Cleveland County Commissioners forum

Feb. 15--A candidates forum for the Cleveland County Republican primary was held at Cleveland Community College Tuesday night to give the public an opportunity to learn where candidates stand on issues ranging from tax rates, building projects and the role of commissioners in the county.

The forum was sponsored by C19TV, Cleveland Community College, The Star and Cleveland County Chamber.

Questions were developed ahead of time by a committee and were not made available to the participants ahead of time.

The primary will be held March 3, although early voting is already underway.

Johnny Hutchins and Ronnie Whetstine are running for re-election, and Dennis Davis, Thomas McNeilly and Robert Morgan are all new candidates. They are all vying for three open seats. Current commissioner, Susan Allen, is not running for reelection.

The top three picks will face Democrat Shaun Murphy during the general election in November.

The event may be viewed on Spectrum Cable channel 19 and online at C19.tv.

Here are some of the questions and responses from the forum:

What do you see as a commissioner's role in the day-to-day operations of county government?

Tommy McNeilly

I think the role of commissioners in the day-to-day is very little. I think long range planning for the county, trying to recruit business to the county, those are the main goals of the commissioners.

Dennis Davis

One thing the county commissioners are not supposed to do is micromanage all the departments and individuals, that's why we have a county manager and department heads. Their role is to develop plans for the future. It's our task as county commissioners to represent you the people, our boss.

In Nov. 2019, Cleveland County voters overwhelmingly rejected a sales tax increase. Of the $2 million annually it would have raised, half would have gone to local public schools and half to cities for various "recreational" projects. Given that vote, under what circumstances would you support raising property taxes if elected?

Robbie Morgan

I think we ought to look in our own pockets for money before we go looking in your pockets. I think we need to look at departments to see where we can cut. We need to look inward instead of looking outwards.

Johnny Hutchins

We just finished the budget financial planning document for the next 20 years. Under no circumstances do I see a tax increase at the present time with the document we have for the next 20 years.

Cleveland County has many miles of beautiful landscapes, but some say that roadside trash has become a blight that mars the otherwise beautiful views. The county government, though it has no legal responsibility to do so, has contracted with Cleveland Vocational Industries for about 25 hours weekly to remove trash from the roadside. As a county commissioner, how would you address this issue, given that the county has taken up the task of cleaning roadside trash?

Tommy McNeilly

A good way to clean this up would be to give high schoolers a summertime job. Offer people a job in the county so they could earn a wage.

Ronnie Whetstine

The problem I see is the lack of respect the citizens have for the place we live. We put up billboards to discourage littering. If you don't throw it out there, we don't have to pick it up. We can't continually provide services in the county without raising money for it somewhere.

The city of Shelby is the lead agency and recently purchased the old Norfolk Southern railroad. What, if any, is the role of the county in creating walking trails as a quality of life measure?

Robbie Morgan

I have seen to some extent the Rutherford County rail trail program. I think it would be an asset health-wise as well as show the beauty of Cleveland County. I think we ought to get sponsorships. Why can't we get an industrial person here to sponsor a quarter mile of a trail?

Johnny Hutchins

I don't think it is the county's responsibility... are the tax payers willing to pay extra money?

No, I don't see the county's role in taking it 100 percent.

If elected, what are your top three priorities as a commissioner?

Dennis Davis

I have a vision for something beyond 2020. My daughter left home to go to college 25 years ago. Will she come back? Probably not. There's nothing here for her. There's nothing here for our young people. We need jobs. We need plumbers, HVAC, auto mechanics. Those people do much better today financially than the folks in the AP classes I taught. We need to provide opportunities so those young people can choose to stay home and make our county better otherwise we are going to drift away into a land of nothingness.

Tommy McNeilly

What a lot of people are telling me since running for office is they'd like the county to provide something for young people, especially in the upper end of the county. We have to anticipate them having children at some point, and they have to have something to do. If we're going to attract new people, we have to offer some services for the children of Cleveland County.

Ronnie Whetstine

If we can do a better job with vocational and keep our students trained in how to make a living in Cleveland County they'd never leave in the first place, and we'd go a long way in building our base.

Robbie Morgan

College is not for everybody. Some of the jobs we're attracting are service jobs, we need other jobs across the whole gamut. I don't think we need to narrow our focus, I think we need to broaden it.

Johnny Hutchins

We recently started a program called Accelerate Cleveland County for underemployed people for people making minimum wage. They've finished two classes already. The average salary after graduating was $16 an hour. I think we are making strides.

Rebecca Sitzes can be reached at 704-669-3339 or rsitzes@shelbystar.com

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