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What do you think the toughest single issue will be for your community during your term and how would you address it? Selecting the next City Manager and negotiating their contract is the single most difficult and important task the new council will face.  The City Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the [...]

What uniquely qualifies you or makes you a good candidate for the position? What makes a good candidate is hard to define because it truly relates more to the residents than the candidates themselves.  The residents of Jacksonville, I believe, are intelligent, conservative and family-oriented.  They want councilmembers who engage them as equals, honestly presenting [...]

Why are you running for this position? There is no one definitive answer, as the decision to run for office is both complex and personal. Mostly, I wanted to take a step towards more open and efficient government.  Even when I worked for Onslow County government I felt a disconnect to the candidates running for [...]

I received a phone call a while back from the JDNews asking if I wanted to receive their candidate profile questionnaire by snail mail or email.  I opted for email.  They said it would go out in a day or two and to let them know if I didn’t receive it. I didn’t receive it [...]

I received a post card in the mail that had the HBA fish fry rescheduled.  So it looks like I’ll be able to go to both events.

There isn’t much going on, but I have been invited to two events—both at the same time.  The Chamber is putting on their Forum Onslow on Tuesday October 13 at 6:00pm with a meet-the-candidates.  At the same time the Onslow County Home Builders Association is inviting candidates to a Political Appreciation Fish Fry. I’m figuring [...]

As a candidate, I was invited to today’s Forum Onslow put on by the Chamber and sponsored by Progress Energy and the Daily News.  I believe it’ll be on G10, but I don’t think it’ll be online–I could be wrong though. The panel discussion was on amenities to attract business, industry and people.  The predominant [...]

The Council voted to move forward with the city’s search for a new manager.  They will be doing the search ‘in-house.’  I understand this to mean that they’ll be doing the advertising and initial candidate culling themselves, rather than using a consultant.  They’ve appropriated $5,000 for advertising and directed staff efforts.  Using a consultant, they [...]

Once a candidate files, one of the first things to happen is that they get tons of junk mail. There are many companies that offer services to candidates.  The majority are for printed signs.  Other mailings are for robo-calls, mailing lists, post cards, and other similar services.  It looks like most services start at around [...]

The City of Jacksonville had an informational session for the candidates.  It was on a Tuesday afternoon and lasted two hours.  The interim city manager introduced several department heads that each went over their department.  Grant Sparks accurately described the session as trying to drink water from a fire hose.  Luckily we don’t have to [...]