DEDC regroups following uproar

The Chapel Hill Downtown Economic Development Corporation, under the mantle of new leadership, reaffirmed Wednesday its status as a public body after confusion over a closed session caused its former chairman to resign.

Corporation members appointed Andrea Rohrbacher to fill the chairman position at their meeting at the Midway Business Center.

The corporation’s former chairman, Bob Epting, resigned after corporation members discussed several agenda items in closed session at their Nov. 17 meeting.

“I feel very honored that the group nominated me,” Rohrbacher said.

The Chapel Hill Town Council formed the corporation to fuse the interests of the town, University and downtown private sector in a healthy downtown.

To avoid future mix-ups, the corporation decided in a unanimous vote to abide by the N.C. Open Meetings and Public Records laws.

“I think all of us are concerned that we do all we can to avoid future concerns,” said Nancy Suttenfield, the board’s vice chairwoman.

The open meetings law describes public entities as “any elected or appointed authority, board, commission, committee, council, or other body of the state … that is composed of two or more members and exercises or is authorized to exercise a legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, or advisory function.”

Town attorney Ralph Karpinos spoke with the corporation about the state’s open meetings law.

“If four out of the seven (members) met, it would constitute public business,” he told them.

Karpinos said subcommittees established within the corporation also must adhere to the law.

“A formal committee of a public body is also a public body,” he said.

With the closed-session dispute resolved, Rohrbacher said she now hopes the corporation will hasten its efforts.

“I would like to be more aggressive in meeting our tasks,” she said. “We need to bring some items back and get resolutions.”

Included in those tasks is the search for an executive director.

Interim Executive Director Nick Didow now oversees the corporation, only six months into its existence.

Many members said they hope to move quickly with the search.

A memo from Mayor Kevin Foy’s assistant, Emily Dickens, projected that the process will take six to eight weeks, but the corporation said it would like to see faster results.

“I think we may have fallen behind on the executive director search,” Rohrbacher said. “That will be first priority.”

The corporation has allotted as much as $3,000 for the search.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Rohrbacher, Suttenfield and fellow corporation member Tom Tucker formed a subcommittee charged with finding an executive director.

They plan to run advertisements in local media outlets.

“I think time is of the essence in moving things along,” Suttenfield said.

Board member Roger Perry also introduced a resolution allowing the subcommittee to select the executive director independently.

“It’s time to get off the dime,” Perry said.

The subcommittee will present a report to the corporation at its next meeting Jan. 26.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.