A guide to understanding Chapel Hill's government

Chapel Hill, which has a population of almost 62,000, operates under a council-manager government system. This means that the town council and mayor are both elected by the people, and a town manager is appointed by the council. 

The current mayor of Chapel Hill is Jess Anderson, who was elected in 2023.

“The mayor is what we call the first among equals. So she has additional duties to facilitate council meetings and things like that,” Susan Brown, Chapel Hill’s executive director for strategic communications, said. “And then of course, she is the face of the council, often for ribbon cuttings and things like that.” 

Some other duties of the mayor are to carry out responsibilities during emergencies, preside over council meetings and represent the Town.

The town manager, Chris Blue, was appointed in 2023, and was the former Chapel Hill chief of police for 12 years. His duties include coordinating and evaluating town services, supporting council staff and supervising of government department heads. 

Town Council 

The Chapel Hill Town Council is made up of eight members, one of which serves as the mayor pro tem. Currently, council member Amy Ryan is the mayor pro tem and acts in place of the mayor when they are unavailable. Other council members include Camille Berry, Melissa McCullough, Paris Miller-Foushee, Theodore Nollert, Adam Searing, Elizabeth Sharp and Karen Stegman. Town Council members serve four-year terms that are staggered, meaning there are elections every two years — the next of which will be in 2025. 

Some of the main duties of a council member are to oversee land use, transportation and town planning as well as to show up to events when asked to, Nollert said. 

He said that the town is kind of like a machine or a company — it has 750 staff members who have all sorts of technical expertise that the council members don't have, so sometimes their job is to provide options and paths that staff has not yet considered.

“Our job is to come in and move the machine in a new direction that it would not go on its own,” Nollert said. 

Town council meetings are held twice each month and are open to the public. They are also live streamed, and every meeting has a public comment section devoted to hearing from residents on issues.

“Your voice is the loudest in the smallest room, and you can make the most impact when you are competing with the fewest people,” Nollert said. “So at the national level, it is very hard to make an impact. At the town level, it is not very hard to make an impact. You can meet people very easily, you can find allies very easily, you can get educated about issues pretty quickly.”

Advisory boards

Advisory boards are groups who advise Town Council members on specific topics and make policy recommendations. Some examples of advisory boards in Chapel Hill include the Public Library Advisory Board, Community Design Commission, Historic District Commission and Housing Advisory Board. Alex Carrasquillo, Chapel Hill’s community safety public information officer, said that advisory boards also work to implement the work of the council after they have signed off on it.

Orange County Board of County Commissioners

The Orange County Board of County Commissioners is made up of seven members — Chair Jamezetta Bedford, Vice Chair Sally Greene, Amy Fowler, Jean Hamilton, Earl McKee, Phyllis Portie-Ascott and Anna Richards. 

Members serve staggered four-year terms and elections are held every two years. 

Responsibilities of the BOCC include adopting the county’s annual budget, which happens by June 30 every year. It also appoints individuals to advisory boards, enact ordinances, call bond referenda and establish property tax rates. 

The BOCC holds meetings twice each month in Hillsborough. Meetings are open to the public and live streamed.

Representatives and state government

Chapel Hill is represented in the U.S. House by Valerie Foushee (D-NC 4th). North Carolina’s U.S. senators are Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Ted Budd (R-NC), and the state senate member who represents Orange County is Graig Meyer (D-Caswell, Orange, Person).

The state government is helmed by Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.

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