Decision 2010: Board of Commissioners District 3 race

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(Editor’s note: The following is part of The Mecklenburg Times’ coverage of the Nov. 2 elections.)

George Dunlap

Age: 54

Hometown: Charlotte

Family: Single; children: Damion, 30

Education: Associate degrees from Central Piedmont Community College in police science and correction science; bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and master’s degree in public administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Political affiliation: Democrat

George Dunlap is hoping to hold on to a Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners seat he’s held for two years.

The first time around, he was appointed to fill the unexpired term of the late Valarie Woodard. This time, he’s hoping to win the seat by popular vote.

He said he’s seeking re-election because there are things that can’t get accomplished in only two years. During his first term, he said, he successfully pushed for a more equitable water rate for county residents and initiated a county-run child-support-enforcement program after the state announced it would no longer run an enforcement program.

Dunlap, who serves on the economic development committee for the Board of Commissioners and is chairman of Centralina Economic Development Committee, said being a county commissioner gives him the opportunity to support education and become involved in other facets of county government.

This is not his first run for political office.

A former member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department — he retired in 2005 — he ran unsuccessfully for county sheriff in 1994. The following year, he was elected to the Mecklenburg County Board of Education, where he served until 2008 when he was appointed county commissioner.

What are the top needs and/or problems you plan to address if elected?

Dunlap said his campaign focuses on three issues: creating jobs, education and community safety.

He said he wants to give children equal access to education.

“If you want for everybody else’s child what you want for your child, we wouldn’t have some of the problems we have in this community today,” he said.

As for safety, he wants to continue to support the criminal justice system, district attorney’s office and the court system. He wants to expedite the prosecution process and reduce the number of people in jails.

“People want to talk about where you spend your money,” he said. “We would spend a tremendous amount of taxpayers’ dollars just trying to build jails to accommodate people who commit crimes. We have to look for alternative ways to do that, but in doing so we still have to prosecute those who commit crimes so people feel safe in their community.”

Dunlap also said there are many people with mental illness in the county’s jails who might be better cared for in an alternate environment — and probably at a cheaper cost.

By the end of your term, what major accomplishments do you hope to have achieved?

Dunlap said he doesn’t know what he will accomplish by the end of his term.

But he said that during his first term he voted to delay the revaluation of residents’ property in 2008 because enough residents didn’t know the impact of the process. He also supported the adoption of a different water rate structure for county residents because, he said, the city’s rate structure was not fairly pricing water being used by residents and businesses.

He also said he convinced county commissioners to begin child-support enforcement on a county level, instead of outsourcing it, after the state announced it would no longer do enforcement. That county program has collected $49 million of past-due child support, he said. He also said he saved a program that trains homeless people in basic job skills. That program, New Beginnings, faced being cut by the Board of Commissioners, he said.

Barbara Eveland

Age: 67

Hometown: Charlotte

Family: Husband: Richard; children: Rhonda, 46

Education: Attended King’s Business College in Charlotte but did not earn a degree

Political affiliation: Republican

Barbara Eveland said the District 3 race has not been opposed in more than 14 years, and she wants to change that.

“I was just tired of sitting on my couch and being upset with the way things are going in our county with an $80 million deficit,” she said. “I told my husband, ‘I want to do something.'”

Eveland doesn’t have a political background. But she’s relying on what she was taught growing up — the value of working hard — to get her name in the minds of voters. She said she has been out knocking on doors in her district since June.

“I was born to a hard-working family,” she said. “My dad was a truck driver, and my mom was a factory worker, and I learned from them the appreciation of faith, country and patriotism.”

With a background in bookkeeping, accounting and payroll, Eveland is the former owner of Happy’s Grill in Mint Hill, which she sold when her husband retired from Time Warner Cable last year.

She said she has been frustrated with the tax-and-spend mentality of the seated commissioners. If elected, she wants to reduce the size of the county’s budget deficit — without raising taxes.

She said higher property taxes have been driving taxpayers out of Mecklenburg County and into other counties or upstate South Carolina.

“We’ve got citizens who go to South Carolina and surrounding counties to do their shopping because we’ve got higher sales tax,” she said. “We’re having to save money any way we can as private citizens, so I don’t hold that against them. But we need to get our county in line with what the other counties are and what upstate South Carolina is.”

What are the top needs and/or problems you plan to address if elected?

Eveland says District 3 has been left behind when it comes to jobs and community development.

A resident of the NoDa neighborhood since 1996, she said she has seen the community turn from a crime- and drug-ridden place where gunshots rang out at night to one that’s fairly peaceful.

But the district still faces problems, such drugs and prostitution, she said.

The district is also home to bad streets, she said.

Although the commissioners do not oversee the roads, Eveland said she would talk with the Charlotte City Council and maybe visit Raleigh to tell the General Assembly about road conditions.

By the end of your term, what major accomplishments do you hope to have achieved?

Because of Charlotte’s proximity to South Carolina, more needs to be done to lower corporate taxes, Eveland said.

She said she wants to revitalize Charlotte’s north end, but that can’t be done until the commissioners get the budget in line.

She also wants to increase private-sector jobs and entrepreneurism.

“I’m in there with the people in my district. I am a mom, grandma, wife, concerned citizen, taxpayer. I’ve been unemployed. I have met all the things that they’re facing. I think they need encouragement to know there’s somebody who’s been in their shoes, and that’s what I want to do.”

Tara Ramsey can be reached at [email protected].