Sherri Zann Rosenthal, candidate for Durham City Council, takes your questions

A pivotal election is underway in Durham, with voters set to choose a new mayor and fill three City Council seats this fall.

There are 12 people competing for the City Council seats, including two incumbents.

A primary is being held to narrow the field. Early voting in the primary runs through Oct. 7 and Primary Day is Oct. 10.

The top six candidates will proceed to the general election in November.

Terms last four years. The seats are at-large, which means candidates can live anywhere in the citys.

We collected questions from residents across Durham to help readers get to know the candidates.

Sherri Zann Rosenthal

Name: Sherri Zann Rosenthal

Age: 66

Occupation: Retired attorney

Website: SZRforCouncil.com

Are we paying people competitively and keeping our promises to our workers?

- East Durham resident Aidil Ortiz

No. Staff vacancy rates impair delivery of city services to residents. Other cities continue to hire away our employees by paying fairly for their actual years of experience. The 2019 pay plan was approved by City Council after a full pay study. It was frozen in 2020. I support fully restoring worker pay in accordance with the 2019 pay plan, including back pay for the freeze period and appropriate pay for actual years on the job. Durham has 5-year employees being paid as if they are first- or second-year employees. Council should also set a cost of living increase.

Do you have any experience that helps you understand development in Durham? How do you plan to get more affordable units in the city?

- Planning commissioner Zuri Williams

Having been through the rezoning and annexation process as a developer and then having long experience as a senior city attorney gives me more rounded perspectives on development. I am the only candidate who has actually created housing, a 22-home neighborhood still said to be the most energy-efficient in NC. The city hired me to help create the city’s subsidized housing programs, and I retired three years ago as deputy city attorney. I also attended a year of planning school in England to gain a European perspective. I think we need a Comprehensive Housing Plan to be more responsive to community needs.

As Durham grows more dense, how do we get away from the classic American model of car-oriented development? Are there any policies that you support that can keep us from becoming another Atlanta or Dallas?

- Downtown resident Nirav Patel

Willy-nilly rezoning and annexation by the current four-member council majority has created incredible sprawl without planning for the traffic and other infrastructure needs, and reinforces a 1960s car-centric model. Let’s stop it. We need conscious densification of the core city that respects the scale and architectural heritage of existing neighborhoods, plans for storm water handling to preserve clean water, and systematically changes our street system to incorporate bus rapid transit and safely provide for expanded bicycle and pedestrian travel.

What policies do you support for implementing safer streets and reducing car dependency locally and regionally?

- Stadium Heights resident Nick Roberts

The future is bus rapid transit (BRT). As we design this system, we have the opportunity to consider that not all streets have to accommodate all modes of travel, and instead adjacent streets can perform as a system. This will give us space to give some routes over to pedestrians and bicycles, perhaps in protected areas that run alongside BRT. Something rarely talked about is that women will not give up our cars unless we feel safe using mass transit, both while on it and in getting to and from the mass transit. Violence against women negatively shapes our society in many ways.

What will you do to support the mental health needs of everyday Durham residents, especially thousands of young people in our public school systems?

- Hillside High School senior Isaiah Palmer

School funding and health services, including mental health, are state and county responsibilities. As with subsidized housing, the abdication of responsibility by the state puts a lot of pressure on local government. North Carolina has far fewer counselors in our schools than other states, or than national standards recommend. In addition, the General Assembly has gutted the state residential mental health system. Our city and county long ago divided up responsibility areas to try to limit redundancy. However, there may be parks and recreation programs, which are a city responsibility, that can help.

In your vision for the city, what role does public education play and how does that connect to economic development, public safety and community health?

- Fayetteville Street corridor resident Erika Wilkins

The city’s Economic Development Department and Workforce Development division should play a big role in expanding the links between Durham Public Schools and Durham Tech, as well as links with companies doing business in our area. With big companies like Apple, Google and Meta here and expanding, we need to be very deliberate in creating shared expectations of the contributions these companies will make to create shared prosperity and opportunity. Absolutely, people need positive outlets for their ambitions and wages that provide housing and food security in order to build positive community life.

On the subject of alleged Clean Water Act violations in Falls Lake and its tributaries: How did we get here and who should be held responsible? Who is going to pay for the creek restoration and environmental damage?

- Southeast Durham resident Pam Andrews

I accompanied Neuse Riverkeeper Samatha Krop during testing of creeks and rivers in SE Durham. I believe both NC’s Department of Environmental Quality and the city of Durham Planning Department, perhaps as a result of staff vacancies, have failed to enforce stream protection measures and to remedy violations. Some streams are functionally dead due to suffocation by erosion sediment. Stream bottoms should have the silt removed to allow the layering of life necessary for streams to be healthy. Developers who violate environmental and planning regulations should pay for remediation, as provided for by state and local law.

How have you seen Durham evolve in your time here and what’s one thing you’ll have the power to change if elected?

- The News & Observer

A lot of new development is so huge that it dwarfs human scale and the buildings beside them. They so max out the land they are on that there is no room for trees of significant size. Yet, much of this new, bulky development is very high-priced and doesn’t provide affordable places for Durham residents to live in. I hope that Durham will create a Comprehensive Housing Plan that does a census of what kinds of housing we now have, where and in what price ranges, and then sets action targets to fulfill what new housing in what price ranges are lacking.

To find polling places and full details on voting, visit the Board of Elections at dcovotes.com or 919-560-0700.