I flat out enjoy canvassing. When else can I knock on a stranger’s door and start a conversation? After weeks of traipsing through neighborhoods all over town, I feel confident about giving directions to any Amazon Prime driver. Regardless of what part of town I’m in, someone on whose door I’ve knocked will ask me, […]
All posts in category Politics
Look before you vote
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 28, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/10/28/look-before-you-vote/
How to be inclusive
We can’t legislate kindness. If we could, that would have been my answer to a question posed at the candidates forum hosted by WCHL last week. Chapelboro on-air personality Aaron Keck, who moderated the forum, asked candidates: What’s the most important thing Chapel Hill can do to make itself a more welcoming and inclusive community? […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 21, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/10/21/how-to-be-inclusive/
Endorsements
When I sat in the audience, mining Town Council meetings for material for my Chapel Hill Watch blog, solutions to the problems council members wrestled with seemed so obvious. Once I was elected and shifted my seat to the dais, the answers weren’t so black-and-white. The job requires more nuance, discernment, balance and patience than […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on October 14, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/10/14/endorsements/
Exclusive boards
Consider the irony: At the same time town staff are making considerable efforts to encourage more people to get involved in the town decision-making process by applying to advisory boards and commissions, the Council Committee on Boards and Commissions has proposed limiting the number of people who will actually be considered for appointment. And, after […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 30, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/30/exclusive-boards/
Too much information?
Candidates for Town Council need a common app. You know, like prospective students applying to colleges fill out. I haven’t counted up all the questionnaires I’ve completed — someone asserted 19, but I haven’t had time to go back and check. All sorts of special interest groups want to know what candidates think about issues […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on September 23, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/09/23/too-much-information/
Too simple to understand?
Solutions to town problems seemed so much simpler when I sat in the audience at Town Hall covering Town Council meetings for my Chapel Hill Watch blog. After I was elected and moved to the dais, I learned there are no easy answers. Running for re-election this year, I was disheartened to receive questionnaires from […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 26, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/08/26/too-simple-to-understand/
Civil discourse
A bit of unpleasantness broke out at a nonprofit board meeting recently. An elected official (no Chapel Hill Town Council member or candidate), clearly frustrated by the discussion, behaved unprofessionally, using what in our family we call a “swear word.” I blame Trump. Politics at the national level has become a free-for-all, and the incivility […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on August 19, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/08/19/civil-discourse/
Why I’m running
Last week we held one of the oddest council meetings I have seen in the decade I have been keeping tabs on council business. Odd that we called a special meeting in the summer to revote on something we had voted on five months earlier. Odder still the number of politicians and political advocates lobbying […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 22, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/07/22/why-im-running/
The flummox of FLUM
The gavel came down on our final meeting of the 2019 fiscal year at 11:34 p.m. last Wednesday night. Community members packed the auditorium at Town Hall at the beginning of the meeting for various last-minute petitions, and many town residents stayed almost all the way to the end to weigh in on the Future […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on July 1, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/07/01/the-flummox-of-flum/
The cost of appearances
There we go again. Dipping into our savings to pay for nonessentials. Living beyond our means. Our new town manager presented his recommended budget, a 3.7% increase over what we spent the prior year, which would require only a 1.6-cent property tax increase (per every $100 of property valuation). The hiring process for our town […]
Posted by Nancy Oates on May 20, 2019
http://chapelhillwatch.com/2019/05/20/the-cost-of-appearances/