale in the Chapel Hill Carrboro City School District at the moment. There were 99 dwellings for sale in the district offered at less than $185,000. By contrast, in northeast Chatham County, Mr. Chilton only found 37 dwellings for sale for under $185,000.

Mr. Chilton didn’t differentiate between the southern Orange market (loaded with inherently less expensive condominiums and townhouses) from a northern Chatham County market (with few such properties in existence).

NSAPIRC (the handpicked northern Carrboro development study committee composed of dense growth advocates) makes predictable call for intense development, disagreeing only on the “whens” and “wheres”.

The Carrboro “Boa” authorized a hurry-up moratorium in the spring of 2007 in order to halt vested rights in developments that wished to use the northern Carrboro transition zoning in place for the last twenty years. The Boa created NSAPIRC to get a desired outcome - the oxymoronic vision of dense “millhouse vernacular” dotting the Carrboro countryside. (The predictability of NSAPIRC behavior has mirrored that of the now defunct New Horizon Task Force, pre-election showcase for now Alderman Lydia Lavelle.)

The NSAPIRC chair, former Carrboro Alderman, West Old NC 86 ranchette owner, current Orange County planning board member, and former treasurer of the Dan Coleman for Alderman campaign, Jay Bryan has championed delaying development in his backyard until the east side of Old NC 86 is peppered with “millhouse vernacular”.

Meanwhile, Carrboro’s planning board chairman, former member of the Carrboro Collaborative Development Corporation, associate of Pacifica and Arcadia developer Giles Blunden, and “rural village” zealot, James Carnahan is apparently in a Kabuki battle with Mr. Bryan over how much mixed use development will be built in northern Carrboro. Carnahan wants it wherever feasible along transit corridors, despite the abysmal failure of mixed use in the recent Winmore development. Bryan doesn’t want such mixed use in his backyard west of Old NC 86.

The Boa position may have been expressed best by Mayor Chilton during the fall elections, west of Old NC 86 will be developed, just not until dense development on the east side is finished (which will help pay for the “scheduled” northern OWASA water tower). Showing a proclivity for flexible argument, Mayor Chilton says that the absence of OWASA lines west of Old NC 86 should halt development there, but not halt development east of Old NC 86 where OWASA lines also don’t exist in some areas.

Meanwhile, the local media continues its failure to report on the development interests of Carrboro politicians with regards to properties around Old NC 86.

(Portions originally reported in the Carrboro Citizen. See Calvander story