2025 City of Belmont Candidate Forum

Good evening, Belmont. Uh, welcome to

the GBA candidate forum sponsored by Ray

Miller Properties. Ray Miller owns the

Harris Theater Properties in South

Belmont. And uh, two weeks ago when we

didn't think we were going to um, have

an event because places and other um,

organizations decided not to do these,

we said, "Well, we'll we'll see what we

can do." they stepped up and said, "Hey,

we'll be happy to sponsor tonight's

event." So, on behalf of Ray Miller

Properties, the GBA, and Caroline

Health, who's been supporting all these

events, we're so glad you're here. Um,

tonight we have candidate forum for our

city council, followed by our mayoral

candidates. I'm Steve Dabri at the

Gaston Business Association and I cannot

wait to hand over the microphone to

James Estis with the office of Tim

Warren and he's going to talk a little

bit about the format and get things

going. So, thank you.

[Applause]

>> Good evening everyone. Hope you all are

doing well. Thank you for coming out

tonight. Excited to hear from the

candidates. Thank you to you six for

participating tonight. Appreciate you

all taking time out of your schedules.

Thank you to the GBA for hosting this.

We did it together. And thank you to

Tech Works for opening your doors and

hosting this. I'm Jesus work for Dr. Tim

Moore. Um I am excited to be the one who

reads the questions tonight. Don't live

in Belmont, so can't vote for any of

you. Uh so I hate to say I'm impartial.

Uh so I'm going to read some questions

that the GBA and public have submitted

to you all. uh and we'll go through

them. I'm going to have each of you

spend two minutes introducing yourselves

uh to everyone in the room tonight and

then with each question we'll do 60

seconds for response and then at the end

once all the questions are answered we

will do 60sec closing statements. Uh

we'll start our first question here and

work our way down the line as we

progress with each question. That way

everyone can take turns answering first.

We'll go ahead and get started with the

introductions.

Good evening, fellow citizens. I am

David.

You don't know me. That's okay. You see

my sign.

Um just a little bit about me

background. I have experience previously

in municipal government. I just recently

moved here from Massachusetts and I've

spent time as the equivalent of a

council member what we call a selectman

in the town of Battle and I just

recently finished the term here in March

uh as a school board member school

committee member. So I have a balanced

view of town government and town both on

the government and education side and um

in the uh in the years that I was not a

member of the board of slightly I was a

two-term school board committee member I

was basically finance committee which is

basically no committee that uh that

reported to the town and as well as back

which means

neighborhood personally

and then I'll basically just what my

platforms are so you know before we

start I am all for experience I'm all

for conservative spending I'm all for

collaboration I've done many things over

the years support police facilities

support building new high school I'm

also a culture person

I

sponsored a pet festival and I ran a

nine man volleyball exhibition. You

don't know what volleyball is. Look it

up. It's exciting.

And then the last uh three things I want

to mention is

I'm all about collaboration with

everyone not just current leadership

like voters. Everybody counts and I

believe volunteerism and the quality of

life. I think those last two moments

hopefully appeal to all of you. You have

ideas, I want to hear about them. I like

to advocate for them and I really do

believe that there's a spirit in this

city. I love the city since I've come

here and I think we're going to make it.

Thank you.

>> Good evening. Uh my name is Mark

Seinger. Uh and I had the pleasure and

honor serving as university council 2019

to 2023.

last six months of that I got to serve

as mayor of our great town which was the

experience of a lifetime. My background

is in data analytics. Um I do a lot of

poking around databases, spreadsheets

and all kinds of financial and other

categorical information to figure out

what stories uh that data is telling us.

Uh I use that.

Okay.

I'll just yell. Um, so my wife and I own

the Marcos Pizza in Gastonia as well as

location.

So I bring that business experience to

I bring that business experience to my

public service in a way that I think is

very valuable for uh residents of our

city. Anyone who serves on council with

me knows that I take the budgeting

process extremely seriously uh in I'm

probably the only person in the entire

county who enjoys uh budget season.

And that's because I like nothing more

than diving through uh the city's

financial reports to figure out better

ways to spend our money so that we are

getting the best value for that tax

dollar that you're paying. Uh we ask

quite a lot from our residents uh as far

as what they pay in their taxes. Uh so I

think it is incumbent on the council to

make sure that money is well spent. In

my first term, we spent a lot of time uh

reorienting the city's uh approach to

development in a way that took account

of all the impacts of that development.

So looking at impacts of things like

traffic and utilities, roads,

infrastructure, uh all those things.

What I'd like to focus on in my second

term and what I hear quite a lot uh from

people is figuring out ways to dig out

of that hole uh that we find ourselves

in, particularly on the roads. Uh then

also addressing a lot of the

neighborhood safety issues that I hear

quite a lot about. So making street safe

for all the families, kids, pets, uh,

and other, uh, people that live on the

streets throughout our city so that as

we grow, uh, we're growing in a way that

most sustainable and safe. Thank you.

>> My name is Katherine and I'm running for

city council and I'm not excited about

season.

Let's get back. Um, I'm running for city

council because I believe our city

deserves leadership that reflects

everyone who calls Belmont home, not

just one demographic or one perspective.

I have over 30 years of experience in

counseling, mediation, and conflict

resolution skills and I was a small

business owner of my own private

counseling practice for 20 years. I do

have my undergraduate degree in

psychology from the University of

Georgia and then I have my master degree

in counseling from the University of

South Carolina School of Medicine

for 24 years and currently moving

forward hopefully, you know, 10 more or

maybe longer. I'm employed full-time

with the North Carolina Judicial Branch

as a custody mediator. I serve families

and children, developing court

documents, working with judges,

attorneys, court staff, and community

agencies. I served on the state of North

Carolina Judicial Court Family Court

Advisory Committee. It's a it's a

mouthful. Appointed by Chief Justice

Sarah Parker from September 2006 to June

2009. And in July 2024, I began serving

on the Gaston County, North Carolina

Child Fatality Prevention Team, and I'm

still on that team moving forward. I was

born in Washington DC, the hub of

politics. I've always had a passion for

democracy and have family mentors for

democracy. My fifth and sixth

greatgrandfathers fought in the American

Revolution for our country's freedoms.

My second great uncle was speaker of the

House of Maryland in 1909 and was state

auditor. Currently, one of my cousins is

a Virginia state senator. I'm married

and have lived at Belmont since 2019.

And my most valued and important work

experience is being a mom of six

children. I'm a project manager of

family and a design. Lots of moving

parts. My position is making Belmont

equal for everyone and something that

represents everyone. Thank you.

>> Hey everyone, my name is Alex.

My name is Alex. I currently serve on

city council for Belmont, my first term.

A little bit about me, I'm originally

from Gastonia. I grew up in the area.

This is where I met my wife where we

decided to move back to after college

and we have our son Felix who's one and

a half. A little bit about me.

Additionally, I currently serve as the

historic or excuse me, the chairman of

the historic Belmont Foundation

primarily involved with historic

preservation efforts in our area. Um,

for me, as it's been in my first term

and in continuation of the second one, I

want to ensure that we preserve our

small town charm that has kept me and my

family here today. Why we want to raise

our family here. You have to forgive me.

I'm a little bit nervous. I'm a finance

guy. I'm not generally meant to be in

front of people, but I do apologize for

that. But I do love budget season as

well. Um, but look, some of the

important factors that we've done

primarily as it pertains to development

over the years, D experienced this

massive overgrowth which is what I would

call it that has caused our lack

infrastructure particularly in roads

particularly in our sewer wastewater

facilities is what we're seeing today

and what we've done about this is myself

and actually Mark on council as well and

Richard Turner pushed through the sewer

capacity study to show that our South

Point Boulevard and the line that goes

down is at capacity which is what then

led council to push through the

moratorum that we see today on the

southern peninsula to pause growth

essentially is true for us. We have to

focus and sometimes it's okay to push

pause so that we can look forward and

continue to grow in the right way and we

have to grow and benefit what benefits

Belmont and attributes to our small town

charm and that's why I'm running. I want

to see these additional projects come to

fruition. Thank you.

>> Thanks everyone for coming. I'm Nick

Vesley. I'm a professional civil

engineer and that makes me uniquely

qualified to deal with things like

transportation infrastructure and

development. Um, one of the things we

have on city council right now is a

effective budget finance group of

individuals. And that's great. We all

want our tax dollars spent effectively.

Um, but I think it's time that we add

someone with a different level of

expertise so we have a well more

well-rounded council. Uh, so about me

personally, my wife and I moved to

Charlotte for work. There's not a lot of

rural jobs in engineering. Uh, We

started looking at all the outlying

towns, realizing we don't really want to

live in Charlotte. And the first day

downtown Belmont, we said, "This is an

excellent town. We really want to raise

our family here." Belmont's unique in

the fact that we have a main downtown

that doesn't have the city, but the main

state highway running down the middle of

it, and that's great. We love that. Um,

so one of the things I wanted to do was

be more part of this town. And I I

joined the planning zoning board back in

2019. And for the last six years, I've

seen Belmont deal with the growth that

we that we we've all kind of struggled

with. Um, one of the things I think

we've kind of missed the mark on is that

we we've been constantly in this

catchup, playing from behind, trying to

react to the development that's coming

into town. We're not doing as much

proactive thought and kind of looking at

the next step forward. I feel like

that's where me as a business owner, my

office is right next door. I I started a

company here in town. I have three

employees now. I'm looking to grow that

further into Belmont. And I'm really

excited about the opportunities we have

to grow, but grow in a way for our

office capabilities, grow our our

commercial development, grow places like

North Belmont that we haven't really

spent a lot of time into. So, there's a

lot of opportunity that I feel like I

would be a great asset to city council.

