Getting a sense of how a campaign is going from the inside, especially towards the end, can be a bit tricky, thank you folks for the kind words of encouragement and support.

Both days were beautiful (though a bit warm given all the hills I climbed) though the energy and excitement that accompanied Halloween was especially nice.

As I was wrapping up this evening, I bumped into Chapel Hill-Carrboro School Board candidate Shell Brownstein at her home as she was decorating for Halloween. She met me with a cold bottle of water, quite welcomed as her’s was the 5th to the last home I was visiting of the 200+ I visited on this warm day.

We had a nice conversation about the election, our experiences organizing and going on the campaign trail.

I appreciate her and her neighbor’s hospitality. Thank you Southern Village.

WCHL really stepped up their game this year in covering the election and even managed to wedge in a fair amount of material on the Council race, a pleasant contrast to some other venues that focused almost exclusively on the Chapel Hill mayoral zaniness.

I’ve attended every Council meeting this Fall except the special Friday morning one. I go to quite a few Council meetings in general, so attending this Fall’s during my run for office was not much of a stretch. Penny Rich and Augustus Cho usually show up to catch what’s going on directly (Augustus was there this evening, Penny was participating in UNC Healthcare’s Tickled Pink event to benefit cancer research). Watching the meeting on TV or via the Web is just not quite the same.

Over the last eight years it has been interesting to see which candidates do show up – it seems like you would want to make sure you really want the job given the time commitment, to get up to speed on the relevant issues so you can hit the ground running, to learn a bit more of the nuts-n-bolts of how the Council operates so you can fit into the process fairly quickly – yet cycle after cycle it’s only a few that show.

While the media will probably focus on the Kidzu presentation, the approval moving Glen Lennox’s neighborhood conservation district (NCD) forward, Jim – on election eve – asking the Town to enforce Northside’s NCD (which I talk about in my recent brochure) or Council letting their next incarnation decide on Strom’s replacement, probably the most consequential issue on tonight’s agenda will not get word one.

Ken Pennoyer, the Town’s director of business management, was proposing a change in the structure of staff benefits. All new employees hired after June 30th, 2010 would get a defined benefit plan covering retirement health coverage. Existing employees would retain their Town guaranteed benefit, the payout based on term of service and retirement age.

What’s the big deal?

The existing plan, which is a “pay as you go” approach paid out of general revenues, has increased from $400K to $891k in 5 years – more than doubling our current obligation. To fully fund our commitment to our retired workforce would take $32M to $56M, roughly $3+ M or more per year, for a couple decades!

While the Town has set aside $400K in designated funds over the last two years, the forward obligation makes those contributions pale in comparison. $3-4M per year is equivalent to $0.05 to $0.07 of Chapel Hill’s tax rate – an additional $150 to $210 per year on a $300K home tax bill. This unfunded liability is just one of a number of other obligations – like the $3M affordable housing maintenance fund – which has been allowed to grow and grow over the last 6 years.

Tonight is the first attempt to truly grapple with that overhanging debt to our valued retirees. There are risks inherent in moving new employees to a defined benefit plan but the alternative, scrambling to find funds each fiscal cycle to adequately maintain that obligation, is not sustainable.

As the staff report points out, new regulations (OPEB) require the Town’s accounting to take into account this forward liability. This is one difference (of a few) between governmental and business budgets – and one reason why ones acumen in business doesn’t necessarily translate into success in managing a town budget. After working the Town’s numbers six years, applying my business experience, I well understand that difference.

Here’s the crux of the problem, as laid out by Ken Pennoyer:

New accounting rules for Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB), effective for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2008, required the Town to acknowledge health care and life insurance benefits that will be provided to current and future retirees, in a manner similar to a pension obligation. The future cost obligation is, in effect, a liability that the Town will need to address. To the extent that we can provide funding to address the liability, we will reduce the impact of the rise in the annual cost of benefits., We also have the opportunity to make changes to the benefits structure to reduce the growth of the liability. These new accounting rules, also known as Government Accounting Standards Board Statement 45 (GASB 45), have significantly changed the Town’s financial statements as we account for and report the liability for the future cost of providing these benefits. Based on the most recent actuarial study the Town’s current unfunded liability, discounted at 4%, is $32.4 million. In order to fully fund this liability on an actuarially sound basis the Town would need to make an annual required contribution (ARC) of $3.0 million.

