The City Council disposed of two long-running issues Tuesday night, at least for the time being.

It approved the city's first "Compact Design District" with zoning to encourage transit-friendly development in the Ninth Street area, while preserving Ninth Street's existing character;

And gave its stamp of approval for renovating Old North Durham Park with no change to the size of its athletic field.

Two former Chapel Hill garbage workers have filed discrimination suits against Town Manager Roger Stancil.

Clark and Bigelow were fired last fall after some residents complained that the two were rude and not picking up trash on their routes.
The suit, filed in Orange County Superior Court earlier this month, demands the town reinstate Clark and Bigelow and pay attorneys fees and back-pay from the date they were terminated.

The town hired a consultant to investigate the case earlier this year, which recommended that the two be fired. Last spring a citizen advisory committee upheld the firings.

Al McSurely, the pair’s attorney, said the men were retaliated against for trying to start a union and for filing complaints about the lack of safety on the job and racist hiring practices.

The suit alleges that Stancil retaliated or directed others to retaliate against  Bigelow and Clark and that the town did not follow its own grievance policy.

McSurely writes that the town did not thoroughly investigate complaints by the two men, try to resolve the complaints or improve the town’s policy in light of the complaints.

“Defendant Stancil ... violated all three of the requirements of his own policy in regard to Plaintiff’s serious complaints about blatant race discrimination and unsafe driving practices,” he wrote.

Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos confirmed that the town did receive the suit but has not responded.
 

Before I start my vacation, here's a statement that the state NAACP released today about Thursday's meeting with Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

Follow-Up Statement from Meeting with Superintendent Anthony Tata

The NAACP Meets with Superintendent Tata to Continue Discussion on the Important Connections Between Socio-Economic Diversity, Resources and Student Achievement

Nearly one year after the first protester was arrested for disrupting a Wake County school board meeting, there's no sign in sight of the situation being resolved.

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the nearly 30 people arrested at school board meetings between last March and August are waiting for disposition of their cases. While the Wake County District Attorney's Office says it's not unusual for misdemeanor cases to be on the docket after a year, prosecutors also don't want the arrests to turn into a show trial.

The issue is that the state NAACP, which has moved to combine all the arrests into one case, wants the issue argued in open court. They want to turn the arrests into a de-facto trial on the end of the diversity policy.

Could the wording from the Oct. 5 resolution that killed the zone plan come back to bite the Wake County school board during the accreditation review?

As noted in today's article, Mark Elgart, president of AdvancED, said the review team will question how the school board will follow through on the wording in the Oct. 5 resolution to provide “equity and equal opportunity” for all students. It's part of the review of whether the school board is following its own policies and procedures.

“We’re telling them it’s their right to assign students as they wish,” Elgart said. “But when you have a resolution that says you will ensure equality of opportunity, you have to say how you will do that.”

Americans for Prosperity is taking shots at the state NAACP for questioning Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta's lack of a college degree.

At Friday's press conference announcing the complaint filed against Wake, NAACP attorney Al McSurely said "[Margiotta] doesn't even have a college degree" and added that "they've got clowns running this school board." In a press release today, the conservative AFP notes that 74 percent of adults in North Carolina do not have a college degree.

"Does this represent a policy statement from the NAACP that 74 percent of North Carolina citizens are not qualified to run and serve on their local school board?” said state AFP director Dallas Woodhouse in the press release.

The state NAACP said some pretty nasty things on Friday about members of the Wake County school board majority as they announced they had filed a complaint with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

As noted in today's article, members of the NAACP hurled charges of racism and likened the board majority to clowns, Communists, dictators and the Mafia. School board chairman Ron Margiotta's educational background was questioned and he was called "unfit" to keep his post.

"[Margiotta] doesn't even have a college degree," said NAACP Attorney Al McSurely. "They've got clowns running this school board."

The state NAACP is not happy with the Wake County school board's rejection of the group's request for 45 minutes at a board meeting.

As noted in today's article by Jim Wise, the NAACP is circulating a petition calling for school board chairman Ron Margiotta to give them the time. At Sunday's NAACP-sponsored meeting, NAACP members passed out the home telephone numbers and e-mail addresses of school board members.

"The NAACP is not going to be ... told it can come to a committee," Barber said at the rally.