SUMMARY MINUTES OF A PUBLIC FORUM
OF THE CHAPEL HILL TOWN COUNCIL
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 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, Sally Greene, Ed Harrison, Cam Hill, Mark Kleinschmidt, Bill Strom, Bill Thorpe, and Jim Ward. Also present was Town Clerk Sabrina Oliver.
Mayor Foy noted that tonight’s public forum would provide residents of Chapel Hill the opportunity to meet the candidates for Town Manager. He said that 120 applications had been received. Mayor Foy said the Council had worked diligently to decide which of the 120 were best suited for the position.
Mayor Foy said the three candidates that would be introduced tonight were all very qualified for the position of Chapel Hill Town Manager. He said it the Town’s job as a community to choose which of the three candidates would be best to fill that role. Mayor Foy asked that members of the community listen to the candidates, question them, and imagine each of them as the Town Manager. He said they should think about common interests and the best future, and ask the candidates and themselves what was the best choice for Chapel Hill.
Mayor Foy noted that they would be taking email questions as well as telephone questions, and provided the email address and the phone number for viewers to call. He said after the public forum, they encouraged the public to contact members of the Council to voice their opinions. Mayor Foy said they planned to make a decision on whom to hire no later than Saturday, June 24.
Mayor Foy noted that the three finalists were Frank Ragan, Sean Stegall, and Roger Stancil. He stated that each of the three candidates would be provided the opportunity to make a presentation.
Candidate Frank Ragan
Mayor Foy introduced Frank Ragan, currently the Deputy City Manager of Aurora, Colorado, and provided some background on Mr. Ragan’s life and career path.
Mr. Ragan, a native of the Apex, NC area, made brief comments regarding his education and his commitment to public service. He provided some background on his various positions throughout his career. Mr. Ragan said that after college, he had worked for the City of Henderson, North Carolina for five and a half years in their Parks and Recreation Department. From there, he said, he went to Bloomington, Indiana where he served as the Director of Parks and Recreation at the University for about 10 years. Mr. Ragan stated he had spent the last 30 years in Colorado where he had held the positions of Parks and Recreation Director and Deputy City Manager. While there, he said, he had assisted in converting a military base for use by the local university.
Mr. Ragan said another project he was particularly proud of while in Bloomington was his involvement in a study of the impact of local softball and soccer tournaments on the economy. He said that had had led to his working with the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau to lay the foundation for developing a new sports complex. Mr. Ragan said he was involved in a similar process in Aurora that had led to the construction of a 35-field sports complex on 225 acres, which was one of the premier sporting facilities in the country today. He said that complex had hosted 31 tournaments and generated over $20 million this past year.
Mr. Ragan said he had been given the opportunity to lead a facilities comprehensive master plan for the city of Aurora, which was a two-year process that included looking at building fire and police stations as well as parks, a new city hall, and the acquisition of over 1,000 acres of open space. He said with the help of bond funds and other creative financing, they were able to build over $150 million in improvements over the next four years.
Mr. Ragan explained the process that had led to the construction of a $75 million Town Hall project, which he had overseen. He noted the process had included extensive community involvement, and the result was a building that was not only the governmental center of the city but an icon of architecture that symbolized the city’s coming of age.
Candidate Sean Stegall
Mayor Foy introduced Sean Stegall, Assistant City Manager in Elgin, Illinois, and provided some background on Mr. Stegall’s life and career path.
Mr. Stegall, a native of Galesburg, Illinois, gave a PowerPoint presentation, noting there were three reasons why he wanted to serve as Chapel Hill’s Town Manager. He said it was because Chapel Hill was creative, livable, and sustainable. Mr. Stegall provided brief comments regarding his education and career path.
Mr. Stegall said he had been heavily influenced by three books: The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter Senge, which detailed how to create and establish a learning organization; Good to Great by Jim Collins, which discussed the importance of “getting the right people on the bus;” and The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, just because he enjoyed Fitzgerald’s take on the American dream.
