SUMMARY MINUTES OF A BUSINESS MEETING

OF THE CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2006, AT 7:00 P.M.

Mayor Kevin Foy called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

Council members present were Laurin Easthom, Ed Harrison, Cam Hill, Mark Kleinschmidt, Bill Strom, Bill Thorpe, and Jim Ward.

Council Member Sally Greene was absent, excused.  Mayor Foy explained that she was attending a meeting in Hillsborough, working on a cooperative effort that the Council, the Town of Carrboro, the County and other agencies were engaged in, which was a 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness.

Staff members present were Town Manager Cal Horton, Deputy Town Manager Florentine Miller, Assistant Town Manager Bruce Heflin, Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos, Town Information Officer Catherine Lazorko, Police Captain Chris Blue, Planning Director J. B. Culpepper, Fire Chief Dan Jones, Development Coordinator Gene Poveromo, Principal Transportation Planner David Bonk, Traffic Engineer Kumar Neppalli, Assistant Transportation Director Kurt Nufang, Internal Services Superintendent Bill Terry, Community Development Planner Loryn Clark, Mayoral Aide Adam Schaefer, and Town Clerk Sabrina Oliver.

Item 1 – Ceremony: None.

Item 2 – Public Hearings:  None.

Item 3 – Petitions

3a(1).   Sherry Rucker regarding Request for a Concept Plan Review for Modification of the SUP for Westminster Office Building.

Ms. Rucker stated that she was the owner of the property on the southeast corner of Westminster Road and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. She said the property currently had a single-story, wood frame dwelling on it, and she wanted to develop the property to its highest and best use.  Ms. Rucker added she had several different groups interested in leasing space at that location.

Toward that end, Ms. Rucker stated, she and her design team had met with the Town Planning staff to propose a project that met the written requirements of the published long-range Town plan.  She said the Planning staff recommended they consider something that would be more appropriate for the major transportation corridor the property was located on, and that they endeavor to incorporate design features that would enhance the environment, perhaps by following the Triangle J High Performance Design Guidelines.

Ms. Rucker said the Planning staff had also recommended requesting a Concept Plan Review from the Town Council.  In keeping with their recommendations, she said, she was hereby formally requesting to be permitted to have a Concept Plan Review by the Council.

Mayor Foy asked the Town Manager if this petition needed to be referred to him for a response or if the Council could act on it at this time.  Mr. Horton said he saw no reason why the request could not go through the normal concept plan process, adding he did not know why the applicant felt the need to bring forward a petition.

COUNCIL MEMBER KLEINSCHMIDT MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER WARD, TO GRANT THE REQUEST FOR A CONCEPT PLAN REVIEW.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

3a(2).   Habitat for Humanity regarding Expedited Review for the Modification of the SUP and Rezoning of Rusch Hollow Subdivision.

MAYOR PRO TEM STROM MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER HILL, TO RECEIVE AND REFER THE PETITION TO THE MANAGER AND THE ATTORNEY.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

3a(3).   Larry Short regarding Shortbread Lofts’ Affordable Housing Program.

COUNCIL MEMBER THORPE MOVED, SECONDED BY MAYOR PRO TEM STROM, TO RECEIVE AND REFER THE PETITION TO THE MANAGER AND THE ATTORNEY.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

3a(4).  Eleanor Howe regarding Appointing Chairs of the Transportation Boards of Chapel Hill and Carrboro to the Public Transportation Committee.

Ms. Howe, Chair of the Transportation Board, requested that the chairs of the Chapel Hill Transportation Board and the Carrboro Transportation Advisory Board be appointed as members of the Public Transit Committee.  She said the Board believed they should be engaged in transit plans at the beginning of the process rather than the end, and would like to have more input into budgeting and planning matters and routing.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER GREENE, TO RECEIVE AND REFER THE PETITION TO THE MANAGER AND THE ATTORNEY.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Announcements by Council Members.  None.

Item 4 – Consent Agenda

Mayor Foy noted that Item #4g, Follow-Up report on the Proposed Process for Developing a Joint Small Area Plan with Carrboro for Adjoining Downtown Areas, should have the names of Council Members Hill and Kleinschmidt included in the blanks.  The Council agreed by consensus.

Council Member Ward Removed Item #4d, Fiscal Year 2005-2006 Vehicle Replacement Plan, and Item #4e, Follow-up Report Regarding Pedestrian Improvements Around Town Hall.

Council Member Thorpe removed Item #4f, Response to Request from Habitat for Humanity Regarding Extension of Loan Terms.  He requested that this item be discussed at this time.  Mr. Horton noted that Dean Malecha was present for tonight’s discussion regarding the Downtown Economic Development Initiative, Agenda Item #6.  He remarked that the Dean had already spent considerable time on this project at no charge and had been waiting to speak tonight.

Mayor Foy suggested that the Council continue with the agenda, and when discussion on Agenda Item #6 was completed, they would consider Agenda Item #4f.  Council Member Thorpe agreed.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD MOVED, SECONDED BY MAYOR PRO TEM STROM, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-1 WITH ITEMS #4d, #4e, AND #4f REMOVED, AND ITEM #4e AMENDED TO INCLUDE THE NAMES OF COUNCIL MEMBERS HILL AND KLEINSCHMIDT.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Item 5 – Information Reports

Council Member Ward commented on Item #5a, a Report on OWASA Odor Elimination Compliance Program.  He noted that the report contained a log of complaints from nearby neighbors regarding odor problems during January and February.  Council Member Ward remarked that one of the things that they had done proactively was to alert neighbors as to problems at the treatment plant that may cause odors to be sensed, which essentially curtailed the calls to OWASA that may otherwise have been made.  He said, in the future he wanted the logs to indicate the dates that OWASA alerted neighbors of odors released.  Council Member Ward commented that the logs might indicate everything was fine, but neighbors may have been proactively contacted regarding odor releases so calls were not made.  Mr. Horton responded they would forward that request to OWASA officials.

Information Reports were accepted as submitted by consensus of the Council.

Item 6 – Downtown Economic Development Initiative:

Update on RAM Development Design Proposal

Mr. Horton stated that the Town had been fortunate that Dean Marvin Malecha of the College of Design at NC State University had devoted a considerable amount of his professional time and brought his internationally renowned expertise to bear on the proposed development projects in the downtown.  He said that Council members who had been serving on the Downtown Economic Development Initiative Committee had an opportunity to meet with Dean Malecha earlier in the day and had received a progress report.  Mr. Horton said Dean Malecha would present a report on his work thus far.

Dean Malecha said it had been a pleasure to engage with the Town in this project, which was ambitious and had great potential to add to the urban and pedestrian quality of the Town.  He gave special thanks to Gordon Sutherland and Chris Berndt who had been exemplary in assisting him. Dean Malecha expressed thanks to the entire design team as well as RAM Development Company.  He said so far seven peer review sessions had been conducted amounting to over 24 hours of meeting time, plus many additional hours spent reviewing documents and drawings.  Dean Malecha said this had been a positive process from the beginning.

Dean Malecha stated he wanted to make it clear that the Town was at a point between schematic design and design development, so much of what he would exhibit this evening was a sophisticated diagram.  He exhibited a slide of the existing site plan and pointed out various landmarks. Dean Malecha displayed slides of different views of the sites from various directions and various streets.  He then exhibited slides of nearby buildings as an example of scale.

Dean Malecha then concentrated on the Lot 5 design, displaying the new Town Site Plan for that lot.  He exhibited a street level plan and described various aspects of the plan, including pedestrian travel, and location and quality of the pedestrian space.  Dean Malecha said he found the layered plan to be wise in the urban design sense in regards to the basic urban design of the building.

Dean Malecha showed a typical residential level plan and pointed out the courtyards.  He displayed a section model of the entire building and described different aspects of the design.  Dean Malecha exhibited elevation drawings from Franklin Street, Church Street, West Rosemary Street, Columbia Street and from the alley, pointing to how the lower buildings help to shield the higher building from surrounding buildings.  He then showed a drawing of the elevation including the underground parking, noting that view was important because it allowed them to view the building if other buildings were removed for a straight-on view.

Dean Malecha then displayed slides that highlighted profiles from various angles to give the Council a sense of the street scale and pedestrian scale.  Regarding the public spaces, he showed drawings of the arcade public space and noted there would be further work on the drawings. Dean Malecha exhibited additional slides of the public spaces, commenting that every urban space should have “good eyes,” that is that the people who have balconies and look down into the space should watch over it and keep it active, and that people saw it as home so that the space continued to be enlivened.

Dean Malecha exhibited renderings of the site and pointed out the lower mass and shielding and articulation of the roof lines, noting the building has complexity and great features in terms of massing, shade and shadow.  He said it was the kind of sophisticated urbanism you would expect to see in cities like Boston, San Francisco, or the boroughs of New York.  Dean Malecha said it brought that quality of urbanism to Chapel Hill.

Dean Malecha said in many ways the design of the Wallace Deck was a favorite of his.  He said it had allowed him to ask outrageous questions as a peer reviewer, the first of which was “Do you really want to keep the deck; shouldn’t we just tear it down?”  He noted that the design team said the idea was that they could make it work and successfully incorporate it into the design.  He said there was no better “green” response than to reuse an existing building.  Dean Malecha said there is a lot of talk about the greening of architectural projects and sustainability, and to make effective use of such a building was the number one principal of green architecture.

Dean Malecha stated that the design team had responded well to that by developing live/work units along East Rosemary Street.  He noted that the change in right-of-way accomplished by the Council had made that possible.  Dean Malecha said the notion of populating the street with live/work units in front of the garages had a dramatic effect.  He said the strategy was to develop units that would come across the top of the parking garage and completely envelope it, and that had been accomplished.  Dean Malecha then displayed several slides that demonstrated the design of the live/work units.

Dean Malecha exhibited a slide of the buildings viewed from East Rosemary Street.  He noted that the building to the far right was located so that it had a responsibility to the historic district, and had been inspired by the building at the intersection of Franklin and Henderson Streets.  Dean Malecha said they took a 19^th century strategy and made it for the 21^st century.   He said the idea was that the elements of the older building would be brought into the elements of the new building, with a more modern interpretation but still sensitive to pedestrian scale.  Dean Malecha said the element at the center of the larger structure would be the last remaining expression of the Wallace Deck, noting they wanted to leave a memory of what had been before to remind you of what once was.

Dean Malecha pointed out the location of the arcade and the entrance to the living units above.  He then pointed out the two-story parking garage, noting that efforts were underway to reduce the opening and perhaps provide more mini-retail areas to enliven the area for pedestrians.

