A look at the five candidates running for three open Carrboro Town Council seats

This fall, five candidates are running for three available seats on the Carrboro Town Council.

Mayor Pro Tem Susan Romaine, council member Sammy Slade and council member Eliazar Posada are each at the end of their terms this year. Romaine and Slade are not seeking reelection.

Current council member Barbara Foushee is running unopposed for the mayoral seat vacated by Damon Seils. If Foushee wins, there will be a special election for her seat on the Carrboro Town Council.

Jason Merrill, Catherine Fray and Eliazar Posada announced on Sept. 14 that they are forming the Carrboro Better Together Slate, so voters can elect the three candidates with similar values. April Mills and Stephanie Wade are also running for the open council seats.

Elections for Carrboro Town Council and mayor will be held on Nov. 7. Below are the candidates who have announced their run.

Eliazar Posada

Posada is the only candidate running for town council that is currently serving on the council. He was elected to fill Damon Seils' seat once Seils was elected as mayor in 2021. He is now running for his first full term on the council.

“It takes a lot more than a year to get stuff done in local governments, so I'm running to basically finish what I started,” Posada said.

He said he is proud to have worked on Carrboro’s language equity plan and wants to see it fully implemented. He also said that if he was elected he would continue to work on affordable housing, equity and transportation.

Catherine Fray 

Fray is a member of the Carrboro Planning Board. They said the three issues most important to them are affordability, equity and climate resiliency. 

Fray said that their time on the planning board has given them an up-close look at how the Town fails on housing affordability. Now, they said they know what needs to be done.

“I have a list of things that I would like us to fix in order to make it easier to build affordable housing,” they said. 

Fray also said that non-car-centric transportation is important. They want to prioritize expanding bus services and adding improvements that will make streets safer for walkers and bikers.

Jason Merrill 

Merrill moved to Carrboro 22 years ago, and for 16 of those years he's owned Back Alley Bikes.

He said his time spent with the community and the six years he has spent on the Chapel Hill Transportation and Connectivity Advisory Board qualify him to run for town council. 

“I feel like that combination of business experience, service and community connections puts me in a good intersection to hopefully do a good job,” Merrill said.

Merrill said his main issues are affordability, transportation, equity and sustainability. He also said that having a walkable, dense community with transit options is a practical way of addressing these issues.

April Mills 

Mills is a client service executive for law firm Fox Rothschild.

She said an urgent concern she has for Carrboro is stormwater management — the Town's efforts to control water runoff into streets and other areas.

“It's very frustrating, and I would like to see that this process is done differently,” Mills said. 

Other issues important to Mills' campaign are equity, local infrastructure and sustainability. She said that overall, she wants Carrboro citizens to know she is listening to their concerns.

“I take what they say about their streets and their community to heart because they live there, day in and day out, and that matters,” Mills said.

Stephanie Wade 

Wade said the decades she has spent working in education, information technology and government across the country have prepared her to serve on the council.

“I think that I have something to offer that my opponents do not,” Wade said.

Wade’s platform includes issues such as local government transparency, stormwater management, transportation, green infrastructure and community engagement.

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