Mr. Stegall highlighted his volunteer work, which included serving as president of the board of a well child center, serving on the United Way, and serving on the Elgin Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. He then provided some highlights of projects he had been involved with, including downtown revitalization and growth management, legislative affairs, parks and recreation projects, employee development, and technology. Mr. Stegall noted that he served as Elgin’s budget director, with an annual budget of $277 million and 40 funds.
Mr. Stegall highlighted his work in downtown revitalization, noting there were no simple solutions or quick fixes. He said this is characteristic of downtown redevelopment initiatives and growth management, and it tests the resolve of the community. He said that required vision, noting that if the Town could see the possibility it could make it reality. Mr. Stegall commented that Chapel Hill understood that, mentioning the redevelopment of Parking Lots 2 and 5 in downtown Chapel Hill, as well as the development of Carolina North.
Mr. Stegall noted that citizens help the City to make better decisions and create better places. He said regarding Chapel Hill’s values:
Mr. Stegall said all of these things would continue to create a community that was creative, livable, and sustainable.
Candidate Roger Stancil
Mayor Foy introduced Roger Stancil, most recently the City Manager of Fayetteville, North Carolina, and provided some background on Mr. Stancil’s life and career path.
Mr. Stancil said he was attracted to Chapel Hill because it was a great place to live and the Town government had an excellent reputation both in its political leadership and its city professionals. He talked briefly about how he would fit in with where Chapel Hill was today.
Mr. Stancil stated he wanted to address “the elephant in the room,” which was why he was no longer with the City of Fayetteville. He explained how urban growth had taken place in North Carolina, except in Cumberland County and the City of Fayetteville, because they were exempted from the NC Annexation laws. Mr. Stancil said the result was a large number of subdivisions being built outside the city, with 60,000 septic tanks. He explained how he had inherited the implementation of a 10-year plan that began in 1995 to bring those subdivisions into the city when he had become the city manager in 1997.
In 2003, Mr. Stancil said, the then seated city council in Fayetteville, elected by districts, had stated that the annexations that had taken place over that period of time had disrupted city systems and created confusion in the electoral process, and that they should finish the process by annexing the remainder of the urban area into the city which totaled about 42,000 people. Mr. Stancil said the problem was that the remaining area was more densely developed than what was already in the city, with 8,000 parcels of land still operating on septic tanks.
Mr. Stancil said the city council had discussed the repercussions of that annexation, including the political risk of bringing 42,000 additional people into the city at one time, the fact that they could easily lose an election, and that the city manager could easily lose his job. He said they made the decision to annex the area just prior to the 2003 elections, and that council was re-elected. Mr. Stancil said the annexation was to be effective on June 30 of 2004, but it was caught up in the court system and the annexation date was then changed to September 30, 2005, only weeks away from the city’s elections.
Mr. Stancil said the result was that every district representative on the city council changed. As a result, he said, there were only three people out of the original ten who had previously voted to annex those 42,000 people and bring them into the city. Mr. Stancil said the commitment that had resulted in that annexation and the hard work it took to make something like that work was then questioned.
Mr. Stancil stated that during his nine years as manager in Fayetteville he had worked under four different mayors and 32 different council members, so he was well aware of the need to be flexible and to change when necessary. But, he said, there was something different about this change, noting there was some conflict between the past and the future and he represented that past and the decision to bring those people into the city.
Mr. Stancil said that in a council-manager form of government, success depended on the relationship between the council and the manager, and he made the decision that it was not a good time for there to be a great deal of tension between the manager and the council. As a result, he said, he choose to resign his position. Mr. Stancil said he had learned from that experience that political courage could be painful in the short term. He had also learned that it was better for a community to spend the necessary time to plan and envision what it wanted to be, then set out to make that happen.
Mr. Stancil noted that towns added value to a community in two ways. First, he said, was by listening to its citizens and involving them in decisions that affected them. Secondly, he said, by working as a team Town departments added value to the services they provided individually. Mr. Stancil said that happened when town departments partnered with the community and with each other.