I'm a technical expert and sure I think,

you know, budget experts are great, but

you know, I'm adding that extra step.

So, a vote for me would be a vote to add

that technical expertise more.

>> Hi everybody, thanks for coming out. My

name is Greg. Uh I'm relatively new to

Belmont. We uh he learned about Belmont

by way of holy angels from my son

until April. We came here from

Minnesota. So obviously all

I just want to say between Nick and and

Mark, I think I got you guys covered.

I'm an engineer. So I like techy stuff

and know how things work and complex

systems can be

issues. Uh but I'm also a CFO so I love

budgets and they're done

so

um back to how I got here. Uh I started

in Pittsburgh. I've been I've been

a lot of places Ohio State for my

engineering degree. Some people might

say I'm confused because I have Ohio

State as well as a Michigan NBA. So I

kind of look at as an opportunity for

good teams every week.

So that's my excuse for

as far as uh my vision and perspective

on city council. I think my platform is

pretty simple. It's like get the basics

right. There's about five points. Uh

safety. You got to have a safe

environment whether it's in the the

environment downtown with the traffic uh

services, efficiency services, uh Alex

talked a little bit about that. You

know, the sewer systems, infrastructure,

roads, things like that, thoughtful

control development. I know taxes are

pretty high for a small town. And I know

there have been some initiatives where

more development coming in might raise

the tax base, but I think you have to be

smart about that. The last two obviously

My fiscal responsibility. You can't get

ahead of yourself. You see this at the

federal level where they're so far

behind catch up in that situation. And

finally, what everybody loves about the

town here is the small town charm. It's

got a vibe. It's not Charlotte. I don't

think we want to be sh

it. I think we really want to preserve

that as much as possible.

Perfect. All right. Thanks everyone. And

as a reminder for the candidates, the

time to respond will be 60 seconds. Pat

will have the sign there as your time

keeper. These questions were submitted

by the GBA. Yeah.

These questions were submitted by the

GBA and people from Belmont. And so

we'll jump right in. David, you'll kick

us off. If we can keep the microphone

passed around that way everyone can talk

to and talk into the microphone. We'll

start with David then work our way down.

So question one, what motivated you to

run for Belmont City Council. What

values or experiences will guide how you

serve the Belmont residents?

>> I've always loved giving back to

community. I enjoy people. I like

talking and whats

We're not afraid to listen to questions

and provide response may not be the

answer the gentleman or gentle woman may

ask looking for but I always try to get

an informed decision there's something I

don't know I'll admit to it if I make a

mistake I'll make mistake but I do my

darnest to make sure that we have a

clear concise picture of any decision

making processes we go through uh from

experience I quickly told you regarding

my fist that I had

before I come back financial. I'm

actually a retired supervisor from

Massachusetts.

I spent 39 years there analyzing

financial statements and understanding

what the you know what people were going

through you know just trying to build me

and understanding that and translate

that to the municipal aspect. So I

understand I'm not going to waste your

money. That's the key I'm going to bring

bring on board

before

the city gets any cloudy sun. Thank you.

>> All right. Um well, for me, uh the

reason I'm running is because there's

still quite a bit of work to do. Um you

know, as I mentioned during my first

term, uh I hope you're ready to give

that a theme. You know, if you find

yourself in a hole, the first step is to

stop digging. Um, so that was what

focused a lot of my energy on uh last

time around. Um, and this time around,

you know, kind of like as Alex mentioned

with the the sewer capacity issues that

we have uh existing stresses on our

roads, there's there's still quite a bit

of work that needs to be done uh to

upfit all that infrastructure around

town

uh to accommodate the growth that's

already here. Um, and I think that

presents a really exciting and important

opportunity for the city because it's

important that that right? Um but it's

also important that be done in a way

that is um affordable for the uh people

of this city. Uh and then finally, you

know, what motivates me uh quite a bit

is just my family. You know, my my wife

has joked that she expects me to bury

her in the backyard. Uh so we are which

unfortunately is actually legal, but um

we uh we're here for the long haul. We

got the two boys. Uh, so you want to

make sure they've got a city that they

can um live and enjoy as much as I've

enjoyed it. Thank you.

>> What's motivated me to run for Belmont

City Council is to have more than one

perspective represented.

Um, I think it's wonderful that

everyone's an engineer or business

individual budgets. I I understand

budgets are important as well. Um but

there's other things that are important

too. People, community, the environment,

family. This race isn't about

partisanship, but it's about priorities.

So, a lot of my priorities are bringing

us together as much as possible. We all

have our differences, but working

together to make it more of an effective

city and be more invested. There's just

one um perspective going on right now

and I would like leadership that listens

and changes moving forward for our

future.

>> So my common thing a little bit of why

I'm running is actually also what

motivates me and that's our community.

As many have spoken up here, it's about

our community growing up here going to

the general store. remember visiting

with friends, working here, raising my

my son here, our son here, meeting my

wife here. It's that community. My

family's here, my friends are here. It's

going into downtown and knowing people.

And that's also what motivates me. Why

does it motivate me? Kind of what I

mentioned in the opening. We have to

keep our small town charm. We can lose

it just like that. We don't have to have

super high density in our community to

be successful. We can bring

manufacturing in. We recruit the best of

the best to bring jobs and tax revenues

to our area. And this existing council

is doing that today. North Belmont was

identified as a particular area for

warehouses and distribution. This

council said no, we want manufacturing.

We want jobs in our area, not just some

fully automated facility that's not

going to generate that. So to answer

your question, what motivates me is this

community and my family and my friends

that are here today. Thank you.

>> So generally speaking, I think I live by

which is if you have the capability, you

have the responsibility. And so when I

was thinking about my term on planning

and zoning coming to an end, here you're

actually next meeting in two weeks. Uh

I'll pass the torch on to the next next

council or next board. Um and I I felt

like I still had something left in the

tank. I feel like the city council is

missing that element of some kind of

technical expertise to really weigh in

and kind of help help move these things

forward, like help get the right

development, help work with DOT. I'm

probably the only one that has a

relationship with DOT since I work with

them every day. So when it comes down to

why I'm here, why I'm doing this, I care

the same way about standing up here, we

have a responsibility to take care of

the city and move it into the next

direction where ultimately we're a

suburb of Charlotte or not. So whether

we take advantage of that and do things

in the right way or we're going to sit

back and keep letting the developers

kind of take over. So I appreciate

everyone being here.

So everybody loves right so come into a

company trying to solve some problems

what they don't know is really good

finance guys are also really strategic

and I think what we need here I'm

hearing a lot of visions for really

great evolution for the city but a city

is a complex business you can take any

business there's a lot of complexity to

it are very much the

And I think what we really need is a

strong strategic vision that everybody

can get behind. Then the decisions that

you're making, if they follow what's

already been agreed to, there's a lot

less discussion about whether this is

good or bad with that, you really get on

to really strong execution of the

elements that make the city stronger. So

I think that's going to be really

important for the evolution of the city

and the town to maintain that that charm

that we all

All right, Mark, you'll kick us off with

our second question.

So, Mark, question two. How would you

balance Bmont's rapid growth with

preserving the small town character and

charm that residents value?

>> Uh, yeah. Well, I mean, that's been a

lot of what's motivated me here the last

summer years is you have to, you know, I

think that particularly protecting the

the charm of our downtown uh is very

important. You know, we've got I think

one of the most unique downtowns in the

region that's um you know, the envy of

all the surrounding cities and towns. Uh

so protecting that uh is very important

and that means you know not over it. Um

you know, we can't put

uh you know 10 story buildings up all

around it and expect it to still be the

amazing place it is today. Um I think it

also means understanding

uh where the current pressure points are

in the city uh and understanding what

where growth is appropriate and where it

isn't. Uh many city many parts of the

city right now are just uh overbuilt. Uh

so the council's got to be willing to

say, you know, no more um until we get

uh infrastructure situation under

control. Um so I think it's it's that

balance and knowing when to say no and

um you know being willing to to stand up

for the people of this city because uh

that's really what uh the the number one

job of the council right now. Thank you.

>> In terms of rapid development, the The

challenges of Belmont are related

obviously to the Charlottes for all. I

lived in Charlotte for 22 years until I

moved here. I loved Charlotte when I

first moved there in 1997, but then I

didn't love Charlotte anymore because it

got too busy. It got too expensive and I

love Belmont. I love it. I love it. I

really do. It's I grew up in the country

and it like everyone is talking about it

um does have that charm. 157 people day

are moving to the Charlotte area region

which includes Belmont.

