No Comments for this post yet...

No Comments for this post yet...

No Comments for this post yet...

No Comments for this post yet...

No Comments for this post yet...

No Comments for this post yet...

The Job: The Johnston County Superior Court judge hears felony criminal cases as well as civil cases involving high-dollar claims. The judge also helps manage the schedule for felony criminal cases in Johnston County. The judge also travels to other North Carolina counties to oversee other trials.

Salary: The starting salary is $115,289.

Term: The term eight years.

The Job: The district attorney for the 11th prosecutorial district serves Johnston, Harnett and Lee counties. The district attorney is responsible for representing the state and the public’s interest in every criminal and traffic case in the district. The DA oversees 16 assistant district attorneys, victim advocates and support staff in three county offices.

Salary: Base annual pay is $105,825

Term: The term is four years.

The Job: The Johnston County Sheriff is the top cop in the county, handling everything from homicides to domestic disputes. He runs the jail and manages nearly 100 deputies. The current department serves about 155 civil papers a day and answers a call for service every 15 minutes on average.

Salary: The current salary is $97,486

Term: The term lasts four years.

The Job: Johnston County is governed by a seven-member Board of Commissioners. Commissioners are elected countywide but represent specific districts. The board decides rezoning cases, oversees services for county residents, sets the countywide property tax rate and has financial authority over the sheriff’s office, sewer and water service, recreation and planning.

Salary: Commissioners receive annual compensation of $4,871 and a $400 monthly travel allowance. The chairwoman receives an annual compensation of $6,608 and an additional $500 per month for travel.

Term: Johnston County commissioners serve four-year staggered terms.

The Question: “Should the Clayton Town Council consider amending the manner by which voters elect council members by designating that some members are elected from voting districts to be drawn by the Town Council and other members are elected at large?”

Who Votes: Only residents within Clayton town limits.

History: About two years ago, several black residents in North Clayton, former council member Kathleen Boykin and council member Alex Harding began pushing for a system in which council members would be elected by geographic districts.

Currently, all council members are elected at large.
A majority of the council opposed the idea. Hiring a consultant to study the concept alone would cost about $25,000 — too expensive without further gauging public support, council members said.

Pros: Advocates of district-based elections say it could increase the likelihood of electing a black resident or candidates from West or South Clayton.

Currently, all the council members are white and residents of downtown or East Clayton.

Cons: Opponents argue Clayton is too small a town to warrant district-based elections; such a system could encourage council members to become too narrowly focused on their own districts. Others say there’s no guarantee that the districts drawn up would lead to the desired increase in diversity.

What Happens Next: Clayton got special permission from the state legislature to hold the advisory referendum. But it is no more binding than an opinion poll. If residents support the idea, the town will likely hire a consultant to come up with a proposal for a new system. But the council will still have the final say on how districts are carved up.

By Peggy Lim, Staff Writer

The Job: The board supervises school system operations and establishes and enforces administrative, academic, fiscal, personnel and operational policies for the district.

Salary: Chairman, $95 per meeting; board members, $90 per meeting

What's at Stake? Voters will elect nonpartisan candidates to fill three open seats on the five-member board. Terms last four years.
There are four Chatham County Board of Education districts. One seat is open in the third district, and two seats are open in the fourth district.

Still on the Ballot, But: Charles Grubb and Andrea Repasz-Batsche have dropped out of the race.

The Issues

* What should the Chatham County Schools system do to handle growth?

* What can the school board do to help close the achievement gap, particularly in light of the county’s growing Hispanic population?

District 3 Candidates

Ken Harris: The first step is to make sure all current expenditures are being made in the most efficient manner. All current and future construction project budgets should be reviewed and value-engineered to force savings as well. The school board should also … work hand-in-hand with the commissioners on all budget needs. In other words, don’t just send a piece of paper to the commissioners. Present a plan in detail and with real-world means of achievement and financing.

Chatham’s Hispanic population is growing and must be addressed. We have an active English-as-a-second-language program, and we are exposing our English-speaking students to Spanish as well. We must also make after-school functions more receptive to the Hispanic parent by having some sort of Spanish-speaking liaison.

Kathie Russell: We cannot continue to approve new subdivisions and worry about the schools later.

The board should submit an impact statement to the commissioners for each proposed new subdivision. This way, we can require developers to fund the needs of schools that the county will not be able to meet as a result of the new development.

We must also consider alternate methods for financing schools and infrastructure, including bonds, grants, and the land-transfer tax supported by Commissioners Mike Cross and Patrick Barnes.

We need to provide our schools with more resources to serve students who do not fall into the average population. This includes minorities, non-English speakers, low achievers and high achievers. Methods of learning and testing should be devised that take into account differences in culture, language, syntax and expression.

District 4 Candidates

Doug Burke: We need to continue to use the planning tools such as the growth model done by N.C. State. Developments and subdivisions need to help pay for the needs they create. Our schools should also be built large enough to handle projected growth.

We are making strides in closing the gap with our minority affairs and drop-out prevention programs. There are other programs in place, and we need to continue to fund these programs. We must also continue to hire highly qualified teachers and principals.

Clyde Harris: Did not respond

Deb McManus, incumbent: We contracted with [N.C. State University’s] Operations Research/Education Lab to evaluate our system’s growth and make projections. We must continue to work with the lab to plan for growth, and we need to work more closely with the commissioners to evaluate the impact of new development. I will lobby for the 1 percent Land Transfer Tax to help our county pay for the schools we are going to need.

