On the eve of Tuesday's elections, county commissioner candidate Steve Hopkins fired a verbal broadside at the People's Alliance and Commissioner Ellen Reckhow.
Accusing the PA of "Tea Party-like tactics," Hopkins accused the liberal political-action group of making race an issue in the commissioners race and making "wild accusations" about incumbent commissioners Joe Bowser, Brenda Howerton and Michael Page.
The next Election Day is more than seven weeks away, but candidates' campaign signs have proliferated all along Durham's streets these past few days.
If it seems a little early for that kind of thing, times have changed. So have Durham's election rules, and some in the political community are miffed that not everybody got the word.
"This is about fairness. No more, no less," said George Lawrence, campaign chairman for state Senate candidate Kerry Sutton, one who didn't get it, while her opponent is, current City Councilman Mike Woodard, is one who did.
Because he, like some other candidates, asked for it. It's like this –
From correspondent Virginia Bridges
Durham County commissioners appointed Pam Karriker to fill Becky Heron’s vacated seat tonight.
After a 3-1 vote, Karriker, 57, a community volunteer, past City Council candidate, and former mortgage broker could be sworn in as soon as Monday to fill the seat that Heron left Aug. 1 for health reasons. She beat eight other applicants seeking the position.
Commissioners Michael Page, Joe Bowser and Brenda Howerton voted to appoint Karriker, breaking a previous 2-2 deadlock among commissioners.
On Sept. 12, Bowser and Commissioner Ellen Reckhow voted for environmentalist and former planning commissioner Wendy Jacobs, whom Heron had endorsed. Page and Howerton supported Karriker.
Bowser said he decided to change his mind to “bring some kind of working relationship to this board,” which has been publicly feuding over the past two months.
Reckhow continued to support Jacobs tonight.
Look for more from tonight's meeting, including the commissioners' vote on the 751 South developers' request for sewer service in tomorrow's News & Observer.
A campaign is under way to promote a quarter-cent sales tax for schools that Durham County voters will decide on Nov. 8.
"We have a very popular product to sell," campaign Co-chairwoman Meredythe Holmes said this morning in a meeting of County Board of Commissioners and City Council members.
The tax is proposed for Durham Public Schools, pre-kindergarten programs and scholarships for Durham residents to attend Durham Tech. However, on the ballot it is listed as a "sales and use tax" with no reference to its purpose.
"When you think of the 'local sales and use tax' think 'education,' " said campaign Co-chairman Steve Toler.
"We're going to be going out to the community ... to tell this message," Holmes said.
"We're working on the money, we're working on the yard signs, we're also working on social media and letters to the editor," said Toler.
"There'll be a big hole in the bucket for the durham public schools if this does not pass," said County Commissioner Ellen Reckhow, due to the end of federal stimulus grants and cuts in state appropriations for public schools.
Holmes said the tax would produce about $5 million a year for its beneficiaries.
"It's a powerful message and I hope you will get the word out really strongly," said Reckhow. "When I talk to people, everyone says this is a slam dunk [but] you can't take anything for granted."
From correspondent Virginia Bridges
A shakeup in the Department of Social Services has split the Durham County Board of Commissioners, with the chairman accusing a colleague of dishonesty and another calling the chairman a liar.
Chairman Michael Page says Commissioner Ellen Reckhow was dishonest about her knowledge about the new DSS interim director.
Page says he also heard Commissioner Joe Bowser sought to oust former DSS director Gerri Robinson because she wouldn't hire one of his friends. He would not name who told him and said he could not prove it. “But I have to go by that when people bring me information,” he says.
Bowser calls Page a “liar.”
“It takes an ignorant person to make comments that are not true,” Bowser says. Although he introduced a potential job candidate to Robinson, he says it was a “recommendation only.”
Page’s concerns start with a June 27 county commissioners meeting where Bowser, Reckhow and Becky Heron voted to put Gail Perry on the DSS board.
