TO THE EDITOR:
In the primary for County Commissioner District 1, I will be voting for Penny Rich, and I encourage Orange County voters to do the same. She came to the Chapel Hill Town Council in 2009 with valuable experience from the Orange Water and Sewer Authority board and broad knowledge of the issues. She quickly became a strong advocate for issues like affordable housing, homeless support and others touching upon social justice. With clear strategic vision, she saw how issues were interrelated, like, for example, the relationship between mass transit and housing affordability.
During her first term on the Board of Commissioners, she has continued to stress these interrelationships, and this is why for Chapel Hill voters it is especially important for her to return to office. Rich understands that solutions to critical issues ranging from expanding employment opportunities to making housing affordable for all to mending gaps in the social safety net can only come from the coordinated efforts of the county and the towns. Her commitment to this collaborative work is results-driven. She successfully argued, for example, for housing funding to be included on the upcoming 2016 county bond, and her vision for investing in housing includes strategies for working within the towns as well as in the rural areas.
I was proud to serve with her on the Town Council, and I’m honored to have her represent all of our interests on the Board of Commissioners. I urge you to join me in voting for Penny Rich.
Sally Greene
Chapel Hill Town Council Member
