Team Waynesville pledges to restore small town values

Oct. 28—A slate of candidates running under the banner of 'Team Waynesville' claim Waynesville is headed in the wrong direction and pledge to bring back the Mayberry that Waynesville used to be.

Their yellow-and-gold signs pepper the streets, they've pounded the pavement to knock on hundreds of doors, and they've camped out daily at early voting. Meanwhile, their supporters have flooded social media with attacks against the town's current leadership.

But who are they and what do they stand for? The three town council candidates running under Team Waynesville — Stephanie Sutton, Peggy Hannah and Tre Franklin — did not attend the candidate forum hosted by The Mountaineer. They instead took to the airwaves of social media to host their own live-streamed candidate forum, along with Team Waynesville mayor candidate Joey Reece, who did attend The Mountaineer forum.

Against the backdrop of Republican Party banners touting gun rights, limited government and secure borders, they fielded a wide range of questions — from concrete issues like development and homelessness to philosophical ones, like stopping Marxist and LGBTQ agendas.

"When we decided to do this and came together as Team Waynesville, none of us were politicians. But here we are. If elected, we are going to serve this town with common sense and are going to try to bring back our small town values," said Franklin.

A disconnect between the current town leadership and town residents was a recurring theme during their forum. Sutton said that disconnect is what prompted her to run.

"I felt really disconnected from our current council. I didn't feel like the vision they had for Waynesville matched the vision that my family has and most of my friends and acquaintances have," Sutton said. "I felt like there was a mismatch and disconnect there."

While the sitting town council members have painted a rosy picture of town's progress over the last four years, Team Waynesville has a much different take. They claim residents are fed up with everything from apartment construction to electrical billing snafus.

"If you are as sick of it as you say you are, you are looking at the change that is needed," Hannah told the virtual forum audience. "We need to do better as a town."

The platform they crafted at the outset of their campaign has been affirmed when going door-to-door, they said.

"Our top three priorities we've heard from citizens really mirror the three issues we set out when we started this campaign," Sutton said. "The overdevelopment and overbuilding, the rise in homelessness and vagrancy and crime and transparency."

Progressive policies

Team Waynesville routinely took the sitting town council to task for governing based on misguided progressive principles.

"These people in control now let their ideology override all common sense. It is foolish," Waynesville Mayor Candidate Joey Reece said.

One such example cited during the forum was the town's newly-adopted sustainable energy policy.

"Right now, any piece of equipment purchased by the town has to be electric. Am I right in that?" Sutton said.

"That's what we've been told," Hannah said.

That is not actually the case, however. In May, the town council voted to merely consider electric alternatives when purchasing equipment — not a mandate.

The town recently purchased a street sweeper, choosing the cheaper $270,000 diesel model over a $700,000 hybrid-electric street sweeper.

Team Waynesville candidates repeatedly suggested the town is opting for more expensive electric equipment, however.

"Why would you buy an $800,000 electric trash truck? That does not make sense to me," Franklin said.

The town is considering no such thing, however.

"We bought two trash trucks in the past couple of years and both are diesel," Town Manager Rob Hites said. "We are not in the market for a new trash truck."

The candidates also alleged that town employees are being stymied by electric chainsaws and mowers. Sutton said when a new mower was needed at the recreation center this summer, employees were forced to buy an electric model.

"The biggest issue is that it doesn't stayed charged. These employees are trying to do their job, and they have to wait for their equipment to be charged," Sutton said.

However, the town doesn't even own an electric mower, Hites said.

Sutton also claimed that town electrical crews are hamstrung by electric chainsaws, based on what she says a town employee told her.

"He was complaining he gets called out in the middle of the night to cut a limb and the chainsaw or something they are using isn't charged. He acted like that had happened," Sutton said.

Once again, however, the town doesn't own an electric chain saw.

"All our heavy duty chainsaws in public works are all gas," Hites said.

The only exception is at the fire department, where a couple of electric chain saws are kept on hand in the event firefighters are responding to a fire where a gas chainsaw would pose a safety hazard.

This summer, the sitting town council did pledge to work toward the goal of becoming carbon-neutral by the year 2050.

Team Waynesville is against letting climate change ideology drive the town's agenda, or spending money making buildings energy efficient instead of addressing more pressing infrastructure issues. Sutton described the town's initiative this way.

"One of their goals is to create a climate crisis task force to research what we can do to move our economy to a zero-emissions economy by 2030," Sutton said.

That's not exactly correct, however. The town appointed an Environmental Sustainability Board to work toward the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, not 2030, and when it comes to town operations, not the entire economy of the town.

