Will Raymond for Council in 2005

When asked why I ran this year, I try to articulate a complex amalgam of reasons.

After more than four years of growing involvement in our Town’s affairs, years of research and advocacy on a range of issues, I had unintentionally qualified myself for a larger role in Town governance.

Joining the Technology Advisory Board, I was attempting to leverage one common denominator (or what should be a common denominator) in all our Town’s operations, technology, to address a range of issues: bridging the digital divide, increasing our operational efficiencies, improving our delivery of services, reducing our cost basis, opening the doors of governmental participation to a much wider segment of our community. While our board could help craft policy, we were missing a strong champion for those new policies. I was ready, willing and maybe uniquely qualified within the pool of candidates to champion a new way of doing our Town’s business.

Residing here for 14 years, an “informal Chapel Hillian” for over 26 years, I certainly realized that Chapel Hill hadn’t casually arrived at its current destination – that many hands had shaped our community – that many shoulders had borne its varied responsibilities. I thought “maybe it was my turn to show up” – to give back, as a Council member, to our community some of the largesse it had bestowed on myself, my family, my friends – to stand and deliver on behalf of all our citizenry.

I was prepared, I was ready to lead and maybe it just was my time to shoulder that responsibility.

All this is a long, long windup to my second (but not final) “How well do you know Chapel Hill?” puzzle! I apologize to my readers for not doing this sooner.

I selected this location on the eve of this election because it reflects, maybe best, why I jumped into the fray.

First person to accurately identify the place gets a beverage of their choice – maybe even this Tuesday night – compliments of your humble servant. Bonus points for relating any small reminiscence you might have sparked by the same location.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 6th, 2005 at 12:18 am and is filed under Campaign, Ruminations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.