Augustus Cho, a candidate for Chapel Hill Town Council released this statement upon filing to run for election.
Today, I’ve filed as a candidate for Chapel Hill Town Council.
I begin my campaign with a “Thank you” to the other candidates: Choices are important for democracy to remain healthy. Hence, your willingness to sacrifice the next several months to campaign and serve our community will make our town a better place to live and raise our families. Regardless of whether we agree on the issues or more importantly, our solutions to them, I am grateful for your presence in the campaign and wish you the best.
Platform
The following three points will be the focus of this campaign:
•Create jobs: Increase business investments in Chapel Hill by becoming more business-friendly to create more jobs.
•Lower taxes: Broaden the business revenue tax base to alleviate the disproportionate and unsustainable reliance on residential property taxes.
•Work for greater interests of all: Make decisions that benefit the entire community instead of special interest groups.
Voter-Owned Elections (VOE)
I understand the reasons for VOE experiment; however, I will not be participating in the program.
My rationale is as follows:
•It is a privilege to run for public office; the additional financial burden of VOE should not fall on the citizens whose taxes are already funding elections. •A candidate should be willing to make sacrifices (financial, time or otherwise) to run for office.
•Freedom of expression includes supporting candidates of choice; voters should not be forced to fund allcandidates (whom they may not agree with) via VOE.
•It’s questionable to allocate public funds for individual campaign committees beyond those budgeted for the election cycle process, especially during these challenging economic times while families are losing homes and citizens are struggling to make ends meet.
Yard-signs
As an environmentalist, I do not plan to use campaign yard-signs.
Instead, I will utilize Facebook, attend forums, meet residents rather than damaging the environment. I hope to minimize visual clutter during the campaign and the inevitable subsequent litter afterwards
I invite my fellow candidates to join me if you also wish to go beyond talking about being an environmentalist.
I presently serve as Chair on the Town of Chapel Hill Transportation Board (2006-present) and a Commissioner the Community Design Commission (2008-present).
I also served on the Northern Area Task Force from March 26, 2007 to the summer of 2007 and the Downtown Parking Commission from June 2006 to July 2007.
I look forward to campaigning and invite you to join me in making Chapel Hill a better place…