Team Waynesville also alleged that progressive out-of-town Super PACs poured money into the local town council race four years ago. While two sitting council members did receive an endorsement in the last election from the local chapter of the progressive group DownHome NC, they didn't get any money, according to campaign finance reports.

Homelessness

The Team Waynesville candidates pointed to negative impacts of an out-of-control homelessness population as the turning point that inspired them to get involved.

"We don't mind helping the homeless, but a town of our size can not sustain dozens and dozens of folks coming in," Sutton said. "There's a lot of enabling that goes on, so they just come."

Hannah echoed that sentiment.

"They don't want help because they get everything they need handed to them in this small community, when this small community is deteriorating more and more everyday," Hannah said.

Four years ago, homelessness was a central issue in the town council race. At the time, Frog Level was still home to the Open Door soup kitchen, and police documented an influx of out-of-town homeless people attracted by the charity of both the Open Door and the Pathways Center.

However, the lay of the land is different now. The rise in homeless people on the street that began in the mid-2010s has declined dramatically, by more than two-thirds, according to the annual homeless census.

The Open Door closed, and the homeless population that once hung out in Frog Level evaporated.

Meanwhile, Pathways began to adhere to a locals-only policy. Police reported the out-of-town homeless population they once encountered went away.

"March 2020 was the last time any of our patrol officers identified anyone who was from out of town saying they'd come here to try to get into Pathways," Assistant Police Chief Brandon Gilmore said in a forum last year. "That number has completely dissolved."

However, Team Waynesville candidates say the problem persists. While it's no longer highly visible on the street in Frog Level, it's still a problem in Hazelwood, they said.

As for any successes? They say the community getting vocal about the problem is what led to the crack down, and is not anything town leaders can take credit for — despite a homelessness task force that met for 18 months and racked up a $36,000 consulting fee.

"The homelessness task force was an epic failure on the part of our town council," Sutton said.

Voice for the people

One of Team Waynesville's platforms is transparency, which the challengers say is lacking. Hannah said the current leadership brushes aside the concerns of the common people.

"For years, they have been ignored. That's not acceptable. Everybody has a voice and we want to hear it," Hannah said. "Communication. That's the big word."

The challengers also accused the current town council of being aloof and disconnected from residents.

"When we've canvassed, one thing that stood out is the apathy. Some people said they haven't voted in years," Sutton said. "Meanwhile, their neighborhoods are falling down, they are overrun by drugs and vagrants, and they truly feel like they have no voice."

The majority of Team Waynesville candidates have rarely attended town meetings, except a few times when hot-button issues were on the agenda, and then didn't stay for the entirety of the meeting.

Hannah is the exception. She has been a regular at town board meetings since first becoming active during the height of the town's homelessness crisis.

"I have been an outspoken person for about four years at town and county meetings," said Hannah, who also serves on the town planning board. She was appointed to the planning board by the very town council members she's opposing.

One question asked the candidates how they would "protect Waynesville from Marxist and LGBTQ+ agendas?" The town council became embroiled in a LGBTQ+ controversy this summer following a complaint of a transgender individual using the women's locker room at the rec center.

"I unapologetically stand for traditional family values," Sutton said. "That is the value I hold personally. But in standing firm in that, people say you are a hater, you discriminate. Just because I disagree with your lifestyle choice, I respect your right to live how you chose."

The other candidate

In addition to the four current town council members and the three Team Waynesville challengers, there's an eighth candidate on the ballot for town council: Ken Hollifield.

Hollifield is a public works employee with the town, which gives him a bird's eye view of one of his top issues.

"I am concerned about infrastructure," Hollifield said.

Hollifield said the town's infrastructure — namely water, sewer and streets — can't handle the residential development boom playing out.

"They put the cart before the horse on the infrastructure," Hollifield said. "All they care about is building apartments. We are already overpopulated in the town of Waynesville."

Hollifield's main campaign platform is residential building, which he said is running rampant. Development is indeed a central issue in the election and will be highlighted in a future article.

Hollifield was the only town council challenger who attended The Mountaineer forum. He said the town should be more focused on bringing in good jobs, citing the loss of industry.

"I haven't seen no businesses brought in. I just see more houses brought in," he said.

Town Council Member Anthony Sutton challenged this assertion, however, pointing to the opening of Drake Software and the expansion of Giles Chemical and Sonoco during the past four years.

While Hollifield is not running as part of Team Waynesville, his campaign is similar in many ways.

"I hear a lot that we are a 'Little Asheville.' We need to change this. We need to go back to the old Waynesville," he said.