While still in its beginning stages, a local economic development group will be seeing some changes in the coming months as the group searches for a permanent executive director and a new seventh member.
Once these appointments are made, some say the Downtown Economic Development Corporation will be able to focus its energies on its mission — fusing the interests of the University, town and private sector in a healthy downtown.
While the search for a permanent executive director comes as no surprise to the group, the need for a new seventh member arose when former Chairman Bob Epting resigned in November after he was the only member who voted against taking an agenda item into closed session.
The Chapel Hill Town Council is in charge of naming a replacement.
Epting was one of four members appointed to the corporation by the town to represent downtown stakeholders. The University appointed two members, and the six members selected the seventh.
Mayor Kevin Foy said the council should decide what to do about finding Epting’s replacement at its Monday meeting.
“We have to decide what the process will be,” Foy said. “My first concern is whether Bob will continue to want to serve. If that’s possible, then that’s my first choice.”
Andrea Rohrbacher, the corporation’s newly elected chairwoman, said she is unsure how the selection process for a new member would work. But she said it is unlikely that the town will appoint a new member without consulting the corporation.
On Wednesday morning, a corporation subcommittee will meet to decide how to go about the search for another new member — a permanent executive director.