As a member of Council, this is the type of problem I will be able to more effectively tackle, and tackle in a timely fashion.

Tonight I witnessed the birth Orange County Justice United, a new umbrella organization comprised of 25 local advocacy, service and faith-based groups who are working together to improve the quality of life for all our town and county residents.

As part of that process, the new organization asked each of the Council candidates that attended to pledge to meet within 90 days to discuss a breadth of issues, including remedying the problems found during a recent census of the Northside/Pine Knolls communities (Orange County Justice United Northside/Pine Knolls Census).

While I applaud the formation of an organization dedicated to community service, I wish, as I said this evening to the 450+ assembled activists, they had organized a bit earlier in the campaign cycle in order to encourage a wider discussion of the challenges facing our community.

Simply put, this year’s focus has been more on houses than homes, more on begging hands than offering a hand up.

That said, tonight’s event was the best possible way I can imagine to finish this phase of the campaign.

Thank you Justice United for inviting me to participate.

What’s left then? Organizing folks to hand out materials election day (volunteer here), raise a few more hundred dollars (contribute here) and continue to work to get the message out that a vote for Raymond is a vote for beneficial change.

Will Raymond, a software engineer and entrepreneur making his third run for council, is stressing more fiscal conservatism this time around, even being so bold as to say that Chapel Hill cannot now afford a public library expansion. His depth of consideration of issues and determination to point out unintended consequences of council actions is a valuable asset to the town. Raymond, a tireless volunteer on town bodies, has previously tried to guide voters through the minutiae of various processes when making his points, but so far this campaign has shown more accessibility into his philosophy of town government and appears to grasp how different being an elected official would be from serving on committees. “A council member’s voice carries beyond the citizen podium.”

In 2007, the Chamber said I was too detailed-oriented, a criticism I found strange as it is rare that Council makes one decision that changes the course of our community. The state of today’s Chapel Hill came from hundreds of decisions, some grounded in detail, made over a course of years.

The Chamber is correct, though, about delving into minutiae. I’ve worked hard at being brief and to the point during the forums this year.

As the Chamber noted, this is the third time I’ve run on a fiscal responsibility platform.

In 2005, the financial difficulties caused by habitually draining the Town’s reserves and the issuance of extraordinary bond debt were on the horizon. In 2007, an election year, the Town’s struggle to maintain its fiscal footing was not being clearly reported by the Council. In 2009, the community understands the problems we face. The clouds obscuring our Town’s fiscal condition are lifting. The need to live within our community’s means quite apparent.

So, as the Chamber points out, with the cupboard bare, a continued economic downturn, our citizens groaning under their tax burden and demands on our Town’s core services increasing, my campaign has once again focused on rebuilding our Town’s financial foundations.

Fiscal responsibility and prudent budgeting is about finding the discipline to make cuts where necessary and provide additional funds where needed (for instance, adequately managing the increasing demand on human services).

I’m confident that if we engage our community clearly and openly, Chapel Hill can weather this storm and come out stronger for it.

Fred Battle, Robert Campbell, Yonni Chapman
Yonni’s Picassa, Aug. 28th, 2009, Peace and Justice Commemoration

Fred Battle, then President of the local NAACP (and member of the Hank Anderson Breakfast Club), had presented a compelling case for extending sewer and water to the Rogers Road community on the basis of promises made by Chapel Hill’s Mayor Lee decades before. The community had been told that if they accepted the landfills, the County and the Town would provide mitigations, including proper sanitation and potable water, to offset those burdens.

I was moved by Fred’s and Robert’s words that evening, wished I could lend a helping hand. I introduced myself, apologized that as a longtime resident and part of the problem I had not known of their plight and done more to help. Luckily I’ve since had an opportunity to make amends.

The last 4 years Robert, Neloa Jones and many of other other folks working to lift the burden off of this community have set an example that I strive to follow. It is a true welcoming gift that they’ve invited my service on their behalf.