Dean Malecha displayed a slide of the elevation from the view of the alley, noting that perhaps there would be space there for outside dining or other uses.  He stated that the passageway between the new building and the Post Office provided another way for people to come into the area.  Dean Malecha noted that although this elevation would not be seen from Franklin Street, it would be a prominent elevation once you accessed that area.  He pointed out the live/work areas, noting the many different opportunities there would be for shops with living space above.  Dean Malecha pointed out the entrances and balconies, noting they were reminiscent of houses along Newberry Street in Boston.  He then showed the perspective from Henderson Street down to Franklin Street, noting that was an important view because of the significant University space just across from it.

Dean Malecha exhibited slides of the Wallace Deck from Rosemary Street, noting the attention to the pedestrian environment and pointing out the row housing with stoops along the street and corner balconies looking into the historic district.  He stated it was very much in scale with the Town.

Dean Malecha said an important aspect of the project as it moved from schematic design to design development was the selection of materials.  He said that was best accomplished through case studies and precedents, where the Council and designers could find examples of materials that would be appropriate for this project.  Dean Malecha stated that was where the architecture really began, and was an important phase.

Dean Malecha remarked that Lot 5 was an intensely urban solution appropriate in density and a real pattern for the future, one that would serve Town and University needs well.  He said the Town had in the Wallace Deck a project of extreme significance that should become an example for other towns to follow.

Dean Malecha then displayed slides that walked the Council through the project, viewed as if walking along the streets and through the intersections.  He also exhibited photo renderings and pointed out the expressions of the buildings, the arcade and public spaces, entrances to the parking, and other elements.

Dean Malecha said he believed the schematic design developed was exciting for the Town with strong potential to enliven the downtown and create spaces for people to live and work.  He stated that the challenge ahead had to do with detailing, materials, and the quality with which it would be built.  Right now, Dean Malecha commented, the project had “good bones” and there was a lot to work with.

Mayor Foy pointed out that Dean Malecha was the Dean of the School of Architecture at NC State University, and he had given freely of his time to help flesh out this project and bring it to fruition.  Mayor Foy thanked him for his help and contribution of time at no charge.

Casey Cummings, President of RAM Development, thanked Dean Malecha for his help, and thanked the design team for being humble and cooperative enough to work with Dean Malecha, a world-renowned expert in architecture.  Mr. Cummings said he also appreciated the help of the staff and the Council Committee, noting that because of the time spent by all of these individuals the project would be a better one.

Mr. Cummings said RAM Development would formally submit its application to the Community Design Commission tomorrow.  He said they were excited about the project, but he cautioned that they were beginning to enter that less attractive phase where they begin to discover real costs and what would be possible.  Mr. Cummings recommended keeping in mind that they have an economic imperative.  He said he looked forward to the Council’s comments as they continued with the process.

Mayor Foy said procedurally, the next steps would be for RAM Development to apply for a Special Use Permit for the two projects, and the process called for that to begin by submitting a Concept Plan.  He said the Council was at the beginning of the formal public process, and wanted to make sure everyone understood what would follow.  He said this would come back to the Council on March 20 as a Concept Plan, so now was the time to make any comments the Council wanted to make before it went to the advisory boards.

Mayor Foy noted that Council Members Hill, Greene, Strom and he had met with the Dean, the RAM team and the planning staff prior to tonight’s meeting, so their questions had already been submitted.

Council Member Harrison said that three downtown projects had previously been before the Council, all of which had asked for exemptions to the height limits.  He asked Dean Malecha if regarding Lot 5, he had understood him to describe that building as “low rise.”  Council Member Harrison said to him, it was a “high rise.”  Dean Malecha responded he had begun his career with skyscrapers, so to him it was a low rise.  But, he said, in this community it would be a mid-rise.

Council Member Ward said a comment was made about the greenness of a building beginning with its reuse.  He said one of the elements he hoped was being built into these buildings would allow them the ability to be reused again, fifty or a hundred years from now.  Council Member Ward asked what degree of effort had gone into the design to allow the structures to change with the times.  Dean Malecha responded that began with the clarity of the structural system, which was a predictable structural grid.  He said these buildings did have that quality and had a clear vocabulary of how these buildings worked.  Dean Malecha said also important was the quality of the envelope, noting that you must have long-term material within the envelope which would guarantee reuse for a long time to come.

Council Member Ward said the use of 19^th century structures certainly fit into the downtown setting.  He asked how well it enabled us to achieve the concern of solar gaining in terms of heat and day lighting in general.  Council Member Ward noted that the windows on the south side were unprotected from summer sunlight, and asked how well the building style related the Town’s efforts to achieve LEED certification.  Dean Malecha replied they would be dealing with a different kind of glass than what was used in 19^th century buildings, adding the building provided a formula to look at those types of things.  He remarked that there were many things that could be considered, such as reducing the actual opening for the glass.  Dean Malecha said those things would be considered during the next phase, which was the design phase, and reminded the Council that there was solar screening on the south side of the building.

Council Member Harrison said one material that was being considered for use on the Rosemary Street side of Lot 5 was cedar siding.  He expressed concern about the availability of that in a sustainable forest fashion, and also the maintenance of that siding on such a large building.  Dean Malecha responded that would have to be answered during this next phase, but the concern was noted.

Council Member Thorpe commented that regarding the subcommittee of the Council, those types of committees were necessary and thanked those who were serving on it.  He said he would be interested in serving on such committees in the future.  Council Member Thorpe asked about the scholarship that had been mentioned, asking if an amount had been settled on yet.  Mr. Horton said that issue was raised early in the discussions, and it was made clear that the Town was arranging that and not Dean Malecha.  He said the scholarship had been suggested in case the private party required considerably more of Dean Malecha’s time, but did not believe that was as yet the case so there was no need for concern.

Mayor pro tem Strom said the Committee, in general, had agreed that what had been presented tonight was highly responsive to the comments made by the Council, and it was generally accepted that they were encouraging the team to forge ahead.  He said they understood that the use of materials would have a tremendous impact on what the buildings would look like when constructed.

Mayor pro tem Strom said the Committee had been most appreciative of Dean Malecha’s participation in the project, noting how effective and generous he had been.  But he and several others had commented on what a good partner RAM was for Chapel Hill, and how Mr. Cummings’ comments that this project would be better for the time spent was echoed by all of them.  Mayor pro tem Strom said the Town’s public/private partnership with RAM was going well, and he was looking forward to the SUP process.

Consent Agenda Item #4f - Response to Request from Habitat for

Humanity Regarding Extension of Loan Terms

Council Member Thorpe asked the Manager to explain exactly what had happened regarding this issue so it would be clear.  Mr. Horton asked Development Coordinator Loryn Clark to give the Council a briefing.

Ms. Clark stated that Habitat was requesting an extension of the loan currently outstanding for acquisition of property located off of Sunrise road.  She said they wanted the loan extended for one year while they continued with development of the property.  Ms. Clark said the staff recommendation was that the loan extension be approved.

COUNCIL MEMBER THORPE MOVED, SECONDED BY MAYOR PRO TEM STROM, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-6.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY    (8-0).

Item 7 – Response to Petition from the Pines Community Center

Requesting Forgiveness of a Loan

Ms. Clark said the Pines Community Center was requesting that the Town forgive the balance of a loan owed to the Town that was made in 1995 for the acquisition of approximately nine acres of land located on Park Road in the Pine Knolls neighborhood.  She stated that funds came from the Housing Loan Trust Fund and were to provide homeownership opportunities to low-income families.  Ms. Clark said that one lot had been sold to a qualified family and about six acres had been sold to the First Baptist Church and Manly Estates.  She stated that the current balance of the loan was $54,250, secured by a Deed of Trust on the three acres remaining.

Ms. Clark said, in response to that petition they offered three options for the Council’s consideration:

Option 1:   The Council could choose to convert the Town’s funds into deferred second mortgages to the future buyers of the properties. 

Option 2:     That the Council forgive the balance of this loan.

Option 3:     Because the terms of the Performance Agreement have expired, the Council could take the position that the Pines Community Center is in default with the Town’s Performance Agreement and the funds are now due and payable to the Town. 

Ms. Clark said the staff recommendation was that the Council approve Option 1, which would convert the loan into zero-interest deferred second mortgages to the future buyers of the homes.

Ted Parrish stated it was true that the Pines Community Center had borrowed $115,000 from the Town’s Housing Loan Trust Fund, matched by a loan of $250,000 from CCB, now SunTrust, to purchase the nine acres.  He said at the same time they had a one-year Performance Agreement with the Town to rehabilitate and sell 10 houses in the community to low-income families.  Mr. Parrish explained that during that time, Pines Community Center experienced internal conflicts that slowed that rehabilitation process, stemming from four families that had not wanted to perform their agreed-upon sweat equity hours.

Mr. Parrish stated that a member of one of those four families had become the Center’s president, and within three weeks of him taking that post he had asserted to Town staff that the Center had mismanaged funds.  He said the Town’s response was to freeze all Center reimbursements and never unfreezing them even after an audit had revealed no mismanagement of funds.  Mr. Parrish said, in fact, it was documented that Center board members had fronted personal funds for the rehabilitation work.  Nevertheless, he said, the Town recommended foreclosure on the Center for failure to abide by the Performance Agreement. Mr. Parrish said the Center had then borrowed funds from another bank and repaid the Community Development Block Grant funds used to purchase the dilapidated homes.

Mr. Parrish explained that between 1995 and early 2000, the Center made monthly payments of $2,000 to CCB primarily towards interest on the $250,000 loan. Again, he said, the Center had very little income so board members had advanced most of the funds for these payments.  Mr. Parrish said after doing that for four years, they had concluded that they would never be able to develop the property, so they had approached First Baptist Church and suggested that it build affordable housing for the elderly on part of the property.  He said the Church had purchased six acres of the land and built 41 units of affordable housing for the elderly.  Mr. Parrish said the Center had received $336,000 for sale of the six acres to the Church, but unfortunately the Center was never able to touch any of those funds, adding that the Town and the developer only had access to the money.

Mr. Parrish said when the First Baptist–Manly Estates project was close to completion, the Center had asked that $50,000 be made available to assist them in developing the remaining three acres, but the Center was told that cost overruns in the First Baptist-Manly Estates project made that impossible.  He said it was their position that they do not owe the Town anything, because they had done the best job possible given the obstacles they faced.  Mr. Parrish said that they believed that because the Church had purchased two thirds of the land that it should be responsible for two thirds of the loan, and that only one third of the $115,000 loan should be attributed to the Center.  He said if that were to be done, then the Center would not owe the Town anything, and in effect would have a credit balance.

Mr. Parrish said that the Center was not asking that those funds be repaid, rather than forgiven, since the Church’s project accomplished two major goals:

1. It produced 41 units of affordable housing and had the capacity for more.

2. It made available access to a sanitary sewer line, which would help the Center develop single-family units.

Mr. Parrish requested that the Center’s agreement with the Town be renegotiated so that the Center was responsible for one-third of the $115,000 loan.

