By Kirk Ross, Staff Writer
Chapel Hill — On Wednesday morning, Chapel Hill Mayor-elect Mark Kleinschmidt was sitting relaxed, coffee in hand, just outside the office now occupied by his predecessor, Kevin Foy.
In between receiving congratulations as various staff passed by, he was relating the events of the previous evening with Town Manager Roger Stancil, particularly the surreal experience of lights and cameras recording his every move.
Asked what the two had planned for the day, the new mayor quipped, “I think I’m planning what’s for breakfast.â€
For now, the pressure of the campaign is off and there’s at least some time to decompress, but Kleinschmidt said he’s fully aware that the tight race, which wasn’t settled until the last couple of precincts reported, means he and the new council will be under pressure to deliver.
Kleinschmidt, a council member since 2001, defeated fellow council member Matt Czajkowski by 99 votes, according to totals on Tuesday night. The margin, though razor thin and closer than any mayor’s race in recent memory, is short of the 1 percent that would trigger a recount. The difference could still change once provisional ballots are counted. Czajkowski said Tuesday night he would not ask for a recount.
Orange County Board of Elections director Tracey Reams said the board of elections is scheduled to meet today (Thursday) at 2 p.m. to count 77 provisional ballots from Orange County and nine from Durham County. Until then, the vote total in the mayor’s race stands at 4,152 votes, or 48.62 percent, for Kleinschmidt; 4,053 votes, or 47.46 percent, for Czajkowski; 226 votes, or 2.65 percent, for Augustus Cho; and 97 votes, or 1.14 percent, for Kevin Wolff. An additional 11 votes went to write-in candidates.
Kleinschmidt said if what he heard on the campaign trail is any guide, he expects citizens to focus on the town’s budget.
“I heard that not just from people you’d expect, but also from a lot of old-school Chapel Hill supporters,†he said. “I didn’t hear as much of that four years ago or even eight years ago during the recession then.â€
People are worried about their own finances, he said, and want to know the town is focused on keeping its house in order.
Kleinschmidt also said he expects that concerns raised during the campaign about growth will spur some rethinking in how the town approaches development. He said it was too early to say whether the town would embark on a major rewrite of its comprehensive plan and development rules, and that he will wait to hear reports from the town’s Sustainable Community Visioning Task Force in January.
The mayor-elect praised Czajkowski and Cho for running good, issue-based campaigns. “I think the campaign was run very honorably,†he said.
Czajkowski said he also thought that for the most part the mayor’s race was a healthy battle of ideas.
“That was very much to the benefit of the people of Chapel Hill,†he said.
Czajkowski said most candidates eventually focused on very similar issues. “The difference was in the approaches,†he said.
He said he will continue to raise the concerns he heard most during the campaign. As he met with voters, he said, he heard a great deal of concern about the effects of rising property taxes, along with even more frustration about the direction of downtown than he heard when he ran for council two years ago.
But while the voters were almost evenly divided, Czajkowski noted that the council that takes office in December won’t be split in quite the same way.
“I’m only one council member, and at this point I can only do my best to advocate for positions,†he said.