Position/philosophy statement
Craven County revenue, citizens taxes, should be respected not expected.
Current Occupation
Real Property Tax Assessor
Age (optional)
57
Campaign Phone
2523490209
I presently serve as the Mayor of Bridgeton keeping the infrastructure strong and up to date. The financial standing for the town have improved during my tenure. I have also served in leadership roles in local organizations such as the New Bern Area Soccer Association (Coastal United), New Bern Jaycees and Rotary. I owned a local home inspection company, (HIP) Home Inspection Professionals, which I recently sold to employees. All of these duties required budgeting/planning for the upcoming year and as well as creating long term goals.
Craven County will always be fighting to maintain a balance between taxes and providing services such as supporting public education and providing emergency services. The county commissioners will have to always question the necessity of the spending being requested by the departments.
The county commissioners are expected to be good fiscal stewards of the tax payers money and that requires asking a lot of questions of those requesting the money, including the school board. School boards should provide a detailed accountability of the tax payers money to include long range plans to either increase or decrease staff as well as facilities as populations and demands change.
The present board of commissioners have done a tremendous job of turning the board in a more fiscally responsible direction with particular help from former commissioner Tom Mark. I plan to ask the same type of questions necessary to require responsible spending from our county officials, with a particular focus on long term plannning/developement.
Social services are a balance between the services provided/expected and the available funds to provide those services. I would always look to minimize the amount of duplicated services provided by the Federal/state or local governments so that other services can be provided.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Position/philosophy statement
Christian Constitutional Conservative for Craven County
Current Occupation
Logger
Age (optional)
40
Campaign Phone
252-671-0026
I have a degree in education, and I run a small business in a very volatile logging industry. As a small business owner, you have to learn to spend money wisely and efficiently in order to prevail in this economy. My background in education also helps me to be more well-rounded and helps in navigating issues that may arise with the school system.
I believe that public safety should always be the primary issue of any government. The Commission should continue to work with the Sheriff's Office to keep the county safe as well as look for new ways to make it safer. Public safety also entails working with Fire/EMS to make sure that response times are where they need to be and that all of our first responders are adequately equipped to handle any emergency.
Education is an important issue for Craven County. I believe every parent should have a choice in how their tax dollars are spent when educating their children. I support school choice, but I also believe that we should work with the school board to make our public schools so excellent that they are the choice parents want to make. I think my degree and background in education will help me navigate some of the decisions concerning education in Craven County.
Keeping taxes low will allow the county economy to continue to thrive. Low taxes allow individuals more financial flexibility and provides them the freedom to spend money into the county economy. Low taxes are also good for existing business and is an incentive for new business to come to Craven County. I believe the money that is already collected from the current tax rate is enough to provide proper services to the citizens of the county, as long as it continues to be spent efficiently.
I believe that the county already does a good job in most ways concerning social services. But I believe we should always be looking to make sure that as our world and economy changes around us that we have the ability to adapt to meet the needs of our citizens. However, we should always remain financially responsible in any endeavor.
As a Christian Constitutional Conservative, I would always strive to do the right thing for Craven County no matter how hard it may be.
Current Occupation
Fire Specialist at New Bern Fire Rescue
Age (optional)
38
Campaign Phone
2526711649
I am a fourth generation born and raised in district 1, I know district 1 from one side to the other. The citizens in Fairfield are just as important as the citizens of Vanceboro. I have been a career fireman for 18 years, and have served the residents of district 1 as a volunteer fireman for 25 years. I am a past chief and current president of my volunteer fire department. I have had extensive work preparing county budgets in my fire department as well as while obtaining my degree in fire protection technology. I am the founder and president of the 1845 Firefighters Foundation. I currently serve on the craven county board of adjustments, and serve as the treasurer on the craven county firemans relief fund.
It is time to redraw the district lines of the county. I think this will be a issue for the county as the demographics of the county have changed drastically since the lines were redrawn last. I think that each district should be drawn based on what sets that area apart from other districts. Such as I think the rural areas should be rural and have farmland and farms within their district. Industrial areas of the county should be drawn as a district with businesses and industry, subdivisions and residential areas should be drawn that way. I understand that each district should be represented with somewhat of the same amount of people in each district, however I think my recommendation would be more beneficial to the citizens.
The county commission has to continue improving the school safety of our children and educators. In order to do this the funding has to continue to provide a minimum of one school resource officer in elementary schools, and one to two officers in each middle and high school. I also believe in the state lottery money coming back to the schools across the state as it should be. Currently that is not happening, a portion of it is making it to the schools, and the other is being spent elsewhere. I believe this is where the local school board and the board of commissioner's have to work together and lobby for that money to be accounted for and put back into our local school's here in craven county.
I would like to see a marketing committee formed to market craven county for more industrial businesses to come to craven county. I think along with more industrial businesses, will come more chain restaurants such as steakhouses. This committee would be tasked with going out and finding these corporations, restaurants, and industries and showing them why they should come to craven county. In getting more businesses you get more tax revenue for the county as well as good paying jobs for the people of craven county.
I am not sure where social services needs improvements for a policy to be implemented. I do believe that social services does a great job in dealing with the issues that they are tasked with. As commissioner I would work with them to see that they continue to get the needed resources to perform their jobs.
I believe that my time as a volunteer fireman serving the county helps me see the county in a broad spectrum, and makes me a good candidate to serve the citizens of craven county. I put in countless hours volunteering my time as a volunteer fireman and serving on the county boards. I am not just starting to serve the people in district 1, I have been serving the citizens for the past 25 years.