Delores Bailey, Director of EmPOWERment, Inc., asked the Council to give serious consideration to approval of Option 2.  She said that EmPOWERment agreed with the Center that the remaining three acres needed to be developed to provide affordable housing in Chapel Hill, and were looking forward to working together to accomplish that.  Ms. Bailey said that EmPOWERment and the Pines Community Center were committed to providing affordable housing and were diligently working on ways to do that.

Mayor Foy asked what was the objection to Option 1, which would convert loans for second mortgages on the property at $5,400 each, that would then be repaid as the properties were sold with zero percent interest to the homebuyer.  He said the homeowners would not be responsible for making any kind of payments.  Mr. Parrish replied that they would rather have the freedom to develop an agreement that would guarantee the homes would remain affordable without being locked into any prescriptions or issues such as they had experienced in the past when dealing with the Town.

Mayor Foy said, to clarify, that Mr. Parrish did not disagree that monies were owed to the Town, but wanted to renegotiate the loan.  Mr. Parrish said that was exactly what he believed should happen.

Council Member Ward asked what the objection was to putting these houses into the Land Trust.  He said that would be considered a success by the Town in terms of achieving affordability over a promise of long-term affordability.  Mr. Parrish said they had spent $100,000 from their own pockets to keep that loan alive, and they did not mind working with EmPOWERment, but they did not want to give up the land to anyone.

Council Member Ward asked, regarding Option 1, what would happen if the houses were never built.  Mr. Horton said if no houses were ever built, the Town would never receive any funds.  He said whatever form of agreement was reached, there should be some enforceability so that a future Council could seek regress through recovery of the land and return of the money by sale of the property.

Council Member Ward asked Mr. Parrish if Option 1 were chosen, which would require that a second mortgage of $5,420 be repaid to the Town at zero percent interest if the property was sold, could he offer a timeframe on when that turnover would likely take place and the funds repaid to the Housing Loan Trust Fund.  Mr. Parrish responded that they were facing some big issues, in particular providing a sanitary sewer system with laterals before the land could be subdivided into the 10 lots proposed.  He said that might take a year, and then they would have to build the units and locate eligible families.  Mr. Parrish said it may be three or four years before the project was completed.

Ms. Bailey said what EmPOWERment would bring to the table was the ability to locate those families, and get the property subdivided and developed.  She estimated that would take two to three years.

Council Member Ward asked for a comment regarding the Town staff’s concern that with Option 2 the Town would lose its guarantee of long-term affordability, noting he believed that it was critical that such homes remained affordable not just for the first owners, but for future owners as well.  Ms. Bailey said they were committed to making that long-term affordability happen, noting they were involved in this project to ensure that those homes remained affordable.

Mr. Parrish said they did not want to give up total ownership of the land.  He said they wanted to prevent such scenarios as a homeowner getting into a deal with an unscrupulous lender and losing the house and land.  Mr. Parrish said if they retain partial ownership of the land, they could control such situations.  He commented that in a previous project, they had lost a home because of that scenario and did not want it to ever happen again.

COUNCIL MEMBER HILL MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THORPE, TO DEFER THE ITEM TO A FUTURE DATE SO THAT NOTED ISSUES COULD BE INVESTIGATED.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Item 8 – Report by Orange Water and Sewer Authority on Future Demand

and Capacity for Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment

Mac Clarke, Chair of the OWASA Board of Directors, said they welcomed the opportunity to provide the Council with their most recent analysis of water capacities and demand now and in the future.

Ed Holland, OWASA Planning Director, highlighted the discussion paper that had been included in the Council’s agenda materials.  He said the basic questions were: is our water supply adequate; and, can we support increased development density.  Mr. Holland said they would review some basic community trends in local development and recent water use.

Mr. Holland displayed a map of the OWASA service area, noting they had no plans or intentions to provide water or sewer service outside of that service area.  He pointed out the water sources, noting the Town was lucky that the watersheds were almost entirely located within Orange County, making them a true community resource.

Mr. Holland exhibited a graph that documented the water withdrawal from the water supply system over the last 26 years.  He said the last three years represented a real reduction in demand.  Mr. Holland said that three years ago they had developed a Water and Sewer Master Plan, and the graph also depicted the anticipated raw water demands through 2050.  He then displayed slides that represented the amount of water that the University Lake and Cane Creek system could provide under the 30-year drought scenario.  Mr. Holland said the intersection of the supply line and the demand line on the graph meant that at that point our anticipated demand would be the same supply that we could get from the system if a 30-year drought happened to occur at that time.  He said that a drought was estimated to occur one year out of every 30, or 3 percent of the time, so that 97 percent of the time we would have plenty of water.

Mr. Holland said that since the Master Plan was completed in 2001, they had revised the curve on the graph to reflect the growth of the University campus and its demands on the system.  He said after the drought of 2002 the University had asked that OWASA take another look at a report that had been prepared regarding a water reuse project on campus.  Mr. Holland commented that such a reuse program was being considered but the red line on the graph assumed there would be no reuse of highly treated wastewater on the campus.

Mr. Holland said we could meet the community’s anticipated build-out needs, but they would become increasingly vulnerable to severe droughts until the expanded quarry was available in the mid-2030s.  He commented that the community had more “days of water” left in its reservoirs during the record drought of 2002 than during non-drought conditions of the 1980s, even when University Lake was completely full.

Council Member Harrison stated that OWASA was showing demand doubling in 17 years.  He asked if that was proportional to population or did other factors increase demand.  Mr. Holland said it was generally proportional to the overall rate of development.  He said the 10 million gallons a day was in 2002 at the peak of their demand, prior to the Town’s enacted of water conservation ordinances.

Mayor Foy said he was curious as to what record OWASA was using to establish drought patterns.  He said civilizations had died out because of droughts and that they had not anticipated what would happened if an anomaly occurred.  Mayor Foy said if OWASA was using 2002 as the drought of record, he was not sure they were looking at a pattern that was useful.  Mr. Holland said the drought records were only 80 years long, so he was not implying that the 2002 drought was the worst.  He said that the 80 years that they had stream flow records that they could rely on that was the worst they had ever had.

Mayor Foy said he was saying that what if the 2002 drought was not an anomaly but was the start of a pattern that must be considered when planning forward.  Mr. Holland said that one does not plan for that, but Dr. Larry Band was looking at longer-term hydrological and climatological records to determine what the return frequency of this type of drought might be and what the water supply might look like in the future under different climate models.

Mayor Foy asked how long would it be before OWASA could factor in that type of information.  Mr. Holland said at least a year, most likely.

Council Member Hill said the expanded quarry reservoir would be available in the mid-2030s, and that date had been reached with the owners of the quarry.  Mr. Holland said with the operators of the quarry.  Council Member Hill asked if there was a possibility of accelerating that timetable.  Mr. Holland said the timeline was set on the operators’ projection of the need for stone in a particular transportation radius of the quarry, so the timetable was dependent on that.  He said there were some provisions in their agreement with American Stone Company that if some portion of the quarry were to become available sooner then they would be given access to that.

Council Member Hill said he did not know what it would cost to buy out American Stone, but he hoped that OWASA would keep in mind all options.  Mr. Holland said that was their intention.

Council Member Ward said to keep in mind that every day that American Stone removed stone from the quarry increased the water capacity of that quarry.

Mr. Holland continued his presentation, stating that regarding the question of whether they could support increased development density, the answer was they believed so.  He said that OWASA’s projections for ultimate future demand corresponded to housing and employment levels that were about 20 percent higher than local build out projects.  Mr. Holland said that readily available conservation technology could support increased development density with little or not net increase in water service demand.  He said by reducing water use only 25 percent per unit, a given volume of water could serve 33 percent more units.

Mr. Holland said that greater water use efficiency could be achieved by:

• ultra-low flow (ULF) plumbing fixtures,
• retrofit upon resale,
• rainwater harvesting,
• sustainable landscaping,
• sub-metering of new multi-family construction,<
• connection to OWASA’s water reuse system when and where available, and
• other conservation management practices (CMPs) as appropriate.

Mr. Holland stated that many of these advanced efficiency measures could be implemented through existing review and approval procedures.

Mr. Holland briefly mentioned local development trends in Carrboro and Chapel Hill, noting that one trend they were projecting was a decrease in per-unit water demands.  He said that 2002 water sales remained below historic highs, even though single-family home construction remained stable.  Mr. Holland said the year-round water restrictions adopted by Chapel Hill and Carrboro and the implementation of seasonal rate structures where water costs more in hot months had attributed to that.  He said there was also a higher general public awareness that water should be used more efficiently.

Mr. Holland briefly described recent trends in OWASA customer demands, which included that water sales remained below historic highs, that single-family home construction remained stable, and that reservoir withdrawals had decreased since 2001.  He said that if those trends continued, the need for costly future plant expansions could possibly be deferred.

Mr. Holland provided statistics on water use by major customer groups:

Single-family Multi-family UNC Commercial/Other

31 percent 24 percent 28 percent 16 percent

Mr. Holland stated they could meet the utility needs of increased development density within the currently defined urban services area of Carrboro and Chapel Hill, but meeting those needs while maintaining the level of service expected by our citizens would require additional and ongoing collaboration among OWASA, local governments, and the development community.

Mr. Clarke said that OWASA’s success would depend on several factors:

• Cooperation among the local governments would be a vital element.
• Continued conservation by customers was vital.
• Maximizing the use of reuse water by the University would be a key component.
• Water and wastewater investments were long-term, so they needed to be aware of the Town’s plans well in advance.
• May ask for additional ordinances to reinforce conservation efforts.

Mr. Clarke asked for the help of the community so OWASA could meet the future needs of water and sewer service at the lowest possible cost.

Mayor Foy said on the horizon was Carolina North, and asked what the OWASA Board was doing to stay in touch with that, particularly with the Leadership Advisory Committee put together by UNC Chancellor James Moeser.  Mr. Clarke said their staff was involved in frequent meetings to stay abreast of what was happening.

Mayor Foy said from the Town’s point of view, the transportation element of Carolina North was critical, but from OWASA’s point of view, and therefore the Town’s as well, water use and wastewater reuse was also critical.  He said if OWASA was not part of the Leadership Advisory Committee, and he did not think they were, they should still have someone attending the meetings to influence the input that the Chancellor received in regards to water use and wastewater treatment. Mr. Clark said their Sustainability Coordinator Pat Davis attended those meetings, but it may be appropriate for a higher level official to become involved as well.