Page and Brenda Howerton, the fifth commissioner, voted for Gloria Green, whose first term on the board had just expired. Page had served on the board with Green, a former DSS employee, and said the county had no reason to end her tenure.
Heron and Reckhow said Bowser, the commissioners’ liaison to the DSS board, contacted them before the vote, saying Robinson’s leadership had been divisive. She says she consulted County Manager Mike Ruffin, who indicated a change needed to occur, “which carried a lot of weight with me.”
Ruffin woould not comment.
Look for more on this developing story in tomorrow's N&O and in Wednesday's Durham News. If you'd like to speak with the reporter working on it please call Virginia Bridges at 919-564-9330 or email virginiabridges@gmail.com
Officials from Durham and Orange counties were talking the other day about closing a section of Pickett Road through some proposed parkland. Again.
"Everything is taking so long!" said Durham County Commissioner Ellen Reckhow.
In 2005, Durham County, Orange County and the cities of Chapel Hill and Durham went together to buy a Duke Forest tract on New Hope Creek for a shared nature preserve. In 2008, a park-planning group recommended closing the unpaved Pickett Road, which bisects the acreage, and turning it into a parking lot.
So, cities and counties started talking. NCDOT got involved. A few citizens objected. Meetings were held. Eventually, the respective elected bodies were called upon to state their opinions. In May, after more than two years' due process, Durham city and county resolved in favor of closing. Orange commissioners should get a draft this fall.
"It's amazing how slowly the wheels of government turn," said Reckhow, who shouldn't be surprised: She's been a commissioner since 1988.
Durham County Commissioner Ellen Reckhow learned about the latest deferral request on the 751 South hearing during the commissioners' work session this afternoon.
"You're kidding," she said.
Southern Durham Development Inc. requested the deferral from the hearing's scheduled date, June 23, until July 23.
"That's a problem," Reckhow said, "because in July a lot of us are planning to be out of town."
"Well," said Commissioner Becky Heron, "good luck."
According to Planning Director Steve Medlin, Durham's Unified Development Ordinance requires that a deferral be granted but a date to reschedule is the county commissioners' decisions. Commissioners' Chairman Michael Page said they would talk about a new date during their regular meeting tonight.
Getting a share of sales-tax revenue from Raleigh-Durham International Airport seems to be an idea gaining traction among the Durham County commissioners.
Commissioner Ellen Reckhow suggested asking county staff to find whether and how revenue from other shared airports, such as Dallas-Fort Worth and Minneapolis-St. Paul, is shared among jurisdictions they serve.
Currently, sales taxes from the airport go only to Wake County. The airport lies entirely in Wake County, but Durham County contributes to its funding.
The issue came up for brief discussion during the commissioners' meeting Monday, after commissioners Becky Heron and Joe Bowser raised it at a work session last week.
Getting Durham a share of the airport's sales tax might take an act of the legislature, Heron said, but it's an idea worth pursuing.
"We do play a major role in that airport," she said. "They need to understand that."
Durham County had seven issues on the legislative wish list it presented the Durham delegation Friday.
The other three items are also backed by the N.C. Association of County Commissioners: restoring public-school systems' access to sales and use tax refunds; allowing information sharing between the juvenile and adult criminal-justice systems; and blocking portions of the proposed Jordan Lake Nutrient Strategy regulations.
The Jordan rules, which would require local governments to bear the cost of retrofitting existing developments with new stormwater controls, could cost Durham taxpayers more than $210 million, County Attorney Chuck Kitchen said.
"It's a classic case of an unfunded mandate," commissioner Ellen Reckhow said. "We don't know how we're going to get the money."
Kitchen said, "We think it's just wrong."
County commissioners chairwoman Ellen Reckhow wants help from the
homefront to get Durham County's proposed prepared food tax through the
state legislature.
Earlier this week, she sent a memo titled "Urgent Action Needed by
Monday June 30" to "Concerned Durham County Citizens and Civic/Cultural
Arts Groups," informing them the food-tax bill is in jeopardy and
urging local interests to lobby the county's legislators in the bill's
favor.
