CHALT – Chapel Hill Alliance for a Livable Town – prepared a vision to clearly articulate what type of leadership we wanted that would ensure a livable town.

Key objectives CHALT wished to advocate were hammered out during many meetings of the CHALT founders. Along with clearly articulating what type of leadership we wanted to ensure a livable town, we found the most urgent objective is advocating for immediate, practical, and measurable, local policies that address Global Warming — especially smart responsible growth. See description in the next question.

• Growth that is resilient in the face of climate change.
• Provides adequate infrastructure: i.e., transit, parks, libraries.
• Curbs urban sprawl and deteriorating environmental conditions.
• Provides a mix of building types and uses.
• Sustainable economically. The Renkow Study commissioned by former Manager Stancil demonstrated that Town residential growth never pays for itself. The Town Manager and Council have not made it a priority to commission an up-to-date study.

Earlier Chapel Hill advocacy groups advocated similar policies. Their work in electing outstanding leaders who developed foundation policies such as the Orange County Comprehensive Land Use Plan — to this day guides our growth.

• CHALT develops and holds educational forums on issues of importance to the community, advocates for policy positions after full discussion, and assists individuals or groups seeking to solve a public policy problem. we’ve fought, not always successfully, for town governance that shares information to all members of the public.
• CHALT encourages data driven decisions and transparency that we expect from our local officials. We invite dialogue before we take positions, and if we disagree, we always do so respectfully.
• We actively engage in town issues and give well-researched advice and counsel. 
• CHALT supports local candidates who share our values. During election season, we often hold forums or hold interviews that are taped, and evaluate each candidate based on published criteria in a group discussion. These are posted online so that voters can learn as much as possible about the candidates before voting in the election. An educated voter is a responsible voter.

CHALT is not a PAC. CHALT has a political action committee that pays for campaign materials and provides information on donors in compliance with the North Carolina State Election Law.

The Chapel Hill Leadership Political Action Committee raises funds to support candidates whose views align with its own — but does not contribute to candidates’ campaigns.

The Chapel Hill Leadership Political Action Committee is separate from CHALT and exists in order to meet North Carolina Campaign Finance Laws. Some non-profits such as 501 c 4s are structured so that they can legally hide the source of their funds. We believe following NC laws and exercising transparency as an organization is important. Therefore, we founded the Chapel Hill Leadership Political Action Committee in case we needed to spend money on materials for the candidates we support. All of our reports are fully transparent and can be accessed through the State Board of Elections.

North Carolina Campaign Finance Laws require that our organization file as a political action committee if we spend resources to get candidates elected. The North Carolina law says that “every person or group participating in activities that support or oppose the nomination or election of one or more clearly identified candidates, or a political party or a referendum” must follow the state’s Reporting Act.

It’s surprising for people to learn that large amounts of campaign finances come from developers, often from out of town. Since this relatively recent practice creates an uneven playing field, CHALT has raised money which must be reported and registered as a political action commitee to help get the word out about why these candidates we believe would be the best leaders of our Town. 

Read more here about the 2015 election that involved lots of out of state money. CHALT-PAC uses funds to support candidates whose views align with its own—but does not contribute to candidates’ campaigns.

The Chapel Hill Leadership Political Action Committee is separate from CHALT and exists in order to meet North Carolina Campaign Finance Laws. Some non profits such as 501 c 4s are structured so that can legally hide the source of our funds. We believe following NC laws and exercising transparency as an organization is important. Therefore we founded the the Chapel Hill Leadership Political Action Committee in case we needed to spend money on materials for the candidates we support. We file reports which show the local contributors to the fund.

North Carolina Campaign Finance Laws require that our organization file as a political action committee if we spend resources to get candidates elected. The North Carolina law says that “every person or group participating in activities that support or oppose the nomination or election of one or more clearly identified candidates, or a political party or a referendum” must follow the state’s Reporting Act.