The mayor is the principal representative of the council for relations with federal, state, and other local governments.
[2] The duties of the town council – of which the mayor presides – are "to adopt and provide for the execution of such ordinances, rules, and regulations ... as may be necessary or appropriate to protect health, life, or property, or to preserve or promote the comfort, convenience, security, good order, better government, or the general welfare of the town or its inhabitants".
[4] Candidates must be registered voters and residents of Chapel Hill but while in office not appointed to any other paid government position.
)[10] Before 1879, the mayor was a magistrate hired by the Board of Commissioners to exercise police powers.
An 1895 charter amendment established the mayor as a position elected by the town's citizens.