Council Member Ward said it was important that OWASA had an official voice in those meetings, and he would be inclined to ask the Mayor to contact the Chancellor to ask that a seat be provided for a high-level member of either the OWASA staff or Board on that committee.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD MOVED THAT THE MAYOR CONTACT THE CHANCELLOR TO REQUEST THAT A SEAT BE PROVIDED FOR A HIGH LEVEL STAFF MEMBER OR BOARD MEMBER OF OWASA ON THE LEADERSHIP ADVISORY COMMITTEE.

Council Member Ward said that page 2 of the report OWASA had indicated that the total daily maximum load restrictions for nitrogen and phosphorus was an issue that would be regulated by the NC Environmental Management Commission, and that the regulations they consider later this year might limit the amount of development that could be accommodated in the Carrboro-Chapel Hill urban services area.  He said he wanted to learn more about that. 

Mr. Clarke said they would be provided with a certain number of pounds of nitrogen and pounds of phosphorus that would not increase even though the population would increase and therefore increase the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that would go into the wastewater treatment plant.  He said there were ways to meet that for a certain period, but it was conceivable that in the future it might reach difficult technical limits.  Mr. Clarke said he believed that at that point they might need to ask the Council for help with legislative relief.

Council Member Ward said the community cannot be surprised by this in terms of how it describes and permits land uses here and related production of nitrogen and phosphorus. He said it seemed like they might come up against the threshold of nitrogen and phosphorus in Jordan Lake much sooner, and he wanted the community to hear and learn a lot more about this.  Mr. Clarke stated that they were well aware of this problem and would stay abreast of it.  Council Member Ward remarked that the Council needed to do so, as well.

Mayor pro Strom said regarding Carolina North, that the Horace Williams Citizens Committee’s report adopted by the Town contained a clear statement regarding how water reuse must be a part of any development that might be approved at that location.  He said he did not know if he agreed that OWASA needed a seat on the University’s Leadership Advisory Committee, but it would be helpful if they heard from Mr. Holland or Mr. Davis about what it would take to have a successful water reuse program at Carolina North and what elements representatives of the Town should be advocating for as part of that development.

Mayor pro tem Strom said that was something they would certainly be advocating for, and would be a condition of the zoning and the permitting of that property. Mr. Clarke replied that there was great uncertainty concerning Carolina North, adding that if it was going to take several decades to build out the facility, then a heavy investment in a reuse system designed to cover the entire capacity would be difficult to justify economically.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he had asked what the Town should advocate for as far as infrastructure that had to be in place in order to have a successful reuse program.

Mayor Foy said that was why OWASA needed to be a part of the process.  He said Mayor pro tem Strom was making a good point in that it was the Town’s responsibility to make sure that development at Carolina North was done right.  Mayor Foy said he was concerned that if Town representatives were at a Leadership Advisory Committee meeting advocating for reuse or other factors that might influence water use in the future at Carolina North, then they needed OWASA to be present to help guide them.  Mr. Clarke said that OWASA’s technical people were already involved in a continuing dialogue with the University.

Mayor Foy remarked that there needed to be much more involvement than that, but indicated the Council would talk more about that later.

Mayor pro tem Strom said it was this Council’s obligation to influence the outcome of development at Carolina North.  He said, regarding the issue of Jordan Lake, the Council had gone on record saying that the Town should do everything possible to avoid having to make the investment to use that 5 million gallon allocation from Jordan Lake, and it was encouraging to see the peak demand curves coming down.  Mayor pro tem Strom congratulated the community for taking the message from the 2002 drought and conserving water.

Mayor pro tem Strom said it had been mentioned that in future there may be the need for ordinance changes, and that there were steps the Town could take without ordinance changes to increase water use efficiency.

MAYOR PRO TEM STROM MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER KLEINSCHMIDT, THAT THE MANAGER BE REQUESTED TO BRING TO THE COUNCIL A REPORT ON SPECIFIC OPTIONS THE COUNCIL MIGHT TAKE TO INCREASE WATER USE EFFICIENCY NOW.

Mayor Foy asked Council Member Ward to consider refining his motion into something that would allow the Council some flexibility with regard to getting OWASA at the table.

Council Member Ward said he believed it was critical that a representative from OWASA was there rather than having a Council member try to be the standard bearer for water conservation.  He said it was important to have someone there who could respond to water and sewer issues as they come up, rather than having to bring the issue back and wait for a response.

Mayor Foy said it was not the Town’s committee, so the Council would have to ask the Chancellor to add a seat for OWASA.  But, he said, if the Chancellor declined to do that, then the Council should work with OWASA to be sure that someone was sitting there at every meeting to prompt the Council to ask the right questions and get the job done.

Council Member Ward said the Mayor was correct in that the Chancellor may not agree to the request, and to have that fall back position was important.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD AMENDED HIS MOTION TO INCLUDE THAT SHOULD THE CHANCELLOR DECLINE TO PROVIDE A SEAT ON THE LEADERSHIP ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AN OWASA REPRESENTATIVE, THEN AN OWASA REPRESENTATIVE WOULD BE ASKED TO ATTEND EACH MEETING TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE TO CHAPEL HILL’S REPRESENTATIVES REGARDING WATER AND SEWER ISSUES.

Council Member Kleinschmidt asked what OWASA had done about the recommendations regarding water reuse that came out of the Horace Williams Citizens Committee’s work.  He asked if OWASA had commented or had had an opportunity to enhance the quality of those recommendations regarding water use.  Council Member Kleinschmidt remarked that it would be helpful if they would do that.  Mr. Clarke said they would be happy to do so.

Council Member Easthom remarked that Randy Kabrick was on the Horace Williams Citizens Committee and was also on the OWASA Board, so he might be a good choice as a representative.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he would prefer that the full OWASA Board have an opportunity to comment on the report.

Ed Kerwin, Executive Director of OWASA, stated they would welcome the opportunity to have a seat on the Leadership Advisory Committee, noting a staff level inquiry had been made regarding that.  He said that staff had provided information and technical guidance regarding some of the technical aspects of water development, including reuse and state-of-the-art conservation as well as some unique partnerships and opportunities.

Mayor Foy said he did not believe the Town had sent the Horace Williams Citizens Committee’s report to OWASA.

Council Member Kleinschmidt requested that this be done.  He remarked that he wanted the Board of Directors, the policy-making staff, to have the opportunity to become an advocate of those issues.

Mayor Foy asked if it was appropriate to amend Council Member Ward’s motion to include that request.  Council Member Ward made no objection.

THE MOTION AS AMENDED WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Mayor pro tem Strom restated his motion.

MAYOR PRO TEM STROM MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER KLEINSCHMIDT, THAT THE MANAGER BE REQUESTED TO BRING TO THE COUNCIL A REPORT ON SPECIFIC OPTIONS THE COUNCIL MIGHT TAKE TO INCREASE WATER USE EFFICIENCY WITHIN THE CHAPEL HILL PORTION OF THE OWASA SERVICE AREA NOW.

Council Member Ward offered a friendly amendment to have the report include a list of ordinance changes and enabling legislation they might need to be worked toward, noting that some of them may need to be considered now in order to use them in the future.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he saw this in three classes: enabling legislation, ordinance changes, and things that the Town could do that would not require either of the first two.

MAYOR PRO TEM STROM AMENDED HIS MOTION TO HAVE THE REPORT INCLUDE ENABLING LEGISLATION, ORDINANCE CHANGES, AND THINGS THAT COULD BE DONE THAT WOULD NOT REQUIRE EITHER OF THE FIRST TWO.

Mr. Clarke commented that some of these issues may prove administratively difficult when trying to differentiate between Chapel Hill and Carrboro.  He would encourage the Town to try to achieve uniformity throughout the entire service area.

Mayor Foy said he was sure the Manager would consult with Mr. Clarke and the OWASA Board before a report was brought back to the Council.

THE MOTION AS AMENDED WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Council Member Harrison said regarding Jordan Lake rules, he and Mayor pro tem Strom had highlighted those rules over the past several months.  He commended OWASA for having a better attitude than some of the local governments, noting the reason it was taking so long to get to public hearing was because other local governments were hiring lobbyists to keep it from happening.  Council Member Harrison said he believed that OWASA was better prepared as a discharger into this basin than any other dischargers in that they had thought further ahead.  He said he could understand that OWASA was concerned, but the concern was being expressed in a better way.

Council Member Harrison said that on the main campus and the planned campus some of the buildings were huge but very different, and asked if OWASA evaluated buildings based on differing levels of water use.  Mr. Holland said they were doing that, adding their ability to predict on-campus water use was more fined-tuned than that of the community in general because from their records they could tell what the water use was per square foot of building.  He said the campus Master Plan assigned some of those values, and they had worked with the University and their consultants on that.  Mr. Holland remarked that as they had laid out different campus development scenarios and specific buildings they had used some of those per unit values to assign the total water consumption, and because of that they had a fair amount of confidence in their estimates.

Council Member Harrison asked if there was anywhere else outside the University where they had less confidence.  Mr. Holland responded that the nature of development on campus as opposed to development in the community in general was much more specific and identifiable and knowable, because specific buildings were programmed with specific features and sizes and water consumption.  He said with development in the community projections were constrained by the land use plans and zoning ordinances.

Council Member Harrison asked if a rezoning took place did OWASA adjust its estimates.  Mr. Holland said they did not typically make adjustments on a per development basis.  He said if the Town were considering a rezoning that would substantially increase the amount of development in an area, OWASA would like to know about it so that some adjustments could be considered.

Council Member Easthom commented that she saw the water supply and demand issues as important for Carolina North as transportation issues.

Item 9 – Response to Petitions Requesting Textured Pavement on Speed Tables

Traffic Engineer Kumar Neppalli stated that last month the Council had received several petitions from the Oaks II and Silver Creek neighborhoods requesting the installation of textured pavement with a brick pattern on the flat top portion of speed tables proposed for some of their streets.

Mr. Neppalli stated that they do not recommend textured pavement on speed tables. He said they continued to recommend that traffic-calming measures meet uniform design standards, that all neighborhoods may not be able to afford the extra cost of textured pavement, and textured pavement would require extra maintenance and result in increased replacement costs to the Town over time.

Mr. Neppalli noted that if the Council wished to allow the installation of textured pavement on speed tables, they recommended that the neighborhoods desiring such surface treatment pay for the installation cost and agree in writing that the Town would not be responsible for replacing the stamped asphalt if and when repairs or resurfacing of the speed table became necessary, unless the neighborhoods provided the necessary funding for such replacement.

Jay Klompmaker, a resident of the Oaks II, said regarding the three points made by Mr. Neppalli, the neighborhoods had already agreed to assume the maintenance and replacement costs.  He stated that as far as other neighborhoods not being able to afford such an amenity, that had not been their intent when they made their request.  Mr. Klompmaker said he did not believe a neighborhood would be judged by the look of a speed hump, noting they were only striving for consistency.  He said they already had three such speed humps on Pinehurst Drive, and were asking that the additional speed humps be constructed in a consistent manner.