This fast growth is leading to increased

population and demands on resources,

water, sewer, energy etc. So what we

first need to do is focus on the basics

like we're doing moving forward the

sewer system, the water, the pipes, just

the basics and then we can move forward.

Thank you.

question.

>> How would you balance Belmont's rapid

growth with preserving the small town

character and charm that residents

value?

>> I would say

yes. I would say this. It's okay to say

no. This council has said no to certain

developments that we did not feel like

would benefit this area. When we're

looking in developments, developers are

coming to council and asking for our

input, what we feel like and how should

we vote for this. One of the things that

goes through my mind is me growing up in

this area, the area that my son is

growing up right now, do I think that

fits this existing mold, that small town

community. And if I say no, then I vote

no. And and to be fact and to be fair,

particularly with the rapid growth that

you mentioned, I haven't voted for a

major development except for one, and

that being a few farms, but that was to

get infrastructure improvement where

we're having the developer pay for

widening South Point Road and help us

pay to bring sewer line infrastructure

down South Point Road. That's the key is

ensuring that we're having these

developers pay their fair share. Because

the way I look at it, why should we

continue to raise our taxes to continue

to build theming infrastructure for new

development. From my perspective, we

have to continue to have them pay the

additional share that we don't keep

increasing our own taxes. Thank you.

>> Yeah. So, I think as a business, one of

your main things you want to do is you

want to grow or you want to die. And

obviously, your point is to grow. So,

you know, when I'm here in my office,

I'm going to grow out of that soon. I

think that's great, but hopefully I have

a place to go. And right now in Belmont,

there's really not a lot of options for

me to go anywhere. So, I'm not saying we

need to go redevelop downtown. I think

we keep the things that are that are

good about Belmont that we want to stay.

Then we have other things that maybe

could be improved. Like North Belmont's

a great example. Even some of Boulevard

is a great, you know, top is a great

example. Those are areas that are prime

for someone else to come in and say,

"Hey, we can do better than what we

have." It would be great to walk down

the same way we walk down the top

street, but we don't right now because

we're not thinking proactively about

where we go next, right? And then my

kids grow up. to live in town and right

now it's either you buy a $600,000 house

in the peninsula or maybe you wait for

someone to move out after 20 years. So I

think we still need to think about where

are we going to put the things that you

need to grow and how are we going to do

that responsibly.

So one thing I think about being a

relatively new res

and I think one of the things I want to

What's driving the growth? Is it just

the small town charm? Is it a little bit

low cost living in Charlotte? What are

exactly the factors? Then back to that

strange vision. What do we want to be?

There's a lot of cities around the state

around the whole country

for models. You want to be like,

you want to look like Nota?

There's a great town in Detroit called

Birmingham Michigan.

great totally different everybody that

lives in each one of those loves it but

a whole different kind of vibe both are

attracting people in high growth area so

I think it's what do we want to be and

how are we going to drive that growth is

all just resial and helping attract some

you know modern high-tech businesses are

going to improve the tax base as well

without sort of issues that we got from

All right, Kathy, you're gonna kick us

off for question.

>> Oh, yeah. Just my phone. Sorry.

Sorry. Is my 60 seconds actually on a

couple things. Um, and this is tied to

that balance. He mentioned $600,000

homes.

I personally would advocate for and

monitor the actual housing stuff that's

under the new construction. So, our

young folks

family there can have a chance. I just

want I want to see what we can do about

having housing stock for new

construction at an appropriate cost

which is affordable. Okay? Because I

know most young family, young couples uh

starting out, they're not going to be

able to afford 600 $600,000 home unless

mom and dad.

That's pretty straightforward. In terms

of balance, uh I I read the uh develop

an update that's wonderful on our

own.org

And I feel that from a business stand,

we should incentivize maintaining

keeping buildings fill them up.

If we need renovation or our building's

not cost effective, that's fine. We do a

practical way of looking at the most

important thing to people here in

>> All right. Now we're only question

three.

>> Okay. Question three. If asked to fill a

council vacancy, what would guide your

decision the most? Selecting someone

aligned with your views or choosing

someone with a different perspective to

strengthen representation and debate?

I think it's important to

um have someone on city council that the

city of Belmont voted for. Um I believe

there has been times in the past that

I've looked at online where someone has

filled position that did not get like

the second or third most votes. Um which

I was a little disappointed in that um

because the One of the many reasons we

have voting is so we can all cast our

vote and our voice. But also too, it's

important to have a city council that

reflects everyone,

not just one perspective or one vision.

So I would definitely

say question one.

>> Yeah. If to fill a council vacancy. What

would guide your decision most?

Selecting someone aligned with your

views or choosing someone with a

different perspective to strengthen

representation and debate. Look, I've

been on council where we've had to

appoint someone. So, I can speak to

this. I would not say it was just to

align to my personal views, but what I

will say is to fill the seat with the

person who had those views. for example,

that person who won that seat in the

vacancies that we've had recently won

the election. So, in my mindset, I found

it only fair for my vote to appoint

someone that had similar views to that

person who won that seat. So, that's

kind of was my rule and guide when we

did fill those vacancies on council.

>> Yeah, I think I take a little different

approach. Uh I think when you're

building a team, you want you want a

good well-rounded team so you can be

able to solve the problems correctly. I

think the planning board in our case we

did a really great job of having

engineers, developers, real estate

agents, contractors, a good technical

mix of people. So if we're looking at

our issues are going to be traffic

infrastructure and development, you

know, if we have four people with

finance, you'll bring in the finance

person, you might bring in an engineer,

you might bring in a developer, you

might bring in someone with a little bit

varying expertise. So I think it's less

relevant what my opinion is or about

certain things or about anyone else's

opinion or maybe even the previous

stakeholder because I think it's it's

you have to see it as an opportunity to

try to fill a vacancy on a team.

>> Yeah, I mentioned earlier I think

city is very much like a business is

very complex. There's a lot of complex

systems and decisions to make and the

people that are in the city are equally

as complex. a lot of opinions and and

perspectives and I think appointing

somebody that would fill in to help

balance that diversity of thought. I

like to be careful when I say diversity

because I really mean diversity of

experience because on teams and I've

been in a lot of big businesses where

somebody on team will come up with a

perspective to solve a problem that

nobody ever expected and the only way

you get that is by seeking out that got

that depth of experience that they

actually challenge your own thoughts and

I think that really contributes to the

betterment of

I think what motivates me

is

the diverse background that's helpful

I'll talk about that a second quickly

person that you feel confident can do

the job. Is there enough there? Is there

something there that candidate is going

to bring to the table?

I'm going to advocate for you. That

that's the most important thing to me.

As far as from a diverse background,

that helps

me see my generation

to see a lot of um I see perspectives

from everyone. I'm a girls high school

referee. I'm a meals on wheels

volunteer. I I do different things. So I

keep my eyes open to every age group in

the city. My father was a businessman. I

love business people. Um I also

encourage everyone no matter what

happens

be volunteer. That's the difference. If

you speak up loud enough your person

choose what is diverse background or not

is going to do the job. That's my hope.

>> Uh So like Alex, this is actually not a

theoretical question for me since I've

actually voted to fill the vacancy

before. Um, and I can tell you the

approach that I took um was it was

trying to find someone who was aligned

with uh the the person who seat was

being vacated. Um you know, we have

elections clearly here lately. They've

been very um CAN's been running on very

clear platforms, I think. Um so you

know, when the voters clearly elect on a

clearly defined platform um and that

person for whatever reason is not able

to fill the rest of their terms. Um I

think it's incumbent on the council to

respect the will of the voters um as

expressed through that election and fill

up with someone who's um aligned with

that policy. Um anything less than that

really doesn't make sense to me. Um and

then of course it's not as if that

person's in the seat forever either. You

know, we are going to have other

elections and then the voters can

obviously ratify that decision or or

not. uh the next election. So um that is

my approach this.

All right, Alex, you're going first for

question number four.

Belmont continues to experience

infrastructure challenges, particularly

related to roads, sidewalks, and sewer

capacity. What steps would you support

to ensure growth doesn't outpace these

systems?

It's pretty nice because we've already

taken a lot of these steps already. One

is implementing the moratorium that we

implement on the southern peninsula to

stop building so that our roads and our

sewer capacity, our sewer lines can

catch up. Secondly, we introduced the or

excuse me, first we introduced the sewer

capacity study to lead to the moratorum.

Then we expanded the sewer capacity

study across all of not just the

southern peninsula. When we did this

study, we identified that the line going

down the southern peninsula is at

capacity. That's why we passed the

moratorum and that's why we're pushing

pause on development back then. We have

to have infrastructure to catch up

before we can continue to even think

about growth. And then when we expanded

it to the other pieces of the city, we

started identifying that there are other

areas not just in the southern portion

of Belmont, North Belmont, East Belmont,

Central Belmont that is having similar

types of issues. So for me, we taken

those steps. We're actively trying to do

it. A development recently came through

Belmont. It was voted down. Now,

portions of it was because of sewer

concerns and others in regards to

potentially having to raise taxes for

infrastructure improvements that it was

proposing. So, again, I feel like I have

been taking these steps with this

existing council and will continue to do

that in the future if we elected.