We’ve added more English-as-a-Second-Language teachers, and we offered course-recovery classes this [past] summer. We have a Closing the Gap Committee that looks at ways to improve minority performance, and we are recognizing minority achievements. We need more reading specialists and more guidance counselors and/or social workers to work with at-risk students, and we need more parental participation.

Gerald Totten: Establish a much more professional relationship with the commissioners wherein development approvals consider school needs prior to approvals. Convince the commissioners … to require developers to set aside land and some of their profits for school construction caused by those developments. Work more closely with the legislative delegation and, in concert with the commissioners, make every effort to have a land-transfer fee passed, with the proceeds dedicated to infrastructure needs caused by those developments.

Expand the dual-language initiative in use by only one school to date. In light of Judge Howard Manning’s Leandro decision, we must create our own technically proficient teacher pool and send the teams to help in lower-performing classes where the disparities occur.

(two seats)

Role: To provide technical assistance to land users to ensure the wise use of natural resources and improve water quality in Chatham County.

Johnny Glosson*
Home: 9680 N.C. Hwy. 87 N, Pittsboro

Richard Hayes
Home: P.O. Box 5160 (919) 491-1595 Chapel Hill

Blake Lindley Andrew Jr.
Home: 343 Moon Lindley Rd., Snow Camp
* Denotes incumbent

Chatham County voters will decide whether to elect county commissioners by district.

The fight over district voting began in July, when outgoing Commissioners Chairman Bunkey Morgan proposed changing the way commissioners get elected, from countywide to districtwide elections. The board voted 3-2 — with the three outgoing board members voting in favor — to put districtwide voting on the November ballot.

Citizens groups have been formed on both sides of the issue in the months since.

Who Wants You to Vote ‘Yes’: The Association to Defend Chatham’s Heritage

Why? “Until 1975, Chatham County was voting by district,” said Jesse Albright, the association’s leader. “We are just trying to get our heritage back.”

Albright, who lives in Siler City, added that his group wants citizens to have “true representation” on the board. He says the majority of the commissioners starting in December (only one of the three Democratic candidates has a Republican opponent) will be “controlled by the Chatham Coalition,” a grass-roots political group that promotes slow growth. Albright said those board members will be “beholden” to that group instead of their constituents.

Supporters have said the county needs districts because rapid growth in Northeast Chatham means election results will favor of candidates backed by groups in that part of the county.

Albright said changing the system also would mean candidates could spend less on elections. Instead of campaigning around the entire county, he said, they would only campaign in their districts.

He said the Coalition has spread the rumor that outgoing commissioners Chairman Bunkey Morgan proposed the measure because Morgan was sore over losing the May Democratic Primary.

“That is baloney,” Albright said. “Bunkey didn’t bring it up. We went to talk to him before he brought it up.”

Morgan has said he proposed redistricting because he had “promised people four years ago that I would do this.”

At a later meeting, Morgan said he has been looking at the issue of voting by district since the late 1980s.

Morgan also has said the county Republican Party requested to vote by district, as have the towns.

The Association has 50 to 100 members, Albright said. He would not say how much money the group has raised.

“I’m going to be sick” if it doesn’t pass, he said.

Who Wants You to Vote ‘No’: Two groups, Citizens for Countywide Voting and Take Back Our Vote

Why? “It looks like sour grapes to me,” said Sally Kost, leader of Citizens for Countywide Voting.

Kost was referring to Morgan, who proposed changing how commissioners get elected at a meeting just two months after he was defeated in the May Democratic Primary by Tom Vanderbeck.

Morgan also suggested redrawing the commissioners’ district lines. The board approved that 3-2, with all three outgoing commissioners voting for the change. Then they voted to put this measure — voting by district — on the ballot.

Opponents note that the newly drawn districts allow Morgan to run for a seat on the board again in two years instead of four. And voting by district could help secure his win in the western part of the county, where his support is stronger, they say.

The new map puts Democratic candidate Tom Vanderbeck’s home in District 3. Vanderbeck defeated Morgan in the primary for District 4. The map keeps Vanderbeck’s Republican opponent, Karl Ernst, in District 4.

That means if Vanderbeck wins, he will live in District 3, and voters would elect a commissioner from District 4 in 2008, two years sooner than normal.

Citizens for Countywide Voting members also say the districts will disenfranchise minority voters because they are spread throughout the county without a majority of votes in any one district. The group says that, after Reconstruction, a black commissioner was not elected to the board until 1978 when the system was changed to county-wide voting.

What the candidates say: All three Democrats — George Lucier, Tom Vanderbeck and Carl Thompson — are campaigning against voting by district.

Karl Ernst, the Republican candidate running against Vanderbeck, is for the measure. Lucier and Thompson do not have opponents in the November election.

“We have county government, not district government,” Lucier said. “Our school system is countywide, our economic development is countywide, and our recreation is countywide. We have a county manager, and commissioners make decisions on all these issues based on the interests of the whole county.”

Ernst could not be reached for comment, but on his Web site he says, “A true district voting system is long overdue. This will be a continuing goal of my candidacy and, if elected, of my service to the 4th District and to Chatham County.”

By Leah Friedman, Staff Writer