Fayetteville Observer Voter Guide 2022: Meet the Cumberland County commissioner candidates
Democrats Marshall Faircloth and Veronica Jones and Republicans Ron Ross and Rep. John Szoka are vying for two open at-large seats on the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners. Cumberland County voters will choose two candidates for office. The two candidates with the most votes will join the seven-member board in December. Also on the ballot are incumbent commissioners Glenn Adams and Jeannette Council, who are running unopposed for their District 1 seats.
Below are the candidates' responses to a Fayetteville Observer questionnaire. Responses have been edited for style, grammar and length.
Marshall Faircloth
Name: Marshall Faircloth
Age: N/A
Immediate family: Married with four grown children
Occupation: Business advisor, tax consultant
Elected office held: County commissioner, Board of Education
Contact: mfcpa1@aol.com
What obstacles, do you think, prevent the city and county from working together in ways that would be advantageous to both? How would you change that? None
What are your thoughts on a new performing arts center? Do we need one? Where do you think is the ideal location for the center? And how should we pay for it? I support it. It is not a need as much as it is an enhancement of quality of life. I lean toward somewhere in the downtown area. Continue the food and beverage tax, possible revenue bond, and transfers from the general fund for annual shortfalls, if any.
What can the county do to address homelessness in the community? Try to help provide resources to get those who are temporarily displaced back into housing and off government assistance. For more difficulty cases such as mental illness or substance abuse, partner with other government and nonprofit entities to provide day-to-day services where and when needed.
Veronica B. Jones
Name: Veronica B. Jones
Age: 56
Immediate family: Mother, Ruby Jones; father, Coley Jones Jr. ; sister, Anastasia Jones Vann; niece, Syadia Vann; nephew, Seville Vann Williams
Occupation: President/CEO of Jones Global Foundation; business owner, Jones Global Consulting Group; mental health advocacy/policy trainer-National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI); qualified mental health professional, mental health educator (former employee of Cumberland County Mental Health); executive program director (Retired-Veterans Services/Warrior Bridges Program, formerly known as Veterans PWI Program, Services Source National Organization)
Elected office held: None
Contact: voteveronicajones@gmail.com; veronicajonesnc.com; Facebook, Veronica Jones NC
What obstacles, do you think, prevent the city and county from working together in ways that would be advantageous to both? How would you change that? (1) What is an obstacle? City and county are the main forms of general-purpose local governments in NC. The state's General Statutes provide counties and cities with different functional options for operation, policy and procedures. Due to the city and county's different functional operations, guidelines, policy and procedures, this at times is an obstacle when attempting or collaborating with community projects together.(2) Historically, many city and county governments have operated more or less independently, with distinct areas, sources of funding and provided. However, systemic obstacles/challenges to economic mobility and racial equity such as affordable housing, homeliness, job quality, digital inclusion and broadband access, childcare and early childhood education require regional solutions. When problems impact families across city and county lines, solutions need to do the same by city and county elected officials and community leaders all working together, for the greater good of Fayetteville and Cumberland County overall.(3) What would I do to bring positive change regarding city and county working together? First, to unlock the potential of working together our Fayetteville city and Cumberland County elected officials and community leaders must take stock of their current relationship with a real assessment and real evaluation and how we can identify best practices for county-city collaborations, inter-jurisdictional partnerships, we must create community resident surveys, hold community town halls to involve our residents to allow them to voice their concerns and provide input to help provide a clear, high priority of creating better city-county collaborations, in areas of community importance for families such as education, public safety, health and wellness, mental health, affordable housing, economic development, childcare, clean environment, inequality and mobility that cross jurisdictional (county/city) lines.(4) In order to have a positive impact for our community for new positive changes and community advancement for individual and residential family needs ... both the county and city must devote resources, share benefits, and make the commitment with full transparency to take actions to make more of an effort to provide collaborations with one another, this will assure a fruitful partnership for the outcome to best benefit families in our community for a higher quality of life in all areas that matter, that cannot be achieved by the county or city alone it takes both, we are better working together for the families in our community.(5) It is important that leaders also listen to people already doing major community work, to include listening to activist and family advocacy workers, understanding potential legal and technological limitations, uncovering challenges, and building awareness of other attempts to address residents and community issues. It is important that local government leaders actively involve members of the community who are directly impacted by the community challenges they are trying to address.
