The Chapel Hill Town Council held its annual retreat at the beginning of this month to discuss some of the larger topics it will face through 2020. Integrating the new members, solidifying details on the new criminal justice fund and crafting the five-year budget plan were all part of the agenda.

According to Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger, though, another item was examined in light of an approaching vacancy on the council.

“We did discuss about bringing a conversation out to the public about this being an opportunity with Rachel Schaevitz resigning her seat to reduce the council number to seven,” Hemminger told 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck. “We’re just having the conversation because we can [consider] that and we want to hear from the public.”

Schaevitz announced in January she’d be stepping down in order to move to New Zealand with her family, dropping the council size down to eight of its nine members. A town ordinance says an application process with a selection and appointment by council is the current method to fill her seat, which has two years remaining on its term.

But this method discussed at the retreat allows the community to become more involved, sharing not only its thoughts on the selection of a new member, but the possibility of one fewer.

Hemminger compared Chapel Hill’s council to other nearby ones, pointing out how Durham’s city council is seven members despite being a larger area. She shared the history of why Chapel Hill’s council grew to nine.

“Apparently, back in 1975, it was decided there were too many boards and commissions for the council members to cover,” she said. “Instead of adding a staff member to help, they decided to expand the council. Well, we’ve taken a look at that and maybe we just need to approach how we handle boards and commissions differently and set different expectations.”

The mayor said with the larger size comes additional complications when coordinating and conducting business.

“Being able to communicate with everybody all the time on council is extremely difficult the larger you get,” said Hemminger. “Our council meetings run really long at night as we have nine different voices speaking and the public has to sit through that. That’s some of the things we talked about, is there an ability to figure out a different way that makes sense. [We want to make sure] we’re not over-burdening our council representatives, because most of them work jobs and have families.”

Hemminger stressed this discussion is in the earliest stages and the Chapel Hill community will have plenty of time and opportunities to voice their preferences.

Schaevitz is slated to leave the council in mid-to-late February.

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