>> Yeah. So, the question's phrased uh how

would you prevent it? I think it's too

late, right? I think we already had

problems and the question, how do we

invest them? So, I think we've been

hyperfocused the last few years on on

how do we get these massive state grants

and federal grants and everything else,

state projects and transportation is a

good example. Um, and we keep running

brick walls because we're we're not a

big enough city to get the state

interested or we just don't meet some

kind of criteria. Uh, so one of the the

big things that I want to do is, you

know, where do we identify the micro

projects where we can we can spend the

city's money on a small project to make

a big impact. It won't be 100% fixed,

but maybe it's enough reloads the

difference. And especially on water and

sewer projects, you know, a lot of the

big one of the requirements of a lot of

state funding is actually the city puts

up a little bit of the money first and

contributes to the grant. That's

especially true with state

transportation improvements. And I think

it's one of the the disadvantages that

we have is that we're not willing to

spend the small money on short-term fix.

We're just so hyperfocused on a major

fix that's just 10 20 years down the

road. And I don't think

So this is this is for me one of the key

issues of getting the bases right

which is infrastructure and anybody in

the city you turn the water you expect

the water to come out and the water

should be clean and not

but I mean you have certain expectations

saf

roads roads and the traffic lights. This

is part of getting the basics right and

I think it's um you know how can we

leverage the resources that are

available to us if the state is uh you

know not cooperating with the state what

does it take how do you be persistent to

get those funds and get that resource

and help us out um and it's just it's

part of what people expect if we get

behind catching up is not.

So that prioritization I think gets

right to a certain extent we can pick

off small wins and get momentum and that

can go into bigger bigger opportunities

to make sure position future balance

grows

and ask

the public

on

how much cost

basically something very simp

cost and then the ongoing cost of the

actual chicken or the we should know

what what that's going to cost us down

the

Once we understand that, we also have to

understand the city budget in terms of

what is our cash reserves. Uh I'm assume

everyone knows traditional car takes a

third of their revenues and sets aside

on a cash reserve basis. Okay, let's

take a look. What do we have going

forward that we can use to spend weekly

manner to repair the key spots in town

that need faces the current ones the

ones that's for developers are current

pipes working whether it's the water

pipes or whether it's the water sewage

pipe are those in good condition are the

sidewalks in good condition are the

streets that we can fix that's what we

need to look at the notes

so a lot of the impacts from development

can be modified you put in a project

that has 100 homes it's going to be

great that's going to put so many cars

on the road that's going to require so

many gallons of uh sewage capacity um

etc. Uh so a lot of these things you

know it's very complicated math you can

measure them. Uh so for me when a

project comes through if it's not

accounting for those and it's not

attempting to mitigate them or um even

acknowledge them in some cases uh you

know it's a it's a hard task for me

because you know I think that we need to

be cautious in all of those impacts

because it doesn't just affect

uh in the new project whatever it is

that's going to be built affects

everyone around them. Um, you know, and

I think that it's it's important that we

keep that front of mind. And that's

always the first question that I ask

myself when I'm looking at a project

proposal is how's it going to impact the

community and what are they doing about

it uh to minimize that impact.

>> The one of the main things is

prevention, not reaction.

A lot of what happened with the sewer

system

was reaction.

So yes, we have to address what is going

on now in terms of of system um to have

that workable and for the future but

also prevention. Prevention is so

important when it comes to our city, the

environment, renewable energy. Um using

different options,

um looking at our drinking water make

sure it's safe, not contaminated,

making sure um we have a a prevention

plan in place in terms of a flood risk.

There is a small flood risk in Belmont

and making sure there's a plan in place.

So looking at prevention and not

reaction.

>> All right, Nick, question five, you kick

us off. How would you work to increase

transparency and public trust and

council decision making especially

around development and spending?

>> Yeah. So I think it's education based

right. So a lot of the times we'll make

these reactionary decisions when it

comes to development and they're

triggered by some kind of public

response. Uh, so I think a perfect

example actually is the recent Saki

Express decision where city council

elected to pause a local developer, make

them wait two extra months and pay

$30,000 for a transportation study when

we all, you know, we all know what it's

going to say. And that's where I feel

like my technical expertise. I I know

how some traffic studies work. I can

read the reports. I don't think anyone

else really knew what they were looking

at. So they were afraid of this this

fear of this transportation whether or

not it's going to be an impact. So I

think education aspect of it is that we

need to be better as a city council to

explain, okay, why did we make these

decisions? Are they based on some

education that we have or that we have

or are we just following public opinion?

Because if we're going to vote by public

opinion, then I might as well just issue

everyone place card here. You can fill

in the circle. We'll read the results

and then issue the statement from there.

And that that's just not good

leadership. I think we can do better

about telling you, hey, this is why you

might not have an engineering

background. You're not going to explain

it. You're not going to understand it in

full. We enough the way there trust that

we know what we're doing.

Yeah, I think this is a question comes

back to what I mentioned earlier about

strategic vision agreement on the

strategy and the future vision for the

city overall.

And then beyond that, it's datadriven

decision takes that opinion out of it.

There's actual facts and figures and

data that supports the decision that's

being made and the transparency and

communication that lets everybody know

this is why the decision made and this

is how it all previous agreements of you

know what's the strategic vision where

we want to be this play into any of the

particular development plans.

sort of getting ahead of the game, being

proactive, setting priories

again data

Transparency government always believed

this minority opinion. If you're sitting

on the council and a decision made

for

we as an audience we want to know why

why people take the decision once we

understand that we're educated but we

just say oh

I'll disagree with that's That's not the

way to go and it comes from two things.

One, educating and I believe that uh we

have a beautiful government website but

I think more importantly we have to

learn how to interface with boards that

adise our council interfate with with

your your citizen advocates out there

that have objection or or want to

advocate particularly and that's why I'm

coming as as a city council person. I

want to interact with I previous and

I've always been a person that

collaborates and that's how these get

done. So the collaboration the trans

transparency work hand in hand. Just

keep that in mind. Speak up, talk to us

and hold us accountable. Thank you.

Uh so I actually think that listening to

the people who live in the area and

around the project is is very important.

I think that they bring a perspective to

these projects that um is often

overlooked. Uh the Sake Express example

is actually pretty interesting because

um it goes exactly to what I was talking

about earlier where in that case there

was no traffic study done. There was no

data. There was nothing to evaluate and

the developer was basically saying don't

worry about it. When you talk to the

people who live on Six Street to live

with that traffic every single day and I

can't tell you the number of them who

told me that they would have to sell

their houses because it's already very

dangerous. There's already a lot of

traffic and putting another a highra

commercial building on that corner as

was proposed without even bothering to

understand the traffic impact was uh in

my opinion extremely irresponsible.

So um I'm all about getting public

feedback, particularly from the

neighborhoods that are impacted. Um, if

you read my Facebook, I'm very open and

accessible. Um, and that's by design.

Thank you.

>> In terms of transparency,

um, leadership that listens, I'm been a

licensed counselor for about 30 years.

I've done a lot of listening and I'm not

perfect at it, but I'm pretty good. And

that's what I do every day, 5 days a

week, 40 hours a week. And it's

important to listen to what citizens of

Belmont, what their perspective position

is. It doesn't mean you have to agree

with it. There may be some negotiation

in there in terms of um the development

or spending. Um it's not just one or the

other.

It's taking into all the factors, all

the considerations and people's thoughts

and feelings. So, I think it's important

for everyone to be involved and to know

ahead of time what the issues are

instead of why did we make this

decision.

So, first let me start is we on council

serve the people and the people's

opinion matter as Mark was alluding to

and I sit on council and I a deep vote

for Saki to do TIA or traffic impact

analysis or attractive traffic analysis

I should say and why is that the people

who live on that street six street came

out with concerns similar ones I heard

that Mark mentioned such as emails

coming to the traffic it's a cutth

through today our job on city council

while it might be nice to say yes we

we've got to check the boxes to do this

but ultimately at the end of the day

what it boils down to is we listen to

the people and the people who elect us

and that's why I voted to have Saki do

that TIA. But as it pertains to

transparency in regards to growth, I'm

available on Facebook. I post updates. I

try to push get out into the community

and let people know, particularly if

it's in an area that impacts you. Come

out and speak because there's nothing

more powerful than coming out to a

council meeting and sitting in front of

the council and telling your opinion

because it does matter. And I can tell

you it does sway votes and it can come

down to a vote going yes or a vote going

no. So, thank you. All

right, Greg, you're going to kick us off

for question six. Belmont's downtown and

small business community are key parts

of the city's identity. What is your

vision for supporting existing

businesses and attracting new ones?

