The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People picked no favorites at its endorsement meeting Saturday, Committee Chairwoman  Lavonia Allison (right) said this afternoon.

"No endorsement for the mayor race, no endorsement for City Council," she said.

Mayoral candidate Sylvester Williams released a statement Saturday, saying that he had been endorsed by the group's political committee, though not by the Durham Committee as a whole.

That was incorrect and improper, Allison said, because under Durham Committee rules any endorsement requires the full Committee's agreement. No committee make take a position on its own, she said.

"No standing committee is autonomous," said Allison, and endorsement announcements may be made only by the Durham Committee's chairman.

Durham County Commissioners agreed Monday to delay approving a sales-tax recovery arrangement with Durham Public Schools until the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People reviews a clause regarding Minority/Women Business Enterprise.

The delay, from next Monday's regular commissioners' meeting until Feb. 8, came after Durham Committee Chairwoman Lavonia Allison (right) objected that the commissioners and school system were moving too fast.

The Durham County commisisoners approved a $54,000 contract with Downtown Durham Inc. tonight, but not without questions and comments from two dependably outspoken citizens.

Lavonia Allision, long-time head of the Durham Committe on the Affairs of Black People, said the amount was reasonable for the stated purpose -- "to perform the functions of economic development in the downtown area" -- but pointed out that other organizations are trying to do the same thing in other parts of town without the county's money.

Peterson had much the same point to make.

"Why do we have two systems here?"  Peterson said. "This organization and the Chamber of Commerce are allowed to get direct contracts, economic development contract [with the county]. ... We have other organizations in durham that are trying to train and put people to work. ... in Northeast Central Durham and other parts of Durham."

Peterson, a frequent candidate for public office who speaks at almost every meeting of the county commissioners and City Council, has been raising this issue at every opportunity for months. She wants a similar contract for a program she runs that offers occupational training in fiber-optic technology.

"I'm asking somebody, please investigate," she said.

The Durham city council has set April 6 for a public hearing on the way it is elected.

"Let the public discourse begin," said elections director Mike Ashe.

By voting Monday night to hold the public hearing, the council began the process that could change Durham's council elections from a non-partisan primary and general election system to a non-partisan pluraity system.

That means holding one election instead of two — or three, when a runoff primary is needed.

Durham County Board of Elections chairman Ronald Gregory requested the change in a February letter to council members and Mayor Bill Bell.

According to Ashe, the switch would save taxpayers between $170,000 and $180,000 per municipal election year.

"This is purely a way to save money we don't have right now," Ashe told council members Monday.

"We don't believe this helps or hurts anyone, any group, any candidate," he said.

Read more about it in Wednesday's News & Observer.

Durham's Martin Luther King Day Parade has picked Lavonia Allison for its grand marshall. Allison, head of the Durham

Committee on the Affairs of Black People, is the first female to get the honor.

Although King's birthday holiday was last Monday, the parade procedes Jan. 31. Applications to join in are available at www.durhammlkparade.com. All ethnicities welcome.

The parade, in its seventh edition, starts at noon, steps off at noon from the Heritage Square shopping center at Fayetteville Street and Lakewood Avenue. It proceeds south on Fayetteville to Elmira Avenue.

Theme is "Dreams Can Become Reality."

Seventy-three years’ worth of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People’s records passed into the state of North Carolina’s care Tuesday.

Lavonia Allison, the Committee’s chairwoman since 1997, made the donation to the state archives in a ceremony at N.C. Central University.

“This is a major, major acquisition,” said state archivist Dick Langford.

Lavonia Allison,  longtime leader of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, is donating papers and memorabilia to the N.C. State Archives at a Tuesday ceremony at N.C. Central University.

Her donation includes Durham Committee records from the group's founding in 1935 up to the present; some records of the N.C. Black Leadership Caucus; and political fliers, buttons and signs from various Democratic Party campaigns, among them Jesse Jackson presidential runs of 1984 and 1988.

Lisbeth Evans, state secretary of cultural resources, said in a prepared statement that Allison's gift "marks an important way to strengthen the resources available for African-American history."

State archivists will copy the collection electronically and on microfilm, and make the material available to researchers.