Unfortunately, eight years on, we are still dealing with some of the same issues. The Council this Spring pledged to form a working group to resolve this long owed debt but that pledge, like Mayor Lee’s of decades ago and Mayor Foy’s of this Spring, remains unkept.

Robert wrote this stirring endorsement of my candidacy which appeared in the Chapel Hill Herald and at the IndyWeek.

Thank you Robert for the very kind words:

Raymond has vision; is the voice town needs

Will Raymond is a person that knows the issues and the effect it has on policies making in local government. Will has been and still will advocate for social and environmental justice. Will is one who sees the importance of citizens’ voices and will be the voice of those that are not at the table where decisions are made that affect them.

We are at a critical point in planning for our future of our town. Construction will soon begin in a Chapel Hill planning district, a waste transfer station is part of the development which must be addressed. Will Raymond knows our roads, schools, housing and right to basic amenities will be on the minds of citizens.

Local and political education, accountability, honesty and democracy are the keys to transparency in government. A vote for Will Raymond is a vote for Green initiative and sustainability. We need new vision on the town board. Make the right decision and vote for Will Raymond, a man that sees from within and not from without, one who has been at the meeting and has seen and heard the voice of the people.

I, Robert Campbell, call for all friends, family members, church members, citizens and veterans to vote for community service and experience. Vote for Will Raymond.

Robert Campbell
Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill faces some tough choices in the next four years.

Do we forge ahead with an agenda that puts our community front-and-center in the decision making process or continue to defer to those with political pull? Do we find the resources to redress a debt long owed our neighbors on Rogers Road? Do we follow through on our written commitments to the Pine Knolls/Northside neighborhoods? Do we live within our means, work to retain folks of modest means that have long contributed to our community’s well-being? Do we work to increase economic and social diversity within our Town?

The last eight years I’ve worked hard to bring forth the best ideas from our diverse community. I’m confident that our citizens have the talent and the drive to help Council move forward on these critical issues. Without leadership and persistence, though, we will continue to fail to meet the needs of our greater community. I look forward to meeting that challenge.

More on the Anderson-Thorpe Breakfast Club:

The Anderson-Thorpe Breakfast Club was founded by Hank Anderson, the first Black Recreation Department Director in the South in the 1970’s to help analyze and remedy the issues faced by African-Americans in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro communities. After Hank’s death, Bill Thorpe, who served on the Chapel Hill Town Council for 11 years until his death in 2008, led the Club. The Breakfast Club spearheaded the efforts to name Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd, and to improve the pay and working conditions of African-American and Latino employees at the University, hospital, schools and municipalities. The Breakfast Club’s political agenda is a progressive and inclusive agenda that supports the State NAACP’s 14-Point Agenda, with particular emphasis on justice for young people in our schools, fairness in employment and housing, and dismantling institutionalized racism.

As a member of the Town’s now defunct Technology Board, I called for the greater use of low or no cost Internet based technologies by our town to more effectively interact with our citizenry. Some progress was made, online video for instance. Nearly paper free agendas, use of syndicating technology, email lists have improved the flow of information. For all that, we have a long way to go.

Here’s an excellent example from the Daily Tar Heel’s online editor Sara Gregory. A map of the last month of reported crime in Chapel Hill leveraging Google Maps. Way to go Sara.

More here.

Most of the signs are deployed throughout our Town. I keep a record of locations, make sure that my signs are visible while trying to maintain our Town’s beauty. Penny Rich noted that there’s 17 distinct signs in front of Seawell School. With so many kinds of signs and some candidates spreading their name far and wide, the Town is beginning to get a little messy. As usual, I’m doing my best to not only maintain my signs but other candidates also.

If you see one of my signs down or think it’s in an inappropriate location or just want a few for your own yard, please contact me at campaign AT willraymond.org.

Like my sign? Ellie, my wife, and I designed it (my sole contribution was the leaf idea, she picked a leaf from our yard, scanned it and did the layout).

Thanks Ellie!

Let me know if I missed one here.

Thank you, Will