Foy welcomed to position

Mayor Kevin Foy had barely finished his motion Monday night by the time Chapel Hill Town Council members approved his appointment to a downtown advocacy board.

Foy’s nomination of himself to round out the Downtown Economic Development Corporation garnered little discussion from the council —one of the funding partners for the group — and mostly positive remarks from his new colleagues Tuesday.

“That’s terrific news,” Roger Perry, a member of UNC’s Board of Trustees and corporation member, said when he learned of the appointment.

The corporation was convened last summer as a partnership among the town, University and private stakeholders to advocate for the downtown area.

Foy’s appointment was praised as a strengthening of that bond — most directly created by the sharing of funding among the three entities.

“This affirms the nature of the corporation,” Foy said of his appointment Tuesday.

The council, matched by the University and the downtown district service tax, provides $70,000 annually to the corporation.

That, and the council and University’s strong interest in downtown — often called the area’s front door — were reasons Foy’s appointment made sense, officials said Tuesday.

“The town is providing the funding for us, so it’s reasonable for them to have a representative,” said corporation Chairwoman Andrea Rohrbacher.

Town Attorney Ralph Karpinos said he had been consulted regarding the legality of the appointment before Monday.

Because the corporation is a private, nonprofit organization, there are no legal issues with dual membership, Karpinos said.

“I didn’t see there to be any problems,” Karpinos said, adding that there have been previous examples of council members serving on quasi-public entities.

Perry said Foy’s membership will give the corporation added credibility.

“We have the number one person from the town on the board,” Perry said.

The council is responsible for four of the appointments to the corporation — downtown merchant Allen Fine, downtown property owner Tom Tucker, at-large member Rohrbacher and now Foy.

The University appointed two members to the board — Perry and Nancy Suttenfield, vice chancellor for finance and administration — and the corporation appointed the seventh member, University Square owner Betty Kenan.

The corporation had operated short-manned for the last four months, following the resignation of former Chairman Bob Epting.

Epting resigned after a dispute at a November meeting about the corporation’s obligation to the N.C. Open Meetings Law.

Foy said the council initially had envisioned the corporation as a separate body, not an appendage of the council or University.

“In these early stages, it became clear that there should be a closer working relationship,” he said. “And the best way to do that was to appoint a representative of the council.”

Perry and Suttenfield have served as the University representatives on the corporation since day one.

“I think it’s taking off — the direction the corporation will take … is still evolving,” Foy said.

Some of the corporation’s recent undertakings have been searching for a permanent executive director, actively requesting condemnation procedures on a long-vacant downtown property and investigating a downtown wireless network.

While declining to call his appointment temporary, Foy said the stakeholders might need to rethink how the corporation should work.

“A mature organization five years from now would be able to make strong ties to the University and town in a more subtle way,” Foy said.

The corporation will meet at 7:30 a.m. Feb. 23. Applications for the executive director position will be accepted until March 1.

 

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.