Mr. Stancil said he believed he could use what he had learned in Fayetteville to assist Chapel Hill in achieving its vision, because there were many similarities between the two communities. He highlighted some of those similarities, and then provided some background on his achievements regarding his work with Fort Bragg and his efforts to revitalize downtown Fayetteville.
Mr. Stancil stated he could help facilitate Chapel Hill’s vision for itself. He said he believed that if Chapel Hill wanted:
then he was here and would be honored to have the opportunity to serve this great community.
Questions for the Candidates
Mayor Foy acknowledged the help of Anita Badrock and Tim Dempsey, both Human Resources professionals who had assisted the Council in reaching this stage in the selection process. Mayor Foy then opened the floor for citizen comments and questions of the candidates.
Question 1
Ryan Depew, vice president of the Chapel Hill Firefighters Association, stated that when compared to communities of similar size, the Chapel Hill Fire Department had about half the manpower of those communities. He asked, in light of the upcoming development of Carolina North and the continued growth of the community, where did the Fire Department fall within the goals of that future growth, and would they make the staffing of the Fire Department a priority? He also asked what their experience was with dealing with staffing issues and what the outcomes were.
Sean Stegall commented that he could not answer to the staffing of the Fire Department because he did not know if it was a problem. He said he respected the fact that the Council and the community had determined it was something that needed to be done. Mr. Stegall said he understood and respected the importance of a paid fire department, but did not know what the future might hold.
Mr. Stegall noted he had negotiated fire department contracts in the past, as well as the construction of fire facilities. He said he had a good working knowledge of how fire departments operated, and he would be relying on Chief Jones regarding these types of recommendations. Mr. Stegall added that fire services were important, but the fact was that all services were important to making a community creative, livable and sustainable.
Frank Ragan said Mr. Stegall’s response was appropriate. He said he would, however, add that fire services were critical. He said he did not yet know what the service levels in the community were so it was hard to quantify how many additional firefighters might be needed. Mr. Ragan said it was difficult to imagine a development such as Carolina North without the necessary fire protection.
Mr. Ragan said that the City of Aurora had gone through difficult times and suffered cuts to services, but they had maintained their fire department service levels as well as the police services. He provided some brief information of the revenue difficulties he had experienced and worked through, adding that he could not answer the question exactly because he did not know what the service levels were in Chapel Hill.
Roger Stancil said clearly citizen safety was a basic need in any community, and fire and police services were an important part of comprehensive planning. He said even though the candidates did not have specific data, these were certainly high priorities. Mr. Stancil said in Fayetteville they had an ISO-2 rating and had made the commitment to do whatever it took to maintain that rating. He noted that only 7/10 of one percent of the fire departments in this country had an ISO-2 rating, which affected commercial fire insurance rates.
Question 2
Mayor Foy said Chapel Hill was a community with a very high cost of housing, and as a result most of its employees do not live in Town. What do you think about a community that found itself in that predicament and what are the challenges that you face as the town manager, and what can you do to try to ameliorate it, he asked.
Roger Stancil said that certainly was a challenge for city employees and others, because the cost of housing was greater than many other communities in the State. He said the Council had taken one huge step towards that in its commitment to affordable housing and requiring that as part of its review of projects. Mr. Stancil said there were programs that provided some assistance to city employees, such as down-payment assistance or other subsidies. Mr. Stancil said ideally those who work for the Town should be able to live in the Town because that creates a heightened interest in what happens there. He said housing assistance or other subsidies should certainly be explored, particularly for public safety employees.
