Position/philosophy statement
All citizens deserve the opportunity to live in a safe place and have access to housing that is affordable for them. They deserve a County government that respects those opportunities and pushes for ways to put those opportunities on the table.
Current Occupation
Owner - Property Management Company
Campaign Phone
704-728-6406
My professional background is based in finance, accounting, and process improvements. I have lived in Charlotte for almost 30 years and I use these skill sets on a daily basis professionally and personally. These skills are valuable as we continue to make necessary changes in how we govern. As one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, the old way of doing things won't work. The processes must improve and one of the critical areas is how the various governmental entities work together. We have some good examples like our transportation organization, but I want to push for more interaction among individual district elected officials that overlap a specific location of concern.
The overarching issue facing the County is the budget and handling issues regarding equity, public health, our parks, transportation, and debt, among other items, within that budget. There is nothing simple about the budgetary process and the needs are great within one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country. Issues like affordability, crime, and other issues, are always at the forefront of financial decisions. They have a long reaching impact that should always weigh heavily on the minds and hearts of the County Commissioners. Balancing this with making every effort to keep the tax rate low, while also keeping it in line with growth needs, will always be the most important issue the Commissioners face.
School funding decisions must be placed into the bigger picture of the overall budget. The County must pay some funds to charter schools, per state law, and also funds a community college with our taxpayer dollars. School funding decisions will be based partly on performance and partly on need, but I believe there are other ways that we can support CMS that are not budgetary. I want to ensure factors, like safety, receive heavy emphasis by ensuring the safety of not only our students, but teachers as well. This is a non monetary policy that can go a long way towards improving the overall environment in our schools for teachers and students. The current rules regarding safety must be followed AND supported by elected officials and updated.
It starts by improving our corporate tax base. That takes pressure off of our personal property tax base. We celebrate the big companies that bring in thousands of new six figure jobs, but we need to keep that same energy for companies that bring in jobs for people with a high school education and we need to do better about celebrating our existing small businesses. We need to consolidate our various small business incubator opportunities into a one stop shop. Finally, we need to do a better job of maximizing mixed use areas where we can. Too often, small businesses are being pushed out of their current locations by new development that has no incentive to incorporate small corporate spaces.
With regard to social services, the goal should be to eventually start reducing some social services because we have done such a great job at improving upward mobility for everyone. That's a tall task, but I want to build up a political will to get it done. That includes improving access to a diverse group of new and existing businesses. It includes bringing in new companies that need a diverse group of employees that have a broad range of academic backgrounds. To the extent that some social services need to constantly exist, I want to engage in examining all best practices and see how we can implement them in this County. This would include examining back room operations to see if there are duplicative operations that can be consolidated.
Change is never easy. At times, change makes us uncomfortable. We tend to go back to what we know that is comfortable. So, we tend to just re-elect people that have already been in office for quite a while. However, that restricts us from new ideas and better ways of doing things. I'm asking for your support as I push to bring even more transparency to government along with new ideas and new energy. We become stagnant, whether its government or our personal lives, when we accept the status quo. Thank you.
Position/philosophy statement
NC
Current Occupation
Elected Official
Age (optional)
69
Campaign Phone
704-942-6831
I have served 18 years as Commissioner, 13 years as a member of the CMS Board of Education. My BOCC colleagues elected me to chair the Board 6 of those 18 years. In addition, I have received the support of county commissioners across the United States to serve as President-Elect of the National Association of County Officials (NACo). From these experiences, I understand how government works, how to set the agenda, and how to engage fellow board members, staff and other relevant stakeholders to move it forward. In addition, my experiences as a US Marine and CMPD police officer as well as my educational experiences e.g., a Masters Degree from UNC-Charlotte in Public Administration, a BS degree in Criminal Justice prepared me for this work.
It is difficult to say what the most important issue is because nine people, collectively, make that decision. If it were my decision alone, I would say that affordable housing is the most important issue. Mecklenburg County is an attractive place to live, work and recreate, and people are moving to our region from all over the country at a rate of more than 150 people per day. Currently, our community has a deficit of more than 40,000 affordable housing units and the situation will potentially get worse. If we are to accommodate the growth that our community is experiencing, our community must have housing that accommodates people with varied levels of income.
Funding! For the last three years, the county has fully funded CMS's budget request and this year's student performance results demonstrated just how important funding is to the success of our students. The relationship between the BOCC and CMS Board is critical to improving our schools. Under our current process, both boards meet prior to budget discussions and the superintendent and county manager also meet multiple times prior to budgets being presented so that they each know what to expect regarding the budget. This process has taken the tension out of budget discussions and has lead to more positive board interactions and has proven to be an effective way of improving our local schools.
As for the local economy, our community was put on a great trajectory after we came out of the COVID pandemic. The BOCC used American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) federal funds to develop a plan to keep our economy going. Now, our economy is seeing some of our best and challenging times. More and more small businesses are being created; many large corporations are choosing Charlotte as the site for their headquarters or to establish a physical presence; and still other corporations are being recruited to our community to grow a diverse workplace environment. With this comes jobs and in many cases, high paying jobs. These economic development opportunities further broaden our capacity to grow.
With the new federal administration, policy changes have created stresses on our social services system. Health care cuts have made it difficult for many in our community to take care of their health care needs. Additionally, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts have put a strain on county resources. This causes a snowball effect, in that the case load for staff increases and the staffing model can no longer accommodate the needs and the added case loads. As a consequence, the quality of service suffers. Fortunately for Mecklenburg County, we are beginning our budget process, which allows time to evaluate the current needs and gaps in services. One thing that I would do to improve quality is lower client case loads.
The limited space provided did not allow me to fully expound on some of the responses provided in this guide, however, I hope that you will find my responses to be helpful in deciding who will represent you on the Board of County Commissioners. It has been an honor and privilege to serve the residents of Mecklenburg County. Without reservation, I enthusiastically offer my proven leadership, knowledge, skills, and experiences to continue representing the residents of District #3, and serving all the residents of Mecklenburg County. Hence, I humbly ask for your vote.
