Hillsborough commissioner wants to continue ‘sense of dedication’ as town’s next mayor
A town commissioner announced this week he will be on the ballot in November to be Hillsborough’s next mayor.
Mark Bell was elected to the town’s Board of Commissioners in 2015 and re-elected to a second term in 2019. On Tuesday, with his current term ending in December, he posted on Facebook that he will seek the mayor’s seat instead of re-election to his board seat this fall.
Hillsborough Mayor Jennifer Weaver announced in April that she would step down in December, when her current term also ends.
In a statement on his official Facebook page, Bell said “it has been a tremendous honor to serve Hillsborough” as a commissioner during a time of change and challenges for the town.
He also thanked Weaver and her predecessor, former Mayor Tom Stevens, calling them “great examples of servant-leaders” with a “sense of dedication” that he hopes to emulate if elected.
Bell, 57, lives in downtown Hillsborough and is a former member of the town’s Historic District Commission. He moved to Hillsborough from southern Orange County in 2005, becoming a life member of the Northern Orange NAACP.
His civic work also includes support for the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation and multiple boards, including the town’s Parks and Recreation Board and its Water and Sewer Advisory Committee, the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, PORCH Hillsborough, Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, Orange County Transit Plan Steering Committee, Orange County Food Council, and the nonprofit Community Home Trust.
An information technology professional for 35 years, he currently works with Health Management Associates, and previously worked for 20 years as chief information officer and vice president of health information technology at the N.C. Hospital Association.
Bell also is an author, writing or collaborating on 13 books about technological topics. He also served in the U.S. Naval Reserve for eight years and was a volunteer firefighter with the Cedar Grove Volunteer Fire Department.
“As Mayor of Hillsborough, I look forward leveraging my professional and civic experience to provide Hillsborough residents and visitors with outstanding public services, balance residential and commercial growth, and to meet future civic challenges with a commitment to equity and opportunity,” Bell said in his statement.
The Orange Report
Calling Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough readers! Check out The Orange Report, a free weekly digest of some of the top stories for and about Orange County published in The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun. Get your newsletter delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday at 11 a.m. featuring links to stories by our local journalists. Sign up for our newsletter here. For even more Orange-focused news and conversation, join our Facebook group "Chapel Hill Carrboro Chat."
