This is not always easy. Read on for some helpful questions for Charlotteans.
(If you’re wondering, in North Carolina municipal elections are in odd-numbered years. In Charlotte, the mayor and City Council members serve two-year terms and are elected in partisan elections. So you can hardly turn around between elections. This year we have a Sept. 10 primary, with the possibility of an Oct. 8 runoff election, and then a Nov. 5 election.)
In an earlier life, I had the honor and duty as an editorial board member at the Charlotte Observer, of helping interview all the city and county candidates as part of the editorial endorsement process. You might be surprised to learn:
- How many candidates are crazy as loons. People who complain about editorial pages’ so-called bias (hey, they are PAID to have opinions) sometimes concoct intricate conspiracy theories about some endorsements, when the truth is that you really don’t want to endorse a nut bucket, yet you can’t call someone a nut bucket without risking a libel suit. The good news is that usually the nut buckets don’t make it through the primary. And in my experience, looniness crosses all party lines.
- How hard it is to get candidates to take a position. Sure, some will be forthright. But too many won’t go beyond being in favor of low taxes, fighting crime and loving barbecue and sweet tea.
Today I spotted the always-revealing local candidate questionnaire from the local real estate and development community political action committee known as SPPACE. Click here for a link to it. This may shock you, but sometimes candidates will put one thing in the questionnaire for developers and something else entirely in the questionnaire for, say, an environmental group.
And later, I had an email from an acquaintance who’s putting together a Charlotte City Council candidate forum for her neighborhood and wanted some ideas for questions that might – if she is lucky – elicit answers that go beyond predictable rhetoric. Here’s what I came up with. If you encounter any Charlotte candidates and want to ask them any of these, you’re welcome to:
1. Does the Charlotte-Mecklenburg zoning ordinance need an overhaul, as the city is considering? Please explain your answer.
2. With annexation no longer possible and with the majority of single-family residences in the city having stayed the same or lost value in the most recent revaluation, what should the city do to protect and enhance its tax base?
3. Traffic is only going to get worse. The historic practice of “just add more lanes” is expensive and disruptive in established neighborhoods. What should the city do to boost mobility?
4. More than half the city’s property tax revenue comes from the pie-shaped wedge lying south of uptown. Is that a problem? Why or why not? If it’s a problem, what should be done about it?