Voyce wants more frugality

Carrboro mayoral candidate Brian Voyce would have preferred not to run for office.

“I had hoped someone I could back would run,” Voyce said. “But you can’t complain unless you do something about it, and some things just need to be corrected in this town.”

He said one of the main problems with current Carrboro policy is spending without investigating alternatives.

He said he objects to the creation of Carrboro municipal buildings near similar Chapel Hill sites, such as a planned fire station in north Carrboro.

“I’m for the objective analysis of municipal cost sharing with Chapel Hill,” Voyce said. “I’m not coming in with a bias that we must do it one way; I’m coming in with the bias that we must be objective and try to cooperate.”

Voyce is the only mayoral candidate who didn’t move to Carrboro. Instead, the town moved to him when his neighborhood, the Highlands, was annexed in 2005.

The town annexed the property but left the roads to be maintained by the state.

“They don’t want these roads; they’re worn out and they’re not going to rebuild them,” Voyce said. “They just wanted to take money from the development and hide the fact that they’re living beyond their means.”

Voyce said current Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton has a vision for Carrboro that is too reliant on continuous growth.

“His attitude has been one of growth for growth’s sake,” Voyce said.

Voyce also said he would like to see more cooperation between Chapel Hill and Carrboro in attracting businesses to the area.

“We need to try to have a more regionalized approach in which we coordinate,” Voyce said. “We most likely need to tear up the bureaucracy and use that money to do real economic work.”

On his campaign Web site, Voyce points out what he says are injustices in the town such as the case of Marilyn Kille, the owner of Orange County’s Peppermint Spring Farm.

Kille said she met Voyce during the course of a two-year on-going legal battle with the town of Carrboro regarding the zoning of parts of her property.

“I have a positive impression of (Voyce’s) intellect, of his intention to be honorable, and of a genuine sense of integrity,” Kille said. “I feel this man is very impressive and deserves to be the next mayor of this town.”

Voyce also said he feels the town is going in the wrong direction with tax policy.

“Even in this year, with great economic stress, the town couldn’t even hold the line,” he said.

“They couldn’t do a budget in which the board said, ‘People are struggling this year, let’s not take one more penny this year than last year.’”

Carrboro Board of Aldermen candidate Sharon Cook said Voyce’s proposed tax policies would help keep residents in the town.

“We’ve seen so many people forced out of the community who wanted to stay, simply because they can’t continue with rising taxes,” Cook said. “We talk about not gentrifying Carrboro, with affordable housing, but people are getting taxed out of it.”

Voyce said he understands the importance of cooperation and practical action.

“I’ve got, quite frankly, enough scar tissue and enough experience in the business world to know that ideological and dogmatic actions have costs,” Voyce said.

“Not listening to all sides and not responding to all sides, even if you don’t agree, costs everybody.”


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