Sean Stegall said he had come to appreciate the differences in housing costs between Chapel Hill and Elgin, Illinois. He said ideally one does want employees to live in town to serve as ambassadors and problem solvers, particularly in regard to neighborhood issues. Mr. Stegall said he would like to explore incentive programs to encourage employees to live in town. However, he was not optimistic because the cost of housing incentives would be too expensive to be acceptable by the community, he said. Mr. Stegall said if the goal was to have the best and brightest and attract and retain the best employees, then to remain competitive the Town would be forced to make changes as city services evolve. Mr. Stegall said there would be more telecommuting and more flexible work schedules that would allow employees to serve residents even when not physically at work.
Frank Ragan stated this was a difficult question, and giving employees the opportunity to work from home was certainly a viable approach. He said he believed this issue would take some thinking “out of the box.” Mr. Ragan said many communities faced these types of problems, noting that in resort communities employees sometimes must drive to work from an hour away, and those communities were beginning to build housing for employees and offering subsidies as well. He said looking at these types of issues in a traditional way would most likely not work, and it would take something very creative to keep the number of employees living outside of Chapel Hill from growing even larger. Mr. Ragan suggested bold moves like thinking about building or subsidizing homes for employees.
Question 3
Martin Rody said Chapel Hill’s tax base was primarily residential, and with tax increases and property value reassessments, many older residents could not afford to live in Town any longer, particularly retirees who were on fixed incomes. He asked if there were any programs that could alleviate that problem.
Frank Ragan said his town had recently completed a comprehensive revenue study after completing a five-year $50 million cut in the budget. He said he could not comment on what was best for Chapel Hill because he did not yet have full knowledge of its revenue structures and what State law would allow. Mr. Ragan said he did believe there would be an extreme need to look at alternative revenue sources to diversify the revenue base.
Roger Stancil said certainly there were ways to look at alternative revenue sources, and one was to examine the fees for services to make sure they were set appropriately so that taxpayers were not subsidizing services that only benefit certain portions of the population. In North Carolina, he said, they were dependent on property tax for revenue, and there had been many attempts in the General Assembly to produce other options for revenue for local governments to finance their services. Mr. Stancil said that was something he believed the Town should work toward making happen, because they had been unsuccessful in that regard to date.
Sean Stegall said this was a problem many states and communities struggled with, and Chapel Hill would need assistance from the General Assembly to identify revenue options to address this and other issues. He said, quite frankly, if there were such revenue sources currently available the Town staff would have already identified and implemented them. Mr. Stegall said unfortunately some options might produce revenue in the short term but cause unforeseen difficulties later. He said the goal was to provide the most value possible for the taxes being paid. Mr. Stegall said he believed that was currently the case in Chapel Hill, and it was important to assure that for the future as well.
Question 4
Joe Capowski, a former Council member, stated he believed each of the candidates was well qualified and that Chapel Hill could not lose regardless of the outcome. He asked about their philosophy regarding communications, specifically how much communications would be allowed between department heads and other Town staff and the Council. Mr. Capowski said he asked that question because while he served on the Council, he had become aware that many lower level requests never made it to the Town Council, such as the staffing request by the Fire Department. He asked how much restriction they would place on their department heads in that regard.
Sean Stegall stated he believed in an open system of communication, and believed that the Council, the community, and the staff were partners. He said with the types of instant communication available today, it was impractical to think that the Town Manager could control communication, adding that department heads and the Council should be communicating on a regular basis. Mr. Stegall said he would encourage his department heads to discuss current issues confronting the community with the Council. At the same time, he said, the Town Manager could not have chaos, and should be informed about such communications. Mr. Stegall said there had to be open communication between department heads and the Council in order to have effective organization that met the needs of a changing, challenging complex problem.
Frank Ragan said Mr. Stegall had provided an excellent response to that question. He said he currently worked with such a system of open communication, noting there was much information that could be passed on from departments to the Council in such a manner. Mr. Ragan said such information was not policy, was not directives, but was simply information offered in a free exchange. He said if such communication was regarding a policy issue or interpretation of an issue, or something that would suggest that there was an initiative that a Council member would bring forward to the full Council, then that information must be shared with the Town Manager. Mr. Ragan said that allowing this greater communication between department heads and the Council generated a greater feeling of pride and teamwork among those department heads, as well as ownership in the decision-making process. He said he saw that type of interaction as a win-win situation.