>> Yeah, this is uh having worked at big

companies, I didn't mention before that

I spent a lot of time with small

entrepreneurs and founders of

innovation. I talk a little bit

for startup companies. So I realized the

struggle that they have trying to make

it. This is a perfect environment for

small companies. A lot of times they get

squeezed out by big competitors like

Home Depot and Amazon and all these. But

I think people being attracted to our

small town is a perfect environment for

small business. And it sort of comes

back to that vision. You know, what do

we want our main street to look like? I

mean, do we have a vision? sort of the

makeup of the sort of businesses that we

want to have there and how do we support

them and it's not just providing space

but I think it's it's zoning it's

marketing support it's kind of

engagement the community there's a whole

range of things that we can do to

support these businesses of all types

and it's also down to what

businesses I think we have one big issue

we've got a lot of development coming

You know, I love the restaurants we

have. Where are all these people going

to eat? So, that's something's

downtown and small business community

are key parts of the city's identity.

What is your vision for supporting the

existing businesses and attracting new

ones?

Well, first off, I'd like to say

congratulations to Belmont. I hope that

comes through and that'll be something

that some interest in our downtown.

That's very important.

Hope we can continue to give support if

not financially

to make sure that comes to fruition. Um,

in terms of incentives, as I said

earlier, I think we're going to create

incentives and find out why a particular

property is unoccupied. I like to see as

close to 100% occupancy as possible

businesses. Um, I like the fact that um

Greg mentioned the fact that let's get

the right mix. Do we have enough

restaurants? Do we have enough other

type of stores? Let's keep an open mind

and let's not limit our visions to the

city of Bmont just being the town center

to all the other neighborhoods.

all the other businesses that are in the

different sections of the city. We have

to take that in account as well. But of

course, I would love to see that that

trolley pull up going up to the station

downtown in the next few years. That's

the direction that's posit

also generate some potential people

coming to town, too.

Uh so this is actually something that's

a little personal to me uh because our

our Marco stores are retail food service

establishments which are not too

dissimilar from a lot of the businesses

that currently populate our downtown. Uh

so I understand a lot of the um

dayto-day struggle and also rewards that

go with owning a business like that.

When I was on council, um I had the

opportunity to be a part of the main

street program, uh which was a wonderful

experience and I did that intentionally

because I think that our downtown is

really uh the crown jewel of the city.

Um and if our downtown is succeeding,

the rest of the city will be able to

succeed. Um and sometimes that requires

the council to think quickly on its

feet. Like for example, during co um I

got with our staff and in emergency loan

program to help bridge a lot of our

businesses into the PPP program. Um you

may remember there was a lot of

confusion and chaos in those first

couple weeks of March there. Uh but we

stood up that program as a way to keep

our businesses in their buildings

downtown.

That program actually became a model uh

for other cities and towns around the

state. Uh so I think we need to think

like that. We need to think responsib

responsibly and uh proactively. Thank

you.

to uh support existing businesses

downtown.

It's important to attract new companies

of course, but focusing on existing

businesses is critical as well.

Retention and expansion efforts are

often most cost effective than

recruitment.

So, it's important to provide resources

and support, nurture entrepreneurship in

many different ways. establishing

business incubators or shared facilities

just for something different. Um,

instead of just the brick and mortar

method, that's not bad, but let's look

at, you know, maybe some different

options or ideas to make it, you know, a

little more interesting and different

things to look at for visitors and

tourists coming. We want to share to

come visit. Um, also I think to attract

new ones is to to uh look at I got it.

Thank you. Thanks. Um is to look at

marketing. Um I love the website, but I

think we need a little bit more in terms

of Belmont and attracting new businesses

in different areas and venues um to

come. Thank you.

>> Belmont was a very different place

called 15 years ago. There's a lot of

for sale for lease in our downtown and

our heart of our town. And you look at

it today and it's thriving. I bet we're

pretty darn close to 100% occupancy in

our downtown. Now, we do have businesses

that come in and out. And what I'll say

is we have a gym and what we do is

particularly for our main street

program. I know it was mentioned to the

economic vitality committee is we do

community outreach particularly to the

small businesses. That's at the

direction of our volunteer board which

is appointed by council and they do a

phenomenal job. They deal with events

that partner with these businesses to

ensure that they're successful through

their economic fiscal years or calendar

years. As it pertains to recruiting new

businesses, council on my suggestion at

the last council retreat contracted with

a company called Retail Strategies.

Retail Strategies is coming in to look

at the Wilkinson Boulevard and see how

can we build a better boulevard. Truly,

it was a project that was done years

ago, but with us revitalizing and

focusing on Belmont within our own core

district is for us to see what type of

new opportunities can we have and bring

to our community. So, with that, again,

I'll pass on. Thank you.

>> Belmont's downtown and small business

community are key parts of the city's

identity. What is your vision for

supporting existing businesses and

attracting new ones?

>> Right. I think downtown is pretty easy

because it's already the best part of

Belmont, right? It's already the part we

all enjoy and it's where all the

businesses come to enjoy the good

downtown. I think it's more of a

maintenance issue for me. Um the city

already spends a good bit of money

keeping up the planter boxes and the

light posts and all the nice things that

give downtown real character. I think

there's no reason to stop doing that. We

need to continue to support doing that.

I think the next step in that though is

we have 100 year old water maintenance

in downtown. I think we need to really

start thinking about hey this is an old

city with old infrastructure and our our

response is basically wait till it

breaks fix it and that's just not a

strategy we can keep living behind that.

I think we need to do a serious serious

look at downtown in general not just

downtown businesses but also downtown

residents. Uh I was walking top street

the other day and I see water running

down the gutter even though it hasn't

rained in two weeks. And what does that

tell me? Okay, there's a water main

break. Let's call the city and report

it. Now, it's more of the same respond

to the problem, not necessarily be

proactive about it. Uh, but I think if

we get it right, we worry about how

we're going to keep working on the

maintenance aspect of things. I think

we're going to have great businesses

that don't have to worry about the water

going out.

All right, we cycle through. So, Dave is

going to kick us off again first.

David, your question. How can the city

safe and accessible transportation,

including sidewalks, bike lanes, and

greenways to better connect the

neighborhoods.

at the core of any transportation is

what service uh primary

um town and what I

guess city in the second year of the

micro transit system and that

is something we look at not on the same

scale in terms of providing

opportunities for transport

I'm sure um in terms of the other forms

of transportation going through town as

mentioned. I've always been a fan of

different ways to first address

congestion

always voluntarily never do it. Don't

never have someone tell you to do it.

But some obvious opportunities are an

increase in um telecommuting um started

started driving hours just to keep the

congestion down. As far as the actual

physical stuff, the bike and the

walkings and so forth, well, I just had

my first shot as I mentioned earlier

running track the high school open to

the public would facilitate some of

those needs. I love all those walkers

and runners that I don't want to see

walking around sidewalks until we fix

them. Thank you.

>> Uh so I think connectivity is a big

opportunity for us here in

driving out the city. Um,

just walking different neighborhoods,

you notice where sidewalks end, where

sidewalks don't exist. Um, you know, I

think that one of the things I'd like to

see us do is fill in some of those gaps

so that um, you know, you're building

that connectivity between neighborhoods,

particularly our downtown. Um, I was

talking to some people yesterday on the

other side of Kener Boulevard uh, which

basically functions as a giant wall

between those neighborhoods and

downtown. Um, you know, because it's

very dangerous to uh to cross that road.

Uh, there are very few crossings

available on it. Um, it's a state road,

so it's a complicated problem to solve,

but uh we have built uh crossings across

it before there at Kataba. So, um, you

know, it can be done. requires a lot of

work, but we'd like us to see see us

make an intentional effort to connect

all those different neighborhoods around

particularly around our downtown, but

throughout the city. Um, so that people

can walk and get to where they need to

go. Um, you know, the advantage to that

too is that if people can walk to our

festival, they don't need to drive a car

and find a parking spot. So, there's

practical benefit to this, too. Thank

you.

>> I agree for the short term.

with David that microransit services is

is a wonderful um short-term

more immediate

um solution or idea. It's an ondemand

appbased shared transportation service

that provides flexible routes and

scheduling to serve various often in

suburban or rural locations that are

difficult to serve with traditional

fixed route public transit using

technology to route small vehicles like

vans and shuttles based on real time.

Some of the benefits are obviously it's

much less expensive than doing just a

random bus route that

It has increased accessibility,

especially a lot of individuals who

don't have transportation. It is ADA

compliant. It's convenient and it's cost

effective. Sidewalks and pathways have

to be um continued and addressed,

especially North.

>> Do you mind repeating the question?

How can the city promote safe and

accessible transportation including

sidewalks, bike lanes, and greenways to

better connect the neighborhoods? Yes.

So, currently I sit on the gas in

Cleveland, Lincoln County. And what that

is is essentially it's the

infrastructure primarily in sidewalks,

greenways, and roads governing body of

our local area. And the past I think

I've had on it three years now. the past

three years, North Carolina and the

state issues these individual governing

bodies um basically a target a safety

target that each one has to hit. We

haven't hit it a single year I've set on

this. So what we did this year is we

went back to the state. We said give us

something that's measurable. Show us the

intersections that we're having problems

which is particularly a lot in Belmont

do a lot due to a lot of the traffic.

Show us how we can improve. Why don't

you start putting the funds behind these

improvements so that we can actually get

better? Because a lot of these are state

roads and we require the state's funding

in order to improve the intersections.

