While development policy and taxes are some of the changes the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners will wrestle with after three new members are elected Nov. 8, candidates said the persistent issues of crime, traffic and schools are what most voters were asking about.
With six candidates competing for three seats on the board, it is one of the most crowded local races, with newcomers, experienced candidates and two incumbent members vying for the seats.
Board member Woody White is the Republican incumbent who said he was running on his promise to keep spending and taxes low, something he said he accomplished in his four-year term.
“Many voters are not pleased that taxes have gone up without justification,” White said. “They want people that have a vision for the county, that can manage money and that can keep taxes low.”
The Democrats also have an incumbent member running for re-election, board vice chairman Jonathan Barfield Jr., who said increasing development has been on voters’ minds. Barfield said the county also needed to focus on housing as it pushed for economic growth.
“There are people that work here, but are moving to Brunswick and Pender counties because it’s cheaper to live,” Barfield said.
Republican Patricia Kusek, a first-time candidate, said the primary goal of the board of commissioners should be to make the county more attractive to industry. The county can do this by making permitting easier, Kusek said, adding that New Hanover County has gained a reputation for being hard to do business with.
“We have to diversify the economy,” Kusek said. “It can’t be just tourism.”
Kusek has White’s endorsement, who said he and Kusek, along with current board member Skip Watkins, would establish a conservative majority on the board that would make spending cuts.
Democrat Julia Boseman, a former commissioner and state senator, said winning a seat on the county board was about driving turnout. On policy, she said the board needed to continue working on a rewrite of the SUP process, but she believes it still needs to be strict enough to restrict heavy industrial plants like the proposed Titan Cement plant, which abandoned its permit application after strident local opposition.
Boseman also sees the need for increased focus on education, which would include expanding the local supplement for teacher pay and implementing more career and vocational education into the public-school system.
Derrick Hickey, a former member of the New Hanover County Board of Education and an orthopedic surgeon, distinguished his mostly self-funded campaign by contrasting it with the donations made to other candidates, pointing to both Republicans and Democrats.
“I’m the candidate that represents the average person, who normally doesn’t have a voice,” said Hickey, whose campaign hasn’t reported any donations yet, but will have a few contributions from personal friends on the next report. “The people who donate to campaigns are already well represented.”
Hickey ran for the board of commissioners in 2014 and said his campaigns have focused on local issues like the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority (CFPUA), which he said overcharged customers and did a poor job of representing the community.
“They raised our water and our sewer rates every year except this year,” Hickey said.
White, a member of the CFPUA board, defended the utility, arguing it has reduced spills by 80 percent and saved $10 million in costs through merging the local utility services.
“It’s a professional, well-run organization that was prepared for Hurricane Matthew, that quickly fixes pipes that burst and that consistently delivers high-quality, safe drinking water to its users,” White said.
Nelson Beaulieu, also a Democrat, is another first-time candidate. This Cape Fear Community College history and political science professor said he wanted to bring a new perspective to the board with his background that includes serving in the Army in Afghanistan, working in law enforcement and teaching in the local college system.
For his policy agenda, Beaulieu said education should be the first funding priority for the board, adding that the school system should get its full budget request before funding park and other projects, citing the Ogden Skate Park as an example.
“The education budget is the first thing cut; it should be the first thing funded,” Beaulieu said.
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