COUNCIL MEMBER HILL MOVED, SECONDED BY MAYOR PRO TEM STROM, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-9.

Char Gray, a resident of the Silver Creek neighborhood, commented that the irregular pavement mentioned that would make it difficult for bicyclists had not been a problem for her and her children while biking.  Regarding the uniformity of neighborhoods, she said, others already had brick so that argument was irrelevant. Ms. Gray said regarding the comment about some neighborhoods not being able to afford the brick, she believed that each neighborhood should be able to decide what was best for it.  She said their neighborhood was willing to pay for it, as well as pay for the cost of maintenance.

THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Item 10 – Ordinances Authorizing Additional Firefighter

Positions Using Fire Protection Funds

Mr. Horton said Fire Chief Dan Jones had worked with the Council and representative Verla Insko and other members of our legislative delegation during the past session of the General Assembly to obtain favorable review of a bill that resulted in additional allocation of funds for fire protection.  He said that same legislation had benefited a number of other communities in the State, and tonight Chief Jones would present the proposal for using those funds in a manner that was consistent with what had been presented to the legislative delegation.

Chief Jones said tonight the Council would consider enacting a budget amendment that would accept the increase in the fire protection allocation from the State by $213,788. He noted that they continued to believe that figure was about $600,000 short of equitable compensation for fire protection of the University buildings and other State properties in the Town’s jurisdictions.

Chief Jones said item for consideration was an amendment to the Position Classification and Pay Plan to increase the total number of firefighter positions by six.  He said the increase in State funding presented an opportunity to increase by six the total number of firefighter positions using some of those State funds.  Chief Jones said they were also requesting two temporary positions for the 18-weeks of the Fire Academy, which was a buffer against failure rates and drop-outs.

Chief Jones said those additional State funds would also be used for protective clothing, supplies, and Academy training materials for the new personnel, as well as instructor hours.  He remarked they had negotiated with Durham Technical Institute to provide instructors for the Fire Academy, noting they were the accrediting agency.  Chief Jones said Durham Technical Institute would provide 600 hours of instruction time, and the Town would need to supplement that for the high-risk portions of the academy.

Chief Jones commented that these six firefighter positions represented the first phase of the proposed two- to three-year phased installment of 18 new operational personnel.  He stated that the need for operational staffing was paramount to good fire protection.  Chief Jones said he believed we had sufficient units to cover the Town and the University campus, but the staffing on those units was what they were addressing.  He noted that current staffing levels did not provide an adequate level of emergency operations of safety, protectiveness, and thoroughness at a level that was expected in the Town.

Chief Jones stated that these six firefighters would also be the first group hired as civilians since 1994, adding that since that time they had been hiring firefighters from other jurisdictions.  Now, he said, they were transitioning back to where they would be hiring civilians and training them through an Academy.  Chief Jones said that was part of their overall effort to increase recruitment of women and minorities.

Chief Jones said that although Chapel Hill was still a small town, it had challenges comparable to a larger city.  He stated that part of a sustainable community was being able to protect that community.  Chief Jones asked for a favorable consideration of the Manager’s recommendations.

COUNCIL MEMBER THORPE MOVED, SECONDED BY MAYOR PRO TEM STROM, ENACTMENT OF ORDINANCES O-1 AND O-2. THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Item 11 – Revision to Draft of Town Council Goals for 2006

Mr. Horton noted they had modified the goals as requested by the Council to place more emphasis on the Tree Ordinance.  He said they had also eliminated unnecessary history related to a time prior to 2005 and updated milestones and schedules that they believed they could make occur in the next year.  Mr. Horton said that no other changes had been made.

Mayor Foy thanked the Manager for that, noting it made the document much easier to use.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER KLEINSCHMIDT, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-10.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Item 12 –Information on Eligibility for Dental Insurance Participation for

Council Members on the Same Basis as Regular Employees

Mayor Foy commented that the Council members had all read the report, and noted that participation in the Dental Plan was voluntary and therefore would not cost the Town any money.

COUNCIL MEMBER HILL MOVED, SECONDED BY MAYOR PRO TEM STROM, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-11.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY  (8-0).

MAYOR PRO TEM STROM MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER KLEINSCHMIDT, ENACTMENT OF ORDINANCE O-3.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

12.1 – Consideration of a Process for Selection of a Town Manager

Mr. Horton asked to be excused from this portion of the meeting so that he would not be present during the discussion.  Mayor Foy excused Mr. Horton from this portion of the meeting.

Mayor Foy said he had provided information to the Council and that now was the opportunity to consider the structure of the process to hire a new Town manager.  He said that either tonight or at the next meeting the Council should come to a resolution of what that process should be.  Mayor Foy said in the memorandum he had identified six areas that needed to be addressed:

1)   Determine the scope of the search.

2)   Identify a Search Committee – what would be the makeup?

3) Identify support staff for the Search Committee – critical choice would be whether or not to have outside support.  Would the Town’s Human Resources Department participate through all of the process or just a portion of it?

Council Member Harrison asked if outside support meant hiring a recruiting firm.  Mayor Foy responded that was what they needed to discuss.  He said he did not believe they needed such a firm, but did need someone not on the staff to assist the Search Committee.  Mayor Foy said one proposal was that all Council members and department heads would be interviewed to develop a profile of what was needed in a manager.  He said part of that might be trying to identify current strengths and weaknesses in the management structure.  Mayor Foy said an outside person was in a better position to offer neutrality and confidentiality in those interviews than a staff person.

Council Member Harrison said then it would be more like a consultant than a recruiter. Mayor Foy responded those were the types of things they needed to discuss.  He said this position was an attractive job and he did not think they would lack for good candidates.  Mayor Foy said he did think they would need help in determining some of the issues that arise when such a search was conducted.  He then continued with his remaining points:

4)   Delegate responsibilities to the Search Committee so that it knows its charge and knows when it has completed its job.

5)   Determine when the full Council gets involved, assuming that the full Council was not the Search Committee.

6)   Determine when the public gets involved.

Mayor Foy said he had set out two possible processes in the memorandum, noting they were arbitrary but were based on his discussions with the School of Government and others who do this kind of work professionally.  He stated he had set these processes out with the hope that the Council would come to some resolution and to stimulate conversation.  Mayor Foy said they could meld the processes together, add or subtract from them, or go in a different direction.  But, he said, they were a starting point.

Mayor pro tem Strom thanked the Mayor for his work in putting the information together, noting they had to get started and do their job well.  He commented that in general he preferred Process 2, noting that having a varied Search Committee might be a better choice.  Mayor pro tem Strom said the manager was their hire, but was also the head of a 600+ workforce.  He said having a process that included a department head and another member of the community was helpful for a buy-in.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he believed that some people interviewed well, and it was important that they pick someone who would respond well to the pressures associated with this job.  He said he liked the element of an assessment center where candidates would submit a strategic plan, run mock meetings, and demonstrate how to deal with situations that come up as a matter of course. Mayor pro tem Strom said people might write well but not think on their feet as effectively, and the Council had been well served by a manager who could think on his feet.

Mayor pro tem Strom said the staff support section from Process 1 was a better recommendation, so he was inclined to accept Process 2 with the staff support section from Process 1 substituted.  He said that would provide for someone who could define functions for the Committee as well as have some expertise in the field.

Mayor Foy quoted from page 9 of Attachment 1, Step 4, which was an article entitled “Hiring a City or County Manager” by Kurt Jenne: “The most common method of assessing candidates is to interview them.  However, the interview is limited in its reliability in predicting success on the job. The best predictor of a person’s behavior on the job is behavior itself…The ‘assessment center,’ a series of exercises designed to demonstrate candidates’ actual ability to perform relevant work tasks, is a more reliable predictor of a person’s ability to do a given job.”  Mayor Foy said that was what he was suggesting that an assessment center should accomplish.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he did not believe they had to decide now what those assessment exercises might be, but it would be wise to state that they want them to occur.  He said a good place for the Council to end up tonight was to give the Mayor a signal to move forward and seat a Search Committee.  Mayor pro tem Strom said that Mayor Foy would be the “quarterback” in this process and it was important to seat a committee as soon as possible.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he was a strong advocate for the assessment center process, noting he believed it was the best possible way that anyone could do a good job in a short time period.  He said he found them to be a good predictor of performance, and along with that was that the new manager needed to be able to work well with the Council in a personal/professional way.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said that was one of the superior characteristics of the Town’s current manager.  He said the assessment center should not include only work issues, adding that there should be opportunities for informal gatherings with the finalists.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he preferred a model that restricted the Search Committee to Council members.  He said if they had varied membership it should not be just the Mayor’s responsibility.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said if they were hiring one of the only two people directly accountable to the Council, then he did not want to cede to the Mayor the opportunity to pick their surrogates on the Committee.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said the Manager and the Attorney were the only two people they hired, and their relationships with those two individuals were more important than any other relationship the Council had.  He said there was an important role for the community to play and there were places outlined within the process where the Council should insist on community participation, such as developing a profile for the candidates.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said he did not necessarily believe that there should be a place on the Search Committee for anyone other than Council members.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he wanted the pool of candidates to reflect their interest in a diverse community by having a diverse pool.  He said finding a Town Manager was one of the most difficult jobs in which to assure diversity because it was a profession dominated by white males.  He stated they might well reach the end of the process and wind up hiring another white male.  But, he said, they needed to make an extra effort to make sure that the candidate pool was as diverse as they could make it.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said they could add a requirement that they would not move forward until they had a diverse pool of applicants, noting that if they ended up with candidates who were all white males, then that would mean they needed to try harder.  He said that would also mean they would not move on to the next step until they tried harder.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said that did not mean that their final five candidates may not be all white males, but they should still make sure their efforts included a diverse pool of applicants.

Mayor Foy commented that one of the things he had heard from persons he had talked with was that they should be prepared for a person that was not a professional town manager or even necessarily a person who was currently in local government.  For instance, he said, they should be open to applicants who came from the business community, or from non-profits, or the military, or others paths of life.  Mayor Foy said there were many ways that a person could have the qualities needed for this job, and that they should not be excluded if they had never been a town manager.  He said Council Member Kleinschmidt was making the point that the Town should not limit the pool and that it should be diverse, and if candidates were excluded because they came from somewhere other than local government then that would be limiting diversity.

Council Member Kleinschmidt agreed with Mayor Foy’s assessment, noting it would provide the Council the opportunity to evaluate different kinds of people to ensure that they were considering women and other minorities.  He said they would be well served to ensure that.