Roger Stancil said his dilemma was adding anything of value to two excellent answers. He said he believed it was a matter of balancing expertise and professionalism. Mr. Stancil said the more involved and informed people were in decisions the more committed they were to the decision once it was made. He said he thought the Manager had a responsibility to the entire Council to ensure they all received excellent information. Mr. Stancil noted Chapel Hill was well-managed, well-led and ran very well, and the new Manager would have to come in and learn about how that happened by looking at processes and asking lots of questions.
Question 5
Janet Kagan, with the Chapel Hill Public Arts Commission, asked what their experience was working with public art commissions and percent for art ordinances.
Roger Stancil responded his experience did not include any percent for art such as that found in Chapel Hill. He said that art was part of what made a community livable, and he was in favor of funding for arts through various methods. Mr. Stancil said in his community art was partially funded through a dedicated portion of an Occupancy Tax. He said those types of funding should explored.
Frank Ragan noted he had taken a percent for art ordinance to his council about twelve years ago, and a percent for art in public places was established through those efforts. He said he had participated in that process ever since. He said he had also served on several panels and commissions regarding the placement of art in public places. Mr. Ragan said he believed strongly in the need for public art, and would continue to support it.
Sean Stegall stated things such as art and open space acquisitions were just as critical as public works or other services. He said in Elgin he served as the liaison to the cultural arts commission, but they were not funded through a percent for art because they had other funding sources. Mr. Stegall said they were currently working to establish a visual art center on the top floor of their professional building, to accompanying their existing cultural arts center. He said he shared his colleagues support for all forms of public art.
Mayor Foy read an email question: How will you evaluate performance of department heads, and how would you deal with unsatisfactory performance?
Frank Ragan replied that he believed strongly in a pay for performance system, in that if performance was not satisfactory then there were no raises. He said in order to properly evaluate performance you must have a good system in place that included training for those who would evaluate employees. Mr. Ragan said he met frequently with his department heads and made sure that they understood the assignments, performance goals, and expected outcomes of their work. He said expectations were agreed upon, and results were evaluated with mid-term assessments.
Mr. Ragan said feedback was also a continuous loop in evaluations. He said you must treat all employees fairly, and if you had a department head that was performing unsatisfactorily, in his city that person would be automatically placed on a six-month probation and would have performance guidelines and expectations clearly spelled out that must be met. If not met, he said, that employee would likely be terminated or asked to resign.
Sean Stegall said they had a performance appraisal and evaluation system in Elgin that he believed, frankly, was broken. He said he had not yet found a system, method or tool to effectively evaluate employees. Mr. Stegall said while evaluating employees, particularly department heads, was important, he had not yet had to fire one because they fired themselves.
Mr. Stegall said from all appearances Chapel Hill was running smoothly, and he did not expect that to be an issue. He said many organizations, public and private, were moving away from performance appraisal system and were instead rating the team itself rather than the individual. Mr. Stegall said he was more concerned about employees being familiar with the Town’s mission statement and how it related to their performance within their positions.
Roger Stancil stated that key components in evaluating employees were having clear expectations and having good communications about those expectations and how they were being met. He said one had to have a clear system that people trusted and respected, or you end up with equity issues. Mr. Stancil said to be effective, everyone’s appraisal system must connect back to the strategic vision of the Council and the organization’s and the departments’ priorities. He said in order to create the kind of employees one wanted, they had to be connected to what you do and how you achieve it.
George Cianciolo said that Chapel Hill was unique in that it was landlocked, so growth had to come from within. He asked, at what point did the health and vitality of the community take precedent over the rights or vitality of the neighbors?
