The race for Chapel Hill Town Council continues to build as another candidate verbally entered on Wednesday: Erik Valera, who is part of the leadership team for El Centro Hispano.
Valera announced his campaign with an interview on 97.9 The Hill’s “This Morning with Aaron Keck.” The Chief Operating Officer of the local nonprofit, which works to better integrate Latino and Latinx community members with their areas, will aim to make the jump to elected office after serving on the Chapel Hill Planning Commission for the last few months.
Click here to listen to Valera’s conversation with Aaron Keck.
Photo via Valera for a Better Tomorrow.
Valera said he and his family moved to Chapel Hill in 2007 because it offered a safe, diverse and accepting community. He said the values of education and fostering community with university students also helped attract him — and while the town is preparing for growth, Valera said he wants to ensure those qualities remain.
“I know that over the next ten years, we’re going to be changing,” he said in the interview. “There isn’t any candidate in this race that is going to prevent those changes from happening. But I want to help steward those changes, and make sure that people who are typically not heard are represented. I want people from vulnerable communities — particularly mobile home parks — to feel like they have a voice and somebody who is listening to them through all of these changes.”
Valera describes his background as largely working in public health. Before joining El Centro as COO, he worked several years as a research project manager at UNC’s School of Medicine, aiming to improve health outcomes for Latinx and African American youth. Later, he became a program director for the Latino Commission on AIDS and began transitioning to the world of nonprofits.
With that experience, Valera said Wednesday a major priority of his campaign is being someone who under-represented community members can count on to share informed details and perspectives on their experience in Chapel Hill.
“I want to make the town council a very comfortable place where people want to come [speak], because we want it on the record,” said Valera. “But I think it’s also the responsibility of this campaign — and also of the town — to invest in engaging in these communities and really understanding what people want from our government and from our town.”
Among his policy goals, Valera listed continuing the “comprehensive approach” Chapel Hill has taken to encourage housing diversity and sensible options for all types of residents. He also listed improving walkability and connectivity between parts of town and ensuring a safe, accessible environment for people to use that infrastructure.
“This is bigger than all of us,” Valera said of his goals for the town. “This is about making sure that we have a sustainable community that continues to be viable for everyone and reflects everyone. We’re a very diverse community and we need to celebrate that. We need to learn from one another, talk to one another, and I just see a great, bright future for Chapel Hill.”
Valera’s entry is the latest in a slew of residents who have launched campaigns to earn one of four seats on the Chapel Hill Town Council this fall. Renuka Soll, Michael Beauregard, Melissa McCullough, Elizabeth Sharp, Breckany Eckhardt, Jeffrey Hoagland, and Theodore Nollert are the others — with at least two seats having no incumbents as council members Michael Parker and Tai Huynh shared they will not run for re-election.
The final total for candidates in the Chapel Hill Town Council race — and all other local races — will be finalized after the official filing period closes at 12 p.m. on Friday, July 21. To see who has filed so far, and to learn what is necessary to file for office, click here.
Photo via Valera for a Better Tomorrow.
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