Council Member Hill said on page 8 of the article by Kurt Jenne, there was a suggested timetable that noted a typical recruitment lasting 19 weeks and a fast recruitment lasting 13 weeks.  He said there were 16 weeks between now and the end of June when the Council traditionally took its summer break.  Council Member Hill said by slightly altering the “fast” timetable from 13 to 16 weeks, then they could have a town manager hired in that time frame.  He said if they did not accomplish that, it would mean still dealing with it during July and August, which was possible but not something he wanted to do.  Council Member Hill suggested altering the suggested fast schedule by adding two additional weeks for recruitment of candidates, and an additional week for assessing candidates or screening candidates.  He said that would still allow the process to be completed by the end of June.

Mayor Foy said it was entirely possible that whoever they offered the job to might have a contractual obligation to their current employer that would require eight to twelve weeks before they could report for work.

Council Member Hill said he agreed with Council Member Kleinschmidt in that he believed the makeup of the Committee should be limited to Council members who were ready to serve immediately.  He also commented that Process 2 suggested focus groups, and that might not be possible given the time limits.

Mayor Foy said the idea, which he believed was a good one, was that the new town manager should not just come here and “land”, in that the Council may think that person was “great” but the department heads, employees and citizens may not think they were “great” unless they had the opportunity to participate.  He said there was a distinction between Process 1 and Process 2 that was subtle, noting that under Section 4 of Process 1 it said “Develop a profile for the prospective manager” that included interviews with other identified parties. Mayor Foy said, in step 5 the full Council would step in to interview the finalists separately, and then the Council would establish a structure for opportunities for department heads, employees and the community to meet with all the finalists.  Mayor Foy said that Process 2, step 4 said to focus on the challenges facing the Town, get community involvement early, and develop a profile.  He said that would be more of a buy-in from constituencies other than the Council at an earlier point in the process.

Mayor Foy said there was more than one way to do that, for example, to establish a Search Committee and say to the Search Committee that these are your responsibilities and the Town is not going to get overly prescriptive as to how you do them.  But, he said, the Town could say that they should involve the community early in the process.  Mayor Foy said the Town could then say it would not do focus groups, but would establish a place on its website to invite comments from citizens.  He said that would be a way to give the Search Committee the Town’s philosophy about how to proceed without giving explicit instructions on how to proceed.

Council Member Harrison agreed that the Search Committee should be made up of Council members only.  He said that the part of the assessment center process that was most appealing to him was a mock department head meeting, which implied that there needed to be some full input from department heads in the process. Council Member Harrison reiterated that only Council members should be included on the Search Committee.

Mayor Foy noted that someone did not have to be hired by September 1.  He said there were ways to carry on, such as with an interim manager.  Mayor Foy said what was important was to do the job right.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he wanted to underline the point that the community needed to have some flexibility, and that flexibility should come under broad categories.  He recommended striving for giving applicants confidence that they have confidentiality in applying and expressing interest in the job.  Mayor pro tem Strom stated that the Town would have a different pool if the applicants were assured of confidentiality.  He remarked there were good employed people that would do well in the job, but who may not want to risk having their colleagues discover they were looking.

Mayor Foy said that was why he had included the statement regarding authorizing the Search Committee “to conduct the process with appropriate regard to the need candidates may have for confidentiality.”  He said that meant that applicants were assured their identities would remain private until such time as the process reached the full Council and the finalists were made public.  Mayor Foy said at that point the candidates could no longer be confidential, because at that time citizens, department heads and others would be assessing those finalists.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said the manager was the Council’s employee, and the community had input in deciding that by kicking the Council out of office at the next election and firing the town manager.  He said that would be how the community had input into it.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said the Council as representatives of the community would take community input and give it great value, and take it early on in the process and consider it.  He said it became dangerous when they reach step 5 in the process where it indicated that the community would meet with the finalists.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said if they told applicants that at the end of the process the community would be interviewing the five finalists, then he believed an entire class of applicants would be excluded.

Mayor Foy said that step was not necessarily interviewing, but an opportunity for introduction to the community and for citizens to ask questions of the applicants. He said that step was included because one of the persons he had talked with had indicated a time when a board of trustees had hired a chancellor in secrecy in another state.  Mayor Foy said that person had lasted only six months on the job because there was no buy-in.  He said that scenario was what had shaped that language in the process.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said suppose our manager was a finalist for another town. He said imagine the good will that would be lost in this community if we discovered he was a finalist for a manager in another town.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said he thought that if our manager had to go through a process where his identity would be revealed, he would never have applied.  He said that had been his point when he said we would exclude the best applicants, that is, the ones that had the strongest relationship with their existing communities.

Council Member Ward said if the Town cannot keep confidentiality throughout the process, then it would not attract a much different pool, whether it came out earlier or later.

Mayor Foy said remaining confidential was up to each individual candidate.

Council Member Ward said if applicants had to divulge their interest at stage 5 of the process, then that would be a concern for applicants and keep them from ever entering the process.  If they were interested and qualified, he said, but knew their identities would be divulged at stage 5 then they were not going to even apply.  Council Member Ward said that was why he had hoped that the Mayor had talked with someone who might have gone through such as process where identities remained confidential until hiring took place.  He said if that question had not be asked, perhaps it should be.

Mayor Foy said he had explored that somewhat, but had not asked a number of people about that.  He said that, again, was the type of thing that the Council needed to decide.

Council Member Thorpe said he happened to have some personal experience with this process, having been on the Council when Kurt Jenne was hired.  He said he was also on the ABC Board when that manager was hired.  Council Member Thorpe said he would very much like to serve on the Search Committee.

Council Member Thorpe said that secrecy was most important to applicants until they became finalists.  He said this was not a citizen input process per se, noting that the Council had been elected to handle such things and it was their decision to make.  Council Member Thorpe said one thing that would keep all Council members involved would be to split the process up into phases.  He said, for instance, three council members could have responsibility for the initial phase, and then another group would become involved after that.  He said the Council was going to have to learn to trust each other.

Council Member Easthom commented that she could not imagine the finalists who bought into the process and then were exposed to the community for some sort of interview.  She said those finalists were putting their jobs on the line, and she agreed with Council Member Kleinschmidt that we need to ensure confidentiality throughout the process.  He said the finalists who put themselves out there who were not offered a job would have to then answer to their communities.

Council Member Thorpe suggested that as applications were received, they should be handled by one person only in the HR Department, and turned over to the Search Committee unopened.  He said then if the Search Committee received an envelope that had been opened, they would know that confidentiality was breached.

Mayor Foy suggested that they review the two proposed processes and come to some decisions.

Step 1:  Scope of Search

Mayor Foy noted that step 1 in both Processes 1 and 2 were much the same, the distinction being that you recruit from the broadest cross-section or target the search.

Council Member Ward said he did not believe the Town needed to target the search, stating that the Council did not need to try to talk someone into applying.

Mayor Foy recommended using the recruitment tools that the Town has.  There was no objection from the Council.

Step 2:  Search Committee

Mayor Foy said the question was would it be Council members only or a varied membership.  He said from the discussion it appeared that the majority of the Council wanted the committee to be Council members only.  Mayor Foy asked if anyone wanted to argue for a varied committee.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he did not want to argue for it, but saw value in having a community member and someone from the staff participating that had expertise in this area.  He said he had heard and understood the reasons stated for a Council-only Search Committee, but he was attempting to address the issue of buy-in by staff and the community.  Mayor pro tem Strom suggested that the Search Committee consist of four Council members.

Mayor Foy said what Mayor pro tem Strom was suggesting was a committee of six, consisting of four Council members, a staff member but not necessarily a department head, and a member of the community with special expertise in this area such as human resource matters or public administration.

Council Member Thorpe asked if it had to be a community member.  Mayor said that would be the broadest interpretation possible.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he thought that expertise would be carried to the Search Committee either by a staff person or by third-party outside support. He asked why we would necessarily need to find a community member with that expertise.

Mayor Foy said the question was what would having a community member bring to the table, and he thought it would bring some type of public input.  But, he said, he continued to believe that was the Council’s job.

Mayor pro tem Strom said the Council would be accountable, and that accountability would be demonstrated by their commitment to the process by having others involved.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said the manager was the person who helped the Council do its job to the best of its ability.

Mayor Foy asked if there was benefit to having someone within the organization on the Search Committee.

Council Member Ward said the manager was their hire, and they would take responsibility for it.  But, he said, that did not say anything about our interest in getting public input, whether it was from the staff or from the public.  Council Member Ward stated that the Search Committee should be made up of Council members only.  He said they needed to bring to the selection process the interest they gained from the community and the staff.

Mayor pro tem Strom said they were backing themselves into a corner if the Search Committee would be Council members only with no representation from the staff or the community, and then when we’ve selected our finalists we would not make their identities public.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said that was not the only means by which to seek public input into the process.

Mayor pro tem Strom said we would be discussing qualities of the job and that was all, because we would not assemble groups of citizens or leaders of the community to have private viewings of these people.

Council Member Hill said it seemed the way to get community input and preserve confidentiality would be to select the committee and then hold a public meeting to ask the community what they wanted in a manager and have that be the extent of the community input.  He said they could not reveal the identity of the finalists and retain confidentiality.

Mayor Foy said he believed what they should do was to agree to have four Council members on the Search Committee.  The Council agreed by consensus.

Mayor Foy said then the Search Committee would be authorized to conduct the process with appropriate regard to the need candidates may have for confidentiality, and pursuant to North Carolina rules regarding open meetings.  The Council agreed by consensus.

Step 3:  Staff Support

Mayor Foy asked if the Council would agree to combine outside support with limited internal support.  The Council agreed by consensus.

Step 4:  Responsibilities of the Search Committee

Mayor Foy said what was needed was to set a schedule and develop a profile, and the way to do that was to talk about our expectation of how the Search Committee would develop that profile. He said his hope was to use that process to get community involvement and other perspectives early on, adding that there were many ways to invite that type of involvement.

Mayor Foy highlighted the steps for the Search Committee to take, including:

• developing a profile with emphasis on community involvement,
• department head involvement and other parties as appropriate,
• public input, and
• developing a process to recruit the candidates, especially advertising, with emphasis on diversity.

Mayor Foy asked how the Search Committee would be expected to conduct its evaluation. He noted that both processes suggested ways to hone the pool down to the top 30 applicants, done in conjunction with professionals with expertise in this area.  But, Mayor Foy stated, the Search Committee would be responsible for reviewing every application to make sure that the Search Committee agreed to exclude or continue an applicant in the process.  He said, for instance, if the Search Committee identified an applicant of interest but our professional said the applicant did not match our profile, we would then need to take a look and decide whether or not to consider that applicant.

Mayor Foy said the idea of soliciting from the top candidates a written exercise that required them to detail how they would work on a critical challenge was intended to allow them to demonstrate skills beyond their resumes, and give them an opportunity to excel.  He said the top 10 candidates would be interviewed by the Search Committee with that written exercise.

