InterNeighborhood Council

I wanted to follow up briefly on the post i made yesterday regarding the conflict of interest of an InterNeighborhood Council board member in a recent rezoning case. Here's why it matters.

The INC's goal is "to promote the quality, stability and vitality of Durham’s residential neighborhoods. Just as many heads are better than one, neighborhoods gain strength by working together." Neighborhoods that are organized tend to have less crime and more stability. They're more desirable to live in. From their website:

There are no rules for organizing a neighborhood association. Your group could be as big or as small as you all like. Here are some things to consider that may work for you.

Keep it simple. Start small. Don't hold too many meetings.

Choose a neighborhood issue (that you can win) to mobilize interest in your neighborhood association. Work with other neighborhood groups. Build from there.

So that's the context in which this rezoning case needs to be seen. I have no idea whether or not the residents of the Omah St. neighborhood have formally organized a neighborhood association, or, if they had, they've become members of the INC. Doesn't matter, though. One of the express purposes of the INC is to help those folks do just that.

Craigie Sanders, in addition to serving on the current board of directors for the InterNeighborhood Council, is also the President-elect of that group. I believe his term starts sometime in the fall. He is certainly entitled to act in his own, and his employer's, interest in supporting this rezoning. However, it needs to be acknowledged that those interests directly contradict his responsibilities as an officer of the InterNeighborhood Council. It would have been appropriate for the INC to poll its member organizations to determine whether or not they wanted to support the Omah St. residents in their opposition to the rezoning. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that the other neighborhoods in town would have voted to withhold their support. After all, there are a good many reasons why the rezoning will benefit the city at-large. If the INC member neighborhoods had voted to take such a position, it would have further been appropriate for a board member who did not have a financial stake in the rezoning to speak to that issue in front of City Council.

To my knowledge, that did not occur. Rather, what happened was that a board member of the INC who did have a financial stake, inserted himself, acting in a non-INC capacity, into the neighborhood's own internal decision-making process. This happened after the neighborhood had submitted a petition opposing the rezoning, which would have raised the bar in Council to 6 votes for approving the rezoning. Under those conditions, the rezoning application would have failed.

As an individual, and as the attorney for the developer, Craigie Sanders had every right to engage in this process. However, the conflict of interest raised by his actions with his position within INC could not be clearer. If the organization is to maintain its relevance, and its authority to speak for the neighborhoods of Durham, Craigie Sanders needs to resign from its board, and not serve his term as president.