Hillsborough Receives First Applicants for Board of Commissioners Vacancy

Multiple applicants for Hillsborough’s Board of Commissioner vacancy have come forward.

Hillsborough residents Anna Linvill and James Schweitzer had submitted applications earlier in the week in hopes to fill the empty seat left by Commissioner Brian Lowen, whose resignation will be effective March 26. Lowen announced his intentions to resign earlier this month, setting off the series of events to fill his seat, which is up for election in November 2019.

Second Vice Chair of North Carolina’s Democratic Party Matt Hughes has also announced his intentions to seek the seat, although he has not applied as of this posting.

Hillsborough Mayor Tom Stevens says that he has seen interest in filling the seat, which he is taking an active role in as well.

“I’ve heard from a couple other folks who are very interested in applying,” said Stevens. “I know various commissioners, myself included, are glad to meet with people some time over coffee and answer some different questions.”

The board spent a majority of last Monday’s workshop meeting discussing the process of finding a new commissioner.

“We looked at Durham, who recently went through this process,” said Stevens. “We heard a number of good comments about Durham, which had to handle quite a number of applicants.”

According to the town’s website, the candidate selection process will include a written application that will be available to the public, an interview with candidates in a public meeting, an opportunity for citizens at-large to publicly comment on or support candidates and decisions at public meetings regarding which candidates to interview and the final selection.

“Before we had a process, I saw a Facebook post from a neighbor I greatly respect, who said ‘I hope your process is as open and transparent as the Durham one’ and so we looked at that,” said Stevens.

Applications will be taken until February 11, and the board hopes to make a selection on March 12.