Mayor Foy remarked that the next step would be to cull the number of finalists down even further, and he did not believe we should say that number would be three or five or whatever, but just some number less than 10.  He said then the full Council would interview those finalists.

Mayor Foy said the next question would be what kind of confidentiality guarantees would we be offered to those ultimate finalists?  He asked how the Council could interview them in private.  Mayor Foy said whoever stepped into the building would be subject to public scrutiny, and the Council would not be traveling to where they were.  He said when you get to that level of consideration he did not believe the Council could guarantee a candidate confidentiality, and the candidates may as well be public.

Council Member Hill said the Town may not be able to guarantee it, but could expect it.  He said suppose Chapel Hill’s manager were interviewing for a job in Topeka, how would the Town know that?

Mayor Foy said the Town may not know it but the reporters in Topeka would know it because they would be standing outside the Council Chambers trying to figure out who that person was.

Mayor pro tem Strom said that confidentiality was very important, but he believed that when we got down to the final few candidates it was important to understand that in this day and age people did not take jobs for life.  He said if a town’s manager was a finalist in Chapel Hill that would be a feather in the cap. Mayor pro tem Strom said it was not necessarily a negative that a candidate was putting him/herself forward to improve his or her career.  He commented that it happened in other forms of employment, and it was unusual that a town manager stayed in one job as long as our manager had.  Mayor pro tem Strom said the average employment length of a town manager was generally short, and he believed it was an incorrect analysis to believe it would hurt an applicant.

Council Member Easthom asked Mayor pro tem Strom to imagine that seven years ago our town manager had applied for a job in Topeka and was not chosen, and came back here to continue work.  She asked how that would affect his relationship with the manager.

Mayor pro tem Strom said it happened all the time, that you knew your manager possessed a skill set that was highly desirable in other, larger communities and that was just the way it goes.

Council Member Easthom said she thought that at that point maybe his heart was no longer in Chapel Hill and he might leave the next year or the next.

Mayor pro tem Strom said again that that was the way it goes, and we had an obligation to look closely at our finalists.

Mayor Foy commented that was the way it worked in our other hires.  He said if you were interviewing as a finalist for the transportation director in Chapel Hill then at a certain point it would become public, and the applicant would have to deal with that.  Mayor Foy said of course there would be more pressure when you were dealing with a town manager than when you were dealing with a transportation director because you have a lot more political pressure.  But, if he were that applicant he would tell his manager what he was doing, and he expected that a town manager would tell his council.  Mayor Foy said the process might be self-selecting because people might decide that if that was the way it was going to be done then they would not even apply because they did not want to disturb their relationship where they were currently employed.

Council Member Ward said the Council was assuming that its finalists would be managers someplace else, but it may get candidates with backgrounds where they were coming from communities where their applications would not jeopardize their place there.  He said he wanted to have a public process at the final stage when they were down to four or five finalists, noting he believed the community would expect it.  Council Member Ward said he would prefer that at that point the Town tries to tease out the experience it could get from others as to whether this was a significant issue.  And if it was, he said, he did not want to lose qualified candidates because of it.

Mayor Foy said that was a good idea, and suggested adopting the process already discussed for steps 1, 2, 3 and 4, and defer a decision on step 5 until the next meeting and consider it then.  He said we did not have to decide it tonight.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he was willing to let go of the guarantee of confidentiality as long as the finalists were few to maximize what had been discussed earlier, which was that this not necessarily become a detriment in their professional lives.  He said that would only be true if it were a narrow, or small, number of finalists.

Mayor Foy said it was important to point out that it would be the choice of the applicant, and they may choose at that point that they did not want to be a finalist and then the Town would not divulge their names.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he strongly believed that those last few finalists would be highly credentialed professionals, and the most important thing to him was that the Council be able to work well with whomever they chose.  He said if he had two highly qualified people applying to come work for him, he would choose the one who he believed he could work with the best.  Council Member Kleinschmidt said that was why he believed that at the final stage of the process the Council should monopolize the final decision, because it was about who they wanted to work with, develop a sense of trust with, develop a personal and professional relationship with, and the kind that would make them most efficient.

Mayor Foy asked if the Council wanted to make a decision tonight, or defer the decision to the next meeting.  He said he would do further research to see how these issues might affect their candidate pool and bring that to the next meeting.   There was general agreement to defer a decision on step 5 until the next meeting.

COUNCIL MEMBER HILL MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER WARD, TO ADOPT THE PROCESS AS DESCRIBED FOR STEPS 1, 2, 3, AND 4 AS A PROCESS, WITH A DECISION ON STEP 5 TO BE DETERMINED AT THE NEXT REGULAR BUSINESS MEETING.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Council Member Thorpe commended the Town Manager for the way in which he had announced his retirement to the Council, noting it was a sign of a true professional who had spent 16 years serving Chapel Hill.  He said he hoped that through this process the Town would find someone equal to that.

Mayor Foy said the next step would be to decide who would serve on the Search Committee, and suggested deciding that at the next meeting as well.  He asked that any Council members who were interested to let him know prior to that meeting.

Mayor Foy said it was important for whoever served on that Search Committee to make it their priority for the next several months.  He said he believed it would require some flexibility to be able to meet together relatively quickly.  Mayor Foy said, for instance, if the Town had ten candidates that needed to be interviewed in a short period, then the Search Committee would have to make time to get that done.

Item 13 – Appointments

13a.     Community Design Commission.

The Council appointed Gretchen McNair to the Community Design Commission.

	Council Members
Community Design Commission		Foy	Easthom	Greene	Harrison	Hill	Kleinschmidt	Strom	Thorpe	Ward	TOTAL
Vote for 1 Applicant				A
				B
Mary Margaret Carroll				S					X		1
Gretchen G. MacNair		X	X	E	X	X	X	X		X	7
				N
Other; please list				T

13b.     Historic District Commission.

The Council appointed Sarah Woodard David to the Historic District Commission.

	Council Members
Historic District Commission		Foy	Easthom	Greene	Harrison	Hill	Kleinschmidt	Strom	Thorpe	Ward	TOTAL
Vote for 1 Applicant
				A
Pam Bordsen				B
Sarah Woodard David		X	X	S	X	X	X	X		X	7
Keith Freeman				E
Bill Green				N
Mary Ann Kasarda				T
Tim Madigan
Mark McGrath
Matthew Scheer									X		1
Other; please list:

13c.     Million Solar Roofs Initiative.

The Council appointed Bharathwajan Iyengar to the Million Solar Roofs Initiative.

	Council Members
Million Solar Roofs Initiative		Foy	Easthom	Greene	Harrison	Hill	Kleinschmidt	Strom	Thorpe	Ward	TOTAL
Vote for 1 Applicant				A
				B
Bharathwajan Iyengar		X	X	S	X	X	X	X	X	X	8
				E
Other; please list				N T

13d.     Transportation Board.

COUNCIL MEMBER HARRISON MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER EASTHOM, TO DEFER APPOINTMENTS TO THE TRANSPORTATION BOARD UNTIL SUCH TIME THAT THE TRANSPORTATION BOARD HAD AN OPPORTUNITY TO CONSIDER ALL CANDIDATES.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

13e.     University Committee on Carolina North.

Mayor Foy noted that the resolution to designate citizen representatives and alternates to the University Committee on Carolina North put forth the names of Julie McClintock and George Cianciolo for approval.

Council Member Easthom suggested that the Council consider including an alternate for the Council seat and the proposed that she be appointed.  She noted she had been actively engaged with the Horace Williams Citizens Committee, a strong neighborhood advocate in the grass roots efforts to inform citizens about Carolina North, and this project had been a large part of her political platform.  Council Member Easthom said it was important to her to have a chance to provide the input that she believed a significant portion of the voters of Chapel Hill wanted her to provide.  She stated that Orange County had two representatives and an alternate, and Carrboro had three representatives and an alternate. Council Member Easthom said she believed it would be a good idea for this Council to have an alternate.

Mayor Foy said he had talked with the chair, Ken Broun, and it was his position that the Committee would decide if it would accept alternates.  So, he said, the fact that someone was appointed an alternate did not necessarily mean that the Committee would move forward accepting those alternates.  Mayor Foy noted that it was not a Town committee, but added that he supported her suggestion.

Mayor Foy suggested including Council Member Easthom’s name in the resolution as an alternate, so that if either of the two Council members or the two citizen representatives were unable to participate, then she would substitute for them.  Council Member Easthom accepted that suggestion.

COUNCIL MEMBER EASTHOM MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER KLEINSCHMIDT, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-12 MODIFIED TO INCLUDE JULIE McCLINTOCK AND GEORGE CIANCIOLO AS CITIZEN REPRESENTATIVES AND COUNCIL MEMBER EASTHOM AS AN ALTERNATE TO ANY OF THE FOUR CHAPEL HILL REPRESENTATIVES ON THE UNIVERSITY’S CAROLINA NORTH COMMITTEE.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

Item 14 – Petitions

14a.     Petitions by the Mayor and Council Members:

14a(1). Mayor Foy regarding Expedited Review for LEED Certified Projects.

Mayor Foy petitioned the Council to ask the Manager to bring back to the Council a policy on expedited review for projects that are LEED certified.  He said that policy would require some thought, because anyone could say they had a LEED project but then not follow through.

Council Member Ward remarked that the way the system was now you could get enough points for a Silver Certification without making the project any more energy efficiency than through standard building codes, because you got points for doing other things.  He said a major area where we want to increase our building effectiveness with regard to carbon reduction was to build projects that used less energy.  Council Member Ward asked to include in such a policy that if the Town got a request for expedited review for a Silver LEED project then that project must be received at least two points energy credit, which meant that the project would use 20 percent less energy than building codes required.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD MOVED, SECONDED BY MAYOR PRO TEM STROM, THAT THE PETITION AS AMENDED BE RECEIVED AND REFERRED TO THE MANAGER.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

14a(2). Council Member Easthom regarding a Public forum on Municipal Wireless Network.

Council Member Easthom said this would be an entirely educational forum, and would not suggest a particular way to provide a municipal wireless network in Chapel Hill.  She said she would like to involve another Council member to assist with the forum, with the goal of providing that forum in the spring.

Council Member Harrison asked if that would be a free-standing forum on a date other than the public hearing date on this issue, ideally at the Town Hall.  Council Member Easthom said that was correct, and she would like to have it broadcast as well.

Council Member Kleinschmidt said he would like to assist Council Member Easthom on this project.