Roger Stancil stated that one of the dilemmas Chapel Hill would face was how to preserve what made Chapel Hill a great place to live with property tax bills and how to mitigate those. He said he thought the heights of buildings was an issue, and it was important to decide what values the community wanted to express. Mr. Stancil said he did not believe the lure of building in Chapel Hill would stop because the Town had reached its boundaries. He said that vacant land opportunities were pretty much gone, and the risk was that you had to work to retain the values that made Chapel Hill what it was.
Frank Ragan said that it was about competing values, and the most important thing was to create a balance within those values. He said that the Town needed to bring the downtown area back to what it once was, and there were already tremendous plans in place to address that. Mr. Ragan said bringing in new development would take some of the pressure off the issue of property taxes, particularly if you increased the commercial base. He said if the downtown continued down the path of modest retail and fast food restaurants, he did not believe that would be helpful for the community. Mr. Ragan said there were pros and cons to anything one does, and they had to make informed decisions based on the community’s values.
Sean Stegall said he agreed with the other candidates, stating it was an issue of competing values and a difficult one. He said it should be recognized that while no two communities were exactly the same, no two parts of Chapel Hill were exactly the same. Mr. Stegall said that density in the downtown was absolutely critical to its continued success, but density may not work well depending on certain characteristics in other areas. Mr. Stegall said the downtown was already phenomenal, but it could get better.
Liz Parham, Executive Director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, asked about their experiences with public/private partnerships.
Sean Stegall described several projects he had been personally involved in that were public/private partnerships, and the successes experienced with each. He said he had experience in all aspects of downtown development and that it was something he very much enjoyed.
Roger Stancil said he had been involved extensively in the redevelopment of downtown Fayetteville, which had been a resounding success. He described some of the work that had gone into that and the success of the public/private partnership. Mr. Stancil described other programs he had been involved in, including an entertainment complex, a major retail/residential project in the downtown including parking, and an office building with retail on the first floor. He explained the Town’s role in each of those projects and its work with the downtown partnership.
Frank Ragan said he had been involved in many public/private partnerships, and described two in particular. One, he said, was for a new library and municipal services center in the downtown area, with a residential component across the street marketed specifically to artists. He explained how that public/private partnership had worked and the town’s role in it. Mr. Ragan explained several other public/private partnerships he had experience with and the results of that work.
Mayor Foy read an email question: What methods would you use to communicate with citizens and employees, and how would you enhance Chapel Hill’s outreach?
Sean Stegall responded that methods were important, but so was the medium that was used to communicate. He said when it came to employees he did not like to communicate via email but preferred face-to-face communications. Mr. Stegall said technology was wonderful, but it could also be dehumanizing.
Mr. Stegall said when communicating with citizens, he would encourage communications through all means, including email, the website, reports, and any other medium. He said he would take what was already being done and take it to another level.
Roger Stancil said he would put a high priority on personal communication with employees, and would expect department heads to do the same. He said that kind of personal communication was necessary with organizations and people in the community. Mr. Stancil said the challenge for the Manager was to make that happen.
Frank Ragan said newsletters to neighborhood associations, extensive Internet postings, a short turn-around to citizen questions, more use of the governmental access channel, and other means would enhance communications with the residents. He said there were many things that could be done, and you could not ignore the personal touch that was necessary in those communications.
Jackie Thompson, representing the Town’s Employee Forum, asked about their experiences with this type of employee group and if they support the concept of such a group.
Roger Stancil said he had created a similar program in Fayetteville, where each department chose a spokesperson who was not a supervisor or a part of management. He said they met on a regular basis and frequently met with the Manager to talk about policy issues and concerns. Mr. Stancil said that spokesperson also could help employees approach management for whatever issue was of concern to them.
Mr. Stancil said he had also created an administrative support group that consisted of the executive assistants in each department, and they were used to spread information more quickly to employees. He said that group supplemented the work of the spokespersons in each department.
