CH Council member Tai Huynh will not seek reelection

GOVERNMENT

By Carl Blankenship
Editor

CHAPEL HILL — A first-term Chapel Hill Town Council member is opting not to run again, citing time constraints from his growing business.

Tai Huynh was elected to the council in 2019 when he was still a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. He won the final seat up for grabs by a 24-vote margin in a historic win for a Vietnamese-American.

 In an announcement letter Huynh furnished to TLR, he wrote that he and his colleagues were starting a new business, the government services technology company Acta Solutions.

“Our business is succeeding,” Huynh wrote in the letter. “This rapid growth is requiring more and more of my time and I find that I can no longer devote the time needed to be the Council member that Chapel Hill deserves.”

Huynh highlighted the town’-s COVID-19 pandemic response, including use of federal relief money to help at-risk residents, approval of a large number of affordable housing units, increasing staff pay and paying a part in the creation of new town initiatives. Those programs include the Orange County Summer Careers Academy, the Complete Communities Framework, creation of the town’s Innovation District, moving toward improving transit and the town’s Criminal Justice Debt Relief Fund.

“I could not have asked for a better group of colleagues,” the letter reads.

Huynh still plans to participate in community initiatives and support causes to help vulnerable people in the town.

The announcement guarantees two new council members will be elected this fall. Incumbent Michael Parker announced he will not seek reelection this cycle either. The other two members whose seats are up for grabs, Amy Ryan and Jessica Anderson, have not announced their plans.

Filing for this campaign cycle begins Friday at noon and closes July 21.

Michelle Cassell contributed reporting to this story.