The Right Management For Chapel Hill

This is David Schwartz.

The Chapel Hill Town Council recently asked Town Manager Roger Stancil to explain several instances of apparent mismanagement of the town’s finances. The alleged instances included substantial cost overruns for consultants and failure to set aside money to fund the Town’s $56 million retiree benefits liability. In his explanation, Stancil passed the hot potato back to the elected officials, saying, in effect, that he has merely been doing what the Mayor and Council members have instructed.

That dog won’t hunt. Stancil is not a mere passive bystander in the Council’s decision-making process. Quite to the contrary: more often than not, the Council simply follows Stancil’s own recommendations.

But Stancil is correct that the buck stops with our elected officials, for they are the ones responsible for setting the policies and priorities for the Town, which the staff then implements. And our staff can do great things when elected officials provide proper guidance.

For example, the town’s business management director, Ken Pennoyer, previously worked for the City of Durham, where he helped bring about that city’s commercial renaissance, including the creation of the celebrated Durham Performing Arts Center and the redevelopment of the American Tobacco campus. Stancil himself, when he served as Fayetteville City Manager, helped carry out the successful revitalization of the City’s historic downtown.

Imagine what Stancil, Pennoyer, and our other talented Town staff could do for Chapel Hill if we had a Mayor and Town Council providing the right kind of vision and direction; if, for example, they directed the staff to ensure healthy growth of our commercial tax base before encouraging population growth, or directed them to solve existing traffic and flooding problems before encouraging development that will make these problems worse.

Fortunately, we will have an opportunity a year from now to elect a new Mayor and new Council members who will get us back on track, and who will encourage our Town staff to use their talents in ways that will benefit us all.