What are your thoughts on a new performing arts center? Do we need one? Where do you think is the ideal location for the center? And how should we pay for it? (1) Based on both the results of Cumberland County's performing arts center study and based on survey results, residents and stakeholders want a new performing arts center.(2) Yes I agree with several Fayetteville and Cumberland County residents and families that want, deserve and need a new performing art center for our city and county.Here are a few reasons why I support having a new performing art center for Fayetteville and Cumberland County:(a) Opens the doors to local artists, as well as provides the opportunities for national and international talent. A performing arts center will cultivate numerous theatre companies, musical ensembles, workshops, classes, new play festivals. Local producers bring in a wide variety of new patrons, and more revenue stays in the local economy.(b) A new performing arts center will allow Cumberland County and Fayetteville to partner with established educational institutions such as Fayetteville State University, Methodist University, Campbell University and FTCC.(c) A performing arts center will enhance our community by allowing residents to be provided with self-discovery and expression, history and education about performing arts, allow positive creativity to be experienced and exposed in a positive manner.(d) Our performing arts center will create more job opportunities and boost our overall community economic developmental growth.(3) I take the initiative to stay informed, do research and stay up to date on concerns with our community. With that being said, site selection is very important, and so is accountability and transparency to our community. The current County Commissioners adopted a tentative schedule for the facility, which is tentatively being called the"Crown Event Center" (at the meeting in May 2022) the timeline was based on discussions by a committee working on plans for the center. The planning committee adopted a framework timeline for the project, the framework was presented by MBP, a consulting firm hired by the county to help with site selection, design, and construction of the center. The timeline called for site selection to end August 2022, and September design and construction was supposed to take place, however, that did not occur, we are now going into October 2022 and the planning committee has only met, my understanding, one time. In addition, this is a concern in my opinion that the project is already starting off with time frames not being kept. ... It's my understanding three suggestions so far have been made for possible site location ... (1) downtown, (2) US 301 area, (3) Interstate 295 has also been mentioned.I have reviewed the Market & Financial Feasibility Study provided by Conventions, Sports, & Leisure International (CSL), I want more information from the planning committee and project consultant before suggesting a site location.(4) Funding for the performing arts center should come from a combination of sources such as follows:(a) A reasonable percentage from the county budget(b) Funding from possible business investing stakeholders(c) Funding from possible major partnerships from educational institutions, business community partnerships.The Project Consultant & Planning Committee need to move forward as soon as possible.
What can the county do to address homelessness in the community? In my opinion, the county should focus and take action in the following areas for solutions to help address homelessness for our Fayetteville and Cumberland County community.(1) Help create affordable housing by investing a reasonable amount of the yearly budget in this area. Housing provides a foundation from which a person or family can access services and supports they need to achieve stability, begin the recovery process and pursue goals. (affordable housing, supportive housing, rapid re-housing)(2) Foster education connections for children and youth experiencing homelessness; schools can be a lifeline. Schools provide safety, stability and a connection to community that can help mitigate the impact of homeliness. The County Commissioners provide funding for the Cumberland County school system; this should be a topic of concern and discussion for a portion of money to be specifically designed when provided to be used for the purpose to help in this area. This is also a positive effort of action for county commissioners and school elected officials to merge or cooperative work together partnership on a special project in this area.(3) The County Commissioners already have homelessness as a listed Board of Commissioners Ongoing Priorities however the County needs to create a new solutions update strategy plan for more advanced solutions.(4) The county can establish a grant to be awarded to nonprofits that provide services such as building career pathways for the homeless population. One of the most effective ways to support individuals as they move out of homelessness and into permanent housing is increasing access to meaningful and sustainable job training and employment. The county can support community nonprofits that provide such services.(5) The county can help reduce criminal justice involvement with the homeless, but providing adequate advance training for our sheriff's department to learn how to interact and diffuse conflict when encountering the homeless population, along with training on how to handle conflict with homeless individuals ... training in this area for our law enforcement is of a great value for the safety of law offices, safety responders and for the homeless population, this training should be provided for all county emergency first responders. (6) Support integrated health care. The county should assure that within the county budget we are allocating a reasonable support of high funding for our Cape Fear hospitals, county mental health services, county Health Department, and being supportive with fundings towards county health partners that provide health care services. ... (7) Build partnerships. The county can stay updated and aware that recognizing that the solutions to homelessness cuts across county, city, state, and federal jurisdictions, we need to build a robust interagency, cross-sector approach to preventing and ending homeliness.
