Sales tax revenues are up in Chapel Hill, but the town's Business Management Director Ken Pennoyer says figures for the last few months are not the highest the town has seen.

During Monday's Town Council meeting, Pennoyer said sales tax revenues for Dec. 2011 though Feb. 2012 were the highest ever recorded for those months. In an e-mail to Town Manager Roger Stancil this week, he corrected the claim:

"I checked the numbers (see attached) and in FY2007-08 December and February were higher than FY2012. The correct characterization would have been that January 2012 was the highest ever for that month and December and February were the second highest ever recorded for those months.
 
If you look at the combined three month period (Dec, Jan, & Feb), 2012 is the highest we have recorded by about 2.5% for the three month period.  Because December, January and February collections represent November, December and January sales I think it is a positive indicator that we had the strongest holiday sales tax returns on record."

See Pennoyer's power point presentation on the town budget attached below.

Documents:

Dwight Bassett, the town of Chapel Hill’s economic development officer for nearly five years, has taken a similar job in Raleigh.

Bassett will start his new job as the City of Raleigh’s economic development manager March, 26, Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil said today.

“Dwight has made a difference in how we think about development,” Stancil said. “He has helped us develop a better information base for our development discussions and helped guide new conversations.”

Bassett cites his department’s analyses of the town’s office, housing and retail markets as his biggest achievement. He leaves as the owners of Rams Plaza, the former Colony Apartments and other properties along U.S. 15-501 consider redevelopment at the town’s eastern entrance. A plan calls for 250,000 square feet of new retail, 360,000 square feet of office and 1,000-plus new residences there. 

We have received two letters so far on Sunday's extended interviews with Chapel Hill Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Chris Blue on the Yates Motor raid:

From A. Carter Linstead: "Perhaps the questions the CHN interviewer posed could be characterized as 'asking the hard questions.' But to me the interview appeared to reflect an apparent strong bias on the part of the reporter. Virtually every question sounded more like an accusation."

From Niklaus Steiner: "Thank you for the excellent interview with Town Manager Roger Stancil and Police Chief Chris Blue. Thanks to probing questions from the interviewer and honest answers from Stancil and Blue, I am now assured that they acknowledge mistakes around these concerns and are taking necessary steps to address them." 

Tell us what you think about these interviews, the police raid or anything else about our coverage of local issues at editor@newsobserver.com.

Yesterday we brought you an excerpt of our interview with Town Manager Roger Stancil, his first since releasing an action plan and announcing the town has hired a consultant to review police policies and make recommendations for improvement. You can read an account of the interview with Stancil and another with Police Chief Chris Blue in today's N&O and a longer version in tomorrow's Chapel Hill News.  Here is an excerpt from our conversation with Chief Blue.

(In his report Jan. 9, Blue, who was out of town that weekend, describes a single attempt by police to speak with the protesters the night of the occupation "with the hope of persuading them to leave the building." A commanding officer stepped through an open garage door but left when confronted by people wearing masks and shouting insults.)

Q: So you're on the phone with your commanding officer. Does he tell you they didn't ask them to leave? Did you have that information?

Blue: No, we didn't have that conversation.

Q: Why not?

Blue: (Pause) Well, I think the best way to answer that is to say that it's difficult to dictate tactics being removed from the scene. We didn't discuss specific tactics.

The Chapel Hill Police Department will undergo specialized training in “peaceful intervention in civil disobedience” in the wake of its raid on the Yates Motor Co. building last fall.

In a memo to the Chapel Hill Town Council tonight, Town Manager Roger Stancil stands by the tactical team raid that removed seven people from the long vacant car dealership on West Franklin Street Nov. 13.

But Stancil says the Police Department’s experiences, policies and training “did not prepare us well for this combination of circumstances.”  

Town staff have not commented on the raid since a press conference the next day.

In his memo Stancil said the decision-making process the day of the raid was compromised by “a breakdown of communications, both internally and externally.” He did not elaborate, and the council has not yet discussed the memo.

The raid has strained community relations and the town has hired Investigative Security Services to help it design new policies and training that reflect the community’s values, Stancil says.

A Town Council member has asked for a discussion on plans to fully enforce restrictions on future public gatherings in public spaces suchas Peace and Justice Plaza.

In a memo to the Chapel Hill Town Council last week, Town Manager Roger Stancil noted that town officials chose not to enforce rules for permits and limits on how long groups can remain on public space during the three-month Occupy tent encampment outside the Franklin Street post office that ended Jan. 10.

The Occupy movement’s departure presents “a timely opportunity for us to consider enforcement,” Stancil wrote in the memo.

In an email, Town Council member Laurin Easthom asked the manager to put the plan on the agenda for a future meeting so the council can discuss it.

The letters are still coming in pro and con on the Chapel Hill Police Department's SERT raid on the former Yates Motor Co. to remove squatters last November. (Read our most recent story here.)

We have repeatedly asked for interviews with town leaders, including the manager and police chief, to ask what we think are simple questions, including why police did not explicity warn protesters to leave before moving in. On Friday, Town Manager Roger Stancil released the following statement. (Note: our requests predate the council's decision to send Stancil's report to the new police advisory committee.)   

“Out of respect for the process that began by the referral of the Yates Motor Company review to the Community Policing Advisory Board, and the Board’s subsequent discussion about a process they could follow, the Town staff will temporarily refrain from individual media interviews about the Yates Motor Company incident.

The Chapel Hill Police Department’s raid on a former downtown car dealership taken over by squatters last fall was appropriate and in the best interests of the town, according to a report released today by Town Manager Roger Stancil.

The long-awaited internal review says the goal was to remove a group that had illegally entered the former Yates Motor Co. building at 419 W. Franklin St. without injury to anyone. The building was unsafe for human occupancy and the squatters indicated they intended to stay in the building indefinitely, Stancil said in a statement.

"The actions of the on-scene police commanders on November 13 were the best decisions that could be made given the information available at the time,” Stancil said.

The Town Council is scheduled to discuss the report Monday night. Its meeting beguns at 7 p.m. in Chapel Hill Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Click the "Read More" button to see Stancil's memo:

Town Manager Roger Stancil has begun talks with the town's Community Policing Advisory Committee over the police operation at the Yates Motor Co. building on Nov. 13.

In an e-mail to the town council, Stancil wrote that he and Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos have started a conversation with Ron Bogle, chairman of the committee, "to mutually design a process that will provide an opportunity for the Committee to review policies and ask questions about the Yates Motor Company operation."

The group met on Nov. 29 and Bogle agreed to wait until the town released its report on the police action. Stancil said the report should be finished in a few weeks.

The committee is advisory, which means it has no decision making power. It's made up of residents appointed by the town council. Some council members have said the committee is the right body to review the use of force used in the Yates building operation, but others have said the town needs an independent commission to objectively review the actions of police on Nov. 13.