Good morning, readers.
Raleigh’s City Council decided unanimously on Tuesday afternoon to reinstate the city’s Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs) in a surprise vote much like the one four years ago that the council took to disband them.
District E council member Christina Jones made the motion for the vote at the end of the meeting. In 2020, Jones had just been elected chair of RCAC, the CACs’ overseeing body.
“I, along with the CAC structure, was left blindsided in what felt like an attempt to silence our voices,” Jones said before yesterday’s vote. “Without a plan, the city prevented residents from using an organization that had been in existence since 1974.”
Since the city council terminated CACs in 2020, it created an Office of Community Engagement and a 16-member Community Engagement Board charged with reviewing existing strategies for community engagement and recommending improvements.
But many in the community felt these efforts weren’t enough to replace CACs including the RCAC, which, along with nine of 18 original CACs, continued to operate informally once the city had voted to withdraw funding and staff support.
Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin was one of the council leaders of the effort to disband the CACs in 2020, but she voted to reverse that policy Tuesday. She weighed in only to say that she had not been informed that there would be a motion to vote to restore CACs and would appreciate the courtesy next time.
Raleigh city council elections take place this fall. Baldwin has not officially said whether she’ll run to keep her seat, but she has already drawn numerous challengers including District C council member Corey Branch and former city council member, state senator, and NC treasurer Janet Cowell.
We have a new paper out today, which includes our voter guide and primary endorsements (endorsements will publish on our website this morning) and a profile of Durham DA and state AG candidate Satana Deberry.
Have a good Wednesday.
—Jane
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Durham
Satana Deberry became Durham’s DA on promises to bring progressive policies to criminal justice. Her bid for the Democratic attorney general nomination tests how far that can take her.
DPS workers are planning walk-ins and rallies ahead of a special school board meeting this afternoon to address the ongoing pay dispute.
Wake
Wake County’s political landscape could change as Democrats and Republicans vie for seats on the board of commissioners.
Raleigh’s city council won’t follow the lead of Carrboro and call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Orange
UNC system president Peter Hans will name the members of a search committee for a new UNC-CH chancellor early this month.
North Carolina
The NC Attorney General’s Office is pushing to delay a hearing in a Racial Justice Act case in Johnston County.
Today’s weather
Sunny with a high of 53 degrees.
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