But to speak to what the city's doing

today, the city has initiated vision

zero, particularly spearheaded by our

police department going into the

community to try to educate people on

trying to lower fatalities, particularly

fatalities and injuries in our

community, which seems to have been

successful. We see these statistics

coming down. There are spikes, but we

are working our best to stop this.

>> Yes. I think one of the things that we

do is we petition to the state and

obviously we have a lot of state roads

and we need to get state funding to fix

the state roads. But I think we've been

hyperfocused in the last few years on

trying to get these grand projects like

widening South Point Road. And at the

end of the day, those are 20, 30, $50

million projects. And what we've kind of

forgotten about, just left to the

wayside is all these small projects that

we can be doing as far as like fixing

media ramps. Uh I have three young kids.

It's very difficult to take a stroller

most places downtown. I don't know how

it would be in a wheelchair, right? So

those are the small things that we could

be doing to microtarget things. But I

think some of the things we can be doing

too is try to find the best bang for

your buck projects. So while riding

South Point Road lanes would be a great

way to solve traffic on South Point

Road, we can do smaller things like add

a traffic light at Still Road,

synchronize the lights. We can do that

for under a million dollars. So now

we're not waiting 10 years for the state

to come in and fix our problems. We can

be doing some of these things on our

own.

So with uh with the son of a wheelchair,

I know all about

and little bumps mean a lot. High

curves. So

whe

innovation, you know, what are some

other things we can do? I know in South

Park they just um instituted a free ride

service called Skipper that gets

That's one way you can reduce density of

traffic at certain times of the day.

That's supported by local businesses in

the city. I know there's and I just saw

this the other day that I was looking at

the map. I know there's a unused rail

line from top to bottom.

A lot of communities have taken those

those old unused rail rightways and turn

really great walking trails and bike

lanes. I'd love to see a lot more bike

lanes. I think this is a

It's just the way things are developed

right now. It's really difficult. That's

just something

kick off.

>> All right. How will you ensure that

residents from all parts of Belmont,

including newer and historically

underrepresented neighborhoods, have a

place in the city decisions?

Uh well, really by continuing a lot of

what um already doing. Um I'm very

intentional about getting out into the

neighborhoods and just meeting with

people, going to community events, and

making myself available uh to meet with

people. Um my Facebook is also designed

intentionally to be and accessible for

anyone who wants to to reach me to have

an input into uh my decision making. Uh

when I was on council, uh before every

meeting, I write a basically a preview

of what was to come on the meeting, put

that up on Facebook and invite people to

tell me what they thought. If there was

something on the agenda that they wanted

me to know about or consider, um I

invited that feedback and then after

each meeting, I'd do another post um and

let people how the meeting went and

provide any sort of insight or rationale

for whatever uh decisions I made at that

meeting. Um and then again provided

feedback for people. Um I believe in

having very much making it a two-way

conversation uh between me and the

public uh because uh you guys obviously

help do my job better.

I would like to develop a website or

group chat um just for the city council.

Um so people can freely not just you

know one individual's page. Um so it can

be an open forum as long as it's you

know nice everyone's nice and

respectful.

I can't promise that but um you know

just you know someone who's can really

um express their concerns and so we know

what it is. Now, not everyone likes

Facebook or Instagram or any of that.

Um, some I have an elderly older friend.

She's 92. She just has her home phone.

So, that's just one aspect. I think it's

just like um some of us have been

talking about is going out talking to

people and connecting. It's very

important to connect.

Can you repeat the question?

>> How will you ensure that residents from

all parts of Belmont, including newer

and historically underrepresented

neighborhoods, have a voice in the

city's decisions?

>> Yeah. No, that's a great question. I

think, you know, particularly for all of

us candidates, it starts here. Get out

the community, go door knocking, meet

your neighbors, hear firsthand from the

people who live in our community what

the challenges and the issues that they

face today. That's what I did four years

ago. That's what I'm attempting to

continue to do this year as I run for

city council. Secondly, we just had our

comprehensive land use plan update. The

city tries multiple times. We have to

continue to have an open door for folks

to come in to give their community input

to see how they want to see this

community develop. And also sometimes

it's putting yourselves in uncomfortable

situations as they were knocking even on

council and going and meeting with uh

residential leaders, HOA leaders. We've

done this in the past where councils

will go to various different

neighborhoods organized by the HOA so

that we can speak to the most people as

possible. When you get elected, your job

is not just to sit on city council and

say, "Good job." It's to continue to go

out into the community and continue to

get to the support and feedback from the

people that got you there. Thank you.

>> Yeah. So, Belmont's kind of a strange

city, right? We have our central

historic Belmont, then we have a big

gap, and then there's South Belmont, and

then you cross this during North

Carolina, we feel very disconnected as a

community. Um, so a lot of the feedback

that I've received over the last few

weeks and months here is that there are

certain communities that just feel like,

yeah, we feel forgotten or nobody cares

about us or we're just too isolated from

the main city or we don't get the same

improvements or infrastructure or

maintenance tasks or anything like that.

Um, so one of the things I'd actually

like to do is say when we sit down and

start looking at capital improvement

projects, maybe we split the city up

into worlds, not not for voting purposes

but for our own internal purpose where

we can say okay we have let's say we

have a million dollars funding this year

for capital projects and water and sew

is a good example right which

neighborhoods need the most well we have

some old historic neighborhoods that

really need it but then we have some

neighborhoods up in North that could use

it too so just just because we had most

of our infrastructure in central city

doesn't mean that we should just say hey

everyone else you're on your own until

we can we can work our way out that way

you know obviously we have city works

downtown where all of our maintenance is

dispatched and they can easily drive

another five minutes to go look at some

of my neighbors.

So I mentioned before um went to

Michigan for MBA

finance

the biggest thing I learned wisest

professor said showing up is 90% of

everything I think we're talking about

here showing up for everybody in the

community as the representatives and I

agree with most of what's been said here

there are a lot of HOAs and community

things that already exist. People are

getting together as neighbors and in

neighborhoods that just showing up and

going out and being proactive and

meeting with them on their turf so to

speak and engaging and being transparent

talking about issues and getting

feedback and input for what they think

the direction of the community should be

invaluable and it's just those I get

into a lot of complex situations and I

think back to them just show up

You know, sometimes it's uncomfortable,

but

one of my favorite things when I first

came to the city is I went to library

with a copy of that book, The Images of

Cities, American Not.

And I saw reading about different

people. I saw one person in this town

who's one of the best Carol some

beautiful drawings and sketches maps.

And I said I've always loved maps. So

conceptually how do we keep our

invigorate ours? Let's put them all in

the map. Let's have a a rotating road

show. For example, we could have a

community festival that rotates uh

during certain times of year.

You could have our politicians there to

answer questions done for that community

over that time. It would be a wonderful

thing. It would attract vendors

conceptually um and attract other folks

from many different neighborhoods. Hey,

look this is this neighborhood North

Delmont. This is neighborhood South

Point. This is this neighborhood not

just downtown and this is convenient

locations too. There's North Delmont

Elementary School. You know there's

different places that actually have

middle school at South Point. So this

just open our minds to different ideas

like that to keep us diverse and also

involve our faith.

>> All right, Catherine, you're going to

kick us off with our closing statements.

So, usually we get about 60 seconds

closing remarks here.

>> Yeah, we're going to closing statements

now. 60 seconds of closing remarks and

candidates, I'll remind each of you. Um,

you've got a lot of folks who are in the

room here. Uh, highlight your social

medias, your website. How can people

stay in touch with you if they follow

questions that they didn't hear answered

today, how can they stay in touch with

you? So, make sure you highlight that.

>> Thank you. My name is Katherine O'Kan.

I'm the best candidate for Belmont City

Council. I'm a neighbor, a public

servant who advocates for children and

families, a mom and a wife, and a

citizen who deeply cares about

preserving Belmont's charm while moving

it forward in thoughtful, inclusive, and

responsible ways. I'm transparent and

I'm leadership that listens. Belmont is

everyone's city who lives here, who

lives here. I'm sorry. We all have the

right to be informed about the decisions

that need to be made about our city. So,

we all can have a voice. The current

council is not always representing

everyone who calls Belmont home. Our

city is growing and changing, and it's

time for our leadership to do the same.

I humbly ask for your vote. If you would

like to contact me, please contact me

and check out my website at

www.lamp.com.

My email address is on there, too. Thank

you to all the citizens who came out

tonight to listen. And thank you to Mr.

Miller, Mr. Dri, and the business

association for having this warm. Thank

you for listening.

>> First of all, thank you all for coming.

and thank you for hosting this to the

GBA. I do appreciate it. This was a

great event. Um, first of all, just to

kind of recap why I'm reunning this, I

want to see this town, the city stay the

way I just like a lot of you are today.

And it's that small town community. Now

growth is inevitable, but we on council

have the authority and the power to be

able to ensure that it's growth that

benefits our community and attributes to

continue to contribute to our small

town. I intend to stay here. My wife's

here, my parents are here. My in-laws

are here. My sister's here. My wife's

sister's here. My family is here. This

is where my roots are. This is where I

grew up. And this is where I intend to

stay. There's been a lot of folks up

here saying reactive, reactive,

reactive. Well, you can't be proactive

until you start reacting to the problems

that our city is currently facing today.