Ron Ross
Name: Ron Ross
Age: 72
Immediate family: Daughter and grandchildren
Occupation: Executive director of the Boys and Girls Center of Lumberton
Elected office held: None
Contact: boysgirlsrobeson@carolina.net
What obstacles, do you think, prevent the city and county from working together in ways that would be advantageous to both? How would you change that? They need to sit down and talk on how to cut property taxes and add more programs for senior citizens, and additional funding for law enforcement.
What are your thoughts on a new performing arts center? Do we need one? Where do you think is the ideal location for the center? And how should we pay for it? Downtown, no parking, it would lose money, rebuilding on the location near the Crown, yes, with the understanding that it would be self-sufficient.
What can the county do to address homelessness in the community? Many reasons cause someone to be homeless, some are on drugs, alcohol, depression, etc. Up front, it will cost more, more treatment centers, also more help from our churches. A hand up not a hand out, work based shelters (have to work in order to stay). A program that is based on respect, pride in oneself and where your religious faith will lead you in the right direction, no easy answers.
John Szoka
Name: John Szoka
Age: 68
Immediate family: Wife, Laurie; and grown children, Hunter and Morgan
Occupation: Mortgage loan officer, small business owner
Elected office held: Representative, NC House of Representatives, District 45, 2012-2022
Contact: johnszoka@gmail.com; electjohnszoka.com; Facebook.com/NCJohnSzoka
What obstacles, do you think, prevent the city and county from working together in ways that would be advantageous to both? How would you change that? Good policy should always be supported, no matter whose idea it is. Ideas that benefit the community at large should always be supported. If ALL elected officials keep these two principles foremost in their minds, then negotiations can be successful. I have a solid record of bridging deep divides between parties and special interest groups on a variety of difficult issues, tax policy, renewable energy and criminal justice reform, that resulted in substantive legislation being passed into law. I will work with all people who are dedicated to good policy that benefits all people in the county.
What are your thoughts on a new performing arts center? Do we need one? Where do you think is the ideal location for the center? And how should we pay for it? Quality of life is an important factor for citizens of the county as well as attracting new companies to the county. Our current theater is an old, outdated facility that doesn't add to our quality of life. A new center will attract better quality performances and increase our quality of life. The location should be driven by considering factors such as traffic density during events, ease of parking, and access to restaurants within walking distance. Paying for it is a budget question. In studying the county budget I believe that there are line items where savings can be realized. County priorities should be funded by whatever combination of budget savings, allocation of reserves and new financing that make the project viable.
What can the county do to address homelessness in the community? Homelessness is an issue, that unaddressed, only continues to grow. This issue must be jointly worked on by the city of Fayetteville and the county. In the last state budget, I and the delegation added a $1 million grant to the city for a homeless shelter. This funding is a foundation to build upon. The county has already developed a good draft plan for a shelter/work training/counseling center that should be jointly funded. However, we as a community cannot let our compassion for the homeless to overrule the law. We cannot continue to ignore the needs of law-abiding citizens and focus only on helping the homeless. Local businesses and housing areas are being adversely affected by some homeless camps. Existing laws must be enforced. Focusing only on our compassion for the homeless can lead to their dependency on government and government does not, and can not solve all problems. The sooner we fund and open a homeless shelter/job training/counseling center, the sooner we can begin to address all citizens' concerns.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Voter Guide: Meet candidates for Cumberland County commissioner
