Q&A: Chapel Hill's first female mayor discusses accomplishments, her support system

The Daily Tar Heel’s Eva Edwards spoke with Chapel Hill’s first female mayor, Rosemary Waldorf, about her time serving the Town from 1995 to 2001. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Daily Tar Heel: What were your motivations to run for mayor?

Rosemary Waldorf: I'm one of the people still standing to believe that government is a good thing and that it does amazing things for our society. When I ran for mayor, I was interested in a couple of things. I was interested in public safety issues — we were having a bit of a crime wave here. And I was also interested in expansion of our parks and recreation facilities, because we had a growing population and we had land.

DTH: What gender related challenges did you encounter while you were running?

RW: I actually decided to take the approach of trying not to pay much attention to that. 

I didn't stand by and be a doormat for anybody, but I, you know, I just never wanted to make an issue of that.

And, in fact, if there was prejudice about me because I was a woman, people didn't say it to my face.

DTH: What are some accomplishments that show that mayors have a tangible impact on a community?

RW: My time was captured by three categories of things. One [was] trying to push the agenda that I thought was important for the community. The second was the agendas that all the other people bring forward that they think are important for the community. And the third one [was] all the shit that happens.

My first year as mayor, in September 1996, Hurricane Fran hit Chapel Hill. ... For the first time in the history of the Town, we had to declare a town-wide state of disaster. 

So I had to go on this a.m. radio station every morning at 8 o'clock and every afternoon at 5 o'clock and just give an update about where we were. 

Who would have thought that was going to be part of the job, right?

DTH: What was the agenda you thought was important?

RW: I got very involved in transportation issues because one of the jobs of mayors is to represent their community on the regional transportation body. And that was very important for Chapel Hill because we have this bus system that needs federal support [and] it needs state support, and our community couldn't function without it.

We have to get people to UNC Health Care. We have to get people to campus, right? So the bus system is an essential public service here. 

DTH: Who were your motivators and support during your time in office?

RW: There was a woman named Shirley Marshall, who, I don't know if she was the first woman to be an Orange County commissioner, but she was definitely the first woman to chair the [Board of] County Commissioners. 

One of the things she told me, for example, was, you know, the person who's chairing the meeting should rarely speak first on an issue. But sometimes when you know it's really important and you want to set the tone for how the discussion goes and try to get it to go toward a certain decision, then you need to speak first. ... But, she said, don't do that very often. 

So, yeah, I did have mentors, and it was important to me to go to people who had more experience than I did and who had been through the wars, because I knew I needed to learn. 

DTH: What are some values you hope future generations of Chapel Hill continue?

RW: I feel like we're in good hands. I feel like we have a good system. I think we have good traditions here. I just have to say that I'm not worried about Chapel Hill and Orange County. 

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