That's the sewer capacity study

throughout the entire city. That's the

moratorum in the southern peninsula. And

that's saying stop to overdevelopment

and high density until we get it

correct. That's why I'm reunning and I

want to ensure that we set up for future

generations the town that I enjoy

growing up in and meeting my wife and

raising my family. Thank you.

>> All right. I want to else's family for

showing up here today.

[Music]

I'm not sure if there's anyone else

here, but here I just want to remind

everyone that you've heard 11 minutes

from each of

So, you've heard 11 minutes from each of

us. And I think it's important to know

that there's a whole lot more to each of

us here, especially me. I think there's

a technical expertise and an experience

level that I have that makes me uniquely

qualified for this position. Um, if you

want to get more information about me,

I'll be here as late as I need to be. My

office is here, so if it runs into

tomorrow, I'll just start work in the

morning.

But but otherwise, appreciate everyone's

time for coming out here. Your

willingness to sit here for the hour and

then hopefully the next hour version of

this. Um, it's it's how we get the best

feedback is you show up, you be

educated, and you help us. Uh, so thank

you everyone for your time and your

night.

First of all, I'd just like to say

thanks to the GBA for hosting this. This

is really great. Thanks to you all for

coming out. I mean, this is taking time

out of your day, but I think it's

showing up and being engaged and seeing

how your community is going. So, I mean,

you're at the forefront of, you know, an

engaged community, which was fantastic.

Uh, just like to go back to my really

simple platform, which is get the basics

right. It's all the topics we talked

about here and maintaining that small

time charm over long period of time.

after we're gone.

That's really important for us to be

really good stories during the period

that we're able to sto

each and every one of the candidates

here that does not get elected will job

to help our community and the ones that

do get elected, they'll do their job in

the whole town. So, that's it's a great

thing. Uh appreciate G being here.

They're wonderful. Thank you, Tech. I

donated right here where you're sitting.

This is a great way. Um

if you don't know any about me, learn

more about me. Um I have a simple man. I

have a Facebook page that tells you how

old I am. uh the chief of city council

for information. I will be sitting in

the back there and sitting through for

the information. If you want to grab the

hand up for me, that's great. Just

pretty much a lot of what you're here

today is what I am all about. And just

to keep things simple, the most

important reason why I want you to vote

for me is

we're going to the Carolina Speedway.

We're going to sit there and you're

going to sit next to me and eat boiled

peanuts. Okay? Right? So, I'm a very

social person. So, no matter what

happens, you you have my open air and I

want to be your neighbor. All right.

Thank you.

>> All right. Thank you. Um so again, my

name is Mark Cinger. Um would appreciate

your vote. Uh what you're getting with

me is proven leadership experience uh

which is very important given the scale

of the the challenges uh that we were

facing. Uh we're going to protect that

small town charm. We're going to stop

the overdevelopment and we're going to

work to make some headway on uh this

traffic problem that we've got. You

know, I think that all of this really

boils down to to quality of life issues.

Uh which is what makes this town so

great. Uh is because it's such a

wonderful place to live. And I think if

we can figure out how to work through

these problems, we will be golden. Uh

and I know that we can. Uh, I've got

confidence that we can and with the

right leadership in place, we'll we'll

get the job done. Uh, my website is

voteceer.com.

You can also find me on Facebook. Just

search for my name in there. Uh, pop

right up. Uh, also happy to talk with um

anyone and everyone. Uh, if you don't

already have my cell phone yet, let me

know. I'll give it to you. I'm sure half

the city has it by now. So, uh, yeah, I

look forward to talking with you. Thank

you.

All right, thanks to all six.

[Applause]

This will be on the GBA YouTube by

Thursday. So, if anyone wants to watch

it again, these will stick around a

little bit. We're going to take a quick

threem minute break before we move into

the mayor's questions.

>> Thanks very much everyone. Appreciate

you.

Okay. Well, first let me just say thanks

again to Tech Works for opening your

doors, hosting this space. Also want to

say thank you to David Miller of Bradley

Miller for sponsoring tonight's

conversation and forum and again to the

GBA for getting this together. We have

eight questions for the mayor candidates

or candidates and we will get started

after the opening statement. It'll be

the same process. So, two minutes for

opening statements and then we'll do 60

seconds for question and then 60

closing.

Everyone hear me?

>> All right.

>> Well, good evening everyone. My name is

Joe Jordan. I run for Belmont. And to

give you a little background about Main,

I am a Belmont resident all my life. So,

I was born and raised here. I've seen

Belmont go through a lot of changes, a

lot of different iterations.

Um, come and gone. You're gone. And I

have been lucky enough to be part of

that.

My parents are here and their family

grew up here and worked in the mills

here and lived in Miltown here. So I

have some deep roots and I'm able to

lean on those and I appreciate those

greatly. Belmont to me is home and it's

very important to me. And so when I sit

back and I think why do I want to do

this? I do it because I love Belmont. I

do it because I who I am because of

Belmont.

I went through school here. I I

graduated from Gast Christian, but we

were at the the sister Mercy campus. Uh

then I went to Belmont because I didn't

want to leave Belmont. Can you believe

that? Got my political science degree

and went to Campbell for law school. It

was a painful three years, not so much

because it was law school, but because I

was away from my beloved Belmont. Uh and

I would call my mom every night and talk

to her and say, "I can't wait to get

home." And when I came home, uh, I

bought a house with my beautiful wife

Susan here. We lived in North Belmont

for 12 years. Both actually loved it.

Learned so much about people in Belmont.

Uh, then after we lived in North

Belmont, we were lucky enough to be able

to find a parking lot to build our house

in.

Listen, we chased people for years to

find a home in downtown. We wanted to be

in the middle of it. And so nothing came

up going. But my businesses are here. I

have my law office here. I I have my law

partner here. Um we are very integrated

involved. My investments are here. My

family is here. I'm raising my here. And

I want to ensure that the future

generations of Belmont get to enjoy the

Belmont that I enjoyed. The fertile

ground that I got to come up. That's

what I want to see for Belmont. I don't

want to necessarily say no to

everything, but we have a beautiful

community that has a great identity that

I want to keep, but I also want to

capture the good and be good stewards.

>> All right. What inspired you to seek the

office of mayor and what leadership

principles would guide how you serve the

city of Belmont?

>> Okay. So, I've asked myself this

question a lot, mainly in the mirror.

Um, what made me want to do it is

because It's worth it. It's worth doing

the hard things in my opinion. And I

want to see that continue. Um, you know,

some the good things in life that you

chase are not easy to get and I know

that and I've seen it in my own personal

life, but I also felt small government.

So, that's why I wanted because I want

to give back to my community. The

community that helped make me be who I

am. I want to give back to that

community. Uh, what will guide me? I

hope are my life lessons, my faith, my

family, uh the ability that I have been

able to achieve through uh training as

an attorney. I hope that I can bring

that into the city so that we can look

and we can say how are we going to solve

the the issues. I look out problems. I

look at the challenges that the city

faces and uh bring some of that as a

small business owner, as a family

person, as a as an attorney, as a

volunteer, some of those things to the

for help to solutions.

>> As mayor, you help set the tone for

collaboration and public engagement. How

will you ensure the city council

operates transparently and inclusively?

>> Good question. Uh, so yes, I see the

mayor as being kind of the visionary for

lack of better terms. Um, some of you

may not know the mayor does not have

vote. The mayor doesn't tie vote, but

the mayor really, in my opinion, my hope

is that we The mayor is the one sets the

vision, sets the course to the town. My

hope is that city council will adopt

that vision and then we'll be able to

to run with it if we can give it the

right direction. And that's my hope now.

How can we act more transparently? How

can we get people involved? Engagement.

In my opinion, engagement is what brings

transparency. Engagement in your city go

in your Governance is what gives you

transparency in what's happening.

Because if you're there, if you're at

the meetings, if you're talking to your

leadership, if you see them in a

restaurant, you talk to them about what

you like, you don't like. If you go to

public comment, sign up, stick your neck

out a little bit to be able to be part

of your government, then you will find

transparency. Now, I'm sure there are

some things that aren't really on the

top, but for the most part, if you're

there poking it constantly, you're going

to find out you're going to learn a lot

about way works.

Belmont is growing more diverse each

year. How would you support efforts and

events that reflect and celebrate the

city's diversity while strengthening a

sense of community and belonging?

>> So what comes to mind is our city model,

right?

So we are a diverse community. Um and I

think we we do a great job throwing

events in downtown, right? We have some

great events that happen. We bring a lot

of people into town. Um, but bringing in

new or or

giving

a ear to new voices is something that we

will be doing more in the future and

that's because more people are coming to

more people are coming into government

home and as that happens more diverse

ideas come in. I'm a firm believer that

diverse ideas gets the best result.

those competing interests that we are

able to push against each other. That's

where we find ourselves in the middle.

