Neighborhood email lists have been abuzz this week about a public registry requirement for managers of rental property. The idea is, such a list would make it easier for neighbors to make complain when rentals and/or renters become problematic.

Ward 2 City Council candidates Darius M. Little and Matt Drew have weighed in.

Little wrote, "Not a candidate plug here, but ... this idea is great." He added that, in his Woodcroft neighborhood, managers are supposed to let the homeowners' association know which properties they handle.

Drew suggested that a community organization maintain a roster of problem properties and those who manage them, rather than having City Hall list all. "Maintaining a registration database like this is much more difficult than you might think," he wrote, and enforcing a registry requirement would add yet another burden to the Police Department.

Neighborhood groups have kicked the registry idea around several times in the past four years, most recently last spring. According to Lorisa Seibel with the Durham Affordable Housing Coalition, it's a 2010 priority for that organization's Campaign for Decent Housing.

Incumbent City Council members Howard Clement and Mike Woodard, and challenger Matt Drew, made themselves official candidates in the first hour of filing for Durham city election this morning.

Drew, chairman of the Durham County Libertarian Party but a first-time candidate for office in Durham, is running against Clement for the Ward 2 seat representing southern Durham. Clement, longest-serving council member in Durham history, has held a council seat since 1983.

Woodard has held the Ward 3 seat, representing western and part of northern Durham, since 2005.

The seat for Ward 1, central and most of northern Durham, and the mayor's chair, are also up for election this fall. Incumbents Cora Cole-McFadden and Bill Bell, respectively, have said they plan to stand for re-election.

Ward council members must reside in the areas they represent, but are voted on at-large.

If more than two candidates file for any one seat, there will be a primary election Oct. 6. The top two vote-getters then face each other in the general election Nov. 3.

Filing for the election remains open until noon July 17.

Durham's Libertarians will have a presence in this fall's municipal election. Matt Drew, Durham County party chairman, told the News & Observer Tuesday that he plans to file for the city council's Ward 2 seat.

Drew would be running against incumbent Howard Clement, the longest-serving city councilman in Durham's history. Clement has held a seat since 1983.

With Drew's filing, Libertarians would carry on a growing presence in Durham politics. In 2008, three party members challenged Democratic incumbents (unsuccessfully) for the state legislature; Republicans fielded only one candidate.

Municipal elections in Durham are non-partisan. Filing opens at 8:30 Monday for mayor and three ward seats on the city council. Those are the city's only contests for public office this year.

For more on Durham's 2009 election, see Saturday's Durham News.