This series of posts will be made weekly on Chapelboro to help inform our community about local government meetings. All meeting days, locations and times may be subject to change. Check town, county, and school district websites for additional information.
This week’s local government spotlight is on Pittsboro, where residents are pushing back on data mining and public surveillance at both the town and county levels. Chatham County Commissioners have scheduled a public hearing to consider a 12-month moratorium on any new data mining facilities and AI data centers, after numerous residents raised concerns at last month’s meeting. Meanwhile, Pittsboro residents are planning to show up at this week’s town board meeting to urge officials to stop using Flock license-plate cameras, which have raised serious privacy concerns. (Hillsborough canceled its own contract with Flock four months ago.)
Here’s a rundown of local government meetings this week in Durham, Orange, and Chatham Counties.
Orange County
The Hillsborough Board of Commissioners meets at 7 p.m. Monday, February 9. Click here for the agenda, which includes budget planning for the next two fiscal years and a look ahead at the town’s capital improvement plan through 2033.
The Carrboro Town Council has a budget work session at 6 p.m. Tuesday, February 10, with a look ahead at priorities for the upcoming fiscal year. (A staff presentation shows the town overspent its revenue in the 2024-25 fiscal year for the first time this decade, but is on track to end this year with a surplus.) Click here for the full agenda.
Orange County Commissioners also have a work session Tuesday, February 10, beginning at 7 p.m. in the Southern Human Services Center. Click here for the agenda, which includes appointments to various county boards and commissions.
And the Chapel Hill Town Council meets Wednesday, February 11, at 6 p.m. in the Chapel Hill Public Library. The council will receive a financial report, including the results of last year’s audit; they’ll get a staff update on the process of revising the town’s Land Use Management Ordinance (LUMO); and they’ll discuss the process of evaluating the town manager’s job performance. Get a link to the full agenda here.
Chatham and Durham Counties
The Pittsboro Board of Commissioners meets at 6 p.m. Monday, February 9. Their agenda includes an update from the town’s water system, but the highest-profile issue is one that’s not on the official schedule: residents are organizing to show up in force at Monday’s meeting to urge the town to stop using Flock license-plate cameras. That surveillance technology has been employed by many communities to help police identify suspects and locate missing persons, but it’s also raised serious concerns about privacy and data security – and recently, concerns that Flock might also share information with federal agencies like ICE. (The town of Hillsborough canceled its own contract with Flock in October of last year.) Get the official agenda at this link.
Chatham County Commissioners have called a special meeting Wednesday, February 11, at 4 p.m. in the Pittsboro courthouse. There’s only one item on the agenda: a public hearing on a proposal to put a 12-month moratorium on “the permitting of data centers, data processing facilities, (and) cryptocurrency mining operations” in the county. Last month, numerous residents urged the board to impose a moratorium on AI data centers and data mining facilities, citing numerous concerns about their environmental and economic impacts; legally, the process of imposing a moratorium requires at least one public hearing. Click here for a link to the agenda.
The Chatham County school board meets at 6 p.m. Monday, February 9. Click here for the agenda, which includes an update on the district’s dual language program and a discussion of the academic calendar after back-to-back winter storms forced multiple days of school closures.
Durham County Commissioners meet at 7 p.m. Monday, February 9. Click here for the agenda, which includes a public hearing on a proposal to relax the rules for RV parking on driveways.
Finally, the Durham school board meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday, February 9, with an agenda that includes an update on next year’s budget. Get a link to the full agenda here.
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