That's where we find our best solutions.

And that goes for events, that goes for

uh the the changes that we want to see

in our hometown.

So, I would be a fan of hearing from

more people about what type of events

that we want to see, hoping that our

community reaches out and says, "Yes, we

like these events. No, we won't like

these events. These are the direction we

want to see our

>> As you already stated, the mayor only

votes in the event of a tie. How would

you handle disagreements or differing

priorities among council members while

maintaining a spirit of cooperation?

>> Who wrote this question?

>> Yeah. So, so listen, here's the way I

see it. And I've told council members

this before and I don't, you know, I

know the council members personally. I

know them from going to meetings and

seeking them out and talking to them and

getting involved with them. But it

always I think as the

the negotiator in me gets aggravated

when I see everything as unanimous

unanimous if it makes me think okay

where was the tub you know what was the

back and forth what was that pull so I

see the value in that. I think what

going back to what I said when I open

the hard decisions are usually the best

decisions. Those are the best false

solutions that we come up with. So

having disagreements with council

members. I fully expect that that I

will. Uh and that's because there have

been a couple decisions recently that I

didn't necessarily agree with. I agree

with this one, didn't agree with this

one. And I like to talk to them

afterwards to figure out where they were

on it. And I can tell you this, my

knee-jerk reaction on some of the

decisions I didn't agree with, after I

was able to talk to them, engage them as

a resident of Belmont, I better

understood why those decisions were made

and it helped me wrap my mind around it

and not so much sit back, man, they got

that wrong. Um, it helped me understand

why and basis.

What criteria would you use to determine

which issues appear on the public

meeting agenda versus the consent

agenda?

>> That's a good question. Uh I so I had a

friend of mine tell me that um whenever

there's a public hearing or a

a public meeting for changes or whatever

change, a good idea is to go to that

meeting and see how many people show up

because if a lot of people show up, you

know that that probably a hot topic.

That's probably something that people

have some investment into. Personally,

if you go to the meeting and no one's

there except the developer or whoever is

looking to change something, well then,

you know, it's probably not that big of

an idea. Um, my knee reaction on that

would be if there are people that are

voicing their opinion on a matter, if

there are people that are coming to the

public meetings and making themselves

known, in my mind, that brings it up,

right? That makes it more important. is

floating to the top because what I can

tell you is sticking your neck out and

coming out and saying, "I agree with you

what I disagree with you." A lot of

people don't want to do that because

they don't like conflict. I understand

that. But what I can also tell you is is

that metal that we need in our

residents, if you want to see something

different, if you want to see if you

don't like the way decisions are being

made, showing up and doing those things

are going to help us decide or give me

the amount I'm lucky enough to do. that

this holds more weight and should be

discussed differently.

>> Belmont's infrastructure, including

water, sewer, and transportation,

continue to be a major concern. What is

your plan to advocate for state and

regional support to address these needs?

I love spending other people's money.

I don't like spending your money. I want

to be a good steward of your money. Uh,

I'm a taxpayer as well, so I know the

So, real quick story I don't have a long

time here. Um,

about a year ago when I decided I wanted

to do this, I started reaching out to

our representatives

to over

to him more. I I went and met with him

because not because I wanted to know

them as a person or I think they're cool

people to hang out with. I did that

because I wanted to be able to have a

voice with them for development. I

wanted to set myself up for success any

I'm lucky enough to do this that I can

go to them and I can say remember when

we talked about this remember the

relationship that we have put in place

so I have been intentionally direct

about making relationships with you some

people like that some people don't but

what I can tell you is I don't want to

spend your money I want to spend grant

money I want to spend county money I

want to spend state money I want to

spend federal money all of those things

that are to other municipalities around

us,

>> but we're not necessarily.

>> I want to be the one that raises your

hand and says, "Bell, please finish your

money here."

>> How would you approach balancing

residential development with commercial

and recreational spaces to ensure

long-term economic environmental

sustainability?

>> So, I'll say what everyone up here said

earlier, that residential was overbuilt,

and we know that. So what are we looking

at? We're kind of behind the eight-ball

a little bit and no shape to counsel,

but that's correct. And so we have to

look at the the facts in front of us and

blessing uh in front of us. And so what

I would say is we need a rebalancing of

our development. We're all in that in my

opinion with the overbuilding of

residential we have gotten behind on

infrastructure and that includes a lot

of things. That's sewer, that's water,

the streets, that's uh public safety,

that's school systems, that's um retail,

that's commercial, that services the

people that live here. We're behind on

all of those things. What I would like

to see is more investment in businesses

coming in to raise the tax base so that

we can have more funds to address the

infrastructure problems we have.

Building roads is insanely expensive.

Putting new pipes in the ground is

insanely expensive. Doing all these

things really expensive, but it can be

done. Um, that's a roundabout way to

answer the question.

>> Looking ahead four years, what is your

vision for Belmont's future and what key

initiatives would you want to be known

for as mayor?

Belmont's future. Um, I want it to

continue to have this amazing identity

that it has now, but to be able to

capture some of the good growth that is

out there. And it is possible. We are in

demand, guys. Belmont is in demand.

People want to be here. They want to

invest here. They want to build here. We

can capture some of that. Like some of

the council candidates said earlier,

there are developers that will get

involved. And I mean from a checkbook

standpoint, they will come in and they

will uh invest in the infrastructure

that needs to be to do a certain

development they want to do. And this

isn't necessarily residential. This is

commercial retail as well. We have to be

able to play those different avenues

because there is no perfect silver bull

that's going to fix this for us. We need

a lot of different creative thoughts and

problem solving to be able to address

the the problems we have. Now, what do I

want to be known for? I would prefer to

be known as the guy that came in, got

the thing on a plan, and then left. Um,

because really what I can see is us

putting in a plan in place and saying

over the next four years, this is where

we want to go. This is where we want to

be. That shared vision, it doesn't

matter to me who's sitting on council at

that point. Because if we have a shared

vision, they're going to get behind the

the movement we need to get there. And

that's really what I want to see is the

rallying around a shared

I know this has been rapid fire for you.

We are already done with our eight

questions. So, you've got 60 seconds.

[Music]

[Applause]

If you had asked me

if you had asked me four years

Um, you know, when I was enjoying

everything that all has to offer,

enjoying raising my family. Um, if you

ask me, where did you see yourself? What

are you doing? This excuse.

I was living in the volunteer board

world and I loved it. And there are so

many faces I know in the room right now

that are on volunteer boards. People ask

me about transparency. They ask me about

how the city works. They ask me about

these things. You know what I tell them?

Get involved on a volunteer board. The

best people in Belmont are on our

volunteer boards. The best ideas that

come out of Belmont come out of our

volunteer boards. They are amazing.

My problem or what I saw as a deficiency

was the connection between the volunteer

boards and our city government. There

was like this chasm that couldn't be

crossed. And that's not I don't say that

because I want to say this person did

this or that. What I'm telling you is

City Council is there's a lot. Look at

the agenda. These things are like the

agenda is two, three pages, but they're

packed like 400 pages. Okay? This is

what they're going through to get ready

for meeting two meetings a month, right?

So to say that there's all this time to

get volunteer boards is tough and I

understand that. I know that. And

initially I was aggravated but I was on

volunteer boards um because I felt like

there wasn't the way to give that to the

volunteers and the ideas came up. But

what I understood and learning is that

it's sometimes that's hard and it's

difficult and sometimes there's not

enough time in the day. But what I can

tell you is those ideas do trickle

through. Okay? They do come through

conversation. When you see your your

city councilman at dinner or out walking

the streets, where it is, talk to them

about what you love, talk to them about

your passion in town, talk to them about

the things you want them to know because

I can tell you, they never really stop

working in their heads. They don't. It's

always there. So, keep that line of

communication open. That is what makes

great. the people that are here, the

people that invest in it, the people

that love it, the people that want to

see it continue being great, the people

that want to say to Gastonia and to

Charlotte, um, we like our idea. We

think it's pretty neat and we like to

keep it that way. But that doesn't mean

that good things don't come out of

Charlotte, good things don't come out of

Gaston because they do. Great ideas do

happen outside of our home, right? So,

we want to look outside. We want to see

what people are doing well and what

they're not doing so great because we

want to learn from those things and we

want to do it in a way that's fiscally

responsible. We want to do it in a way

that actually happens within the next

four years or whatever it may be. You

know, we want to see these things

happen. I selfishly want to see these

things happen because my children are

here. I want my children to stand up. I

don't want to drive far away. Jack and

Abby, if you leave me, I'm going to

chase you.

I want you to come back to think about

they have seen the good side of it.

There's so much good here. Um, so with

that said, I humbled to be here in front

of you tonight. Uh, and it is amazing to

think that this is where I'm sitting.

Um, but with all that said, thank you

very much for your time tonight. You can

find me at jordanfor.com.

Fo is the

F. I'm pretty easy to find on the social

media things that are out there. I'm not

great at, but there's stuff out there

and pretty easy to find if you need. So,

please feel free to reach out. I'll

chase rabbits with you as long as I can.

That the program concludes. Thank you

everyone.