Date: Tue, 6 Mar 2018 12:20:04 -0500
From: virginia penley
Subject: RE: Expansion of the County Board of Commissioners
Once again I have read Mr. Bock’s letter regarding board expansion with great interest.
It appears from his post on March 4th that he supports district voting for the current five districts.
He may recall that a referendum for district voting was placed on the ballot in the fall of 2006 by the board led by Bunkey Morgan and was defeated.
What Mr. Bock fails to acknowledge is that our neighbors to the North in Orange County and to the South in Lee County both have seven elected members on their respective boards with the membership reflecting a mix of district members and at-large members.
Orange County has a two district system with the more urban district one containing Chapel Hill and Carrboro containing three members and the more rural district two containing two members.
The other two members of its board run at-large.
Lee County has three at-large members with four members elected by their district.
Either system could work in Chatham County.
Chatham County currently has five members of its board who must reside in a district, but run countywide.
A system that was created by our local bill from the NCGA in the 1970’s.
This situation continues even though the current districts are perpetually out of balance by population due to growth pressures.
(Chatham County is growing faster than Orange and Lee and the demands of the job are greater now than when the current system was created in the 1970’s.)
It seems reasonable to place this issue on the ballot and let the voters decide whether Chatham County should expand its board and if so whether the system should be akin to the one in Orange County or the one in Lee County.
Virginia Penley