6/29 meeting notes (belated!)
A few events and learning about the DILLON RULE (the rule you need to know).
Hi all,
As I’m writing this — flooding reports all over the area. Hoping everyone is safe.
It’s been A WEEK. Apologies for getting this out late if you were looking for it. We covered some really important stuff.
Thank you to everyone who came! It was HOT, but we were unfortunately limited by our size (Joel from Lakewood Social can only accommodate groups of <40 indoors, and we are more than that!). If anyone has thoughts about spaces that can accommodate more but don’t charge us, happy to hear it. We will plan to meet there for the next meeting (July 13th) and will be joined by folks from Durham for All.
You can sign up on Mobilize here for the next meeting and all future events here:
Then, for the following meeting (July 27th) we’re going to do something a little different! We’re going to join Neighbors on Call/County2County for their Summer Shindig. There are multiple locations: Carrboro with Sen. Sydney Batch, Fuquay-Varina with Sen. Lisa Grafstein, Hillsborough with The Hometown Holler (this is where I’ll be - hope to see some of you there!), Oxford with Sen. Terence Everitt, Pittsboro with Evonne Hopkins, Wake Forest with Rep. Robert Reives, Wilson with Rep. Dante Pittman, and Zoom with everyone! Sign up here.
ACTIONS
(This is by no means a complete list - check out Durham Dems Action newsletter, Chop Wood, Carry Water NC, Democracy Out Loud and Engaged Durhamites for Democracy for more). And, of course, the 5calls app always has all the things to call about!
Doing something a little different this week to start - follow up from prior actions. While the MAGA murder bill passed, Tillis voted no. All of the calling, protesting, writing letters, showing up, telling stories, and advocating WORKED. This is HUGE. We need to continue to advocate for him to use the rest of his time in office wisely. (We do not want him to resign, Gov Stein would have to appoint someone chosen by the NCGOP to my understanding which gives them incumbent advantage among other problems).
Governor Stein not only vetoed SB50, HB 318, and SB153, but also the spate of awful anti-DEI bills. Call to thank him. He wrote in his statement on the veto as below:
DONATE to flood relief in Texas. Kerr County Flood relief fund here.
CALL your representatives and demand the immediate release of billions in K-12 funding. Read more about it here.
CALL. From Siembra: “Two weeks ago, the legislature adjourned without attempting a veto override. Too many Republicans were at the beach that week (we wish we were joking, but, yes this is serious), and they can’t schedule a vote unless all 71 are present. And SB 153 will continue to be a threat until that happens.Thanks to thousands of people who have emailed and called, we've heard from some key Representatives confirming they're with us, but we've also heard the truth: it’s especially important to call people you know in Hoke, Guilford, Mecklenburg, Nash, Scotland and Wilson, to ask them to reach out to the four representatives we need to confirm the most -- Garland Pierce, Cecil Brockman (District 60), Dante Pittman (District 24), and Charles Smith (District 44).”
Shop???!!! The Anita Earls shirt from Flip NC I was wearing on Sunday is now available again for ordering - both men’s and women’s sizes. Order it here! Only until July 11th!
EVENTS
This is not a complete list (in fact today’s will be very short because I’ve been away this weekend and short on time), but these are some high yield events going on over the next few weeks. Also check out Durham Resistance Hub. Marilyn also has an incredible newsletter about opportunities for getting involved. Check it out here!
Monday, July 7th 5-7 PM. IN PERSON. Bridges to Freedom event - postponed from today due to rain. Sign up here
Wednesday July 16th, 8 PM, VIRTUAL. First of Indivisible’s One Million Rising —-series about what’s next. Learn more and sign up here.
Thursday, June 17th, 6:30 PM. IN PERSON. Good Trouble Lives on event. Stay tuned for details. Learn more here.
Wednesday, July 23rd, 5-6 PM. VIRTUAL. A conversation about the voting rights act with Justice Earls and Heather Cox Richardson. Watch it on her YouTube channel.
Friday, July 25th, 7-9 PM. IN PERSON. Solidarity Singalong with the Pinkerton Raid and Songs for Humans Durham at Common Market. We’ll be tabling! Hope to see you there!
MEETING SUMMARY
We were so excited to have former Mayor Schewel come to speak with us! He was our mayor for 4 years, and on city council and school board before that. Below are the notes I took to the best of my ability - feel free to make any corrections in the comments!
He gave us a brief overview of our municipal government, which has 3 bodies. Our City Council (6 seats plus the mayor), County Commission (5 members), and our School Board (7 members, elects its own chair). While a city like NY has what’s called a “strong mayor” (a person that hires and fires everyone and is responsible for the administration), Durham’s mayor doesn’t do that. There is a separate city manager who doesn’t change when the top of the political structure changes. This structure is anti-corruption. (i.e. Vote for me and you get rezoning).
The city and county have different roles — for example, the city organizes who picks up the trash, makes sure that when you turn your spigot on that you get water, and as much as you need. The county funds schools and other services. While the city budget is around 700 million, the county’s budget is more than a billion dollars.
A lot flies under the radar in city government. For example, your garbage and recycling - you don’t think about it unless it doesn’t happen, and then you definitely do!
We also talked about the difference between Home Rule and Dillon Rule. This is something I have been really interested in, and something that I also heard about on a great new podcast, The Foxfire Dispatch (about NC politics!). See below for more.
Because of the Dillon rule, Durham has to work in other ways to enact progressive policies. Mayor Schewel called these '“Durham Workarounds”.
The legislature often works against the city, and can go behind their back to cause issues. One example: when telecommunication companies around town started digging up people’s yards and laying cable all over town, the city had to go back behind them to make sure they were putting things back in place and doing it right. This cost the city a million dollars, so they charged the telecom companies a million dollars. The telecom companies went behind the city’s back to the legislature and said they didn’t want to pay. The state legislature then passed legislation that cities couldn’t charge a for-profit company money to inspect the work they were doing and ensure city residents were taken care of.
Another example - the 751 South development had been noted to be in a critical watershed. The council voted not to extend the waterline and allow the development because it was in a critical watershed. The legislature voted to make Durham extend the waterline.
Durham has done some really cool things! For example the HEART program in Durham which started in 2022. Recently, 30% of 911 calls were answered by these unarmed responders. Durham is one of the first cities to do this on a mass scale, and even more so to have it be integrated with 911 center. Funding has been increased in current budget for this.
Mayor Schewel talked about how affordability is on a spectrum, and there is always an unfortunate competition between the environment and affordable housing.
There are lots of ways to get involved in municipal government without being elected - including tons of boards and commissions that you can apply for.
Durham also has a significant local endorsement structure. DCABP and the Durham People’s Alliance. Mayor Schewel said that if you want to influence who’s running and endorsed, join these organizations.
HOUSEKEEPING:
We don’t have an email list - this is it! If you want to join the group, just subscribe to the Substack. You can come to meetings (some meetings, all meetings) or just read along and do the action items and learn.
You can find us on Bluesky, Threads, TikTok and Instagram, where we have an active social media presence. Links to that and a whole lot more on our Linktree, found here: Linktr.ee/Durhamgotv.
Check out prior posts for recommendations on our favorite news sources, tips on calling your representatives, link to a Signal channel for carpools, and more!
Feel free to post events or discuss things in the chat and comments.
We’re all in this together. And we’re not going anywhere.
Anna
Thank you. Here is the Apple Podcast link to Firefox Dispatch Podcast. I had a tough time finding it, so I thought maybe others would run into that issue. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-foxfire-dispatch/id1821580375
THANK YOU!