Chapel Hill Town Council Candidate Forum

Chapel Hill Town Council and Mayoral candidates gathered for a forum hosted on 97.9 The Hill.

Town Council candidates include Jessica Anderson, Sue Hunter, Tai Huynh, Nancy Oates, Michael Parker, Amy Ryan and Renuka Soll. Mayoral candidates are Pam Hemminger and Joshua Levenson.

Here is a list of questions that candidates were asked along with timestamps:

• Candidate introductions (2:00)
• Let’s start with downtown Chapel Hill: what should the Town Council be doing to make downtown a better place? (11:00)
• Is Chapel Hill growing at the right pace? What should Town Council be doing to ensure that Chapel Hill does grow at the right pace? (20:00)
• Chapel Hill has been trying for years to increase the commercial tax base, but property owners still pay a disproportionate share of the taxes. What more should Chapel Hill be doing to ease that tax burden on property owners? (29:00)
• What, if anything, is town government currently devoting too many resources to? (38:00)
• What’s the most important thing Chapel Hill can do to make itself a more welcoming and inclusive community? (42:00)
• Chapel Hill is a town committed to a particular set of values: inclusiveness, democracy, economic and environmental sustainability, racial justice, and transparency, to name a few. Tell us what you have done, in the past, to promote those values in your community. (47:00)
• Let’s talk transportation. Chapel Hill Transit is very highly regarded, but traffic is still getting heavier on Chapel Hill roads. What should the town be doing to make it easier, safer, more convenient, and more efficient for people to get from place to place? (56:00)
• Let’s talk housing. Affordable housing is always hard to come by, and there’s also a need for additional housing for students, seniors, and families, not to mention those who work in Chapel Hill. When it comes to housing, what is the most important thing you think the Town Council ought to do in the next two years? (1:10:00)
• As an elected official, what will you do to fight climate change? And what will you do to address the impact of climate change locally? (1:24:00)
• When people are deciding where to live or where to locate a business, they look to a community’s comparative advantage. I live in Durham because you can get more house for the money there. That’s Durham’s comparative advantage. So – what is Chapel Hill’s comparative advantage? Or what should it be? And what should Town government be doing to foster it? (1:33:00)
• Just for the Town Council candidates: With seven candidates on the ballot, it’s not always easy to identify what makes each candidate stand out. Tell us what you bring to the table that no one else does. What will the Town Council be lacking if you are not elected? (1:40:00)
• Finally, what haven’t we discussed today that ought to be a priority for the town of Chapel Hill? (1:47:00)

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Listen to the complete Chapel Hill Town Council forum below: