LUMINA NEWS

CAMPAIGN TRAIL UPDATE: GOP carries the day in Wrightsville

2010-11-03T16:16:00.003-04:00

By Marimar McNaughton Tuesday, November 2, 2010

The GOP carried the day in Wrightsville Beach as the poll closed at the Fran Russ Recreation Center with U. S. congressional challenger Ilario Pantano scoring 424 votes against incumbent six-term Congressman Mike McIntyre with 335 votes.

In the state Senate District 7 seat, former UNCW chancellor Jim Leutze trailed attorney Thom Goolsby 309 to 443.

In the county’s hottest races for two commissioner seats and the office of sheriff, Republicans Rick Catlin, Wrightsville Beach resident won 573 votes, Brian Berger earned 392. Trailing were Democrats, Deb Butler with 220 votes and Sid Causey, former New Hanover County Sheriff with 229.

In the sheriff’s race, incumbent Ed McMahon won the Wrightsville precinct with 392 votes and challenger Marc Benson, former Wrightsville Beach Police Department Reserve Officer trailed with 330 votes.

With two minutes left until closing 787 residents had cast their votes.

McIntyre re-elected to Congress; Pantano concedes from 7th District race

2010-11-03T16:16:00.000-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Ilario Pantano comforts supporters at the Blockade Runner after being defeated by Mike McIntyre on Tuesday, Nov.2.

Incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre will continue serving in Congress, as his Republican challenger, Ilario Pantano, conceded from the race late Tuesday, Nov. 2.

Pantano announced his concession from the District 7 race at the Blockade Runner in Wrightsville Beach.

Of the 10 counties included in the district, McIntyre had been leading in seven, according to results posted before 10:30 p.m. by the North Carolina State Board of Elections. Pantano had been winning in Brunswick, Pender and Sampson counties, the board’s map showed.

A New York native and veteran who served in the Gulf and Iraq wars, Pantano chose to stay in southeastern North Carolina and raise his family here after being assigned to Camp Lejeune with the U.S. Marine Corps.

McIntyre grew up in Lumberton, N.C., and has served in Congress since 1996.

CAMPAIGN TRAIL UPDATE: Republicans rule county's election night

2010-11-03T16:09:00.003-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson
Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Sheriff Ed McMahon receives a warm welcome at the New Hanover County Government Center Tuesday night, Nov. 2.

Rick Catlin, candidate for New Hanover County Commissioner,
watches for results at the New Hanover County Government

Center Tuesday night, Nov. 2.

Rick Catlin, candidate for New Hanover County Commissioner, watches for results at the New Hanover County Government Center Tuesday night, Nov. 2.

Sheriff Ed McMahon receives a warm welcome at the New Hanover County Government Center Tuesday night, Nov. 2.

With 31 out of 46 precincts reporting in by 10:30 p.m. Tuesday night, Republicans were maintaining comfortable leads in most New Hanover County races. The Grand Old Party swept the school board slate as well as the county commissioners. The exception was the sheriff's election, where Democratic incumbent Ed McMahon kept his office despite a challenge from Marc Benson.

Rick Catlin had more than 30,000 votes and Brian Berger had topped 25,000, and Democrats Deborah Butler and Sid Causey had little more than 20,000 each. Catlin and Berger will join Republicans Jason Thompson and Ted Davis and Democrat Jonathan Barfield on the board of commissioners, maintaining the current 4-1 majority there.

The school board actually became more Republican than before; incumbent Nick Rhodes was the top Democrat at 21,614, and all three incumbent Republicans, Janice Cavenaugh, Ed Higgins and Don Hayes, plus newcomer Derrick Hickey, were all in the high 20,000s.

The winners will join Democrats Dorothy DeShields and Elizabeth Redenbaugh and Republican Jeanette Nichols, bringing the majority there up to 5-2.

"It's a bad night to be a Democrat," said Causey as he watched the early returns. He wished the winners well as he left later.

Butler agreed that it was all about the party, since she thought her campaign had done as good a job as any other.

Berger was not ready to declare victory yet, but he said he was looking forward to taking a break from campaigning to be able to catch up with the rest of his life.

Catlin said one of the first things he planned to do was look into the performance of the board of elections and find out why there were problems with the ballots and why the tallying took so long.

Commissioners chairman Jason Thompson, a Republican, and Jonathan Barfield, a Democrat, neither of whom was running, both agreed that on their board, it's not about the party it's about relationships and moving the county forward.

The Republican school board candidates did not appear to be viewing results with the crowd outside the board of elections. The losing Democrats had plenty to say, though.

Nick Rhodes blamed straight-party voting.

Clancy Thompson said the community was ignoring sustainable values, and the nation would keep slipping until it could address this issue.

"It doesn't mean we'll stop... This just gets me more fired up," he said.

Phil Stine said that voters were moving backwards and the votes showed the county didn't care about strategic thinking or fiscal management.

"I am disappointed in the lack of forward thinking," he concluded.

Sheriff Ed McMahon said he was humbled and grateful for his victory, and he gave God the glory and the credit.

CAMPAIGN TRAIL UPDATE: Goolsby takes legislative seat

2010-11-03T16:08:00.002-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Republican Thom Goolsby is heading to the state Senate after defeating Democrat Jim Leutze for the 9th District seat left open by Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover. Boseman chose not to run for a fourth term.

Goolsby, a Wilmington attorney, led the race with more than 57 percent of the votes with 41 of the 43 precincts reporting, according to the New Hanover County Board of Elections’ website.

Leutze is the former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

“We’ve got a lot of work before us,” Goolsby said by telephone Tuesday night. “The people have spoken, and they want government off their backs and out of their wallets and pocketbooks, and that’s what we’re going to deliver to them.”

Goolsby had spent the Election Day evening with supporters, including family, at the Slainte Irish Pub downtown.

“People are just ready for real conservative change they can count on,” Goolsby said.

McIntyre, Pantano down to the wire

2010-11-02T15:45:00.000-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Thursday, October 28, 2010

Mike McIntyre
Staff photo by Allison Breiner Potter

Ilario Pantano
Staff photo by Joshua Curry

One has grown up in North Carolina, the other chose to live here, but both Congressional candidates for the 7th District call it home and say they will fight for issues that concern local residents, including beach renourishment.

But incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre and his Republican challenger, Ilario Pantano, have different views on how to continue funding projects to replenish eroding coastlines.

Congressional challenger Ilario Pantano mingles with members of the Fellowship for Christian Athletes at a luncheon on Monday, Sept. 20.

Pantano vowed to try changing the way beach renourishment is funded, saying it’s ad hoc, lumped with pork projects that lead to competition among states and representatives across the country.

"I want to reform the overall process," Pantano said Monday, Oct. 25. "I want to make sure that we’re looking at this as a 10-year cycle."

New freshmen representatives coming to Congress, Pantano said, will want to conduct business in a new and better way.

"Earmarking is going to be going away in one form or another, hopefully, if we’re going to reform our budgetary house," Pantano said. "That’s going to demand . . . that we have an alternative funding mechanism to make sure that we can protect our coasts."

Federal earmarks here or there do not allow county or state planners a real sense of how they need to match funds, Pantano argued.

"When the local governments don’t know when the next shoe is going to drop or when the next check is going to show up from the federal government, that makes it hard to do their work," Pantano said. "I want to see an overhaul of the way that the system is actually funded and implemented."

McIntyre said it was impossible for a freshman congressman to change the system of appropriations funding, and he added that beach renourishment cycles are planned for as many as 50 years out.

Congressman Mike McIntyre speaks to his constituents aboard the Battleship North Carolina following a ceremony on Oct. 12.

"So when he talks about (a) 10-year plan, you need a 50-year plan," McIntyre said Monday, Oct. 25. "That is what we have done."

A decades-long renourishment plan for Carolina Beach, for instance, is approaching its conclusion in 2014. McIntyre said he has already filed legislation to extend and renew it.

Other renourishment plans for different areas are in various stages of their cycles, including Wrightsville Beach, McIntyre said.

"You’ve got to have an understanding of what phase those plans are in," McIntyre said. "That’s why in the annual appropriations process you have to fight for the funding to come through."

An earmark for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project like beach renourishment is different than other earmarks, Caswell Beach Mayor Harry Simmons, president of the American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, said Monday, Oct. 25. The project goes through a benefit cost analysis and an environmental impact study, he added.

The Corps district in Wilmington has four federally authorized beach renourishment projects for Carolina Beach, Wrightsville Beach, Kure Beach and Ocean Isle Beach, Simmons said, adding later that all four were included in the last 2010 appropriations cycle.

Simmons said he would love to have a beach renourishment trust fund paid for through regular, sustainable funding, but he said sometimes such funds get robbed to balance the budget.

"The system we have is as good as we’re going to get for the time being," Simmons said, adding that he did not see much chance of it changing, primarily because it is so ingrained nationally.

"As far as congressional districts go around the country, Mike McIntyre’s district has gotten as much of the pie as it’s supposed to get, and in some cases more," Simmons said. "We all have to fight for a pie that OMB (federal Office of Management and Budget) and Congress decide is going to be a certain size."

But Pantano questioned why Illinois got more money for beach renourishment for a lake than North Carolina did for its "Hurricane Alley" coast.

"The political machine we all know is broken," Pantano said.

"To compare Illinois to North Carolina is ridiculous," McIntyre said. "He’s not comparing apples to apples." McIntyre added that he represents only three counties on the North Carolina coast.

McIntyre said he has received several awards in fighting for beaches and waterways, including the Admiral’s Circle Award from the National Marine Manufacturers Association and the Congressional Boating Caucus.

Both candidates have criticized the other during the campaign, generally in regard to change versus experience or frustration with big government versus an understanding of local issues.

Pantano said he has focused on national economic issues because he believes that is what drives the local economy, including contractor work and the real estate market.

New Hanover County’s beaches account not just for tourism but also are the underpinning of a tremendous real estate investment that leaps when the national economy does well, Pantano said.

"Very few districts in the country rise or fall more profoundly as a result of our national fortune," Pantano said. "We are the suburb of two of the largest military bases on the East Coast. Are we not directly impacted by a national security policy? Of course we are."

Pantano added that the area is affected by national trade policy with the Port of Wilmington.

A New York native and veteran who served in the Gulf and Iraq wars, Pantano chose to stay in southeastern North Carolina and raise his family here after being assigned to Camp Lejeune with the U.S. Marine Corps.

McIntyre, who grew up in Lumberton, N.C., and has served in Congress since 1996, chairs the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Specialty Crops, Rural Development and Foreign Agriculture, including biotechnology, and he is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee. He is one of the founding co-chairmen of the Special Operations Forces Caucus. McIntyre is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of conservative Democrats, where he co-chairs the Coalition’s Task Force on Business and Technology.

He has criticized Pantano for a remark he said Pantano had made that it does not matter what district he represents because he would represent the United States if elected.

To fight on a national level, you first have to understand what is good for your beaches, farmers, the local economy in regard to trade agreements and other local issues, McIntyre said.

"Constitutionally we are sworn to represent the people of our district and state, and it does make a difference," McIntyre said. "Otherwise the next time somebody has a local problem—keeping their veterans’ benefits, or someone has a problem on our local beaches when a hurricane strikes, or next time some of our farmers have a concern—then call the congressman in Idaho and see what kind of response you get."

Growing 9th District economies

2010-11-02T15:41:00.000-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Thursday, October 28, 2010

New Hanover County’s great quality of life must remain a priority for the area to grow and attract jobs in the future, North Carolina’s 9th District state Senate candidates say.

"The quality of place in New Hanover County is something that brings lots of people here, and we want to make sure that we maintain that," Republican Thom Goolsby said Monday, Oct. 25. "There’s all sorts of ways to grow jobs, good jobs, jobs that require intellectual capital, clean jobs."

Goolsby wants to reduce state taxes and state spending to encourage businesses to come here.

"Where the state falls down on the job is over taxation and overspending at the state level," Goolsby said. "The private sector creates jobs, not the government."

The future lies with a balance of green businesses, clean businesses, entrepreneurial activity, tourism, cultural activity, intellectual activity and a retirement center, Democrat Jim Leutze said Friday, Oct. 22.

"We have to have a mixed economy here," Leutze said. "We need to be very careful that we do not do things that will destroy or make more difficult our being a cultural, intellectual, clean jobs center."

Goolsby and Leutze are running for the seat left open by Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, who chose not to run for a fourth term.

Neither candidate supported the plan for Titan America’s proposed cement plant at Castle Hayne and the Northeast Cape Fear River.

"The state Senate doesn’t support or not support businesses coming," Leutze said. "I would prefer not to have Titan because I’m concerned about the pollution that they would put into the air, as well as the discharge into the river."

Goolsby said, "My problem with Titan is the fact that it was an issue of tax credits being given to businesses to bring them into our area. The best way to encourage business and jobs in New Hanover County is by reducing everybody’s taxes when it comes to land use and those types of issues."

Finding adequate funding for beach renourishment continues to be an important issue for the area, Goolsby and Leutze agreed.

"We need to work very hard with our congressional delegation, who are hopefully going to be majority Republican, to make sure that we continue to get the federal monies for that," Goolsby said. "We also have to plan how to handle the situation if that doesn’t work out."

Besides federal erosion-control money, part of New Hanover County’s room occupancy tax is used to fund area beach renourishment projects.

"We have to renourish our beaches," Goolsby said. "And Carolina Beach is the first one that’s up for reconsideration in just a few short years."

The federal government has been cutting back on beach renourishment funds in recent years, Leutze said.

"Every year they zero it out of the budget, and then you have to have people in Congress who are there to try to help you get that funding. And Congressman McIntyre has been quite successful in helping us in that regard," Leutze said. "But that money is not always going to be there, particularly when we have the economic crisis we have in the country today. We’re going to have to come up with another way of funding beach renourishment."

That can be done locally or through a mix of state and local funding, Leutze said.

"The problem with local money for beach renourishment is if local communities pay the full cost of beach renourishment they have every reason to say that the public cannot have access to those beaches, that those beaches now are private," Leutze said. "We don’t want to see that happen."

Leutze said he would try to get a mix of state and local funding, with local money coming from some kind of tax or fund.

"Then the trick becomes convincing people in Winston-Salem that they have an interest in renourishing Wrightsville Beach," Leutze said.

Party politics impact state Supreme Court race

2010-11-02T15:39:00.002-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Thursday, October 28, 2010

It may be a nonpartisan race, but an open seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court has some local Republican candidates eyeing more than a majority win in the General Assembly.

The seat in question belongs to outgoing state Supreme Court Associate Justice Edward Brady, who is not seeking re-election. State Court of Appeals Judges Robert "Bob" Hunter and Barbara Jackson are vying for that spot on the bench.

At a GOP (Grand Old Party) rally in Wilmington on Saturday, Oct. 16, that included a number of Republican candidates and party officials, some speakers voiced support for Judge Jackson, saying if she lost the race the party would lose a majority in the seven-member state Supreme Court when redistricting occurs.

Congressional and state districts are redrawn every 10 years, state Rep. Danny McComas, R-New Hanover, said Monday, Oct. 25, when asked about the issue.

"If we control the House and we control the Senate, then the only mechanism open for the Democrats to fight would be to take it to the courts," said McComas, who is unopposed in the District 19 state House race and runs the MCO Transport trucking and warehouse in Wilmington. "And if they control the courts, the Supreme Court mainly, then they would have the opportunity to defeat whatever we do."

The last time Republicans controlled both chambers in the North Carolina General Assembly was 1898, McComas said. He added the GOP believes it can win majorities in both the 120-member state House and 50-member state Senate in the upcoming election.

Whoever controls redistricting will control the makeup of what the Legislature could be in the years to come, both in Washington and on the state level, McComas said, adding that Gov. Beverly Perdue, a Democrat, has no veto power on redistricting.

"That’s one of the few things that she has no say on," McComas said. "It is the big thing."

Christie Cameron, clerk of the state Supreme Court, said she could not comment about whether the high court’s makeup after the race could be a redistricting issue.

"All I can really tell you is we did have redistricting cases come to the Supreme Court after the 2000 Census and redistricting at the Legislature," Cameron said Tuesday, Oct. 26.

Any number of General Assembly decisions could be affected, Wilmington attorney Thom Goolsby, the Republican state Senate candidate for the 9th District, said Monday, Oct. 25.

"Our courts are the ones who rule on what our laws mean," Goolsby said.

Beth Dawson, a Republican and retired banker who is running for the District 18 state House seat, stated in an e-mail Tuesday, Oct. 26, "We should all support judges who will uphold the Constitution and law as they are written."

Neither Goolsby’s Democrat opponent, Jim Leutze, nor Dawson’s Democrat opponent, Susi Hamilton, were aware of any concerns about how the Supreme Court race could affect the General Assembly.

"This is the first thing I’ve heard about the state Supreme Court race being an issue in the overall election midterm," Hamilton said on Tuesday, Oct. 26.

"No matter what the justices’ political affiliation is, their obligation is to uphold the law," said Hamilton, who runs the consulting company Hamilton Planning. She added that any sort of gerrymandering would be in conflict with that obligation.

"The judges’ races are nonpartisan," Hamilton added "Shame on the Republican party for trying to insert politics into a nonpartisan race."

The judicial decision-making process is intended to be nonpartisan as well, according to a statement released Wednesday, Oct. 27, by Sharon Gladwell, communications director for the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.

"I’m sure if you take a look at the influence of the Supreme Court and its decisions and the impact it’s had on things like election races and others, the Supreme Court swings a pretty big stick," Leutze, former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, said on Friday, Oct. 22.

"One would always hope that the court would not be partisan in the decisions that they would make, that they would view the merits of the case rather than have an ideological starting point by which they made their judgments," Leutze added.

Redistricting remains pivotal issue for school board

2010-11-02T15:38:00.000-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson Thursday, October 28, 2010

Candidate Dr. Derrick Hickey said it’s unfortunate that redistricting is still the big issue in the New Hanover School Board election, since there are many other issues to discuss. However, the topic has been in contention since before the middle and elementary schools went to neighborhood-based student assignments, and the subject regained prominence on Oct. 18 when the board voted 5-3 to send a letter assuring the state that it hadn’t redistricted along racial lines.

Board chair Ed Higgins voted for the neighborhood schools plan, along with Janice Cavenaugh, Don Hayes and Jeannette Nichols. Voting against it were Nick Rhodes, Elizabeth Redenbaugh and Dorothy DeShields.

Higgins, Cavenaugh and Hayes are running for re-election, joined on the Republican slate by newcomer Hickey. Rhodes is joined on the Democratic slate by Joyce Huguelet, Philip Stine and Clancy Thompson.

Higgins reiterated recently that the redistricting had nothing to do with race or socioeconomic status. "Nothing of that nature was discussed," he asserted.

Hayes agreed that schools were assigned based on where children lived.

"We didn’t use race and it shouldn’t be used. The state will determine whether we met the spirit of the law," Cavenaugh said.

Rhodes disagreed: "Look at the demographics after redistricting; it’s clear that we’ve resegregated the schools."

Huguelet said the state’s response would determine whether the school system gets funding, which it needs, but the law forbids even unintentional resegregation.

Stine said the state shouldn’t accept the board’s assurance, and Thompson said it should follow up and see how credible the statement was.

All the Democrats have said they wouldn’t overhaul school assignments even if elected, because it would be too disruptive. However, some tweaking might be necessary to adjust overcrowding in some schools and empty seats in others.

Most of the candidates on both sides are hoping that votes will be cast along party lines; the three incumbents and Hickey want Republicans to retain the majority while the Democrats desire to seize it.

Cavenaugh said she always voted on an individual basis, but she’d be voting a straight-party ticket this time.

Hayes said the school system is very good and scores have been going up.

"I think the reason is parents have been empowered with choices… I think it’s beginning to pay off. If you like those choices, re-elect those who adhere to that philosophy," he said.

Higgins recommended voting on party lines.

"If all four Republicans are elected, (redistricting) won’t come up again for four years, and by then, I don’t think there’ll be any question regarding neighborhood schools."

Hickey said he agreed with the philosophies of the other Republican candidates.

"This is a very important election for the district, with a real opportunity to put into place new programs and ideas with real promise in closing gaps and increasing educational achievements," he said, and voters could either do that or return to forced busing.

Rhodes said voters should replace the three incumbents who hadn’t addressed the needs of students.

"Since Mr. Hickey aligned himself with them, no one should vote for him either. It’s time for a more progressive, forward-thinking school board," he asserted.

Stine said the Democratic side has a strong ticket, with each person bringing different skills, from his and Rhodes’ managerial experience and Thompson’s creative arts work, the educational experience of all three, and Huguelet’s inside knowledge of the system as a former teacher and principal.

Thompson agreed, "I think one always has to look at the individual, but in this case, Democrats are putting forward the best candidates for the school board."

Huguelet, however, said she had little interest in party lines.

"It’s not about politics it’s about getting people who understand education and who are devoted to making the system work for every student."

CAMPAIGN TRAIL UPDATE: Commissioner candidates enter homestretch

2010-11-02T15:34:00.002-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson Friday, October 29, 2010

As the final days of the election loom, county commissioner candidates have been very busy working the early voting polls.

Former sheriff Sid Causey said Friday that he was about ready to take down his campaign signs on Sunday or Monday, so everything would be cleaned up by Tuesday. He said people have had plenty of opportunities to see them, so if the message hadn’t gotten through by now, one or two more days wouldn’t matter.

Third-quarter campaign finance reports showed Causey had raised a total of $30,103.17 by Oct. 22. Rick Catlin was far in the lead of the pack with $91,969.84 raised by Oct. 25; Deborah Butler had raised $20,601.23 by that date, and Brian Berger trailed the rest with $8,286 the same day.

Berger said the only poll he had seen showed him out in front, although it had a small sample size. He said he’d had very encouraging feedback from talking to early voters.

“I think I have a good chance of winning despite spending less money,” he said, “and that would be a very powerful signal… a testament to why I’m running.”

Butler said Friday, “I wish I could say I thought finance was irrelevant, but if there’s not enough money to make people familiar with you, it’s very difficult to win.” She added that with grassroots groundwork and a lot of face-to-face meetings and phone calls, her campaign had a healthy combination of contributions and work. At the polls, she said, she had encountered “tremendous support from all walks of life. It’s really enriching and educational.”

Causey said he wasn’t sure whether money played a big part in elections. Because of the bad economy, he hadn’t asked people for money, but supporters called him anyway with contributions. He added that he’d enjoyed spending a day at the Carolina Beach early voting station, seeing friends where he grew up. Some folks at the government center had been a bit confrontational, he said, but it had been good to see citizens waiting to exercise their constitutional rights.

Catlin said that the amount of money he’d raised showed that he had a lot of mainstream support, which was always a good sign. He felt he was going into the final few days with a lot of momentum, and had seen a lot of thumbs-up from people who had voted already. “It’s really impressive how many people have been standing in line for an hour to vote,” he added.

Catlin said he was humbled by the support he’d gotten. He concluded that if he were elected, he’d see it as an awesome responsibility, and he’d do his best with the job.

Butler said that in making their decisions, voters should ask themselves who is best equipped to make sound fiscal judgments, balance the intricacies of local government and put a progressive, 21st-century attitude on economic development.

Berger said that voters should look closely at candidates’ records, not just their words. They should find out who has consistently fought for the taxpayers, rather than using empty rhetoric and trying to be all things to all people.

Causey said that he hoped those who haven’t voted yet would educate themselves about the candidates.

“Be sure you’re voting for the right person, and remember you’ll have that person in office for four years,” he said.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE: Sheriff, challenger work polls in election’s final days

2010-11-02T15:33:00.000-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson Monday, November 1, 2010

Third-quarter campaign finance reports filed with the New Hanover County Board of elections showed Sheriff Ed McMahon was way ahead of challenger Marc Benson in fund-raising. McMahon’s campaign said a total of $58,611.23 had been raised by Oct. 21, and Benson’s campaign reported that $2,860 had been raised by Oct. 24.

Benson said Thursday that he’d been very busy working the polls, with so many people coming out for early voting.

“It seems the public’s been invigorated,” he said. He urged everyone to voice their opinions through their votes, for a conservative candidate as far as what taxpayers get for their money, or for the status quo.

McMahon said he had been getting a lot of positive feedback from his interactions with citizens. One thing that has changed since he’s been sheriff is closer cooperation with beach-town police. For instance, Wrightsville Beach contracts with the sheriff’s office every summer to provide deputies to help with law enforcement. Now, instead of Wrightsville Beach paying for all of the deputies’ time, McMahon has his department pick up part of the cost. He also said that this summer he had a full-time boat patrol serving all the beaches, but mostly around Masonboro Island to Wrightsville Beach, for alcohol enforcement.

Benson said that back in the 1980s—when he was an auxiliary police officer with Wrightsville Beach—the department had a nice working relationship with the county. If elected sheriff, he would look at how personnel are utilized, to see if alcohol enforcement or other coordination with municipal police could be improved.

“Everybody needs some help,” he said, but for the exact allocations, he’d have to check on how resources are being used now and figure out their best use in the future.

District 5 bench opens seat for new judge

2010-10-26T15:30:00.000-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Chad Hogston

Robin Wicks Robinson

Since the state legislature approved an additional judge for the District 5 Court bench due to increased population pressure, there is an open seat in this election. Two political and judicial newcomers are running in the nonpartisan race, but both are New Hanover County lawyers.

Robin Wicks Robinson has been practicing criminal, juvenile, family and civil law in Wilmington since 1986, although the heart of her service has been in family and juvenile law.

Chad Hogston moved to Wilmington in 1994 and has focused mainly in criminal and traffic law, mixed with some civil litigation. Hogston said a district court judge should have everyday court experience, a good temperament and the ability to work with people as a referee or bringing parties together.

"They’ve got to be able to make life-changing decisions," he said.

He compared district court to an emergency room, with each person having their own particular crisis that is the most important thing in their life at the moment. A judge needs to be able to focus on that, make a good decision, and then move on to the next case, he said.

Robinson said a judge needs knowledge, experience, integrity and fairness. She added that family and juvenile law are where knowledge and experience are most important, since a judge there has the discretion to help families in crisis.

Asked whether the letter or the spirit of the law was more important, she said that district court judges don’t make the law at their level. She called district court the people’s court where everyday problems are solved. She added that there’s not a lot of judicial discretion in criminal court, since the parameters of sentencing are pretty rigid. Civil court simply calls on judges to apply facts to the law, she said.

However, she believes the spirit of the law applies to discretion, as in family and juvenile law. There are many options to try to solve problems and look at ways to help prevent children from coming back through the court system, she said, but it still comes down to knowing the law and following it.

Hogston voiced a strong preference for judicial restraint over activism, reading the letter of the law as it is, and said he loved to hear a judge tell people that if they have a problem with a law, they need to talk to the legislature about it. He added that if interpretations were necessary, they could normally be determined through precedents of the higher courts and appellate rulings.

Hogston explained that in district court, family law judges are usually assigned to that court specifically, and others are assigned to criminal, domestic and civil cases, and so forth, on rotation. He said that he had the background for wherever he was assigned, commenting that a lot of judges are former prosecutors who have no experience in family court at all.

"Look at my experience in everyday court," he said.

Robinson cited her service as 5th District Bar president and on the Professionalism Committee, the North Carolina State Bar Ethics Committee and Family Law Council, as well as receiving awards from Legal Aid of North Carolina and other organizations.

Robinson has been endorsed by the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys. She has a peer to peer Martindale Hubbell® rating of BV Distinguished with a 4.4 out of 5 (5 being the highest rating obtainable).

Hogston appears, but is not rated in the online Martindale Hubbell ratings. Additionally, he has been endorsed by the Cape Fear Fraternal Order of Police.

Robinson said she had no particular aspiration to serve on a higher court later, since district court is where most of her experience lies, and this is where her family lives.

Hogston said he’d be content to be in Wilmington district court for the next 20 years.

"It’s never boring," he said.

Saving small businesses

2010-10-26T15:26:00.000-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Elaine Marshall

Richard Burr

Mike Beitler

Whether through tax cuts, credit increases or predictable regulations, Congress must help the private sector and small businesses to create good jobs and improve the economy, candidates for the U.S. Senate say.

North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, a Democrat, envisions a comprehensive jobs plan that includes tax cuts and credit increases for small businesses to add new lines, new employees or new equipment.

"Small business is really the engine of economic growth," Marshall, a former state senator, said Tuesday, Oct. 19. "And they’re going to be the ones that are going to pull us through and drive this economy."

Closing tax loopholes that encourage outsourcing and ending unfair trade agreements that ship away jobs are needed too, said Marshall, who also previously worked as an attorney and ran a decorating business. She added that long-term goals should include making good investments in education and emphasizing green energy research and jobs.

Taxes and regulation must be more predictable, Republican incumbent Sen. Richard Burr said after a rally in Wilmington on Saturday, Oct. 16.

"Without that we’re not going to get private capital taking the risk because they won’t know what the reward is," said Burr, who worked with a wholesale commercial products company and served 10 years in the U.S House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in 2004.

"What we’ve proven over the past year and a half is that government just throwing money at the problem is not going to re-inflate employment or get the economy going again," Burr said. "We’ve got to get the private sector believing and investing in the future."

Burr and Marshall are running against Libertarian Michael Beitler, a business professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, host of the Internet radio show "Free Markets with Dr. Mike Beitler," and a former chief financial officer in the banking industry.

Beitler, who also does consulting work, said small business owners tell him they will not hire and grow their businesses until they know what regulations they will be dealing with.

"It’s just unclear what’s going to happen next," Beitler said Monday, Oct. 18. "The best thing we could do for them now is to say we’ll put a moratorium on new regulations for the next year or two, and then that way they would know that the goal posts aren’t going to be moved in the middle of the game."

Different views

Marshall has criticized Burr’s record on certain bills, including his vote last month against a small -business lending bill, which has since passed.

"He voted against the help that small business wants and our bankers want because they need the credit," Marshall said. "They’ve got customers out there looking for loans … customers that they feel are valid customers with a good business plan."

Burr expressed concern over establishing a new $30 billion lending facility, which he said has been questioned by the Congressional Oversight Panel and means more government involvement in the private sector.

"This would have been a pretty good bill if we had just kept it simple by extending and expanding the loan programs currently available through the Small Business Administration, and enhancing loan fee reductions," Burr had said previously in a news release.

Beitler, who considers himself conservative on fiscal issues and liberal on social issues, said he is running to provide a choice other than the same old party line message.

"When I look at (Senator) Burr and (Secretary) Marshall I have nothing against them as individuals; we get along well offstage," Beitler said. "But I just don’t see how anybody can get excited about either one of them."

Beitler’s goal is to reach the double digits on Election Day.

"If we can get 10 percent or more, we’re now a force to be reckoned with," Beitler said. "The Dems and the Republicans can’t ignore us."

Policy changes

All three candidates had some concerns about recent health care reform.

"It needs to be repealed," Burr said after Saturday’s rally. "It needs to be replaced with something that focuses on addressing costs."

Without question, people want to see others getting health care, Beitler said, but the nation must address how to stimulate the supply of health care practitioners that would be needed to meet more demand of services.

"We’re not doing anything to incentivize people to go into the health care professions–doctors, nurses and technicians and so forth," Beitler said, adding that he favors offering incentives and benefits to potential health care workers similar to those offered to people who serve in the military.

"If they go through the system and get their certification and then work in the field for a while we would waive their tuition or something of that nature," Beitler said.

Marshall agreed that costs, particularly for premiums and the delivery of health care, must come down and that other fixes need to be made, but she argued the bill needs some time to get going.

"The benefits of electronic records information technology in the medical field, those kinds of things are still in the processing stages, and we’ll need to be watching those and seeing how they help out," Marshall said, adding that the technology can also help reduce errors.

"We need a fix," Marshall said. "I don’t know if repeal is the right word."

Marshall and Beitler both oppose the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy that bans gays from being able to serve openly in the military, a policy a federal judge in California recently ruled unconstitutional.

"Anybody who wants to serve their country, and they’re willing to risk life and limb, they’re a hero as far as I’m concerned," Beitler said.

"We need the best talent we’ve got," Marshall said. "To exclude people who are talented and willing to dthe service for you and me and everybody else, that’s really very, very unfair and wrong."

Congress–not the courts–should decide the issue, Burr said.

"This is the wrong time, while we’ve got troops deployed in two theaters, to make a massive policy change," Burr said Saturday. "But I believe that there’ll be an appropriate point in the future to have a public debate on it and have a vote in Congress."

Immigration reform

All three candidates want immigration reform with clear ways to earn citizenship.

"You have to grant amnesty, and by amnesty I just mean a pardon–not citizenship," Beitler said. "Bring them out of the shadows and then have a pathway for citizenship."

Earning citizenship could involve paying more in taxes, serving in the military or looking at civic duties or services, Beitler said.

Marshall, who opposes amnesty, said mass deportations are neither practical nor fair to taxpayers and the nation must toughen up on laws regarding employers.

"It would be futile if we haven’t closed our borders because they will be making a migration back in," Marshall said. "We’ve got to enforce the laws that are already on the books."

She supports reforming the process for immigrants to become legal citizens, including paying fines and back taxes and learning English.

Burr also opposes amnesty.

"I do not believe it is fair to reward those who have broken our laws, particularly at the expense of those who have followed the rules and applied for citizenship through the legal process," Burr said in a prepared statement. "I believe we should first ensure that our borders are secure, and then we should work to ensure that we have a legal immigration process that is understandable, consistent and followed."

School board election hits hot buttons

2010-10-19T15:52:00.000-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson
Thursday, October 14, 2010

Among numerous points of contention in the New Hanover County Board of Education election, redistricting remains one of the hottest topics, but all candidates agree it’s a done deal. Even opponents say it would cause too much turmoil to revisit the issue before growth and demographic shifts make it necessary again.

Three years ago, the school board redistricted elementary students with a focus on neighborhood schools. A year ago, due to the opening of Holly Shelter Middle School, redistricting occurred once more.

Advocates say neighborhood schools foster more parental involvement, and critics say they have resulted in wide racial/socioeconomic disparities between the schools.

Of the eight candidates running for four open seats on the school board, three are Republican incumbents who voted for the redistricting plan.

Janice Cavenaugh, a real estate appraiser, has been on the board 19 years. School board chairman Don Hayes, a sales representative and Navy veteran, and Edward Higgins, a law instructor at Cape Fear Community College, have both served on the board for 16 years.

The other Republican in the race, Dr. Derrick Hickey, said Tuesday that his scientific training as an orthopaedic surgeon would bring a facts-based approach to the school board in setting policies and measuring performance in students and teachers. He also said that as the only parent in the race with a child in the school system, he has seen that it’s necessary to change the culture and make administrators and staff more responsive.

Nick Rhodes is the Democratic incumbent running for re-election. A retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and management consultant, Rhodes is finishing his first four-year term. He voted against neighborhood-based redistricting and called it disastrous, but he said it would be too disruptive to redo. His main focus for the future is implementing the strategic plan his subcommittee has developed to raise academic proficiency to 85 percent, develop business and community partnerships with at least half of the schools, and have 21st century technology integrated into all classrooms by 2013.

The other three Democrats in the race are Joyce Huguelet, Philip Stine and Clancy Thompson.

Huguelet has been an educator for about 50 years, retiring as principal of Winter Park Elementary school in 2005. Stine is the founder of a management and planning consultancy group and has served on the Child Advocacy Commission of the Lower Cape Fear and the African American Heritage Foundation of Wilmington. Thompson has taught high school and college, has worked with Fred Rogers and has been executive director of the Child Advocacy Commission for a decade.

Another issue in the race is school population—overcrowded campuses versus underutilized facilities. Holly Shelter Middle School, built for 918 students, had 616 enrolled on Sept. 9. Cavenaugh, Hayes and Higgins said it was designed that way to accommodate future growth.

Hayes added that parents had opted out of underperforming schools and the numbers would go back to normal eventually. He added that older schools had been designed without elements like art and music rooms, so mobile units, or trailers, helped meet modern needs.

Hickey said the trailer argument was just a way to push a busing agenda, and although the current redistricting plan was a horrible result of a dysfunctional board, the trailers are there because those schools are where parents want their children.

Rhodes spoke of the inefficiency of having empty seats and empty buildings in the system while spending money on trailers.

"It’s ludicrous from any business perspective you can imagine," said Thompson, adding that it wasn’t in the best interest of either children or financial stewardship.

Huguelet said the situation was a huge problem and would keep getting more extreme, with parents scrambling to send their children to desirable high-performance schools rather than the poorer performers. Her top priority if elected would be to reverse the trend so that all schools would be high-performing, through teacher support and training and talking to principals.

Stine said he saw the three areas of greatest need as being the high dropout rate (over a third of New Hanover County students), the achievement gap for socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and vocational/technical training for students who aren’t headed to college.

Thompson agreed there needed to be more vocational training and said there needed to be more emphasis on early childhood education. He also wanted curriculum audits and financial audits of the school system.

Higgins said he was proud of redistricting, creating two additional magnet schools, improvement in Adequate Yearly Progress test scores and maintaining a quality school system during trying financial times. He said his first priority in the next four years would be to develop programs to help socioeconomically disadvantaged students be more successful.

Hayes said his proudest accomplishment on the board so far has been providing choices for parents in the education of their children, including magnet schools, year-round schools and the Open Choice enrollment program. Beyond continuing that, he wants to work with the new superintendent, Tim Markley, to set goals and address the dropout rate and the achievement gap between white and black children.

Cavenaugh said she too would work to eliminate the achievement gap and was also proud of the board’s work in developing magnet and year-round schools—and pointed to progress at the Rachel Freeman School of Engineering, where proficiency test scores have risen from 40 percent to almost 70 percent in three years—as well as preschool education.

Hickey said his priorities were to increase parental involvement and to work on the achievement gap. Ideas included evaluating teachers based on their students’ performance, not just observations by principals, adding merit bonuses and encouraging their professional development.

Rhodes said far too many decisions had been made on an ad hoc basis rather than through a strategic plan. He said implementation of the plan will be the tough part, and he’d like to be a part of that.

"The key thing to protect is instruction delivery; everything else is in support," he summarized.

Dawson versus Hamilton in race for N.C. District 18 House seat

2010-10-19T15:49:00.000-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Thursday, October 14, 2010

Beth Dawson

Susi Hamilton

Neither is an incumbent, but both candidates say they will work across party lines to serve the diverse constituency of North Carolina’s District 18. Beth Dawson and Susi Hamilton are running for the house seat vacated by Sandra Spaulding Hughes who was appointed to serve the unexpired term of former assemblyman Thomas Wright.

Each District 18 candidate can demonstrate an involvement with the Wilmington community and both align themselves with political parties opposite those of their fathers growing up.

And while they both believe the economy and job creation are the area’s most important issues, they have some different views on how to address them through taxes.

Republican Beth Dawson favors cutting the corporate tax rate, saying North Carolina has one of the highest rates in the southeast.

"We need to make North Carolina a more business-friendly state," Dawson, a retired banker, said Monday, Oct. 11. Her opponent, Democrat Susi Hamilton, said while she is willing to look at an overall restructuring of the state’s tax system, cutting the corporate tax rate is not the answer.

"You have to look at other tax structures," Hamilton said on Thursday, Oct. 7. "You can’t just look at one source of revenue."

The state Department of Commerce’s website lists the corporate income tax rate as 6.9 percent for North Carolina. Hamilton said that is in line with surrounding states, while Dawson said the rate is too high.

A website hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan educational organization Tax Foundation lists the corporate income tax rates for nearby states in 2010 as 5 percent in South Carolina, 6.5 percent in Tennessee, 6 percent in Virginia, 6.5 percent in Alabama, 5.5 percent in Florida and 6 percent in Georgia.

North Carolina is ranked No. 4 in the United States as a top state in which to conduct business, Hamilton said, citing a 2010 study by CNBC that looked at several indicators, including the cost of doing business, quality of life and transportation and infrastructure.

"We have a good story to tell," Hamilton said. "We’ve had successful economic development, even over the last several years, and we need to be selling that message to the outside world so that they will look to us (as) a place to bring jobs."

Branding, marketing and recruitment strategies can help, as can continued joint efforts of commerce and cultural resources officials, said Hamilton, who runs her own marketing, governmental relations and business development consulting company, Hamilton Planning. She previously spent about a year in business development with Cape Fear Paving.

In contrast to Hamilton’s stance, Dawson offered information from the Business Tax Index 2010 study published by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, which ranked North Carolina No. 37 when considering several tax measures for entrepreneurship and small businesses.

"North Carolina has had a good reputation for many years of being a great place to live," Dawson said. "Then when businesses get here and when people move here they find out that the tax rates are high."

Dawson, an 11th generation North Carolinian and daughter of a Democrat father, is a member of the Cape Fear Museum of History and Science Advisory Board and a past member of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees.

"This is a very diverse district," Dawson said. "I have established relationships between both the Democrat and the Republican parties across the state. I won’t have any trouble working with my fellow legislators to get things done if it’s in the best interest of our state and of our region."

Hamilton, who says she grew up in a house full of Republicans between Wilmington and Winston-Salem, is listed as a board member of Coastal Carolina Tomorrow on its web site. Coastal Carolina Tomorrow is a group of well connected development professionals which formed three years ago. The group’s website states the focus of the group is "projected forward to avoid being placed in a reactionary position on issues of importance to the development community." Melanie G. Cook, executive director and governmental relations, said Hamilton’s position on the board is suspended due to the election.

Hamilton previously served as executive director of the public-private organization Wilmington Downtown, Inc. She has served on several boards, including the Carousel Center for Abused Children, Historic Wilmington Foundation and Cucalorus Film Festival.

"It has helped me keep in touch with what the needs of the community are while balancing that with what the business opportunities are," Hamilton said.

But balancing North Carolina’s state budget, which has an expected deficit of about $3 billion, will be tough, both candidates said.

"2011 and 2012 are going to hurt," Hamilton said. "We have to focus on the core services of government at the state level."

That includes education and public safety, Hamilton said.

Dawson believes in zero-based budgeting, going through items line by line in the budget, and she added that she has had to deal with balancing tough budgets while serving on the hospital board.

"We need to stop this habit that the North Carolina General Assembly has had for decades of overspending when times are good and then not having a rainy day fund to fall back on when times are bad," said Dawson, whose endorsements include the North Carolina Police Benevolent Association. "Right now a lot of our budget is being funded with one-time federal stimulus money that’s not going to be there next year," she said.

Hamilton’s endorsements include the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club and the North Carolina Chamber PAC, the chamber’s political action arm.

"Environmental protection and emerging economies that are associated with renewable energy sources and things along those lines are probably our future economy," Hamilton said.

Congressional hopefuls duke it out for 7th District seat

2010-10-13T17:51:00.001-04:00

By Michelle Saxton Thursday, September 30, 2010

Mike McIntyre

Ilario Pantano

President Barack Obama signed a bill on Monday that is supposed to help small businesses expand and hire by cutting taxes and creating a $30 billion loan fund to encourage lending—by providing capital to small banks with incentives to increase small business lending to those hard hit by the difficulty securing bank loans and credit.

"The Small Business Jobs Act cuts taxes and opens up lines of credit that can help our small businesses create jobs. This bill is fully paid for, will not add to the deficit, and helps Main Street—not Wall Street. This is good news for our area, and our economy," 7th District incumbent and Democratic candidate U.S. Rep. Mike McIntyre said Wednesday by e-mail, following the signing.

During an interview Tuesday, Sept. 28, Republican challenger Ilario Pantano said, "There needs to be some sense of permanence to tax cuts. Raising taxes in a recession absolutely is a guaranteed pathway to higher unemployment," Pantano said. "When you make it harder for businesses to hire, when you make it harder for people to buy goods and services, they do less. And then there is less demand, and without that demand there will be no need for more jobs and more hiring."

McIntyre, who is serving his 7th term, said he voted for the Bush tax cuts originally.

"I favor extending all the tax cuts so that we can have that money out in the economy working for people in small businesses," McIntyre said during a phone interview Sept. 21.

Extending the tax cuts, which started in President George W. Bush’s administration and were set to expire Jan. 1, 2011, could come up for a vote in Congress after the elections.

"We’ve got to have that money back in the local economy creating jobs," McIntyre said.

While some members of Congress favor letting the tax cuts expire for wealthier individuals earning more than $200,000 and married couples earning more than $250,000, Pantano said that would include–and hurt–small businesses.

"That’s another person who’s either going to lose their job or be underemployed," Pantano said.

Health care bill repeal

Repealing President Obama’s health care bill is another priority for Pantano, who argues that government spending and growth have created uncertainty in the private sector market.

Pantano worked as a Wall Street trader with Goldman Sachs in the 1990s. His campaign website states he began as a clerk in the oil and gas markets of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) and ultimately worked up to a position trading electricity. He also worked for a period as a television producer which ended when he re-entered the Marine Corps after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"In one piece of legislation you’ve got increased regulation, increased taxation, increased government involvement in people’s decisions from cradle to grave and, of course, no litigation reform," Pantano said, "so there’s nothing to actually deal with one of the things that creates the high cost of health care. When an employer doesn’t know what it will cost to hire people, he doesn’t hire, she doesn’t hire," Pantano added. "When someone doesn’t know what the upside will be for them to go to medical school any longer, they don’t go. We’re going to lose doctors; we’re going to lose the quality of care."

McIntyre, who voted against the health care bill in Congress this past March and favors its repeal, described himself as a fiscal hawk. He said his major goal is to help balance the federal budget and reduce the national debt.

"That is done by cutting back on the government spending," McIntyre said. "I’ve long been in favor of that. That has ramifications everywhere, in terms of the economy, in terms of jobs, in terms of businesses being able to reinvest their own money."

The national debt is now about $42,000 for every man, woman and child, McIntyre said.

During one of three debates with Pantano, McIntyre had voiced support for pay-as-you-go spending and to sunset government agencies and programs no longer doing anything. When questioned on what programs he would cut, McIntyre said a review of all government agencies is needed.

"Every agency should have to give an accounting, a transparent accounting, showing why it is justified to continue to exist or not and cut down on the waste, the fraud and the abuse," McIntyre said. Most government agencies and departments are exempt from such scrutiny. There are certain targeted programs that expire on their own terms. Unfortunately that is rare."

Aggressive campaigns

Both McIntyre and Pantano have been aggressive in their campaigns, with Pantano questioning McIntyre’s voting record and McIntyre questioning Pantano’s understanding of southeastern North Carolina issues. But McIntyre’s campaign has shied away from attacking the former Marine over the charges of premeditated murder of two Iraqi civilians in 2004. The Marine Corps dropped the charges in 2005.

Pantano has acknowledged that McIntyre has some similar views against what he considers bad policy.

"The problem is that my opponent is part of a majority in Congress that has enabled this stuff," Pantano said.

McIntyre has defended his record, saying he voted against all the bailouts and the Cap and Trade legislation. He added he has worked under both Republican and Democratic presidents, speakers and majorities in Congress since first elected in 1996 and that he has always fought for issues based on how they would affect southeastern North Carolina.

"My opponent emphasizes a very, very partisan agenda," McIntyre said. "I have always worked with people on both sides of the aisle."

During a debate this summer McIntyre questioned a comment he said Pantano made: that it does not matter what district Pantano represents because he represents the United States.

Pantano said, "That’s been distorted a little bit where he’s tried to suggest that I don’t care about southeastern North Carolina, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth." The New York native grew up in Hell’s Kitchen— attended the prestigious Horace Mann School on half-scholarship and graduated from New York University. A veteran of the Gulf and Iraq wars, Pantano was assigned to Camp Lejeune as a Second Lt. In an earlier interview on Sept. 20, he said, "My children are in public elementary school here, I’ve served here as a deputy sheriff in the community and I came here as a transplant with the United States Marine Corps.

"My wife and I made a decision to stay here because I love it and I love the values," Pantano said. As far as what is good for the country being good for southeastern North Carolina, Pantano said on Tuesday that issues such as the district’s high unemployment and foreclosure rates show that national politics are local politics. (North Carolina’s unemployment rate was 9.7 percent in August, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ website.)

Pantano, who pledged to limit himself to six terms in office, said the nation’s founders intended for citizen legislators to go to Washington, D.C., represent the people and then come home to live among the laws they created.

"That idea has gone away," Pantano said. "I am seeking to try and make changes."

The central question in the race is who is most qualified to represent the district and who knows it best, McIntyre said.

"You have to have a deep understanding and knowledge if you’re going to fully and vigorously represent the people on those issues and concerns," McIntyre said.

McIntyre added he has experience fighting for issues critical to the area, including beach renourishment funding, and he emphasized his role in forming the Congressional Waterways Caucus.

"Our coast is both an economic engine and an environmental treasure," McIntyre said.

Berger, Catlin to vie for commissioner

2010-10-13T17:45:00.000-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson Thursday, September 30, 2010

Brian Berger

Rick Catlin

Brian Berger and Rick Catlin, both Republicans, claim business experience and public involvement help qualify them for the two open New Hanover County commissioner seats. Catlin has more years of standing in the community, but both say they are committed to achieving goals for the county.

"Perhaps the most important area is budgeting," said Berger, referring to decisions commissioners face. He said he had vocally and publicly opposed unnecessary spending and tax increases in recent years and added that the government must produce results that justify their expense and must consider what burdens taxpayers are able to absorb.

Berger said commissioners need to work with legislators to reduce state mandates and cut waste in discretionary spending. He stated commissioners need to be more innovative, for instance by finding ways to make Airlie Gardens become self-supporting.

In addition, Berger said the entire economic development system needs overhauling. He called it secretive, flawed and outdated, as illustrated by the Titan Cement controversy. He claimed there were too many conflicts of interest and too much cronyism in making appointments to boards.

Berger said he graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in government and has almost completed an MBA from East Carolina University. He moved to Wilmington almost a decade ago, because of its friendliness, affordability including then-low taxation, safety, beauty, beaches and environmental quality.

His small business, Strategic Communications Group, consults with startups, nonprofits and trade groups. He pledged, if elected, his company would not do business with the county during his term.

Berger says he doesn’t expect his party affiliation to play much of a role in the election. He said because of his involvement and record on key issues, he had garnered grassroots support ranging from business owners and environmentalists to people involved in the Taxed Enough Already movement.

"What I lack in big contributions from special interests, I more than make up for with committed volunteers," said Berger.

Rick Catlin said he has been pleased with his support. He has been a local business owner (Catlin Engineers and Scientists) for 25 years and has been involved in various boards and committees for about 20 years, so his endorsements range from business groups to the Sierra Club.

A native of Atlanta and a graduate of the University of South Florida, he moved to New Hanover County for a job 31 years ago and stayed for its small-town feel and the mix of history, culture and coastal geography. As a resident of Wrightsville Beach and his career as an environmental engineer, plus serving as the chairman of the Wilmington-New Hanover County Ports, Waterway and Beach Commission, he said he wanted to be a voice for the county’s beach towns.

"They kind of get left out," he said.

Economic factors will continue to be a challenge for the county, Catlin said, so his experience with balanced budgets will be helpful. Because of his long term status as an environmental engineer and his pivotal role in the Ports, Waterway and Beach Commission, he said he understands the balance between current demand on resources and the need to preserve the environment for the future. He also said the infrastructure for jobs needs to be a priority.

Catlin said the weak economy was painful but he felt it could be used to the county’s advantage, and we needed to take time to develop a strategy for when growth returns.

"We’ve always been playing catch-up before," he explained.

Catlin said he would represent everybody if elected and has worked with both political parties to meet common goals. He planned to make time to be commissioner by stepping down from serving on several of his committee appointments. He added that his company had a number of longtime employees he could rely on while he put his focus on the county.

"This is where I can make the most difference… my community needs me," Catlin said.

9th District Senate candidates square off

2010-10-13T17:39:00.001-04:00

By Michelle Saxton
Thursday, September 30, 2010

Thom Goolsby

Jim Leutze

North Carolina’s 9th District state Senate candidates are focused on tackling one of the biggest issues the next General Assembly faces–the painful task of cutting at least $3 billion from the state’s $19 billion budget.

Larger shares of budget funding are doled out to education, health and human services and Medicaid, highways and crime control, Democrat Jim Leutze said during an interview Friday, Sept. 24.

"Cutting any one of those is going to hurt somebody," Leutze said. He is the former chancellor of the University of North Carolina Wilmington, 1990-2003. Ideas for cutting the budget often sound great until you consider the negative effects, Leutze said. Closing small prisons or a library, for example, could mean the loss of jobs or services.

"It means, to a certain extent, interfering in people’s lives at the most basic level," Leutze said of budget cuts.

The deficit could be closer to $5 billion, his opponent, Republican Thom Goolsby, a Wilmington attorney said during an interview Monday, Sept. 27. Goolsby’s law firm specializes in criminal defense, personal injury, traffic tickets and DUI /DWI.

"Nobody’s even looked at all the different programs they have that do the same things in various departments," Goolsby said. "We have literally nickled and dimed our budget up billions of dollars over many years."

Herculean task
"We have a herculean task and an incredible mess that has been left to us with overspending and bad judgment," Goolsby added. Goolsby favors a zero-based budgeting approach to address the state deficit, starting over and looking at what must be funded.

"It basically calls for all the state departments to present the spending, the money that they need for their services," Goolsby said. "What we do then is we prioritize based upon constitutional and regulatory constraints. We line those things up and we fund what we’re able to, and everything else doesn’t get funded."

Goolsby and Leutze are vying for the seat left open by Sen. Julia Boseman, D-New Hanover, who chose not to run for a fourth term. Both candidates see the race as an important political one with regard to the overall General Assembly structure.

"We need 26 votes for the Republicans to take the Senate," Goolsby said. "Mine is one of six to eight decisive races that we believe we will win to give us control of the North Carolina Senate for the first time in well over 100 years."

The loss of experienced leadership from southeastern North Carolina, including Boseman, Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Brunswick, and Sen. Charlie Albertson, D-Duplin, was a concern for Leutze, who said there are many state programs essential to the region’s prosperity.

A native of Charleston, S.C., Leutze holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland, a master’s degree from the University of Miami and a doctoral degree from Duke University. He served in the U.S. Air Force, rising to the rank of captain, and worked as a legislative assistant for U.S. Sen. Hubert Humphrey. He also held the position of professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to UNCW, Leutze was president of Hampden-Sydney College from 1987 to 1990.

"We have a university here that we want funded," Leutze said. "We have a community college here we want funded. We have a port here that we want improved and the river dredged. We want better highways around Wilmington to deal with our traffic congestion…we have the film industry that we want to have some subsidies and incentives for."

"Political power in the state can move from this coastal region to the Piedmont in a heartbeat," Leutze added.
Job creation

Job creation is another big priority for both candidates.

"Where we’re going to get our state back to work is by reducing taxes, reducing spending, reducing overburdens of regulation and freeing up private industry to create jobs," Goolsby said. "It’s not going to be with more government programs."

Goolsby favors a Taxpayer Protection Act, which he said would reduce the growth of state government based on population growth and inflation, and require that 10 percent of the money be put back into a Rainy Day Fund.

"It’s another Republican bill that’s dead on arrival every year," Goolsby said. "Those two things will help us grab hold of our budget and start getting it under control."

Leutze created the international affairs program, "Globe Watch", which aired for 15 years on public television networks nationally and internationally. He narrated and produced five or more public television documentaries addressing environmental issues and their global implications.

Leutze’s campaign emphasizes the economy, education and the environment. All are linked he said because educated citizens and a good quality of life are needed to attract jobs.With public education, Leutze would like to add entrepreneurship and vocational courses to high schools. Entrepreneurship studies could help students learn early on what is involved in starting their own business, where ideas come from and what they can do with their ideas, Leutze said, adding that math skills could be incorporated.

"Americans are, I think, by nature creative and entrepreneurial–risk takers," Leutze said. "New small businesses down here could be started with entrepreneurial talent."

Vocational training for carpentry, plumbing, computer programming and other areas might help students who are bored with school and have no plans to go to college prepare for a job, Leutze said.

Goolsby supports lifting a charter school cap, which now is at 100 schools, and giving a $2,500 tuition tax credit to anyone who home schools their children or puts them in a non-government school.

Charter schools must function with higher criteria and test scores than public schools to stay open, Goolsby said. The tuition tax credit would save the state $5,000 per student because the yearly cost to educate a student in a public school is about $7,500, he said.

Other issues that must be addressed include problems with Medicaid, Leutze and Goolsby said.

"There is fraud and abuse in the Medicaid program," Leutze said. "It is a large program and it is very difficult to police."

Republicans plan to address some problems with Medicaid by opposing President Obama’s health care plan, Goolsby said.

"We do need to make sure that physician reimbursement is not cut any further," Goolsby said.

Deadlines approach, but voters have options

2010-10-13T17:31:00.003-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson Staff Writer
Thursday, October 7, 2010

Election Day isn’t until Nov. 2, but there are several important dates coming up before then. Also, one of the races on the ballot will use a new process known as instant-runoff voting (IRV). So it isn’t too soon to start thinking about when and how to vote.

The last day to register to vote, or to change one’s name, address or party affiliation, is Friday, Oct. 8, up until 5 p.m. Registration can be done at the New Hanover County Board of Elections at 230 Government Center Dr. in Wilmington or at any N.C. Department of Motor Vehicles location.

Anyone who misses the registration deadline can still vote through One Stop early voting, which starts on Oct. 14 and is available through Oct. 30. During that time, registered voters, or unregistered people with proof of residence, can vote by appearing in person at the county government center, the Cape Fear Museum or the Carolina Beach Municipal Building. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday; on Saturday, Oct. 30, the sole weekend date for One Stop, hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

In addition, applications for mail-in ballots became available in September and can still be submitted through Oct. 26. The ballots must be returned to the board of elections by Nov. 1 at 5 p.m. On Election Day, votes can be cast only by registered voters at their precinct polling places. Visit www.nhcvote.com to find out the locations, see sample ballots and other information.

Races in New Hanover County this fall include U.S. Senate and U.S. House, N.C. Senate and three N.C. House seats, District Attorney, NHC Commissioners (two seats), NHC Sheriff, NHC Board of Education (four seats), NHC Clerk of Superior Court, N.C. Supreme Court, N.C. Court of Appeals (four regular seats), N.C. Court of Appeals (IRV Contest), Superior Court Judge, District Court Judge (four judgeships), Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisor and a Constitutional amendment on whether to bar convicted felons from serving as sheriff.

Most of the ballot options will be fairly simple choices between pairs of candidates, or yes/no for the amendment. However, one of the races is going to look unfamiliar. For the first time in North Carolina, a process called instant-runoff voting (IRV) will be used in a statewide race.

Judge James Wynn vacated his seat on the N.C. Court of Appeals when he was appointed to the federal bench in August. That was too late to hold a primary election for the seat, and 13 candidates are interested in it, so IRV will determine the final outcome.

Bonnie T. Williams, director of the county board of elections, explained that in IRV, voters basically rank their preferences. In the first column, they darken their oval for their first choice; in the second column, they pick their second choice; and in the third column, they select their third choice.

When votes are tallied on election night, only the first column is counted. It’s treated like a primary, said Williams, with the goal to find out if anyone receives a majority of votes. If so, that person wins the election.

If not, the top two vote-getters are determined from the first column. After that, those two candidates’ votes in the second and third columns are tallied, with equal weight for each column. Those numbers are added to the vote totals for the first column, and the candidate with the most combined votes from both rounds (all three columns) wins the election.

Williams said that different people must be selected for each column. If someone receives votes in more than one column on a ballot, only the first one is counted, so voters can’t double-weight or triple their votes.

Trust Issue Surfaces in Sheriff’s Race

2010-10-13T17:28:00.002-04:00

By Patricia E. Matson
Staff Writer
Thursday, October 7, 2010

Marc Benson

Ed McMahon

Incumbent Ed McMahon and challenger Marc Benson have different visions for the future of the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office. The voters’ choice in the election for sheriff will depend on which vision they favor and whom they trust to achieve it.

Ed McMahon joined the sheriff’s office in 1991 after serving with the Vermont State Police. He was named the department’s Officer of the Year in 1998 and rose through the ranks to chief deputy in 2007. He was appointed sheriff by county commissioners in 2009 after the resignation of Sheriff Sid Causey.

Marc Benson became an auxiliary patrol officer in Wrightsville Beach in 1980. He became a sheriff’s deputy in 1983, and rose to assistant division commander for the detective division. He was named Officer of the Year in 1996 by the Fraternal Order of

Police for his work in convicting the murderers of Danny Pence, who was kidnapped from Wrightsville Beach and beaten to death in Durham in 1995.

Benson said his 1997 departure from the sheriff’s department was the result of a political decision by then-Sheriff Joe McQueen. According to county attorney Wanda Copley, McQueen terminated Benson, but in 2002, as part of the settlement of a lawsuit, Benson’s departure status was officially changed to reflect a resignation.

Since leaving the sheriff’s office, Benson has worked as an investigator for the New Hanover Health Network and as a Pender County deputy sheriff. He now runs a private detection agency and also has a weekly talk show, "Blue Line Radio," on Big Talker FM.

Benson said that if he were elected, he’d continue with the radio show to keep open communications with citizens. However, he would close his private investigation agency.

McMahon said being sheriff is a nonstop learning process. As chief deputy, he was in charge of day-to-day operations, but now answers to the county commissioners for his $34 million budget. He said he had saved money in small ways, like consolidating equipment orders, and large ways, like reducing the number of supervisors through attrition and reorganization. The sheriff oversees almost 400 full-time officers, about 100 more part-timers, and has responsibility for a jail that averages 550 inmates per day.

McMahon reinstated promotional testing for sergeants and lieutenants and started new programs including a citizens’ academy and the Gang Resistance Education and Training program for middle-schoolers. If elected, McMahon said, he’d expand on what he’d been doing. He’d work to keep empowering citizens and encourage senior staff to be better leaders and look for more ways to protect the community.

Leadership is also important to Benson, who said McMahon wasn’t the leader the county needed. Benson hoped to lead the sheriff’s office because he has a passion for law enforcement, and in morale, administration and management, there he said, "I see nothing but problems." He added that the office could be run more cheaply and efficiently with less senior staff and better accountability.

Benson ran unsuccessfully for sheriff in1998 and 2002. He said he lost by just three percent in 2002 and more people might vote for him now over issues like spending money on helicopters and officers killing an unarmed college student in 2006. That was when Causey was sheriff, but Benson claimed McMahon was part of the same regime, which was connected back through Sheriff Joseph Lanier to McQueen.

Benson cited the Charles Smith situation as an example of McMahon’s poor judgment, saying that the sheriff suspended the former public information officer, demoted him, transferred him to jail duties, and in the midst of that, recommended him for a county information technology job.

McMahon said he had received a criminal complaint from another county on Smith and asked the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) to investigate. After several weeks, he stated, an SBI agent said the complaint would be unsubstantiated, with no charges coming from it and just a few loose ends to tie up. The sheriff’s Internal Affairs division then investigated and found conduct unbecoming to an officer, so McMahon demoted Smith.

McMahon said Smith then asked for a transfer out of law enforcement. The sheriff said he explained the circumstances to county manager Bruce Shell, never having seen the SBI report but believing no charges were coming, and recommended Smith for the reassignment.

Shell explained the situation similarly and said he found an existing opening in information technology for Smith. When the SBI came back with charges after all, Shell said, he was surprised, the sheriff was surprised and Smith was surprised.

Smith was charged with illegally accessing government computers, a felony, but reached an agreement Sept. 30 in Wake County District Court to plead guilty to private use of a public vehicle, a misdemeanor.

McMahon said he didn’t know what he could have done differently, other than waiting even longer for the loose ends before giving a recommendation for the supposedly cleared man. He also said that when mistakes were made, voters needed to judge him by how he reacted and dealt with them.

Benson said he didn’t believe McMahon’s version of events and claimed the sheriff knew every step of the way what SBI was doing.

"I’ve absolutely told you the truth … I will not lie, that’s my commitment to the community," responded McMahon. He also said it would have been just stupid to have recommended Smith if he had known of any possible charges.

On the issue of illegal aliens Benson said the county should sign up for a partnership with U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to hold them in the jail, while McMahon said incarcerating illegal aliens would cost the county too much money.

Benson said he’d work for closer relations with other departments, from Wilmington Police Chief Ralph Evangelous to Wrightsville Beach Police Chief John Carey.

"We’re all in it together," Benson said.

McMahon said sheriffs have been cooperating more closely with other enforcement agencies in the county, from stepping up ABC enforcement to meeting with police chiefs to paying about half the cost for deputies who assist Wrightsville Beach during the tourist season.

McMahon and Benson did agree on two points. Both said citizens have a right to record officers performing their duty in public, so the deputy who ordered a man in Wrightsville Beach to quit filming the incident of a tazered streaker was actually in the wrong. Also, both strongly support a ballot amendment that would bar anyone convicted of a felony from serving as a sheriff.

Butler, Causey seek commissioners’ seats

2010-09-29T17:16:00.002-04:00

By Patricia Matson
Thursday, September 23, 2010

Left: Deborah Butler (Staff photo by Patricia E. Matson)

Right: Sid Causey (Staff photo by Allison Breiner Potter)

Deborah Butler and Sid Causey are the two Democrats running to become New Hanover County commissioners, but neither said that party politics should be an issue in the election. Instead, they are focusing on their experience and their goals.

Butler said she decided to run for commissioner after the poorly handled utility merger, the local Alcoholic Beverage Control scandal and the Titan Cement controversy, which all happened roughly around the same time.

"County government needs to have a broader base," she said, explaining that citizen involvement is very limited, with the same faces appearing again and again. She stated that the commissioners make appointments to about 30 county boards. Butler said she’d reach out to retirees in the area, with their varied experiences and talents, since more participation leads to better decisions.

The county budget is an ongoing issue, because of the economy, she said. She hoped to form a volunteer committee to evaluate details, rotating department by department year-round, rather than just ordering percentage cuts.

Butler said more thoughtful, eco-sensitive zoning is needed to protect the environment, tourism revenues and the quality of life here. She criticized the Titan permitting process and said she understood the need for economic development, but "we have to be careful."

A native North Carolinian, Butler received degrees from the University of Tennessee and Wake Forest University, and was a trial attorney in New York City for several years. When moving back to her home state, she was attracted to Wilmington for its historic architecture, riverfront and nearby beaches. In her 16 years in this county, she has practiced law, started a real estate brokerage and renovated properties.

A lifelong Democrat, Butler said she didn’t think that party was important at the county level; people should vote on a candidate’s character and experience. Since she has dealt with zoning, planning and budgets as a small business owner, Butler said she had the breadth of education and experience needed to be a commissioner.

She added, "I can build a consensus, but I’m not afraid to stand my ground."

Sid Causey also stands on his experience, with 40 years of law enforcement in New Hanover County. As the sheriff from 2002 to 2009, he attended nearly every commissioners meeting and workshop during that time.

Causey said budget cuts and furloughs led him to a financial decision to retire and become a private investigator. Then people started asking him to run for county commissioner, pointing out that he’d be the only true native of the county on the board. After praying about it, he filed as a candidate, just 10 minutes before deadline. He spent just $999.80 in the primary, on bumper stickers, but won enough votes to proceed to the general election.

Causey said he handled a $35 million budget in his last year as sheriff. He defended himself over the question of how many budget amendments he had requested in his term, stating that $309,000 was needed to build an administrative office next to the jail, citing cost savings he had found, and saying that commissioners approved those requests and found them reasonable.

Causey said as a Democratic sheriff dealing with a Republican-controlled board of commissioners, politics needed to be put aside, and were.

Asked about his goals, Causey said safety was important, although crime wasn’t out of proportion for a county this size. He said he loved going downtown and felt safe until 2 a.m. or so.

Regarding the budget, he said the economy would mostly drive what is done: "At some point, if we can’t provide basic services, there’ll be suffering… but we can’t keep taxing citizens out of their houses."

Candidates cry foul on sales tax poll, info omitted on Titan

2010-03-19T14:47:00.002-04:00

A recent poll shows nearly 80 percent of the local electorate believes the Titan America cement project will have a negative impact on New Hanover County, even if the company meets every state and federal permitting requirement.

But that information was omitted when the county posted a summary online last week of a recent county-funded survey.

A host of other issues were left out as well, including the measured public views of government corruption, illegal immigration and others.

Favorability ratings were also determined for all five commissioners and Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, but the exact figures were excluded from the summary. County officials said they were determining who would make the finest person to spearhead a drive in support of the quarter-cent sales tax referendum.

Deborah Butler, a candidate for county commissioner, and her campaign manager, Darla McGlamery, obtained a copy of the more than 300-page survey and made extras available to local media.

Officials today said the survey’s sole purpose was to gauge public perceptions of the quarter-cent sales tax referendum. But Butler and some other candidates for county commissioner have cried foul, saying the full survey should have been posted online and distributed to media.

Butler said the county cherry-picked what information they wanted to make public. She said it was inappropriate the county didn’t broadcast the entire survey given that an incumbent, commissioner Bill Caster, is seeking re-election. Candidates often pay big money for such telling data.

"If a sitting commissioner has it to the exclusion of everybody else, he has a valuable campaigning tool," Butler said. And, "If the media hasn’t been given this information, they’re not getting the whole picture."

Others felt the same.

"I think the entire thing should have been made public," said Sid Causey, the former sheriff-turned-commissioner candidate. "That’s taking stuff out of context. Lay it all out there and then let people decide."

"It should have been made more public but I don’t think it’s something they were trying to hide," said Charles Dorman, another candidate.

County officials said Caster wasn’t involved in planning or executing the poll.

Reached for comment on March 16, Caster said that while he was privy to the information, he didn’t know that only a portion had been posted online and distributed.

"All that wasn’t posted? I think it should have been," he said. "If the people running against me have the point of view that I got a free poll out of it, they’re right, and that shouldn’t have happened."

The county hired Capitol Communication to conduct the poll at a cost of $13,200, for a survey of 400 people.

Chris Coudriet, assistant county manager, said only senior county staff, a Capitol Communication consultant and two county commissioners, vice-chairman Jonathan Barfield and chairman Jason Thompson, were involved in developing questions.

Coudriet said it would have cost the same amount of money had they not polled perceptions about Titan, and illegal immigration, etcetera.

Asked why the other information wasn’t voluntarily made public, Coudriet said the entire document is available in the county manager’s office.

"It was summarized to speak to the intent of the survey, which is what the pulse of the community was regarding the quarter cent sales tax," he said.

Chairman Thompson said the poll was not political.

"If you read the poll, you’d clearly see that there’s no information a candidate could use in there to their benefit in a campaign," he said. "If they (the candidates) can’t find something better than that then they don’t need to be running for political office. They need to find an issue."

What wasn’t included in the online summary was that more people cited Titan, corruption and growth than they did crime, annexation or economic development as the single most important county issue.

As for approval ratings, nearly 40 percent of those polled have a favorable view of Thompson. Almost 15 percent have an unfavorable view; 32 percent have no opinion and 20 percent have never heard of him.

Commissioner Ted Davis got similar ratings: 32 percent have a favorable opinion, 15 percent have an unfavorable, 31.5 percent have no opinion and 21.5 percent have never heard of him.

The poll measured a 25.5 percent favorable rating for Barfield. Nearly 14 percent have an unfavorable opinion, 37 percent have no opinion and 23.5 percent have never heard of him.

As for Bobby Greer, 28 percent view him favorably; 22.5 percent unfavorably; 30 percent have no opinion and 19 percent have never heard of him.

Finally, 28 percent of those polled are favorable toward Caster; 26 percent unfavorable; 26 percent have no opinion and 20 percent have never heard of him.

--Brian Freskos

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail with Ilario Pantano

2010-03-19T14:44:00.000-04:00

Ilario Pantano must’ve excelled in boot camp: his back is straight as a board. He talks fast, like a Gatling gun with infinite ammo (some of his buddies call him "Hurricane Ilario"). He’s quick, direct, articulate and approachable. His gaze is intense, leaving any audience tinged with his memory.

Pantano is one Republican contender attempting to unseat the seven-time North Carolina Democrat in the state’s 7th District, Congressman Mike McIntyre.

The Pantano campaign is now a full-time affair. And whether to his benefit or detriment, the retired Marine has name recognition: he gained the international spotlight when the government accused him of murder, and then later exonerated all charges for the shooting deaths of two Iraqis in Mahmudiya in 2004.

That experience left him scarred, Pantano says, but not broken. He has reshaped that baggage into a message that emphasizes his armed service. And he’s leveraged his experience as a former Goldman Sachs trader, small business owner and father, to underline a tough stance on greed, fiscal responsibility and conservatism.

His platform is comprised of three tiers: job creation and economic development, national security and conservative values.

It’s a message likely to ring the ears of far right Republicans hoping to capitalize on reports of disenchantment with the Democrats.

"To have two former military heroes running for Congress speaks well for our party, which is rooted in deep patriotism," said Sandy Best, the president of the Lower Cape Fear Republican Women’s Club, after meeting Pantano for the first time.

Also running against McIntyre are Will Breazeale, a three-time combat veteran, and Randy Crow.

At a club meeting on March 4 at Bluewater Restaurant in Wrightsville Beach, Best approached Pantano with a candid inquiry regarding the 2004 shooting incident.

Having read the Associated Press account of the shooting, published that morning, which included the fact that Pantano left a sign on the insurgent’s vehicle that read, "No better friend, no worse enemy," a famous Marine motto, Best asked, Why the sign?

He said that it’s difficult to understand from a spectator’s view the urgency, panic and hysteria of warfare.

"We think about it, act on it like it’s rational. But it is the most irrational part of humankind," he said.

Asked later if it’s a question posed frequently, Pantano replied, "Actually no...But it’s a totally legitimate question."

Within 10 minutes after meeting Best, Pantano had already shaken hands with dozens of other people amassed in the meeting room.

His scheduling manager, Ron Holmes, also a retired Marine, had to peel Pantano away so they would be on time for his final engagement of the night: speaking to a group of Wilmington firefighters in the Moose Lodge on Carolina Beach Road.

In that room of first-responders, seemingly awash in southern conservative ideals, Pantano struck their chord by highlighting his own Sept. 11 experience, support for gun rights and rolling back taxes.

Pantano even said he favors making English the nation’s official language.

When asked about his nationalism, Pantano likes to tell the story of his father, an Italian immigrant who moved to New York and worked in a comb factory in Spanish Harlem for a dollar an hour. Pantano seems proud that he never learned to speak Italian. The goal, he says, was to always speak English at home so his father would learn it.

Pantano jokes that he is a "born again southerner." He explains it like this: "I’m a self-hating New Yorker that has rejected the immorality and godlessness of where I was born to choose a place to raise my family." He moved to North Carolina in 2003.

Despite his conservative appeal, Pantano says he is not the typical Republican. In fact, he told Lumina News, he was a registered independent until recently.

In a county, that nearly always leans to red, Pantano could rise as a contender after the May 4 primary.

Either way, this election is wide-open, with no clear ending in sight.

--Brian Freskos

Fifty-three file for 15 seats

2010-03-19T14:41:00.000-04:00

A few last minute candidates swept into the New Hanover County and North Carolina board of elections offices to file before the noon deadline on Feb. 26. With filing for the 2010 mid-terms officially finished, a string of incumbent retirements and the ballot packed with choices, the race looks wide open.

Highly contested primaries will whittle down the choices. One-stop primary voting begins on April 15, and the official primary day is
May 4. Election Day is Nov. 2.

U.S. Senate

Sen. Richard Burr is facing a contingent of challengers from within his own party and the rivaling Democrats. In addition to Burr, primary choices for Congress on the Republican side will include Larry Linney, Brad Jones and Eddie Burks.

For the Democrats, Marcus W. Williams, Ann Worthy, Elaine Marshall, Ken Lewis, Susan Harris and Cal Cunningham are running.

Also running is Libertarian Michael Beitler.

Only one candidate from each party can advance onto the November elections ballot.

U.S. House

Rep. Mike McIntyre won’t face any challenge from within his own party, but three Republicans will vie for a shot at his seat: Ilario Gregory Pantano, Randy Crow and Will Breazeale.

Julia Boseman’s District 9 State Senate seat

Julia Boseman’s (D-New Hanover) soon-to-be-vacated state senate seat has driven three candidates to declare. A Republican primary will choose between Michael Lee and Thom Goolsby, while a lone democrat, Jim Leutze, advances in November.

Hughes bows out of House District 18

Rep. Sandra Spaulding Hughes is also bowing out and four candidates have already stepped in to bid on her seat: Beth Dawson and
J. Michael Hutson, both Republicans; and James Utley and Susi Hamilton, both Democrats. Only one candidate from each party will advance after the May primary.

Carolyn Justice vies to remain in House District 16

Incumbent Rep. Carolyn Justice (R) will face a challenger, Frank Rivenbark, a Democrat.

McComas and David aren’t going anywhere

Rep. Danny McComas is running unopposed in district 19, as is District Attorney Ben David.

County Commissioner race wide-open

The retirement of Commissioner Bobby Greer after five elected terms in office has given the Democrats a solid chance at changing the make-up of a board that has been traditionally stocked with Republicans.

With two vacancies, Democrats have put forward four candidates: Deborah Butler, Dale Smith, Tom Gale and Sid Causey, former county sheriff.

Several Republicans have also stepped forward including incumbent Bill Caster, Justin Harris, Rick Catlin, Charles Dorman, Justin LaNasa, Brian Berger and Napier Fuller.

Two candidates from each party will be chosen through the primary process and advance to the November ballot.

McMahon gets challenged for sheriff

Sheriff Ed McMahon (D), who was appointed to fill the seat vacated by former sheriff Sid Causey, will be challenged by Republican Marcus T. Benson.

Clerk of Superior Court

Incumbent Brenda Tucker has stepped aside. Lillian Salcines Bright (D) and Jan Kennedy (R) have declared their bids.

Board of Education

No primary will be held for Democrats with four candidates running for the four open seats, but there will be a big one for Republicans. All four school board incumbents are running for re-election: Nick Rhodes, Democrat, as well as Edward Higgins, Janice Cavenaugh and Don Hayes, all Republican.

Joining them will be Democrats Wm. Clancy Thompson, Philip Stine and Joyce Huguelet; and Republicans Derrick Hickey, Steven Bilzi, Stephanie Kraybill, Julia Davis and Laura Parks.

-- Brian Freskos

Candidates file, election issues surface and campaigns begin

2010-02-19T10:24:00.000-05:00

This story first appeared on LuminaNews.com on Feb. 8
As the candidates for New Hanover County commissioner lined up on Monday, Feb. 8 to file their bids, each expressed confidence in his or her ability to affect change. In fact, “optimistic” and “change” were words tossed repeatedly toward a crowd of supporters swarming outside of the board of elections office.
But change what? With a depressed economic environment enduring, budgeting and spending were two issues candidates repeatedly referred to as in need of change, forecasting what is likely to become a major campaign topic.
Other issues surfaced too. Such as the one put forward by Democrat Deborah Butler, the first candidate in line to file and the only female to so far publicize an election bid. She expressed a need for diversity, a fresh voice from outside the mainstream to balance a board comprised of long-standing political veterans.
As a political newbie, Butler hopes her fresh perspective will appeal to voters and indeed it may. But she, like other Democrats this year, is facing an uphill battle vying for a board traditionally comprised of Republicans.
She's optimistic. As is Dale Smith, the second Democrat to file early Monday.
"It's time for a change in leadership," he said while waiting for the elections office to open. "We need to be more future oriented and more effective in planning. We need to be leaders for all the people in the county."
Jonathan Barfield, the only sitting Democrat on the board of county commissioners, endorsed Smith’s candidacy Monday, adding clout to his campaign.
“I understand that the tools (Smith) has in his tool box are the right tools for New Hanover County,” Barfield said. “It’s about having the right person on the bus.”
Without a third Democrat filing for two open seats, the party’s commissioner primary in May will be largely strategic—an attempt to keep its candidates at the public forefront, Butler said.
While Butler and Smith made an early showing, no one candidate for commissioner brought the entourage like Wrightsville Beach resident and Republican Rick Catlin. Surrounded by a throng of merry supporters, Catlin, with a firm smile, laid out a platform that seeks to strike a balance between business, the environment and quality of life.
He said that as a business owner and a member of the Port, Waterway and Beach Commission, he's been molding that balance for the last 20 years.
Calling on the budget, Catlin stressed the county "needs a business-sense candidate."
"We have a great chance to make a difference," he said.
Again, by expressing a need for change, Catlin's stance mirrors that of one of his contenders, Jason Harris, a Republican candidate for commissioner deeply concerned about what he termed the county’s boom-bust cycle.
"I've been watching the boom-bust over the last several years, and as a financial planner, I feel like I can work with budgets, build consensus ... and lend expertise," he said after filing.
Charles “Chuckie D.” Dorman was the third Republican to file Monday. His candidacy, he said, is less about partisanship and more about policy.
"I'm not running for the party. I'm running for the people—the small business people," he said in a conversation with a supporter outside the elections office.
Dorman said he is running for the soon-to-be vacated seat of Bobby Greer. He said he wants the other incumbent, Bill Caster, to stay on board.
Caster, the five-term commissioner, and Justin LaNasa, both Republicans, filed Tuesday for county commission.
New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon (D) also filed on Feb. 8 for Sheriff in what will be his first election and following additional candidates have also filed: Frank Rivenbark for N.C. House District 16; Beth Dawson (R) for N.C. House District 18; Lillian Bright (D) and Jan Kennedy (R) for Clerk of Superior Court; and Nick Rhodes (D), Edward Higgins (R), Janice Cavenaugh (R), Derrick Hickey (R) and Don Hayes (R) for Board of Education.
The filing period ends on Feb. 26.

Brian Freskos

Elections turn the tide across New Hanover County

2010-02-19T10:19:00.001-05:00

Nov. 5, 2009

An anti-incumbent sentiment swept across New Hanover and Brunswick counties during Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3, as a swath of elected officials either relinquished their seats or were pushed out by the electorate.

Approximately 77 percent of incumbents in New Hanover County were upset by newcomers, meaning that two-out-of-three positions up for grabs on city and town councils will be filled with fresh faces and new ideas beginning with swearing-in ceremonies this December.

In Brunswick County, 69 officials were up for re-election, but only 39—or 57 percent—held onto their seats.

Pender County figures were less surprising. About 66 percent of officials up for re-election will keep their positions. A few of the races in Pender were uncontested and a contingent of officials voluntarily relinquished their positions.

Election officials and observers racked their brains as the results poured into the Board of Elections headquarters off Racine Drive around 8:30 p.m. on Election Day.

"Incumbents tend to get punished in economic downturns," Roger Lowery, chair of the public and international affairs department at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, said after the election. "We certainly have a record economic downturn in the state and nation. The fact that we see this pattern in this election is certainly no surprise."

Lowery argued that Wilmington voters had been turned-off to incumbents by perceived mismanagement of government affairs, specifically citing the continuing controversy milling around the new hotel and convention center.

For other incumbents on the ballot in 2010, their political future will likely depend on the future of the economy and whether it has regained momentum, Lowery said.

"The crystal ball is cloudy," he added.

Voter turnout across New Hanover County hovered around 20 percent, with an average turnout of 18 percent in Wilmington.

Kure Beach, where the race was hotly contested, received an impressive turnout of 43 percent.

A slightly higher than average turnout—35 percent—in Wrightsville Beach likely boosted mayor-elect David Cignotti (438 votes), who beat-out incumbent Stephen Whalen (372), ushering in a contemporary era of leadership that signals a transformation of the status quo.

Whalen sharply refused Wednesday to comment on the outcome.

Bonnie Williams, director of the New Hanover County Board of Elections, said four provisional ballots were cast for Wrightsville offices—not enough to cover the Cignotti-Whalen spread.

Cignotti acknowledged in an interview Wednesday that he gathered overwhelming support from middle-aged and young voters, a subsection that proved itself as an influential base.

Voter turnout was of fundamental importance to the Cignotti camp, which formed an open government ticket with the candidacies of Bill Sisson (373) and Walter DeVries (263).

Foreshadowing the strength of high voter-turnout, DeVries conducted numerous get-out-vote drives, targeting specific subsections of the population and employing innovative campaign methods to pass his message, rallying support for his running mates but failing to garner the support he needed to win a seat for himself.

Susan Howell Collins earned 459 votes, learning from her defeat two years ago to campaign like the native daughter of Wrightsville Beach that she is, knocking on every door and personally placing more than 700 phone calls to her prospective constituents.

The defeat of incumbent Ed Miastkowski (312), after 16 years on the board of aldermen—one of the longest serving in Wrightsville’s history—will upset many of his faithful supporters.

New-kid-on-the-block James Smith (134) arrived in fifth, despite conspicuous attendance at public meetings and aggressive aims at building name recognition.

On Wednesday, Cignotti said he would start his tenure by forming a strong relationship between board members, a task he deemed a top priority.

There was also a surprising turn of events in Wilmington. City council was shaken by the return of former city council member Charlie Rivenbark (5,221), council’s top vote-getter; and fresh face Kevin O’Grady (4,399), who managed to pull ahead of incumbent Margaret Haynes (4,311).

Tuesday night, election officials estimated that there were roughly 56 provisional ballots to be considered, meaning it will be almost impossible for Haynes to climb ahead of O’Grady, who won by 88 votes.

It was unclear Wednesday whether Haynes would have qualified for a runoff had city council not voted—at her behest—to do away with runoff elections beginning in 2009.

Mayor Bill Saffo (8,368) was reelected over Paul Knight (5,329).

City councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Jim Quinn (3,489) finished with an upsetting 9 percent of the vote and will have to give up his seat in December.

City councilman Earl Sheridan (5,170) was also reelected, coming in a close second behind Rivenbark.

Official results will be announced Tuesday, Nov. 10.

Brian Freskos

Wrightsville pilots cost-saving voting program

2009-11-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

Wrightsville Beach is a coastal community in which people are generally concerned
about impacts on the environment, so its no wonder why even the town polling place will be a little greener than the rest of the county.
Wrightsville Beach is the only municipality in New Hanover County—and one of a handful across the state—to pilot a new voting system that will save the board of elections time and money, lead to increased accuracy, and is environmentally friendly, said an elections official.
The Onsite Voter Registration Database acts as an electronic poll-book, where software on a laptop computer allows the poll-worker to look the voter up electronically and print their authorization to vote form on site, said Michelle Mrozkowski, information systems technician at the county board of elections.
Usually, the board has to prepare for a 100 percent turnout, meaning it has to keep paper forms in case every single voter in Wrightsville Beach comes to the polls. In off-year elections, turnout is generally low; in the 2007 election cycle in Wrightsville it was about 33 percent. Low turnout translates into masses of wasted paper, stored for a specified period of time before being incinerated.
Currently, these leftover pollbooks are being housed at the main branch of the New Hanover County Library on Chestnut Street.
Onsite electronic registration also leads to increased accuracy, Mrozkowski stated, because voter history is recorded electronically and can be quickly uploaded, as opposed to being entered by humans who are known to make mistakes.
If this method expands across the entire county, it could significantly drive down the cost of printing and curb the election board’s expenses. There is an initial investment in placing laptops and printers in every precinct throughout the county, but the benefits would eventually pay for themselves.

—Brian Freskos

Cignotti-Sission-DeVries ticket upfront and open with voters

2009-10-30T16:49:00.000-04:00

David Cignotti, candidate for Wrightsville Beach mayor, and Bill Sisson and Walter DeVries, candidates for the board of aldermen, have participated in numerous meet-and-greets with Wrightsville Beach voters. The most recent of which was at 22 North late Thursday night, Oct. 29, where everyone flashing an I Voted sticker was invited to attend for a “thank you for voting” soiree.
Each one of these meet-the-candidate opportunities represents a unique aspect of the small-town campaigns: the ability of each and every voter to meet their community’s potential leaders.
At a similar event earlier this month, voters milled about the dimmed lights of King Neptune, expressing their support for the three candidates, mostly because of what they called the candidates’ approachable personality and tough stance on key issues.
“They want to improve the quality of our life here downtown,” said Tim Taylor, a local resident and a supporter of the Cignotti-Sisson-DeVries (CSD) ticket.
Taylor cited what he perceives to be the newly formed dangers posed by patrons of the downtown bar district and the proposed solutions that the CSD ticket offers.
“It’s not the same town that it used to be,” Taylor added. “We need to let them (tourists) know that they’re welcome here but they need to respect it.”
Taylor’s words echoed what has become DeVries’ campaign slogan: “Share our beach, yes, but abuse it, no!”
Taylor told a story that’s heard all too frequently from the people who live downtown. Often, Taylor said, he wakes up to find bags of trash in his yard and beer bottles strewn about his driveway.
He believes Wrightsville Beach needs leaders with fresh ideas. He wants politicians who can instill a sense of safety back into the bar district while maintaining the robust economic generator.
DeVries has put forward ideas like putting police officers on Segways and increasing foot patrols to create a bigger presence.
Cignotti says that if elected mayor he will push for holding homeowners who rent to unruly tenants accountable, issuing citations to people who blatantly ignore ordinances and increasing foot-patrols and cameras.
Abbott Shea, a student at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and resident of Wrightsville Beach, has been urging other young people in the community to register and vote. He too was found in King Neptune that night, voicing his all-out support for the CSD ticket.
He said that he was first turned-on to the CSD ticket when Cignotti and Sisson approached him and introduced themselves, showing Shea that they wanted to open a line of communication.
“If I have a problem, then I want to be able to approach them and be taken seriously,” he said. “If we have to live by the rules made by the powers that be then we have to decide who the powers that be are.”

—Brian Freskos

Finance reports reveal big spending

2009-10-30T16:29:00.000-04:00

The committee to elect Alderman David Cignotti for mayor has been pumped full of cash. Cignotti is the only candidate in Wrightsville Beach who has reported spending of more than $3,000 on campaigning for office.
Actually, he is the only candidate among all the beach towns in New Hanover County to exceed the $3,000 threshold set by state law.
Basically, the threshold law stipulates that if any candidate wants to spend more than $3,000, they have to file a report with the New Hanover County Board of Elections and are subject to update that report periodically.
According to finance reports filed with the board of elections office on Oct. 26, the committee to elect David Cignotti has spent a total $4,908.66 for campaign-related expenditures.
During the first of two disclosure periods to date—from July 17 to Sept. 22—the committee doled out more than $3,308.
Expenditures during that period, according to finance reports, included $475.48 for 100 yard signs, $625 for 750 campaign Koozies, $89.95 for 100 bumper stickers, $69.81 for a banner sign, $395.62 for 36 T-shirts, $1,599 for 1600 mailers, and a small number of in-kind contributions and reimbursements.
During the second disclosure period, Sept. 23 to Oct. 19, Cignotti received 14 individual donations totaling $1,115, or roughly $40 a day, according to finance reports.
All those who donated $100 or more are residents in Wrightsville Beach, including Lois DeVries, the wife of alderman candidate Walter DeVries, who donated $100 to Cignotti’s committee, finance reports indicate.
At the close of the second filing period, reports indicated that Cignotti still had $2,232.54 cash on hand.
The fact that Cignotti has spent so much on his campaign will undoubtedly boost his numbers in the polls come Nov. 3. He’s strengthened his name recognition and clarified his position on a number of issues, but there are still disadvantages that will have to be overcome in the polling place.
His competition, incumbent Stephen Whalen, has the name recognition and is banking on the town’s successes of the past two years, typical of any incumbent candidate. He also appears to have toned down his infamous tangents, a quality that has unequivocally branded him with a bad reputation and possibly damaged his appeal to some voters.
Whalen said after he announced his reelection bid in July that he would likely exceed that $3,000 threshold, but to date, has yet to do so, despite sending out several mailers and planting numerous yard signs around town.
Some of Cignotti’s spending seemed strategic.
Koozies, for example, will likely appeal to the younger voters who seem to be a sturdy base of Cignotti support. Even though this block tends to vote in small numbers in off-year elections like this one, Cignotti’s ability to rally the youth may give him enough votes to inch ahead of his competition.
Small town elections like the one in Wrightsville Beach can often be decided by a single vote.
It will be exciting to see how the tide turns on Election Night.

—Brian Freskos

My Thoughts October 22, 2009

2009-10-30T16:27:00.000-04:00

Less than a dozen days are all that remain until this year’s election Nov. 3.

Thankfully, this year is a far cry from the turbulent elections of the past when no stone was left unturned digging for dirt on candidates. Mud slinging puts the media in an uncomfortable spot, because once a fact is brought into the light of day, the duty to the reader is to investigate and report it.

Wilmington held its two candidate forums in the preceding weeks and the worst to come out of that was a question about multiple marriages.

Wrightsville’s candidates’ forum brought to life by the members of the town’s merchants association took place Tuesday night. The merchants association is filling a vacuum created by a chamber of commerce that may have lost its way.

Moderated by UNCW Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo, the forum was a snappy affair until right at the end when it disintegrated into pontificating on the part of not only the questioners from the audience, but several of the candidates responding to questions, unrestrained as they were by the time keeper. Elected officials need never forget that no one likes the sound of your voice as much as you do!

Lumina News does not endorse candidates, feeling every voter has a duty to make an informed choice as to which candidate would best represent them as an elected official. Too often endorsements reek of cronyism, hidden agendas and the inappropriate wielding of power.

Several of the candidates hold differing views, as was evidenced by their answers to forum questions. Anyone attending or watching the video, filmed in its entirety by volunteers from One Tree Hill, should be able to make a choice between those running.

This is the first time in a number of years in which candidates appear to be aligning with others to form some sort of slate. True or not, the old guard will certainly be pleased with how well their candidates preformed. As will be the younger edgier voter, however we will take the liberty of warning against the pitfalls of lumping candidates together.

Rather, each should be analyzed based on his or her own performance. His or her own words. Points can be deducted for the reading of answers prepared in advance. If a candidate can’t be prepared enough for a forum to speak from the heart, how will they handle voting on issues, where thinking clearly and sorting through facts as they are revealed, is mandatory?

Word comes this week of a separate mayoral forum which never really got off the ground. Given just 11 days notice, incumbent Steve Whalen cited schedule conflict as his reason for declining to participate, which killed it. Too bad for David Cignotti, and while this had potential to be explosive, fur most certainly would have flown, based on their track record of communicating — or lack of it this past two years, not having to attend another event here at the end of the month is a blessing.

The forum didn’t hold a lot of surprises except perhaps the number who are in favor of a smoke free beach strand. Just one candidate, Susan Collins went on the record as being against it. She also voted against a litter ordinance. Collins joined Whalen and Ed Miastkowski in voting no to televising town meetings.

It was no surprise water quality, the budget and public safety topped the ticket for discussion. As did recycling.

Crime was a hot topic, along with the downtown business district which can dissolve into near chaos between 12 and 2 am on any given weekends. When a question was posed from the floor by downtown resident Tim Taylor, two incumbents, Whalen and Miastkowski actually seemed to be clueless of how desperate this situation is.

For those in denial that a crisis exists, Miastkowski’s off hand remark that police officers are reluctant to patrol more on foot because they don’t want to leave their cars due to the damage that could occur at the hands of those in the street, was all telling.

It left me thinking if deplorable behavior, not to mention a good portion of the crime goes down between 12 and 2 am, why not, as Collins said, close the bars at midnight like the old days, and get these people off the streets? But that’s a choice made in Raleigh, not here.

One of the good things to come out of the night may be a stepped up effort to get a magistrate assigned to this area. Not having one available when an arrest is made is a large negative.

The candidates were split on who would support rezoning commercial property to more valuable residential, a harbinger of doom for many. Voting yes were, Jim Smith, Ed Miastkowski, Walt DeVires, and Susan Collins. Both mayoral candidates and Bill Sisson voted no.

De Vries is raising the issue of potential voter fraud. He, Cignotti and sent campaign mailings to more than 1,600 households in Wrightsville Beach. Three hundred of those mailings from each did not reach their intended addresses, either because the person moved, had no forwarding address, the address was insufficient or the residence was vacant. Some have out-of-state forwarding addresses in places like Pennsylvania, Virginia, Vermont and Wisconsin, but a majority of them were in Wilmington.

There’s no question we need stronger proof of residency when voting. In a town where each votes counts, that has the very real potential to make a difference.

Find a sample ballot on our Web site, or come by the office, we’ll print you one.

Pat Bradford

Aldermen, mayoral candidates jockey for public support during merchant forum

2009-10-30T16:24:00.000-04:00

Candidates for Wrightsville Beach public office weighed in on the issues at a public forum hosted by the Wrightsville Beach Merchants Association at the Blockade Runner Resort on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo, University of North Carolina Wilmington, moderated the two-hour panel which included mayoral candidates, Alderman David Cignotti and incumbent Mayor Stephen Whalen; with aldermen candidates Susan Howell Collins, Walter DeVries, incumbent Ed Miastkowski, Dr. Bill Sisson and James Smith.
When Wrightsville Beach voters go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 3, they will vote for one mayor and two aldermen.
Water quality, public safety and the town’s operating budget all drew equal attention from the seven candidates when asked what they thought were the most important issues facing the town.
The WBMA, who solicited input from other organizations like the Wrightsville Beach Chamber of Commerce, the Harbor Island Garden Club and the Surfrider Foundation, framed additional questions that allowed the candidates to respond to other hot-button items, like crime; recycling; town-subsidized sanitation service; the pros and cons of permitted events; the pros and cons of a trolley service to the beach; and support for the proposed bike path and the possible future of a skateboard park.
Several candidates seemed to gravitate toward the same responses. Mayor Whalen, Alderman Miastkowski and candidate Collins all voice opposition to a skate board park citing problems experienced by Carolina Beach. Candidate Smith noted that skate parks are huge and would require paving a large portion of the island, but candidate Sisson said local kids need something to do.
“What’s happened in other places is not necessarily going to happen here,” Sisson said.
Candidate DeVries favored advisory referendums allowing the residents to vote and Alderman Cignotti also favored public input.
Whalen, Miastkowski and Collins also sided over televised or Internet-streamed town meetings, each stating no; and were in accord again when they voted no to relaxed parking restrictions for businesses.
All favored increasing parking fees in already metered spaces; and all but Collins voted yes to increased litter fines and the enforcement of a smoke-free beach strand. Only Cignotti said maybe regarding the installation of surveillance cameras at Johnnie Mercer’s Pier; and Cignotti, Whalen and Sisson voted no to the idea of rezoning commercial property to residential.
These questions were asked early in the forum during a speed round that DePaolo said gave everyone an overview of the candidates’ positions.
Mayor Whalen’s position seemed to be grounded in the town’s achievements during his first two-year term, yet when given the chance to address a hypothetical situation: assuming the economy does not recover next year, what are your thoughts in raising taxes, raising parking fees, eliminating services and cutting non-essential town employees? Whalen said he did not have an answer.
“I think we have to address it when the time comes and understand that decisions that we make are decisions made by the board, they’re not made just by the mayor.”
Cignotti said he believed that a property tax increase was going to occur in order to pay the debt service on the public safety facility and that an increase in parking fees was already on the table.
“The elimination of services and non-essential employees probably could be on the table depending on what the budget looks like,” Cignotti said. He favored a budget review partnership with UNCW, neighboring beach towns and the county which receives 87 percent of Wrightsville’s tax dollars.
Other new ideas were expressed by Smith who advocated for the installation of bio-retention ponds near asphalt parking lots to mitigate windborne debris entering recreational waters, specifically cigarette butts. Smith also favored instituting a return on recycled plastic bottles to encourage residents and visitors to comply with new legislation banning the disposal of plastics into the landfill, and said he had discussed with Sen. Julia Boseman (D-New Hanover) the possibility of placing locks on boat bilge pumps. Collins said she had discussed with Rep. Danny McComas (R-District 19) the possibility of funding a discharge boat that would collect sewage from moored boats.
Only two questions were fielded from the audience. One from Keith Norris, owner of Vito’s Pizzeria who asked if the candidates perceived the downtown district as the bar district? The other from Tim Taylor, a downtown resident, asked what the candidates would do to address safety issues in the downtown area between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m.
Smith favored a task force; Sisson the involvement of all the stakeholders; and Miastkowski more police on foot and in plain clothes. Collins advocated for closing the bars at midnight and said the young people and visitors should not be running the town. DeVries stated the problem was alcohol; Whalen agreed and Cignotti favored the adoption and enforcement of a nuisance ordinance and stepped up communication among bar owners and town officials.
“If you’re thrown out of a bar, you’re put in a cab and sent off our beach,” he said.
The forum was videoed in its entirety and will be available on LuminaNews.com

Marimar McNaughton

Candidates for mayor, alderman, to square off on issues

2009-10-30T16:20:00.000-04:00

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the Wrightsville Beach Merchants Association will host a public candidates’ forum moderated by University of North Carolina Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo.
Seven contenders have been invited to square off on the issues. Of these, two mayoral candidates, represented by incumbent Mayor Stephen Whalen and Alderman David Cignotti, will position themselves for the town’s highest office in the first contested mayor’s race since 2005.
Two seats will also open for a four-year term on the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen. Five candidates have filed for those positions: Susan Howell Collins, Walt De Vries, incumbent Ed Miastkowski, Bill Sisson and Jim Smith.
Lumina News invited each of the alderman candidates to supply answers to the following five questions. The first four responses have been reprinted in alphabetical order with the candidates’ permission in alphabetical order:

Susan Howell Collins, 59, lifelong resident of Wrightsville Beach
Schooling: University of North Carolina Wilmington
Offices served: Vice-chairman of the Wrightsville Beach Planning Board currently serving second 2-year term
Profession: Licensed paralegal; administrator of Collins & Collins Law Firm, PLLC.

Walter De Vries, 79, 37-year resident of Wrightsville Beach
Schooling: M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology and political science from Michigan State University, Harvard University post-graduate fellow.
Offices served: Executive assistant to Governor George Romney; elected Republican delegate to the Michigan Constitutional Convention; former special assistant to the chancellor at UNCW.
Profession: Army veteran, political author, former professor, president of De Vries & Associates, Inc., (a campaign consulting firm) and former director of the N.C. Institute of Political Leadership.

Bill Sisson, 61, 11-year Wrightsville Beach resident
Schooling: B.A. from Ohio Wesleyan University; M.A in Latin American studies and M.A. in urban planning from UCLA; Doctorate of Chiropractic from Palmer College of Chiropractic-West.
Offices served: New Hanover County Commissioner 1992-1996; New Hanover County Planning Board; Wrightsville Beach Planning Board.
Profession: chiropractic physician

Jim Smith, 52, 5-year resident of Wrightsville Beach
Schooling: B.S. Engineering and Architectural from Perdue University.
Offices served: Wrightsville Beach Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, Charlotte Smart Growth Committee and Urban Land Institute
Profession: Real Estate Development

Question No. 1
Many people we have spoken with recently would like to see a unified approach to local government that respects its residents and property owners; its visiting public; and its employees.
a. If elected, how are you going to build a coalition to achieve common goals?
b. Describe your management style.

Collins: The board’s responsibility is to determine and prioritize the needs of the community. Regard and respect of board members and their opinions is necessary. Open communications using residents’ input should be practiced by aldermen. My style, serving on the WB planning board four years, is building consensus to make united decisions. Hours are spent reading legal documents that pertain to permitting, zoning and ordinances. Understanding and editing legal documents is a daily skill in my present position. My diligence in managing time is an asset to the council, as well as streamlining time spent in discussions at meetings.

DeVries: This is an election about the next four years. Just look at the candidate's answers to these questions and you will see who has the most specific and thoughtful answers. Support those candidates you know can work together and are positive.

I know how to bring government officials and staffs together and did so for 14 years. When I was the executive assistant to Michigan Governor George Romney, my job was to coordinate the state cabinet and make the 130 state agencies, boards and commissions work together in our administration. I listened, examined options and then recommended decisive actions to the Governor; and I was placed in charge of reorganizing … the 130 agencies into 20 principal departments. Government reorganization, like management, is not easy but it can be done. I like to break issues down like this: State the problem, then outline your philosophy about handling it (i.e., solve by government, private organizations or enterprise action) and, finally, outline your program to handle the problem. One more comment: we have a town manager who should administer our town--not the board of alderman who need to make policy.

Sisson: First I assume we are all there to serve the community. I have ideas of my own but I tend to seek out points of agreement with my colleagues and build solutions based on those points. I learned when I was a county commissioner that you can get an awful lot done by working with people rather than against them.

My management style is to include those around me in decisions, to respect their opinions and the information they provide, and then make my decisions having considered this along with other information I have. I guess you could call this team building.

Smith: Communication and teamwork is key. We are all working on a common goal—providing the best services at a reasonable cost while preserving and enhancing our quality of life (upholding the Community Vision Statement). We will have differences of opinion in how to achieve this best. We need to create among the newly formed board a creed by which to govern in which we agree when we disagree to conduct ourselves in a professional, non-personal manner. If something is bothering us about a fellow alderman then darn it—discuss it. It’s kindergarten 101—respect, play nice, work hard, like what you are doing, have fun. What’s wrong with a good debate?

I have one boss, and that is the residents. I have one report, and that is the town manager. I manage from the bottom up—that is I seek out their needs and wants and balance that with budget constraints while continuing to provide for core needs. I seek out advice from those smarter than me to make educated decisions. Teamwork is key while providing the town manager and staff the support they need to do their job to the best of their ability. Manage by wandering around. Meet, discuss, gather ideas and concerns.

Question No. 2
The town’s fiscal year budget for 2010-2011 will have to increase substantially to offset the expense of funding the first payment on the new public safety building.
a. What is your plan for increasing revenue to offset this expense?
b. With the county tax revaluation effective in the same fiscal year, do you have the courage to also raise town property taxes if necessary?

Collins: The town’s revenue will have to increase to pay for the public safety building. Our board approved this significant expenditure and it will be the new council’s responsibility to pay the ongoing expense (approximately $500,000 annually). This council must be diligent and wise in other related expenses because of our present economic position. Tax re-evaluation is necessary to bring properties back to appropriate values. Our tax rate will have to adjust to meet our budget needs.

DeVries: Honestly, where can you go but to increase property taxes? Courage has nothing to do with it. This last board leaves the new 2010 Board with no options. We have no choice but to increase property taxes and have no say about it.

Sisson: I believe we should pay as we go. I like the idea of fee for service income versus general tax increases. Where the town can increase fees it should. Parking may be one of the areas where this will be possible. If we have to tap the reserve fund it should only be as a last resort.

No one wants to raise property taxes. I hate them because they are regressive, but the state does not give us a choice. The public safety building is a done deal. We will have to pay for it and that may mean raising taxes.

Smith: We need to run the town like a business. We have a product to sell. Implement a user fee and in-lieu-of fee schedule. My program regarding these fees could bring in as much as $60,000 per year. I would increase parking fees to $12/day and at the same time renegotiate our agreement with Lanier. Total income with both plans $200,000 or $65 average tax savings per property. Use a contract employee expert for grant applications.
I will strive very hard to keep any increase to a bare minimum.

Question No. 3
Employee moral reportedly dipped last year when the town staff suffered personnel cuts: a hiring freeze, no merit increases and radical changes to employee health insurance benefits. What would you suggest to improve employee morale?

Collins: Employee morale is important and produces quality work outflow. Respect and pride in our workplace with positive input from staff and management is a must. When merit raises are not received by deserving employees, other rewards/honors must take place. Early leave times should be rotated and lunches provided by community and businesses.

DeVries: Do we really know what employee morale is? Have we ever surveyed them to find out how they feel? Right now the board needs to restore their merit pay increases and repair the damage done to health benefits. Chief Carey told me that some police officers, in order to get health insurance for their families, must personally pay $200 a week! I understand that these decisions were made by the BOA in a severe economic downturn, but now conditions are better and changes can be made

Sisson: We start with the board letting the employees know how much we value them for doing their jobs with less and for less than they are worth. But we must begin to restore cuts they have endured. Otherwise we will lose good employees the moment another good offer comes along.

Smith: We must be competitive with salaries and benefits. It is often a false economic formula when we lose quality people and have to replace them.

Question No. 4
To balance the 2209-2010, there was no money earmarked for capital improvements in the 2009-2010 budget. What would you do to amend this situation over the next four-year term?

Collins: Money earmarked for improvements has come from excess tax revenues when economic times were at their peak. No money was marked for capital improvements this year because revenue producing activities were down. It will be necessary to place enough revenue from impact fees and permit fees in the CIP to fund our future budget needs.

DeVries: I have studied the rank order of the capital improvements and it seems to me that beach renourishment recommendations are critical and should be funded now and in the next four years. The same should be said for water quality proposals. Too often, the town has put off needed maintenance and capital needs only to find that had these appropriations made earlier would have saved a lot of money. We need to get away from "crisis management" and start taking planning for the future seriously.

Sisson: Capital improvements cannot be ignored. The longer you put them off the more expensive they become. We have to begin setting portions of the budget aside to fund these projects - cleaning up our waters and beach strand and ensuring beach renourishment cannot wait.

Smith: Combine the expenses of the new safety building, salary and benefit issues, and capital improvement issues with decreased funding from various sources, a tax increase is inevitable. However, it will be my job to help keep any necessary increase to a bare minimum.

Question No. 5
Wrightsville Beach hosts one million visitors each summer impacting public parking, public safety and sanitation.
a. How do you rank these three in order of importance and why?
b. How would you improve your No. 1 choice?

Collins: Our sanitation issues need immediate attention! Waterways testing with high levels of bacteria, beaches that are polluted with trash and storm water runoff draining into Banks Channel are problems affecting all citizens. The “no discharge legislation” is our first step to encourage people to be responsible boaters. Our new WB boat should be used to issue warnings and fines. Our stormwater management is a first step for Wrightsville Beach. Storm water drains and pipes that run into Banks Channel should be improved. Systems of filtration are necessary for the health, safety and welfare of visitors and residents. It is a continuing effort to educate beach visitors of the dangers to our turtle and bird nesting areas when they litter. We cannot relax while litter destroys wildlife at our wonderful family beach. Public safety is not in crisis, according to Police Chief Carey but requires constant attention. Public parking is a continuing problem for citizens since our town has no property for expansion.

DeVries: Public safety, public parking, sanitation. Would you walk around this beach after dark? My wife and I have lived here 37 years and in the l970s and l980s we would have walked the streets on this island without fear. But, in the 1990s and 2000s, no way; and some candidates say we don't have a public safety problem!
I strongly believe when you increase police presence, you quickly see a decrease in bad behavior (drunkenness, assault, vagrancy, burglary, noise, profane language and, yes, even violations by boat owners). We need more police presence now.

Sisson: Public safety - sanitation and public parking. Public safety must be the first priority of any government – but it cannot be separated from a clean environment. Crime is more likely where it looks like the citizens don’t respect their own town. A dirty beach and dirty streets convey this impression as do closed swimming areas. Handling the boat-related sewage problem dovetails with improving public safety and using our police boat to enforce the no dumping zone. Parking is a long-standing problem and there seems to be no immediate on-site solution.

More active citizen and business involvement with law enforcement makes officers’ jobs easier. The same goes for fire prevention and ocean rescue. The aldermen should personally facilitate this effort. Our officers should enforce the no discharge zone as well as other ordinances that protect the environment.

Smith: Safety—residents and tourists must be provided a safe environment to maintain our quality of life. Sanitation—our water and water quality is the reason we want to live and recreate here. Parking—is more of a convenience than a necessity like No.1 and No.2.

Offer competitive salaries and benefits to continue to recruit the “A Team.” Careful consideration needs to be given to adding police as well as addressing the magistrate situation.

Brian Freskos and Marimar McNaughton

Candidates Forum Video

2009-10-28T18:11:00.002-04:00

Ed Miastkowski goes on record to address Wrightsville Beach issues

2009-10-02T13:57:00.001-04:00

Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen incumbent Ed Miastkowski acknowledged that it is difficult to contact him via telephone or e-mail. To obtain that admission, Miastkowski was approached on Thursday, Sept. 24, following a town meeting, and asked to sit down for an interview after the meeting which had been packed with individuals who represented two sides of a yet-to-be resolved issue that encompasses the South Lumina Avenue traffic pattern between the 500-700 block.
The issue had evolved into an emotional confrontation between both sides, with proponents of change citing what they claim to be safety issues along the one block thoroughfare from Sprunt Street to the Hanover Seaside Club.
At the meeting, the board of aldermen (BOA) tabled the issue, deciding to delve deeper into whether the safety factors need improving in the area in question.
Miastkowski used the public’s division as a platform to say that he often seeks the public’s opinion.
He is likely the longest serving alderman in the history of Wrightsville Beach, first elected in 1993, winning by smooth margins every four years since.
According to the candidate, the support of his right-wing conservative decision-making is slipping away, due to the fact that “all the old people are dying and moving,” he said.
Miastkowski, 68, said that a majority of his support is came from citizens of his generation—people who may view him as a strong representation of what they feel is the former simplicity of life in Wrightsville Beach.
His conservative stance is reflected in how he discussed curbside recycling. While supporting the general proposal of increased recycling and its potential positive affects on the environment, he said the town shouldn’t force it on people.
“I don’t like the government forcing anything on anybody,” he said.
Following the BOA meeting, the candidate made numerous comments regarding his athletic credentials before segueing into a long conversation about local sports.
He is a 1993 inductee of the Lenoire-Rhyne Sports Hall of Fame, and still holds record as one of the university’s leading basketball scorers. He is also an encyclopedia of local sports knowledge.
Without being questioned, Miastkowski addressed a blemish on his alderman record: absenteeism.
It came to light earlier this year that he missed more board meetings in 2008 than all the other aldermen combined since 2005. And in every year since 2005, he has been absent for more meetings than any current board member.
After contending that he never missed a meeting in his first twelve years of office, Miastkowski excused his absences. He cited deaths of friends and family, specifically his wife and sister.
“Certain things are more important than others,” he said. “Friends and family come first.”

Over your 16 years in office, how have you grown and solidified your base of support?

“I think I’ve been losing support because all the old people are dying and moving and that’s where my support comes from: the old beach residents. I don’t know the young people as much … but the older beach residents who’ve lived here a long time is where I get the majority of my support.

Why do you think that is?
“I’ve lived here 32-33 years. I graduated from New Hanover High School in 1960. I played basketball at UNCW for a couple years and people used to come see me play.
I moved to New Hanover County in 1968, except for the years that I went to Lenoire-Rhyne up in Hickory; I’ve lived here that long. My wife is from here, she’s deceased now. We were married 43 years and she’s from Wilmington.
Through school and in those 30 years I’ve got to know a lot of the kids at the beach and their families. I’ve been going to St. Therese’s Church for 40-some years because I lived in Green Meadows before I moved here and that was still my church. I’ve been going to St. Therese’s probably since 1970.

In your time on the Board of Aldermen what do you consider your greatest accomplishments?
“Trying to hold expenses down. Everybody knows I’m cheap. I treat the town money like it’s my money because I feel like it is our money. Each person that lives here—it’s their money—so I try to hold expenses down as best I can the whole time. That’s one constant that I have is spending.
The other constant is people know how I’m going to vote just about every time. I get very few phone calls because they know my philosophy on things as far as building and ordinances and that; and they know it’s hard to change my mind because I’m consistent. The audience doesn’t sway me a whole lot. I’ve voted for my friends; I have voted against my friends. I just try to do what I think is right for the beach. And I’ve lived here like I said, since 1977.”

How are you most involved in the community?
“For a while I was a member of the Lion’s Club and I enjoyed that. It just takes time. It started taking so much time. My wife was bedridden for six or seven years before she passed away and I had to stay with her—either I had to be there or somebody else had to be there. But I help, and just hang out and walk the neighborhoods and talk to people.
I’m not very accessible on the phone because, mainly, people who call are always these people wanting me to change telephone services and things like that. It aggravates me (he laughs). But I hang out in the parks. I’ll come over during the week and sit out there and watch people and they’ll come up and talk to me. I just try to be available on a personal basis, one-to-one, out in public, like just hanging out.
I don’t like to go to a lot of meetings, because I don’t believe the squeaky wheel gets the most grease. I try to hear both sides. Like I talked tonight. I talked to both sides. I went to visit people on both sides of the issue and I heard from one side and I went to visit somebody else and I heard the other side. When issues come up I try to listen to both people. I’ve got friends on both sides of this issue and I probably should’ve voted tonight but a little more information never hurt anybody. I’ll try to solve the problem before we have to do anything drastic.
I try to talk to both sides of the story all the time and I try to explain to them why I can’t vote for them. I’ve had some of my best friends that I’ve had to vote against because I didn’t think it was the right thing to do.
I think people respect that or at least you can sit down and talk to them. They get mad at you, but they understand and they see my point of view. They don’t agree with it, but they know why I do things. I just don’t cut them off. I try to listen to them and then explain I can’t do it or why I can do it. And then I got to tell the other side just the opposite.

What do you regard as the biggest issues facing the town?
“Probably people coming down in the summer. It’s not a problem, but it’s what to do with them when they get here. It’s just, we’re sinking down here. We have more public parking, people assume that we’re not tourist friendly, but if you check the other beaches we have more public access and more public parking than probably any beach in North Carolina.
And I don’t know how to alleviate any more of that problem but traffic and people coming down here is a terrific problem for us in the summer. They just ride around the circles and tie up the beach. I think they don’t assume we’re friendly to tourists but I think we are because we supply all these services. They complain about the parking meters but the parking meters offset the expenses that we provide for the tourists.
(He cited the sometimes more than 200 trashcans on the beach strand) And we empty them on the weekends and that takes our personnel coming in on the weekends to do it. We don’t leave Friday and come back Monday to do them; we’re out there on the weekends.
We have a full-time maintenance guy to handle bathrooms in the summertime. People say, ‘well you don’t clean them.’ But we’ve got a guy works 40 hours a week and his only job in the summer is to maintain—I think we got five or six public restrooms—and that’s his only job. To me those are tourist-friendly type things to do, and people don’t think we do that.
(Public works director Mike Vukelich said there are five public restrooms maintained by a full-time employee at a significant cost to the town.)
The lifeguards cost us over $350,000 a year, (the exact number is $351,257 for this year, according to town manager Bob Simpson) but it’s a service that we provide for the tourists that come down, make them feel like they’re safe or try to be safe as they can. I think the county ought to help us with that, but they don’t. We pony up the money here at Wrightsville Beach to the tune of $350 grand a year.”

How do you propose we deal with all the people?
“That’s been a problem since I’ve been on the board. We’ve had ideas like build parking decks but parking decks aren’t feasible because they’re only going to be used 12 weekends out of the summer. Monday through Friday parking’s not a problem down here, it’s Saturday and Sunday and sometimes on Friday and on holiday weekends and we’ve checked into it. The last time it’s been six or seven years, so I don’t know if I’m up to date, but it would take 35 years to get our money back out of a parking deck because it would never be used except on Saturdays and Sundays during the summer.
(Town manager Bob Simpson agreed. He said recently that Wrightsville Beach took up the possibility of a trolley line and parking deck in 2005, but the town simply doesn’t have the real estate to handle a project of that size. The costs of construction and maintenance would mean little return on the town’s investment.)
One time we had a trolley down here and it didn’t last very long and we used to shuttle them from here, let them park here and shuttle them every 30 minutes, but nobody would use it. We charged, I think it was a quarter, and ran every 30 minutes and people just didn’t want to use it. I don’t know if that would be something feasible now but this parking lot (he points in the direction of Wrightsville Beach park) fills up anyway without the trolley so I don’t know what good a trolley would do now because there’s no where for them go anywhere on that thing.
But we’ve talked about putting a sign out there on Eastwood somewhere saying: no available spots at the beach. But that wouldn’t stop them—they’d come down and look anyway. We’ve thought about a lot of things, it’s just people are going to come. There’s nothing you can do and they’ll just ride around, they will park in people’s yards and everything else. Like I said, we have more public parking than any beach in North Carolina for size and we provide more public accesses.
It’s 12 weekends a year that we have the problem. The other times it’s not that bad—maybe 14 now because the seasons are getting a little longer. They come a little earlier and a little later. There’s just no land to do anything with.”
“There are lots over there behind Lager Heads (on North Lumina Avenue) and people say, ‘why don’t you buy them and put a deck there?’ but the cost would be astronomical to do something like that and again it would only be used on the weekends.”

—Brian Freskos

Attack provokes candidate talk

2009-10-02T13:55:00.000-04:00

The recent attack on 41-year-old Jud Gee has brought to the forefront what one board of aldermen candidate called an emergency situation in Wrightsville Beach, where degrading behavior has shaken the town’s core.
The attack on South Lumina Avenue Saturday morning, Sept. 12, left Gee in the hospital with life-threatening injuries and resulted in the arrest of Hugh Trey Sandlin, 28, a voice student from Chicago who now sits in a jailhouse cell on $150,000 secured bond.
Alderman candidate Walter DeVries called it a horrid attack that brought to light what the he deemed is a needed upgrade in the town’s safety structure.
DeVries recommended strengthening community policing, putting police on bicycles and Segway Personal Transporters, installing more video cameras, reducing department turnover, adding more officers and restoring merit pay.
He advocated a zero tolerance policy when addressing actions like public drunkenness, drug use, fights, property damage, disturbing the peace, swearing and cursing at residents and generally trashing the town streets, parking lots and beaches.
Citing fiscal constraints, DeVries proposed combating these issues by using the town’s $3.5 million in rainy day fund.
“This money is in the bank. It is to be used for emergencies—and if dealing with problem behavior isn’t an emergency, I don’t know what is,” DeVries said.
But using this money may not be as simple as it sounds.
Town manager Bob Simpson said the state of North Carolina requires municipalities to keep a portion—about 7 percent—of its budget in a fund earmarked for emergencies.
Wrightsville Beach, being a coastal town prone to head-on hurricane strikes, is required by ordinance to dedicate 34.5 percent of its budget toward emergency relief, Simpson said. This fiscal year, the town has set aside about 40 percent, or about $3.5 million of its $8.7 million budget.
DeVries’ statements at times coincided with but other times broke with statements made by the other BOA candidates in the days following the attack.
James Smith and Susan Howell Collins did not agree with DeVries’ suggestion that the attack represents a broader emergency situation on Wrightsville Beach.
“I think we have to recognize that, unfortunately, these types of things are happening all over the country, not just Wrightsville Beach,” Smith said. “It’s obviously a very unfortunate thing that happened but people don’t behave the way they used to.”
Collins said, “Since this is an isolated incident and not a random act of violence, I cannot accept the statement that the town of Wrightsville Beach is in an emergency state.”
When asked whether the Gee attack represented an emergency situation, BOA candidate Bill Sisson said, “Yes and no.”
“I don’t want what I’m saying to imply that the police are not doing their job,” he said. “But people in Wrightsville Beach don’t feel safe...and that can qualify as an emergency.”
Referring to the attack, he added: “There is certainly a perceived emergency to do something so that something like this never happens again.”
Alcohol abuse was cited by both Smith and Sisson as major issues currently having a negative affect on town safety, but proposals put forth by each candidate regarding how to combat the problem differed remarkably.
Smith wants Wrightsville Beach to enter into a collaborative effort with other towns to lobby the governor to change the alcohol beverage control board regulations and the agency’s authority to better control the downtown district.
“We have to take the driver’s seat to get the law changed,” he said. “A town, any town, whether it’s Raleigh or Wrightsville Beach, can’t control the bars and it’s a real shame that we can’t.”
Sisson, on the other hand, wants to increase the amount of community policing, a direct connection to DeVries’ proposal.
“I’m not blaming the bar owners, that’s not their problem,” he said. “It’s the problem of the people who are abusing alcohol.”
Sisson said that done properly, community policing breeds more cooperation between the citizens and police than having an arms-length relationship.
He said the town should look at funding options to initiate policies that take police out of the car and put them on the street, where they can have a physical presence to bridge the gap between officers and the public.
Acknowledging the town’s poor fiscal base, Sisson said that before funding any initiatives, the town should look at whether it is making the most efficient use of its current resources.
“Throwing money at a problem never fixes it,” he said, “but the physical presence of police would act as a deterrent.”
Ed Miastkowski could not be reached for comment. Several phone calls to his home and an email message were not answered.

Wrightsville Beach sample ballots available online

2009-09-15T15:38:00.001-04:00

http://www.nhcgov.com/AgnAndDpt/ELCT/Pages/SampleBallots.aspx

New voting laws change elections for New Hanover County

2009-09-15T15:36:00.000-04:00

The North Carolina General Assembly recently passed three landmark legislative bills that change the way local candidates run for office and, among other things, provide an easier means for elderly and military voters to cast their ballots.
The new session laws were approved by Governor Beverly Perdue in late August.
The laws become effective in December, after this year’s county-wide municipal elections. The changes will have no bearing on how candidates or voters conduct themselves leading up to Election Day this November.
“But this is very important for anyone looking to become a candidate in the 2010 election and from that point forth,” said Bonnie Williams, director of the New Hanover County Board of Elections.
For candidates, the campaign finance reporting threshold was lowered by $2,000, a clear attempt to promote greater public oversight of campaign spending.
This election season, municipal candidates in New Hanover County do not have to file campaign finance reports unless they collect or spend more than $3,000.
Candidates in 2010 will have to file reports as soon as they reach $1,000.
In Wrightsville Beach, mayoral candidate David Cignotti has already filed over that mark; incumbent Mayor Stephen K. Whalen has not.
Also, none of the Board of Aldermen candidates have filed over the threshold.
For voters, the most significant changes were made to absentee balloting.
Presently, voters who use absentee ballots are required to have two eyewitnesses present to observe the marking of the ballot. After December, absentee voters will only need one eyewitness.
The changes make it easier for members of the military, couples that live in remote areas and elderly married couples that live by themselves to cast their ballots, Williams said.
The laws also extend the deadline for returning absentee ballots, a measure that is clearly designed to jump the hurdles of getting mail to and from the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, underscoring a national initiative to make it easier on the country’s military men and women.
“A sincere effort has been put forth to see how we can better the process for these military voters so they’re not disenfranchised,” Williams said, “because they (the military) are working outside of a normal situation.”
Also included in the laws is a provision that allows qualified 16-year-olds to preregister to vote.
By preregistering, that person will be automatically registered upon reaching the age of 18, following verification of the person’s qualifications and address.

-- Brian Freskos

Candidates offered an ocean rescue ride-along

2009-09-07T15:53:00.001-04:00

When the town offered to take the five Board of Aldermen candidates on a ride-along to witness Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue (WBOR) in action, only two partook.
Candidates James Smith and Susan Howell Collins rode up and down the beach strand with WBOR director Dave Baker in an agency vehicle at separate times on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 5, offering them a unique insight into the inner-workings of an important town agency.
Following their experience, both candidates expressed a deep joy in the gallant bravery and capabilities of WBOR personnel and said the ride was an opportunity to open avenues of communication that could serve both the government and the agency well in the future.
“I have always been impressed with the life safety team, but now I am overly impressed with them,” Smith said. “I spend a lot of time on the beach and it’s very heartwarming to see the dedication out there.”
“(Baker) introduced me to a lot of the lifeguards at the stands,” Smith continued, “and I think if the lifeguards see an elected official out there that really cares about their day-to-day operations and is there for support...I think that is just one more factor in keeping moral high and showing them that we support them.”
Collins had similar afterthoughts.
“By riding with him (Baker) I could see that they (WBOR) have a service to do and that they do it—and their record proves it,” Collins said. “They don’t do what’s required, they do above that standard.”
Both candidates also saw the ride-along as an educational tool, offering them the chance to see lifeguards in action.
Smith said he saw the lifeguards work their skill-set when a person was caught in a rip current.
Collins said she was impressed by how effective the agency’s personnel was in finding missing children and specifically noted the story of a young girl who was lost Saturday:
A little girl approached and told lifeguards that she couldn’t find her parents, Collins said. The lifeguards asked the girl what her mother’s name was.
The girl said her mother’s name was: “mom.”
The lifeguards asked the girl for her father’s name.
She replied: “Dad.”
“So they were looking for a mom and a dad with a little girl in a pink bathing suit,” Collins said, giggling.
She said WBOR found the girl’s parents within minutes.
While both the candidates saw some action, Labor Day weekend was a poor reflection on how busy the WBOR has been this season. The bad weather kept most of the beach-goers at home.
Smith said he would like to make the ride-along a monthly event—a significant gesture to a town agency that keeps Wrightsville’s beaches safe.
“I’d love to do it once a month, make sure they’re getting all the support they need,” Smith said. “If there are things that they need, we can hear it firsthand and see it firsthand.”
Baker commented on how the candidates benefited from the ride-along the next day, saying: “It was very enlightening for them and very educational.”
He said it gave each of them a behind-the-scenes look at the overall workings of WBOR.
“It gave them an understanding that they didn’t have before,” Baker said.

—Brian Freskos

Important Election Dates

2009-09-03T15:48:00.001-04:00

Oct. 5 Absentee by mail voting begins

Oct. 9 Voter Registration Ends*

Oct. 15 One Stop voting begins

Oct. 27 Deadline to request Absentee by Mail ballot*

Oct. 31 One Stop voting ends

Nov. 2 Deadline to return Absentee by Mail ballot*

Nov. 3 ELECTION DAY

*Deadline at 5 p.m.

Information obtained from the New Hanover County Board of Elections

Candidates compress campaigns for contracted canvass period

2009-09-03T15:42:00.002-04:00

The upswing in early voting has candidates from Wrightsville Beach to across the county strapping on their campaign rockets, readying to boost their message to any undecided voter.
Close to 60 percent of voters marked their ballots before the 2008 November Election Day, meaning candidates have to push their campaigns forward this year if they are going to tweak the minds of the electorate.
There was a national, local and organizational effort to get the vote out early in 2008, forever changing the dynamic of campaigning.
Digging into the reasons behind the upswing in early voting, a call was placed to Bonnie Williams, director of the New Hanover County Board of Elections.
“I think a lot of people vote early for many different reasons,” she said. “One, it’s convenient; and two, it gives them more flexibility in scheduling their day or their week.
Some people believe that if they vote early, they don’t have to stand in line on Election Day, even though they’re might be a line at the one-stop voting site ... on the other hand, you have another group of people who are very traditional, and it’s just not the same type of voting experience if they vote early and they prefer to wait until Election Day,” Williams said.
The filing period for candidates this year lasted from July 6-17, about a week earlier than elections prior to 2007.
One Stop voting begins on Oct. 15 at the New Hanover Government Center off Racine Drive, near the intersection with Eastwood Road.
The earlier filing period helps a little, but the rise in early voting means that candidates still have to boost their campaign into full swing a couple of weeks earlier sooner.
“That changes the whole dynamic of campaigns,” said Walter DeVries, a candidate for the Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen who has an extensive background in the world of politics and government.
“If you have a campaign plan then you have a timeline set for the campaign,” he said. “Well, now you have to move it back at least two weeks, which means that if you are planning ... to make your campaign peak by Election Day, now you have to do it by the middle of October.”
But it’s not as easy as it sounds.
“You run into a problem,” DeVries said. “If you push your campaign back to August, then a lot of people aren’t paying much attention yet.”
“What it does,” he said, referring to the shortened campaign period, “is it really compresses the campaign.”
Compressing the campaign has been made easier by the paralleled development of faster and more effective communication mediums like the Internet. In a small town, some candidates have been known to initiate person-by-person campaign strategies, which may prove more challenging than before the shortened campaign period.

—Brian Freskos

Longest serving alderman has racked excessive absences

2009-08-27T16:21:00.000-04:00

Wrightsville Beach incumbent Ed Miastkowski has missed more board meetings since 2005 than all the other aldermen combined.
In 2008, Miastkowski was absent for 11 of 36 meetings. That is more absences in one year than all the other aldermen combined since 2005.
In 2007, he missed seven of 26 meetings; and in 2005 and 2006, he was absent for three meetings each year.
When the tallies were provided at the end of July, he had been absent for four of 22 meetings so far in 2009.
The attendance information was provided by town manager Bob Simpson in response to queries by other aldermen candidates.
Miastkowski has been marked absent a total 28 times out of 135 meetings.
Bill Blair earned second place for absenteeism. He has missed five of 58 meetings in his two years on the board.
Alderman Lisa Weeks was absent for three of 36 meetings in 2008, but had missed none in 2009 as of July.
Mayor and incumbent Stephen Whalen missed one meeting and mayoral candidate and Alderman David Cignotti hasn't missed any since his arrival on the board in 2005.
Miastkowski has served the Board of Aldermen since 1993, longer than any other current member.

—Brian Freskos

Mayoral candidates discuss campaign, or not

2009-08-24T15:10:00.001-04:00

Wrightsville Beach mayoral candidate David Cignotti has given himself a $4,000 donation, money he is allocating for a person-by-person type of small-town campaign geared toward reaching voters and hearing them out individually, the candidate said.
“Our town’s a small town where I think nothing is more important than calling people on the phone and talking to them face to face and letting them know that you want to hear what they have to say about the issues that are of concern to them,” Cignotti said during a telephone interview last week.
“Our campaigns are very personal,” he added, referring to Wrightsville Beach. “One of the neat things about it is you get to meet people and talk to them face to face.”
Cignotti said he will be working diligently to get his name out to voters by using small-town campaign methods like mailing flyers, but he continued to stress the importance of meeting voters in person and talking to them individually.
A candidate does not have to disclose campaign donations or expenditures unless they break the $3,000 threshold, and as of Monday, Aug. 24, incumbent Mayor Stephen K. Whalen still hadn’t filed over that mark, said officials with the New Hanover County (NHC) Board of Elections.
When he filed for reelection, Whalen decided to remain under the threshold. He can still surpass the mark and file an amendment, which will state that he’s exceeded the threshold and is now subject to disclosure, said Bonnie Williams, director of the NHC Board of Elections.
Whalen said last week he will likely file that amendment, but staunchly refused to discuss his method of campaigning.
“I fully believe that I’ll probably exceed that,” he said regarding the threshold. “I had to make a statement with regard to something and that’s what I did at this point.”
“I haven’t formulated my plan and I’m certainly not going to share it with the Lumina (News),” he continued. “I just don’t think that’s appropriate. If the other candidates want to say how they’re … you know, that’s entirely their prerogative, but I just don’t think at this point, two and a half months away from an election, I’m just not going to share my game plan with anybody.”
“I can’t even believe that you guys would ask that,” he added.
After he was told about Cignotti’s previous comments about campaigning, Whalen said: “That’s his prerogative and like I said, at this point in time, going through this process, I mean there’s all these forms and everything you have to fill out, and I just got done with all my questionnaires from the Realtors and everybody else, you know you really don’t even have time to breath.”
“And so it was just, I don’t know if you would call it strategic or what, I fully believe that I will exceed that $3,000, but I haven’t at this point and I did it more from a simplistic point of view than anything else. It was just the easiest thing to do at this point so that’s what I did.”
Brian Freskos

Yard signs a candidate no-no

2009-08-18T17:03:00.007-04:00

Political yard signs are popping up across the county—but in Wrightsville Beach, they’re a no-no.
A town ordinance prohibits candidates to display yard signs until the middle of October, 17 days prior to Election Day.
And for Aldermen candidate Walter De Vries, that is a violation of the right to free speech and a hindrance on the candidates’ ability to build name recognition.
So now the Board of Aldermen (BOA) will address that ordinance and consider a change, but it will require a public hearing and approval from the planning board before any action can be made, said town manager Bob Simpson.
By the time all of the necessary processes have been completed, will candidates have any additional time to put up their signs?
“Yes,” Simpson said. The BOA can hold its hearing on Sep. 10 and make a decision afterwards.
“The day of the public hearing they (the BOA) can change it, so on Sep. 11 (the candidates) can run out and put their signs up,” Simpson said. “That’ll give them a full month.”
A change is critical, De Vries said in a letter to Simpson dated Aug. 12, because in small jurisdictions, “yard signs build identity and that becomes critical for challengers and incumbents in any election.”
“There will probably be a discussion about whether or not the town really has the ability to control how long the signs are out,” said alderman and mayoral candidate David Cignotti.
“I’m not a big yard sign advocate,” he said. “I know it sort of gets the candidate’s names out there but I’d like to hear from the public too on how long they actually want those signs out because it gets to be pretty cluttered and to me it can sort of be like yard pollution after a while.”
In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 18, Cignotti acknowledged another one of De Vries’ concerns: since so many people vote before the Nov. 3 Election Day, by the time candidates have put their signs out, most of the votes have already been cast.
During the 2008 election, an estimated 60 percent of votes were cast before the traditional Election Day in November, said Michelle Mrozkowski, election system specialist with the New Hanover County Board of Elections.
“I’d like to hear what the rest of the board has to say about that,” Cignotti said. “I’m definitely open to whatever they decide. I guess yard signs are one of those necessary evils of a campaign.”
Building name identity shouldn’t be any problem for incumbent Ed Miastkowski, who has spent more than a decade as an alderman.
“The incumbent always has an advantage because he or she has recognition,” said Lee Johnston, a professor in the Department of Public and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. “If I don’t know anything else, I know the candidate’s name,” he said.
But the question arises: will Miastkowski vote to change the ordinance knowing it could help launch a contender?
Brian Freskos

What issues are important to you this election year?

2009-08-13T16:27:00.002-04:00

Wrightsville Beach voters who enter the polls in November will come face to face with a diverse list of candidates.

Five contenders have announced their bids for the pair of available seats on the Board of Aldermen (BOA), meaning that a majority of those bidders — James Smith, Walter DeVries, Susan Collins, Bill Sisson and incumbent Ed Miastkowski — will be going home empty handed.

In recent interviews and statements, almost every candidate highlighted different issues that encompass their pitch to voters.

Smith, 52, said he wants to develop a strategic plan to bring together the town’s wide array of organizations.

"I’d really like to see us work together," he said. "We’ve got so many great groups out there doing so many different things, but it doesn’t seem like there’s any coordination."

