Donna Bell joins council tonight

When appointed Town Council member Donna Bell is sworn in tonight, Chapel Hill will put an end to the divisive conversation that has embroiled the town since the summer.

Bell was selected in December to fill the Town Council seat vacated by Bill Strom, the longtime council member who abruptly resigned and moved to New York in August.

For several months after the resignation, the council debated the best method of appointment, delaying its decision for months until choosing Bell on Dec. 14.

Due to Strom’s timing — he announced his resignation two weeks after the deadline for candidates to file for office — it was up to the council to appoint a replacement rather than the voters to elect one.

When the only black member, Jim Merritt, wasn’t re-elected, several people lobbied to continue the town’s tradition since 1953 of having at least one black council member.

The council chose Bell, a black Northside resident, partially due to the color of her skin.

“The history of the African-American people in Chapel Hill goes way back. You can’t forget that,” said Penny Rich, who won a seat on the council in November. “You can’t eliminate a group of people because they’re not the major population here anymore.”

Bell will serve for the two years remaining in Strom’s term.

Prior to her appointment, Bell had served on the town’s planning board and the sustainability community visioning task force.

Bell said she will bring a different perspective to the nine-member council.

“That doesn’t mean I understand or know everything about every African-American in Chapel Hill,” Bell said. “I might be a little more open to their experiences. That’s what I hope to bring.”

Six council members voted for Bell out of a pool of seven applicants. Council members Matt Czajkowski and Gene Pease voted for Matt Pohlman, who was often lumped with the pair as a “pro-business” candidate during the election.

Pohlman garnered 3,612 votes on Election Day, 203 short of earning a council seat.

Pease said appointing the fifth-place finisher was the fairest method of selecting Strom’s replacement.

“Bill Strom’s legacy won’t be the stuff that was in that proclamation, but rather he somehow tried to manipulate the decision,” Pease said, referring to a document the council approved in December praising Strom.

“That’s distressing that the community couldn’t make that decision.”

But the council majority reasoned that Pohlman might not have finished fifth if five seats were up for grabs in the election rather than four.

“I’ve never been someone who believed that in a four-vote race, the person who comes in fifth is necessarily entitled to anything,” said Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt.

Bell did not run in the election.

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