At least one member of the Historic Resources Commission was not pleased with the conduct of the HRC board’s meeting on March 24.
On the day after the meeting, Ben Beushausen wrote to Graham planner Jonathan Buckley expressing concerns about “some definite issues with yesterday’s meeting.” Much of his concern involved HRC chairman Zipporah Clark-Baldwin.
The Alamance News reviewed the emails received in response to a public records request for all correspondence to, from, and among HRC members in connection with consideration of the new park at 129 West Elm Street.
“A chair that does not understand how to run a meeting (or what the steps are),” was the first item on Beushausen’s list of five areas of concern. “As you know this has been an ongoing issue and she does not seem to be learning anything; on the contrary, it seems to have gotten worse. She also just rambles on at length which causes a lot of issues. Is there any training that can be done with her? What are the other options? I try to rein her in but also not overstep as it is not my place to do so.”
In a follow-up email, Beushausen also expresses concern that the HRC has not had elections for its commission chairman in his two years on the board. Annual elections are supposed to be held each December, he says, pointing to the city’s development ordinance.
Clark-Baldwin, Beushausen, and Casey Bosley are the three senior members of the commission. Two new members – Richard Shevlin and Sandra Hall – had been appointed by the city council on March 10, and the March 24 meeting was their first HRC meeting.
Buckley later tells Beushausen that Clark-Baldwin’s term expires in June “and she will need to be reappointed by city council during their June meeting.”
Beaushausen tells Buckley that “there needs to be an explanation to the board of what our role is – judges of the facts before us only,” as well as writing that “the same explanation needs to be given to the public.”
Beushausen also says, “If there is a contentious issue like yesterday it may be good to give the board a warning and go over the expectations (like swearing in and voting on Standing). That way we are not overwhelmed with things and we can come in with the proper mindset.”
Buckley responds, “As far as the Board’s role and communication with the public, the city did everything it was supposed to regarding public notice and communication that this was a quasi-judicial hearing.”
In actuality, neither the letter to adjacent property owners, nor the city’s announcement of the public hearing specified that the public hearing was going to be conducted on a “quasi-judicial” basis.
The first mention of it was when city attorney Bryan Coleman outlined those procedures at the beginning of the HRC meeting on March 24.]
Here’s the city’s public notice: “PUBLIC NOTICE, SPECIAL MEETING, PUBLIC HEARING, Historic Resources Commission, Public Notice is hereby given that the City of Graham Historic Resources Commission will hold a Public Hearing by Special Meeting on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall, Council Chamber, 201 S. Main Street, Graham, NC, to consider a Certificate of Appropriateness for the new proposed park.”
Similarly, the letter to adjacent and nearby property owners described the meeting as follows, “The Historic Resources Commission (HRC) will review the application Tuesday, March 24th, 2026 6:00 p.m., in the Council Chambers. The public is invited to attend this meeting. Anyone having factual testimony relative to COA2603 [i.e., the request to build the park] is invited to participate during the hearing of the proposal. To participate you will need to attend the meeting in person and will be sworn in under oath,” the letter said.
Beaushausen also asks, “What is the process when someone gets out of line – as happened last night?”
It’s not clear to whom he was referring, but at least twice he had told Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr. “to sit down.”
Boney, who owns the property across from the parking lot intended to be the new park, remained at the podium after the commission voted 4-1 that he did not have legal “standing” to address the commission.
“Do we need to have a police officer there to keep the peace?” Beaushausen asks. Buckley responded to that issue as follows: “We did have a police officer in the building for last night’s meeting. We typically call in security when we expect a degree of public unrest.”