COUNCIL MEMBER EASTHOM MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER KLEINSCHMIDT, TO APPROVE THE REQUEST TO SCHEDULE AND CONDUCT AN EDUCATIONAL PUBLIC FORUM ON A MUNICIPAL WIRELESS NETWORK, TO BE ORGANIZED BY COUNCIL MEMBERS EASTHOM AND KLEINSCHMIDT. THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY (8-0).

14b.     Petitions by the Manager and Attorney.  None.

Item 15 – Consent Agenda Items for Discussion

Item #4d, Fiscal Year 2005-2006 Vehicle Replacement Plan

Council Member Ward said the staff had made some significant improvements on how the Town deals with its vehicle fleet, noting the number of the fleet had been reduced by 12 and that was a step in the right direction. He said he was grateful for that effort and the efforts the Green Fleets Committee.  Council Member Ward said he would be interested in having a member of the Council serve on the Green Fleets Committee.  He stated the outside nature of a Council member would help the Town be as lean and as efficient in this area as possible.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD MOVED THAT A COUNCIL MEMBER BE APPOINTED AS A REPRESENTATIVE TO THE GREEN FLEETS COMMITTEE.

Mr. Horton stated that he would not concur with that recommendation, noting that the Green Fleets Committee was a staff committee.  He said they would be happy to ensure that the Committee reported to the SEE Committee and to the full council, but he believed it would be inappropriate to involve a council member in a staff function at that level.

Council Member Ward said, with that in mind, he asked that the Council allow him the opportunity to talk further with the Town Manager to discover a process that would be amenable to both the Manager and himself that he could bring back to the Council for its consideration.  Mr. Horton said he would be pleased to do that.

Council Member Easthom asked how the Town could plan for the future regarding police vehicles.  She asked what the police actually had to have in order to function well, and could the Town delineate particular vehicles for particular functions, such as high speed chases, and then phase in smaller vehicles that were not needed for high risk purposes.  Mr. Horton responded that the Town police did not participate in high speed chases as a matter of policy.  He said he had asked that Captain Chris Blue be available this evening to report on things that were customarily a part of police vehicles that were difficult to obtain in other types of vehicles, but essential for police services.

Captain Blue said generally there were some characteristics that were common to police package vehicles:

• Manufacturers who offered vehicles with police packages generally placed high-output alternators in those vehicles that supported all of the electronic devises used in those vehicles.
• The vehicles were equipped with advanced cooling systems that enabled the vehicles to sit at idle for extended periods of time, such as at traffic accidents or at street barricades.
• The vehicles were equipped with enhanced wiring channels to carry the wiring associated with the operation of the electronic equipment in the vehicles.
• The vehicles came with equipped with heavy-duty suspensions, such as larger sway bars and larger springs in the front and the rear for a more comfortable ride over an extended period, as well as for general durability.
• Enhanced braking systems.

Captain Blue said perhaps the most important feature of these vehicles was that they tended to be somewhat larger, and that was because they generally carried a significant amount of equipment.  He said almost all of their police vehicles were enhanced with the following:

• radios
• PA and siren Boxes
• light bar switch panels
• radar units
• hands free cell phone holders
• power supply for in-car computers
• digital camera systems
• prisoner transport partition
• rear seat inserts to better secure prisoners

Captain Blue said it was an advantage to have those somewhat larger interior spaces in those vehicles to accommodate the equipment used daily by the officers.  He said they also had larger trunks, which accommodated their digital camera vaults to record data from the cameras, fingerprint kits and other crime scene processing equipment, traffic accident investigation tools, and personal equipment bags for the officers to carry such items as reference materials and books.

Captain Blue said because they generally purchase such vehicles each year they were able to recycle much of this equipment into the newer vehicles, so they did not have to replace all of that equipment each time a vehicle was replaced.

Mr. Horton stated that the Town was not unwilling to consider other vehicles, and part of what the Green Fleets policy would do would be to continue to search for vehicles that would meet the requirements of the Police service and be more fuel efficient.  He said hybrid vehicles would be considered as well.

Council Member Ward said there were two vehicles on the replacement list he wanted to ask about, a Solid Waste Services pick-up truck and a Police Department cruiser for the staff.  He said taking into account the comments just made about Police vehicles, he wondered if this vehicle would have to be outfitted in the same manner.  Council Member Ward also asked why it was critical that those two vehicles be replaced at this time.  He said he would like to avoid having these kinds of conversations at this point in the process.

Internal Services Superintendent Bill Terry replied it might not be critical to ever replace a vehicle on the list, but there was criteria that had been set as policy that they attempted to abide by.  He said if the Council asked that any vehicle be deferred until the next year they could do that, but there may be additional maintenance costs associated with it.

Mr. Terry said the particular police vehicle under discussion had over 60,000 miles on it, which was high for the fleet, noting it was a 1999 and if it was replaced as scheduled it would be seven years old.  He said he would not say it was critical to replace it but it was one of the older vehicles in the Police fleet and it was time to replace it.

Council Member Ward asked if the same was true about the Solid Waste Services pick-up truck.  Mr. Terry said it was a 1999 vehicle with over 78,000 miles on it, noting it was assigned to one of the supervisors and received a lot of heavy-duty use.  He said it was used all day each and every day, and it looked a lot older than it was because of the heavy use it took.

Council Member Ward remarked that perhaps he needed an appreciation for the significant use that was asked of these vehicles because they were newer than his car and had a lot less mileage than his car, and it was still serviceable to him.  He said it was surprising that they were identified as important to replace at this time.  Mr. Terry replied that they tried to strike a balance between the rental car philosophy, where they replaced cars at 20,000 miles because they had a need to make sure they never have a vehicle failure, and having Captain Blue call to say he was stuck on the side of the road and please send a tow truck.  He said they don’t have the rental car philosophy of customer service, and yet did not have the family philosophy of driving the same vehicle for 10 or more years.  Mr. Terry said for municipal services they tried to strike a balance between the two in the best manner possible.

Mr. Horton said in striking that balance they also tried to reduce down time, reduce repair costs, and increase resale costs, so they take into account a lot of factors as they make those judgments each year.

Council Member Thorpe said that many of these police vehicles served as an office, unlike a personal vehicle, and were used 24 hours a day.  He said it was necessary that those vehicles be larger and more durable, noting a smaller car would wear more quickly.

Mayor Foy asked if this would be discussed again during budget deliberations.  Mr. Horton said that each year the Council discussed vehicle replacement costs during those deliberations.  Mayor Foy said but they would not necessarily talk about particular vehicles.  Mr. Horton said that was correct, noting they were asking that tonight the Council authorize them to move forward with the vehicle replacement plan that the Council had approved.

COUNCIL MEMBER WARD MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER THORPE, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-4.

Council Member Easthom said she would like to see a progression towards hybrids.  Mr. Horton said they were most interested in that, and he looked forward to the day when the Town’s entire fleet were hybrids.

THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY    (8-0).

Item #4e, Follow-up Report Regarding Pedestrian Improvements Around Town Hall.

Council Member Ward said the resolution indicated speed tables at two locations, but he was unsure about the exact locations.  He said looking at the sidewalks, the sidewalk was on the west side of Columbia Street up to Carr Street, and at that time flipped over to the Fire Station/Town Hall side.  After having a map displayed, Council Member Ward asked that the locations of the two speed tables and crosswalks be pointed out.  Mr. Neppalli said the first speed table and crosswalk would be placed just south of the Carr Street entrance, to connect to a sidewalk that would be added.  He said the second speed table would be placed just south of Stephens Street.

Council Member Ward said he had been confused by the description in the memo, noting it was odd that they would place a crosswalk at a location with no sidewalk on the other side.  Mr. Neppalli noted both of the speed tables would have crosswalks on the flatter portion of the speed table.

Council Member Ward said he was concerned about the one closer to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, which appeared to be used to slow people down and help pedestrians cross the street.  He said the Phase 2 proposal included a reconfiguration of that intersection of North Columbia Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and it appeared to him that a crosswalk action should take place in association with that stop sign rather than away from that intersection.

Mayor Foy asked Mr. Neppalli to indicate the reconfiguration on the map.  Mr. Neppalli pointed out the location, noting that as part of that reconfiguration a sidewalk would be added on the opposite side of the street.  Mayor Foy noted that reconfiguration would cause motorists to have to make a slight left turn and come to a stop, then make a right turn to continue travel on North Columbia Street.

Council Member Ward said he believed that area would be a better location for the crosswalk rather than farther up the street near the Carr Street entrance.  He said that with limited resources he believed it was unnecessary.  Mr. Neppalli said they had observed that Carr Street appeared to be the place where people preferred to cross in order to access both sides of Columbia Street.  He said that having a speed table and crosswalk at that location would send the message to slow down and that they were approaching Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.

Mayor Foy said that meant that even after the reconfiguration, it would send the message to slow down and that you were approaching a stop sign at Martin Luther King, Jr.  Mr. Neppalli replied that was correct.  He said they had experienced a large speeding problem in front of Town Hall, and believed these methods would reduce the speeding problems and improve pedestrian safety.

Council Member Ward asked Mr. Neppalli to explain again why a crosswalk at the Carr Street location was preferable.  Mr. Neppalli responded that in order to access North Columbia Street and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, some people seemed to prefer crossing at the Carr Street location.  He said the sidewalk was on the Carr Street Side, then flipped to the other side by the Fire Station.

Mayor pro tem Strom said he understood Council Member Ward’s point, and if all of the improvements were going to happen at once it would be the right thing to do. But given that there was a sidewalk on the west side of Columbia Street, he said, he was supportive of putting in the suggested improvement.  He said what was needed was to make an immediate improvement.

Council Member Ward said he agreed we needed to make immediate improvements, but he believed a stop sign with a crosswalk and a sidewalk on the Fire Station side would give the Town more pedestrian mobility and safety.  He said he believed that cars should come to a stop where the pedestrians would cross, not 100 yards up the street.

Mayor Foy asked about the timeframe for the realignment of North Columbia Street at its intersection with Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard.  Mr. Neppalli said they would have to submit the request to the State and await their approval. He said it would be four to six months before they would receive comments from the State.

Council Member Ward asked if anything could be done in the interim.  Mr. Neppalli replied they could install just a crosswalk.

Mayor pro tem Strom said that even with the improvements, he believed that Mr. Neppalli had indicated that the crosswalk and speed table at the intersection of North Columbia and Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard was the better choice.

Council Member Ward said he was proposing an alternative, but he did not appear to have the Council’s support.  He said there were no sidewalks at the intersection at Stephens and asked if one was planned anytime soon.  Mr. Neppalli said he would check on that and make sure that was included in the improvements.

COUNCIL MEMBER HILL MOVED, SECONDED BY COUNCIL MEMBER WARD, ADOPTION OF RESOLUTION R-5.  THE MOTION WAS ADOPTED UNANIMOUSLY    (8-0).

The meeting was adjourned at 11:00 p.m.