Ken Larsen's website - Petition frustration
In my region of the country [Durham, Chapel Hill, Raleigh North Carolina], local government leaders have not been serving their citizens well. They have demonstrated repeatedly that their primary mission is to serve developers. One recurring shortcoming is their refusal to consider petitions submitted by citizens.
Let me cite several examples:
| Date | Presented to | Submitted by | Subject | # of signatures | Details |
| 2014-Jan-26 | Chapel Hill Town Council | Julie McClintock | Form Base code for Ephesus-Fordham redevelopment | 857 | |
| 2017-Dec-5 | Orange County Commissioners | Bonnie Hauser | Durham-Chapel Light Rail project (DOLRT) | 650 | |
| 2018-Dec-3 | Durham City Council | Andrew Johnson (of Creekside PTA) + Culp Arbor retirement community | The petition protested the re-zoning a portion of a residential area to be industrial ... to serve as a railroad maintenance facility (ROMF) for the proposed Durham-Orange County light rail project (DOLRT). | 1100 | |
| 2019-Jan-7 | Wake County commissioners | residents of southwest Wake County | To protest the proposed sale of the Crooked Creek Golf course. The county bought the property for ostensive use as a park, but then decided to sell the property on the open market. | details |
In all of these instances, the petition was ignored. It changed no votes.