Chapel Hill has an open council seat. Here’s how to apply for the temporary job.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Chapel Hill will fill a temporary council vacancy before the Dec. 10 swearing-in.
- Applicants must be Chapel Hill residents, age 21+, and registered to vote.
- Applications are due by Oct. 10; appointment expected at Oct. 22 meeting.
Update: Council members received 10 applications for the vacant seat but did not nominate anyone to fill it on Oct. 22, 2025.
Chapel Hill needs someone to fill a Town Council seat for just over a month after losing a longtime member this summer.
Chapel Hill Mayor Jessica Anderson announced Wednesday the town is taking applications for Karen Stegman’s vacant seat. Stegman left the council June 27 after her family moved to Carrboro.
The town will accept applications through Oct. 10, and the council is expected to appoint a temporary member Oct. 22. The new member will serve through Dec. 10, when the winners of the Nov. 4 municipal election will take their seats.
State law lets a town board fill a vacancy if the election is more than 90 days away, and the town’s charter also requires a vacancy announcement at the council’s first meeting after the seat become vacant. Because the council started its summer break June 28 — a day after Stegman left the board — the council’s first opportunity to act was in September.
The council announced the application process at a special Sept. 3 meeting, held in a small conference room at Town Hall to talk about recruiting firms for a new town attorney. The meeting notice did not mention the council vacancy discussion, but it was posted to the “Boards & Commissions” and the “Mayor & Council” pages on the town’s website.
In an interview Friday, Anderson said the town was not downplaying the council vacancy. There may not be much interest in the seat because the term is short, she said, but the council wanted to follow state law.
That gives town staff seven days to announce the application period, she said. The council could appoint someone on Oct. 22, or it could decide not to appoint anyone. The council must continue to vote at each subsequent meeting until someone is appointed or elected to fill the vacancy.
“We always want to be transparent. We always want to make sure that people know things and that we’re not saying them to a room of just ourselves, but we know also that people are pretty exhausted these days with the amount of information that’s out there,” Anderson said.
How could this affect the election?
Chapel Hill voters will elect four of five candidates to the council on Nov. 4. Incumbents Paris Miller-Foushee and Camille Berry are running along with three other candidates; Anderson is running unopposed for another term as mayor.
A sixth person, Jon Mitchell, pulled out of the council race in late August.
One of the three non-incumbent candidates could apply for the open seat, a move that historically has been seen by local governments as giving the candidate a leg up in the election.
Anderson agreed appointing one of the candidates to the seat could be seen as a council endorsement.
“For me, as one of nine [on the council], I would have concerns about what I guess would feel like putting a finger on the scale,” Anderson said. “I do like to leave it up to the voters and allow the democratic process to play out.”
No one has submitted an application yet, town staff said Friday.
How to apply for a council seat
- You must be a Chapel Hill resident, at least 21 years old, and registered to vote in Chapel Hill.
- Complete an application form that can be found online or at the Visitor’s Check-In desk on the first floor of Town Hall. Or request one by calling 919-968-2757 or emailing clerk@townofchapelhill.org.
- Submit applications by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 10.
- Applications can be submitted online, via email to clerk@townofchapelhill.org, or sent by mail to the Town Clerk, Chapel Hill Town Hall, 405 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
This story was originally published September 12, 2025 at 2:47 PM.
