Wrightsville Beach residents won’t have much choice at the polls in November. Mayor Bill Blair and two members of the board of aldermen are running unopposed. No one filed to challenge the mayor or incumbents Elizabeth King Brown and Darryl Mills.
Likewise, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo will have no challenger for his fourth term.
The city council race is another story. Eight people have filed for three open seats in the nonpartisan race, one of them belonging to longtime incumbent Laura Padgett, who is not seeking another term. Incumbents Neil Anderson and Margaret Haynes have filed to run again, as have six others.
Hollis Briggs, who does investigations and marketing for the Kellum Law Firm’s Wilmington office, founded the Bottom Neighborhood Association and organizes the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade downtown. His primary concerns are economic development, including a strong summer jobs program for teens, fair distribution of the city’s resources and contracts, better community policing, affordable housing and increased recreational opportunities for children and teens.
Deb Hays, an agent with Intracoastal Realty, chairs the Wilmington Planning Commission and is a past chair of the Wilmington Housing Authority, of which she is still a member. She said she’s running because the city must continue to grow, and the effort will require that government, business and the public work together to plan for the future they want.
Paul Lawler is a past “mayor” of Residents of Old Wilmington, a group that focuses on downtown preservation and revitalization efforts. He has been vocal about the city’s effort to redevelop the aging Water Street Parking Deck and has been particularly critical of putting taxpayer money into a new parking deck that would be leased in part to the private developers of the proposed complex. He said his top priorities are public safety and economic growth, focusing on jobs in the tech and travel and tourism industries, with an eye on jobs that pay better than many existing retail and tourism jobs.
Frank Madonna spent a number of years in local government in New York before going into the telecommunications field. Since retiring to Wilmington, the Landfall resident has served on his neighborhood management council as well as the Cape Fear Community College Foundation board. He said he has no specific agenda or vested interests but wants to help the city manage and plan for growth that shows no sign of stopping.
John Presswood, a real estate appraiser, has been a Wilmington resident since 1996 and is currently serving on the city’s board of adjustment, which handles requests for variances from zoning rules. He said he would like to see a better effort to inform residents about issues of concern and to energize neighborhoods to be more active and vocal. He is also concerned about economic development, clean energy, parks and bike paths, and crime reduction.
Rogers, who owns an appliance store, has taken an active interest in transportation issues, suggesting out-of-the-box alternatives to N.C. Department of Transportation proposals for managing the city’s traffic problems. For example, he thinks South College Road and Kerr Avenue should be one-way streets rather than putting resources into building an at-grade or raised interchange at the busy College/Oleander Drive intersection. He also has been interested in preserving neighborhoods and said he helped fight off rezoning.
As for the incumbents, Anderson and Haynes are seeking a second term. Anderson said a major focus of the next council must be on completing a comprehensive plan that will change zoning rules in time for a new city. With annexation dead, denser development and redeveloping some areas will be a priority if people don’t want their taxes to go up, he said. He also believes the council has done a good job limiting tax increases but said he would like to see more resources targeted toward some of the smaller tasks that were cut out during the recession, such as mowing parks and rights-of-way more often.
Haynes said the city launched a number of exciting projects during her first term — a 7-acre purchase for a new park on the Cape Fear River, a hotel for the Wilmington Convention Center and redevelopment of the Water Street deck — and she wants to see them through.
In Carolina Beach, incumbent Mayor Dan Wilcox faces former Mayor Bob Lewis, whom he defeated by just seven votes in 2013. Lewis, a former councilman, was appointed to the office by fellow council members in 2012 but lost the narrow race two years ago.
Nine people, including the two incumbents up for re-election, are seeking two seats on the town council. Among them is former Councilman Lonnie Lashley, who resigned along with former Mayor Ray Rothrock and former Town Manager Tim Owens, now in the same position at Wrightsville Beach.
Owens said at the time he felt compelled to resign by Lewis (then a councilman) and council members Sarah Friede and Steve Shuttleworth.
Lashley and Rothrock resigned in response to Owens’ resignation. Shuttleworth, who had criticized Owens’ performance as too focused on tax increases to raise revenue, and Friede filed for re-election this year. Also running for council are Tom Bridges, who served briefly but was defeated in the 2013 general election; Patrick Boykin, Tom Elicson, Tammy Hanson, T.D. Scaringi and Steve Wright.
In Kure Beach, incumbent Mayor Dean Lambeth is being challenged by town council member Emile Swearingen. The two are on opposite sides of the oil exploration effort; Swearingen was critical of Lambeth’s letter in support of seismic testing without a vote of the council. He sent the letter on personal stationery but identified himself as mayor of Kure Beach.
Three people have filed for two seats on the town council: incumbent David Heglar will face challengers John Ellen and Joseph Whitley.
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