He cited the current economic situation, and said that if a comprehensive strategic plan was developed, the town would qualify for a multitude of government grants.

Smith also made reference to his commitment to raising town income by cutting costs.

His specific comments landed in favor of raising parking fees and increasing parking spaces. He also wants the town to consider cutting trash collection to once a week, and charge extra for those properties that require twice a week pickup.

DeVries, 79, asserted that his campaign platform will focus on government openness and quality-of-life issues. He emphasized the importance of televising all BOA and planning board meetings as well as other town activities.

"This is fundamental to American democracy," he said, "that the people are entitled to know what their government is doing, no matter the level ... I believe that elected officials have the responsibility to provide this openness and access."

DeVries has an extensive background in the field of politics and campaigning. He is the author of at least three books on politics and was the president of a campaign consulting firm.

He was also an assistant to the speaker of the Michigan House, served as the executive assistant to former Michigan Governor George Romney and held several other government-related positions.

Collins, 59, who is serving a second term on the planning board, is the one who, along with her sister, donated the family’s beach cottage to the Chamber of Commerce to house the Wrightsville Beach Visitors Center, she said.

In a statement, Collins vowed to work diligently to ensure wise government spending.

As a resident of Banks Channel, Collins cited her support of recent legislation that, if approved, will create a countywide no discharge zone.

Clean waterways and beaches, as well as beach renourishment and public safety will be her campaign focal points, Collins said.

Sisson, 61, a former New Hanover County Commissioner, made recent claims regarding what he called the BOA’s inability to work as a cohesive group.

"People on the board need to learn how to work together," he said.

"I think that is not serving the citizens well and it’s certainly not serving the town well either," he added, referring to what he said was the BOA’s habit of bickering.

Sisson also stressed the need for increased citizen involvement.

"We have an awful lot of very bright people who live in our town and not to avail ourselves of their expertise and their ideas just seems to be missing something very important," he said.

Sisson said he wants to restore the citizens’ faith in their government, be proactive in planning for the future, work to improve the residents’ quality of life and strive to make Wrightsville Beach a safer place.

Miastkowski, 68, could not be reached for comment.

2009 Election Candidates

2009-08-13T15:00:00.004-04:00

Wrightsville Beach Mayor
David Cignotti
Stephen K. Whalen (I)
　
Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen
Walter DeVries
Susan Howell Collins
Ed Miastkowski (I)
Bill Sisson
James Smith
　
Wilmington Mayor
Bill Saffo (I)
Paul Knight
　
Wilmington City Council
Margaret Haynes (I)
Michael DeHart
Ben McCoy
Kevin O’Grady
Jim Quinn (I)
Charlie Rivenbark
Earl Sheridan (I)
Justin LaNasa
Dana Page
Susan E. Clarke
Ricky Meeks
　
Carolina Beach Mayor
Joel Macon (I)
　
Carolina Beach Town Council
Robert (Bob) Lewis
Alicia L. Lachance
Alan Gilbert (I)
Lonnie Lashley
Michael Kopitopoulos
　
Kure Beach Mayor
Dean Lambeth
Jim Vatrt
　
Kure Beach Town Council
Craig Scott Galbraith
Chuck Keener
Tim Fuller

I = Incumbent

This Comfort Zone

2008-05-30T11:16:00.003-04:00

By Marimar McNaughton

Staff Writer

At the YWCA’s women of achievement awards last week, 42 women and young ladies were recognized for their leadership in the fields of business, communications, education, environment, public service, health and wellness, and volunteerism.

One of them, Wrightsville Beach School principal Pansy Rumley, received one of the top 12 honors for her role as an educator. Her vision for a marine science and environmental studies curriculum forced her into the mainstream of fundraising to support programs she initiated that utilize outdoor resources to teach experiential sciences.

The construction of the pier at WBS, the county’s only waterside school, encourages participation by faculty and students, and other regional school groups, some from as far away as Durham County, to use the facilities to learn about nature, examine our fragile ecosystem up close, and enroll young children at an early age in the process of becoming good stewards of the earth.

Rarely does outstanding achievement like this occur in the comfort zone. More often than not, true leadership like Rumley’s emerges out of the discomfort zone.

To the naked eye, the comfort zone was blanketed this Memorial Day weekend by a sea of bikinis and buffed bodies. Marching to the beat of a different drummer was one lone shirtless soldier, Steve Grimsley, who carried the American flag — a visually potent reminder of what this weekend actually was intended to represent: not the start of the summer season, but a day of tribute for those who risked and gave up their lives in military service for their country’s freedom.

Our town fathers and mothers sometimes find themselves in the position to steward those freedoms. Collectively, they have faced many uncomfortable situations during their tenure of public service. It is during these times of circumspection, often fueled by public debate, that they find themselves in the discomfort zone where real learning takes place, real leadership steps up to the plate and real achievement occurs, benefiting the entire community.

As we sit on the sidelines and watch, report to our readers and await the outcomes, I wonder: When was the last time you left your comfort zone?

How many Chinese products do you buy?

2008-04-25T11:16:00.001-04:00

My thoughts
by Pat Bradford

I am done.
Seriously, I’ve had it up to here, as the old saying goes.
For those of you who don’t want to hear anyone local speak on international issues, turn the page.
Here’s the deal: I am done with everything that supports China (excepting food cooked locally).
What is fueling this terminal frustration is my horror over the lengthening list of recalled Chinese products, China’s environmental standards, not to mention China’s human rights abuses, compounded by the continuing loss of American manufacturing jobs.
Nineteen deaths in America and Germany are now linked to the widely used blood thinner, Heparin. Heparin, like a large portion of the drug processing in the world, is made from raw materials from China (in this case, pig guts).
Yes, none other than the land that has poisoned our kids through its lead-painted toys and children’s jewelry and our infants through its baby food. They’ve poisoned us with antifreeze-laced toothpaste, toxic farm-raised fish and vitamins. Then there are the faulty tires. Even our pets have not been immune.
Last year, 93 deaths in Central America were attributed to tainted cough syrup, processed where? Yep, China.
An ever-increasing share of the 40 percent of pharmaceuticals and a whopping 80 percent of the chemical ingredients in drugs come from countries that lack our consumer protection regulations, not to mention hygiene. The big three are China, India and Mexico.
What has happened to this country that big business and politics come before the welfare of the people?
It’s time, past time actually, to return to the war cry, “Buy American!”
And war is what we’re in.
In this county, town, country, our small businesses are struggling under declining sales, high fuel prices and too little relief from the taxing authorities.
There’s a mayor in Florida, John Mazziotti from Palm Bay, who in October became the first American mayor to propose an ordinance prohibiting his municipal government from buying Chinese products. The measure would bar the city from buying products in which half or more of the parts are manufactured in China, unless the total cost is under $50 or an alternative product would cost 50 percent more.
Criticize him if you will, but at least the guy gets it. Mazziotti is so adamant about buying local that he apparently won’t dine outside of his constituency.
Likewise, until we also adopt an earn-it-here, spend-it-here mentality, we’re apt to see more business closings in this next 18 months, and more of our friends and neighbors headed toward financial insecurity.
Included in this boycott of China movement — the boycott of products manufactured there — what about the upcoming Olympics?
Ask yourself, if we continue to buy their products, what message do we send? It’s OK to continue to poison us, just keep the cheap goods coming?
Then too, do we really, as enlightened people, want to support a country whose brutal oppression of a segment of its populace is ongoing? Think about it as you hear more about the growing international protest as the summer Olympic Games near.
Do we just turn away from “the unpleasantness” and do our own thing?
I can imagine that many in Germany in the late 1930s and early ’40s felt that same way as Jews and Gypsies were being carried away to concentration camps.
What if the other 12 New World colonies had not come to the aid of Massachusetts following the Boston Massacre in 1770? Where would our “States United” be?
So, what’s your personal level of tolerance?
For me, I thought I was all about free trade, everyone’s right to make a buck, but when it takes food out of our own mouths, weakens our own country, poisons our kids, our pets, and just about everything we touch becomes suspect, it’s time to quit.
I am going to make a real effort to not buy Chinese, and couple that with spending my dollars where I earn them, right here in New Hanover County.
How about you? Up to a challenge?
Even if we did it for one week, imagine the impact we would have.

Vote for Lumina News’ Person of the Year

2007-11-29T15:26:00.000-05:00

The news staff is brainstorming, trying to select Lumina News’ Person of the Year at Wrightsville Beach, and we need your input. So who's your pick?

Skateboarding and fear of the unknown

2007-11-29T14:14:00.000-05:00

My Ocean View
By Jennifer Roush

Being a newcomer to this area can be a good thing because, in a way, I bring a new perspective. I have seen some of the same situations arise and how they are responded to a few states away and I can apply it here.
One topic I’ve covered quite a bit for Lumina News is the idea of building a Wrightsville Beach skate park. Skate parks and skateboarding are something I’ve long been familiar with. When I was a child, my friends loved Tony Hawk, Powell Peralta, and there was even a half pipe in my neighborhood. One of my closest friends rode his skateboard often until it was in shreds.
As I grew up, I still loved to watch people skate, even though I could never manage to do it very well myself. So from 6 years old through college, I had many friends who were skateboarders. And one problem remains the same.
The problem being there are always those who want to skate — because it’s fun, challenging, interesting — and there are so few places to do it. There was not a skate park in Morgantown, W.Va., when I was in college nor in the small town I grew up in. In Morgantown, I saw people skate at night in places where they weren’t supposed to because there was nowhere to go. Like in Wrightsville Beach, when youth skate in parking lots and could tear up property.
Is skateboarding a sport for deviants? No. There are those who ruin it for everyone everywhere. Young people with wrong intentions can make a basketball court a bad place to go or a playground. Should we not build basketball courts or playgrounds?
Some ask: Can children get hurt? They can. But I know a young man who had his knee completely taken out playing football. I can’t tell you all the ripped ACLs I’ve seen people endure playing basketball. People get hurt at playgrounds. Let’s just look at the issue that is at the heart of all this. Difference.
When people look or act differently, it can scare people. We need to accept that young people are constantly trying to find themselves and some may find their creativity and energy best expressed through skateboarding. Is it right to discriminate? What if someone told me I couldn’t pick up a pen and write? Good thing I only need a pen and paper. These kids need a skate park.

The Untold Story

2007-11-02T16:16:00.000-04:00

My Ocean View
By Jennifer Roush

In this week’s Lumina News editorial, we talked about the freedom of the press. I’d like to spin off that article to discuss why many of us become journalists.
Starting out, I knew I cared about people’s stories. I observed the things around me, and I didn’t want to feel impotent to do anything about them, so I went into journalism. Granted, the news page is not a forum for my thoughts, but it is a place where I can reflect things that are observed and to be the observer for others.
Being a journalist is a title some do not respect. However, it is a role you need the most honorable people to fill.
We are the proponents of truth, the community advocates, and the ones who will put themselves on the line to tell the story that needs to be told. The ones who learn a subject enough to become a mini-expert in order to inform a community.
I can say, personally, I want to be like an unbiased mirror of the things I report. I believe in justice and that means not compromising your integrity, being fair, doing the research and caring enough to tell the truth even when it’s hard – even when you may receive backlash for it. Many of us who are in the profession don’t want to run over people to get a story, we want to find and tell the truth, so it reaches the light of day. We want to tell the untold story.

Rain, we miss you.

2007-10-12T17:11:00.000-04:00

My Ocean View
By Jennifer Roush

One thing I immediately noticed after I moved down here from Morgantown, W.Va., is the difference in the amount of rainfall. In Morgantown, I almost expected it to rain more often than not. It was gray and rainy much of the time. The city itself received 41.2 inches of rain a year.

Since moving down here, I often think, where is the rain? And I don’t think I’m the only one asking that question.

In the statistics I have come across, I found the average annual rainfall for Wrightsville Beach to be around 50.85 inches. To put this into perspective, the annual rainfall in Seattle is 36 inches.
Therefore, as we enjoy the sunny days, we cannot help but notice the lack of rain. And as day after day goes by with little to no rainfall, we see our need for water conservancy go up.

The town issued a water conservation proclamation on Sept. 13 requesting voluntary action. Who took that to heart? Are people turning their sprinklers off and taking shorter showers?

This is a problem all over the state. I believe it’s time to stop waiting, thinking the rain situation is going to turn around, and that it’s imperative to take water conservation seriously.

Below are measures listed in the town’s proclamation:
* Limit lawn watering to that which is necessary for plants to survive.
* Water shrubbery the minimum amount required, reusing household water when possible.
* Limit vehicle washing to the minimum.
* Refrain from washing down outside areas such as sidewalks, patios and the like.
* Use showers for bathing rather than bathtubs, and limit showers to no more than four minutes.
* Refrain from leaving faucets running while shaving or rinsing dishes.
* Limit use of clothes washers and dishwashers and when used, operate fully loaded.
* Install water-flow restrictive devices in showerheads.
* Use disposable and biodegradable dishes.
* Install water-saving devices such as bricks, plastics, bottles or commercial units in toilet tanks.

My Ocean View by Jennifer Roush

2007-10-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

This is my first "Ocean View." A new one will be posted weekly.

As many of you know, I recently took over the position of managing editor of the town’s Lumina News, but for most of you that likely is the extent of it. My story of change began a month ago, which ended up with me making the long journey from the mountains to the shore.
I grew up in the small suburb of Cross Lanes, W. Va. This community is a few miles from Charleston, and, to the rest of the state, that is “the city.” Staying in the area, I kept some of the same friends from grade school to my college years.
After one year attending Clemson University right out of high school, I transferred to West Virginia University, where I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism. In school, I did such things as write for the school newspaper, was managing editor of a quarterly newspaper, co-authored a book, had internships and took about every opportunity I could.
After school, I stayed at WVU teaching journalism as an adjunct instructor. I also worked as a community reporter and city reporter, eventually working my way up to features editor of a local daily newspaper.
I had found myself at the home of the Mountaineers, Morgantown, for several years, but something in me knew I wouldn’t be there forever.
I had visited the Wilmington area every year on vacation and absolutely loved it. It became my favorite place to go. It was also quality time with my mother, who lives in Raleigh. One summer she asked if I perchance wanted to go to Outer Banks instead, but I still just wanted to come back here.
Something about this area’s beauty makes me want to smile, cry and try to wake up at the same time. Even though I can also bask in the beauty of the mountains, this place, in addition to beauty, has an air of endless possibilities. The saying is “the grass is always greener on the other side.” Well, the grass may be greenest here.
When I saw the job posting for this position, I felt it was the perfect job for me. And it is. I love writing, editing, people and stories. I am ever curious and intrigued by people’s stories and issues, which is one of the main reasons I am drawn to this profession.
My goal as managing editor is to not only continue the legacy of success established by Lumina News, but to also forge ahead. I have a lot of hopes for what I can do for this publication and for the community. I plan to do all I can to make sure Lumina News meets and exceeds your expectations weekly.
We are a people who strive for excellence and that comes with a lot of work, but, in the end, it’s worth it for the service we provide to Wrightsville Beach.

Ask the candidates

2007-09-21T09:05:00.000-04:00

The Wrightsville Beach Merchants Association will hold a question-and-answer session with board of aldermen candidates on Oct. 8. What question would you like to ask the candidates?

Bus Service

2007-07-20T11:20:00.000-04:00

WAVE has proposed bus service to Wrightsville Beach. What do you think about that? Is it a good idea?

Click It or Ticket

2007-06-05T09:15:00.000-04:00

A Click-it or Ticket checkpoint was held last week at the foot of the Wrightsville Beach drawbridge and 87 citations were given in two hours.
Were you stopped? What was your experience?

Downtown WB

2007-05-18T11:03:00.000-04:00

The summer season is about to kick off, and many residents have begun to complain about noise and bad behavior in the downtown area. Wrightsville Beach police are increasing their patrols.
Do you think this is a problem?

Parking

2007-03-29T16:12:00.002-04:00

Is parking at Wrightsville Beach too expensive?

Dog Days

2007-03-29T16:12:00.001-04:00

Do you think fines for pet wast offenses should be increased?

Public Trust

2007-03-29T16:11:00.000-04:00

Former Alderman Trey Jordan pled guilty to soliciting a bribe on Thursday. How much faith do you have in your public officials?

Surf zones

2007-03-26T08:54:00.001-04:00

What do you think of the new surf zone proposal?

Revaluation

2007-02-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

Wrightsville Beach properties are expected to increase 180.6 perecent with the new assessment.

Have you recieved your new real estate assessment yet? Were you surprised at your home's appreciation?

Sewer Responsibilites

2007-02-08T12:02:00.001-05:00

What responsibility does Wrightsville Beach have for failing city-owned sewer lines?

Trees on Wrightsville Beach

2007-02-06T16:03:00.000-05:00

Do you think the town should have a tree ordinance? Why or why not? If so, how restrictive should it be?

Surf Zones

2007-02-01T10:03:00.000-05:00

The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen heard a proposal last week to revamp the surf zones. The new setup would allow swimming in all areas of the beach and would allow surfing in all areas outside of a 200 yard buffer zone around lifeguard stands.
What do you think of this proposal? Do you think it would work on Wrightsville Beach?

Mixed-use development

2007-01-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

Do you think mixed-use development will work on Wrightsville Beach?
What type of stores would you like to see by Johnnie Mercer's Pier?

New Year's Resolution

2007-01-02T17:12:00.000-05:00

What are some New Year's resolutions that the town of Wrightsville Beach should have?

Fishing License

2007-01-02T17:10:00.000-05:00

Beginning Jan. 1, a Coastal Recreational Fishing License (CRFL) will be required for recreational fishing in North Carolina’s coastal waters.

The license is required for everyone over the age of 16 fishing in the state’s sounds, coastal rivers and tributaries, out to three miles offshore. It is similar to a license currently required for recreational fishing in the state’s inland waters.

What do you think about these regulations?

Public Safety Facility

2006-11-09T11:38:00.000-05:00

A new public safety building is being proposed for the town of Wrightsville Beach. It could cost more than $6 million. Do you think the town needs a new building for the fire and/or police department?
The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen are holding a public meeting on the issue tonight at 6 p.m. at Town Hall.

Beach Access 33 closed

2006-11-02T14:14:00.000-05:00

Late last month, Public Beach Access #33 was closed after it was determined to be privately owned by the Murchison family.
The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen voted 3-2 last night to drop the issue and leave the beach access closed. Alderman Steve Whalen and Alderman David Cignotti voted against dropping the issue.
What do you think about this?

Palm Trees: Beautification or Abomination?

2006-10-06T15:56:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week, approximately 10 palm trees were planted at the foot of the Heide Trask drawbridge, as part of a beautification project by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. What do you think of this addition to the entrance to Wrightsville Beach?

Pelican Drive parking

2006-09-25T11:01:00.000-04:00

A public hearing will be held on Thursday to discuss if parking should be prohibited along Pelican Drive.
The street is used for overflow parking from the nearby boat ramp in the summer.
What do you think about banning parking in this area?

Water Quality

2006-09-21T08:58:00.000-04:00

A swimming advisory still exists in Banks Channel due to conditions unsafe for swimming. Does this concern you? Do you swim in Banks Channel? What can be done to improve our water quality?

Real Estate Transfer Tax

2006-09-12T17:37:00.000-04:00

The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen will discuss the possibility of implementing a real-estate transfer tax at their meeting on Sept. 14.

A real-estate transfer tax could be levied on a buyer or a seller when a house is sold. Proceeds from the tax could be handed over to the town to use at their discretion, or could be earmarked for major projects. However, only counties and not towns have been successful in implementing the tax.

What do you think about a real estate transfer tax? Do you think it would help or harm the town?

Wrightsville Beach dispatchers

2006-09-08T20:30:00.000-04:00

The Wrightsville Beach Board of Aldermen will discuss eliminating the local dispatcher system and instead rely on New Hanover County's e-911 system.
Town Manager Bob Simpson has stated that the move could save the town more than $150,000 each year.
What do you think about this?