Breckany Eckhardt, candidate for Chapel Hill Town Council
Chapel Hill will elect a new mayor and four Town Council members this year, giving voters a chance to check or continue the town’s current management and growth.
Council member Amy Ryan is the only incumbent seeking re-election. Council members Michael Parker and Tai Huynh will vacate their seats in December.
Council member Jessica Anderson’s seat is also open, as she runs against Council member Adam Searing to replace outgoing Mayor Pam Hemminger. Searing is supported by a bloc of four council candidates who have pledged to reverse some town decisions about housing and development.
Searing will remain on the council until December 2025 if he loses the mayoral race.
The Searing-aligned candidates — David Adams, Renuka Soll, Elizabeth Sharp and Breckany Eckhardt — are competing against Ryan and five others — Melissa McCullough, Jeffrey Hoagland, Erik Valera, Theodore Nollert and Jon Mitchell — to fill four council seats.
Early voting in the nonpartisan Nov. 7 election starts Oct. 19 and runs through Nov. 4..
To find polling places and full details on early voting, visit co.orange.nc.us/1720/Elections or contact the Board of Elections at 919-245-2350 or vote@orangecountync.gov.
Name: Breckany Eckhardt
Age: 41
Occupation: Healthcare software trainer
Education: Certified project management professional; Master of Science, Educational Leadership and Policy; Bachelor of Science in Psychology; Business Minor
Political or civic experience: Community activist; volunteer awards from the National Policy Consensus Center and Financial Beginnings, a K-12 financial literacy nonprofit; ran for student government; protested for workers’ rights; participated in LGBTQIA+ events; Led “Take Back the Night” marches; volunteered at homeless shelters; educated children with autism and mentored adults with developmental disabilities; currently provides free family budgeting workshops and individual job search coaching
Campaign website: Breckany.com
What do you think the town’s top three priorities should be? Choose one and describe how you will work to address it.
▪ Listening to consultants, not the community
▪ Lifting corporations, not local business
▪ Lavish spending on plans, not actions
Our debt is $118 million — What do we get?
▪ $3 million-plus on external consultants, mostly for plans, not parks or recreation
▪ $4 million in tax incentives for Wegmans when tourism brought $236 million in revenue in 2022
▪ Near 10% increase in your property tax rate despite the highest in the SE U.S. ... with nothing to show for it
Solutions
▪ Cut consultant funding: Collaborate with UNC, advisory boards, and local experts
▪ Stop incentivizing corporations: Fund local business, safety, and infrastructure
▪ Design Smart: Asphalt greenways $1 million-plus per mile, while natural trails cost $48,000-$64,000
What do you think the town is doing right to create more affordable housing? What would you do if elected?
This year, 400-plus residents in low-cost housing were displaced for luxury apartments. They were given no vouchers or relocation support. Lassie-faire, wild west growth creates chaotic traffic patterns, slices up green space, and inflames gentrification. It needs to stop. We can use city property to create competition with developers toward the best community output. We can negotiate for the best mixed use — for sale, rental, affordable housing, community event and local retail spaces, solar panels, and Energy Star certified construction. UNC can offer student housing around campus and workforce housing at the Horace Williams Airport. Similar concepts work in Durham and comparable college towns.
Do you support keeping Orange County’s rural buffer, where the lack of water and sewer limits growth? How do you see the town growing with or without the buffer?
In 1986, the joint planning agreement with Carrboro and Chapel Hill resulted in an invaluable benefit to all residents. The 37,250-acre land provides important space for local farms, reduces sprawl, and treats runoff. It protects drinking water and wildlife and fights climate change. One inch of rainfall on a one-acre parking lot generates 36 times more runoff than forest. We need to conduct serious planning and collect data before we jump into making irreversible impacts. However, we must be flexible and adaptable to change. Trading out acreage into city parks might be a situation worth considering extending city water and sewer into a small part of the rural buffer, but as a last resort.
Would you consider a tax increase to pay for rising costs and delayed public projects? If not, what specific changes to the town’s budget would you support?
Per the annual comprehensive financial report for 2021-022, “the Town’s total debt from governmental activities increased by $32.0 million or 30.7%, to $136.2 million during the past fiscal year.” Since 2018, the council spent $8-plus million on out-of-state consultants — when we are the 7th most educated city in the U.S.! Wegman’s received a $4 million incentive package! Why are we offering financial incentives to corporations and not local businesses? We pay the highest property taxes in the Southeastern U.S. with few community benefits. We need to stop funding external consultants, stop incentivizing corporations, and host local competitions for development, housing, and greenway designs.
How can the town bring people together who have different viewpoints to find workable solutions?
Those of higher economic and social class are able to attend town hall meetings on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m. Access to transportation, hiring childcare, and waiting for your time to comment can mean not leaving until 11 p.m. or later. Thus, older, white individuals, often retired, have the advantage of participation. The current streaming option is video-only with no ASL or captioning. We need a town app offering real-time polling, chat comments, and public commentary. AI and translation services also allow for basic translation for dozens of languages. It is not equitable to use 1950s meeting and decision-style methods almost a quarter into the 21st century.
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