Frank Ragan said his town had a similar group that met monthly and exchanged information. He said that group brought forth ideas for cost-efficiency, which had resulted in an incentive program where employees were awarded a monetary gift for such money-saving ideas. Mr. Ragan said in his experience such groups were critical to an organization, and there should be mechanisms to show that their input was of value.
Sean Stegall said there was an employee advisory group in Elgin, and they used many different means to communicate with employees. He said it was important that not only the employee advisory group but that all employees were part of the overall forum that contributed ideas and value to the organization. Mr. Stegall said people on the front lines often had the best ideas as opposed to those who sat in offices.
Mayor Foy read an email question: Upper management was predominately white male in North Carolina. What would you do to promote diversity in the work place?
Frank Ragan said that was always a challenge, particularly in the public safety arena. He said one thing they had done was to actually recruit from military bases, where fire and police were paramilitary in nature and were one of the most diverse employment pools that existed today. Mr. Ragan said they had a community that was comprised of African-American leaders and they promoted those connections and relationships to assist in recruitment and getting the word out when positions were available.
Sean Stegall said he was fortunate to come from a community that was heavily diverse, with half of the population non-Caucasian. He said it would be his goal that whenever you had equally talented and qualified individuals that the minority candidate should be awarded the position until you had met your diversity goal. Mr. Stegall said that government should work with community leaders to reach that goal. He also said the internship program currently used in Chapel Hill could also be exploited to bring well-qualified minorities into the organization.
Roger Stancil stated that his community was multi-cultural, and his goal in Fayetteville was for the Town staff to look like that and he believed they had been successful. He said if their management team reflected cultural and gender diversity as well as the many different interests of the community. Mr. Stancil said a way to ensure diversity was to make sure that the entire organization had diversity. He said you had to have an organization that was comfortable in order to attract people of diverse backgrounds.
Andrea Rohrbacher, a board member of the Downtown Partnership, stated that Chatham County was experiencing extensive growth, particularly a large development planned along the border with Chatham County. She asked how they would foster a positive relationship with Chatham County residents and officials under what may be adversarial circumstances.
Roger Stancil said such issues as economic development and others required more regional thinking and planning. He said he was proud of his efforts to develop relationships with surrounding managers and other officials to talk about issues that affected them all and how to address them. Mr. Stancil said it would have to happen at the elected official level as well.
Sean Stegall said he agreed that the help of the elected officials would be required to address this. He said we would have to find a way to convey to Chatham County that what was in their best interest was also in Chapel Hill’s best interests. Mr. Stegall said it was important that the elected officials from each jurisdiction communicate about their priorities and what was best for the region.
Frank Ragan stated that such issues were often viewed as competition. He said much of problem solving depended on forming relationships and taking one’s case forward. Mr. Ragan said there was no magic answer.
Mayor Foy read an email question: What would you tell a group of young people today to encourage them to consider a career in local public service?
Sean Stegall stated that public service offered people something that typically could not be found in the private sector. He said every day when he woke up and went to work he knew he would be helping someone and helping his community. Mr. Stegall said that made his life very fulfilling. He said there were many opportunities to be mentored, particularly by a city manager. Mr. Stegall said public service gave one the opportunity to make a difference, and that made his life more worthwhile.
Frank Ragan said there was something about public service that was very special. He said he had been struck hard by all the things local government employees do for their communities when he had seen a police officer stop on a six-lane highway to assist someone changing a tire. Mr. Ragan said if you were in public service you would be doing something that would have an effect on people’s lives, and that was extremely rewarding.
Roger Stancil said that those who chose to go into public service had developed a particular set of values. He said it was all about giving back and making life better for those around them. He said one of the things that attracted people to public service was shared values. Mr. Stancil said the power of one was awesome, and his message to young people was to give it a try and make a difference.
Mayor Foy reiterated the process that would take place throughout the week and into the weekend. He requested that citizens send their comments to the Council as soon as possible so that their thoughts could be included in the deliberations. Mayor Foy said a decision would be made on Saturday.
The public forum was adjourned at 9:33 p.m.