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Three members of the Huntersville town board – Commissioners Bales, Walsh, and Munger, along with the town manager, a member of planning staff, and Ryan McDaniels from LKN Economic Development, all recently traveled to Alpharetta, GA after receiving an invite from the new owners of the Birkdale shopping center. The first three: Bales, Walsh, and the town manager, traveled together in one vehicle down to Alpharetta in late January; the second three traveled down sometime in February [Edit: The second trip apparently hasn’t occurred yet.]. All town board members and the mayor were made aware of the invite, but only three chose to accept.

This trip has not been disclosed or discussed publicly despite two town board meetings being held since the trip in late January. If this was really just routine due diligence by our elected officials to learn more about how the second highest taxpayers in Huntersville have benefited a similarly situated municipality in Georgia, why the failure to disclose to the public? How much did this trip cost taxpayers and what expenses were paid by the new owners of the Birkdale shopping center? I attempted to learn more by submitting a records request on Feb. 17. I received two batches of emails included below as part of that request, but I am still awaiting additional documents, if any, including contracts, receipts, or invoices. 

The emails below are open to review by the public. Draw your own conclusions.

Eric

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The full agenda packet for Tuesday night’s town board meeting (no meeting tomorrow night because of the holiday) can be found here. Two pre-meetings at 5:00 and 5:15 (that should be live streamed), regular meeting starts at 6pm. It’s only a 30-page agenda packet for this meeting so if you ever wanted to review an entire packet and provide some questions/comments to the town board this would be the meeting to do so. Again, what’s most interesting is what’s NOT included on the agenda – any discussion about the 913 page, $150K investigative report into HPD that the town is refusing to release any information about to the public. Your tax dollars paid for it, but you’re not entitled to know anything about why our police department was being investigated and not a single elected official in Huntersville has spoken out against the town’s suppression of this report.

Of note:

More about the company HPD wants to go into business with that is based out of Charlotte. Conterra Networks is majority owned by Court Square Capital, a private equity firm with approximately $6 billion of assets under management, with the remaining ownership largely held by Conterra Networks’ management team.

#AuditHPD
#OneTownOneTeam4Life

Eric

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The full agenda packet for tomorrow night’s town board meeting can be found here. Closed session pre-meeting at 5:00 with the town attorney to discuss a lawsuit filed by the town, regular meeting starts at 6pm. It’s a 236-page agenda packet for this meeting. Again, what’s most interesting is what’s NOT included on the agenda – any discussion about the 913 page, $150K investigative report into HPD that the town is refusing to release any information about to the public. Your tax dollars paid for it, but you’re not entitled to know anything about why our police department was being investigated and not a single elected official in Huntersville has spoken out against the town’s suppression of this report. And I’m sure the electeds and former electeds who pretend to care about transparency are going to be outraged that no copy of the lawsuit the board is going into closed session to discuss was included in the agenda packet. I requested a copy on Dec. 31 when the agenda was published and have yet to be provided a copy. But, this isn’t a complaint! I’m still #OneTownOneTeam all year in 2020!

Of note:

#AuditHPD

Eric

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An investigation into the Mooresville Police Department continues to have an impact. The most recent reporting indicates another high ranking member of MPD, who was also the original whistleblower, may be fired. Meanwhile in Huntersville, the same agency has concluded a similar investigation into the Huntersville Police Dept. and yet no one in town appears to knows anything about the report. The town manager has confirmed the 913 page report (14,000 pages including appendix/attachments) cost the taxpayers $150,000 and yet the public still knows nothing about the report or why the investigation was even done in the first place. This $150,000 was paid out of the HPD budget from “contract services.” If only someone had been calling for a line by line review of the HPD budget and the $700K+ in “contract services” that is never broken out by line item so that the taxpayers would have a better idea what the money is being used for…

The town board had an hour long closed session related to “personnel” preceding Monday night’s meeting, which I have to assume was to brief them on this report, but not a single staff member or town board member provided any overview or summary of their closed session briefing – because apparently us regular, un-elected residents don’t need to know the basis for or the results of an investigation into our police department. Mooresville has already had their chief resign, demoted two high ranking officers, and now apparently intends to fire a captain, all as a result of the ISS investigation into their department, but a similar investigation into HPD results in zero changes?

When are the residents of Huntersville going to learn any details about the ISS investigation into HPD?

#AuditHPD

Eric

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The full agenda packet for tomorrow night’s town board meeting can be found here. Closed session pre-meeting at 5:00 to discuss personnel (a full hour of pre-meeting, that must mean the town board is finally getting an update on the internal investigation done at HPD by an outside agency… sure would be nice if us regular citizens could find out what’s all in the investigative report since it was paid for with our tax dollars), regular meeting starts at 6pm. It’s just a 114 page agenda packet for this meeting, but there is a lot that should be discussed.

Of note: This is the last full board meeting for Commissioners Phillips and Gibbons. I appreciate their service to the town over the past few years and their willingness to listen to my many, many, many complaints.

Eric

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I’m not sure which caption would work best with this photo – “We’re Totally Not a Slate,” or “Don’t Ask Us Any Tough Questions.” One tough question an interested voter might ask, “Do all members of the Blank Slate support political violence against opponents or just Mr. Munger?” Here’s another tough question an interested voter might ask, “How can you call yourself a “supporter of law enforcement” with an Antifa supporter on your slate?” To be fair, I didn’t ask whether a candidate was an Antifa supporter on my questionnaire. [Note to self: on 2021 questionnaire, ask candidates if they support domestic terrorism.]

Mr. Munger isn’t shy about his left wing political positions and he was still welcomed onto the slate. He was a candidate for town board in 2017 and has been campaigning ever since the last election and yet his social media feeds are almost entirely devoted to national political issues, not Huntersville issues. Here’s another tough question an interested voter could ask Mr. Munger, “Are you running because you want to make a difference locally or because you want to bring national Democratic politics to Huntersville?”

Another tough question voters should be asking any candidate, like Mr. Munger, campaigning on “revitalizing downtown” is what that actually means? It definitely doesn’t mean using their own money to invest in downtown. To me, it sounds like a polite way of saying I will use government force to take your property and have it put to a use that I approve of using other people’s money.

Does Huntersville really want to elect someone who is “interested” in attending an Antifa rally? Next time you see the slate out campaigning (unless it’s at one of the private house parties you weren’t invited to), make sure you ask them if they support Antifa too.

Eric

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I emailed the following questionnaire to every town board candidate in Huntersville a month ago in an effort to provide voters with more insight into each candidacy. There was no word limit for responses. Only three candidates returned the questionnaire by the deadline (and one late entry from Mayor Aneralla): Dan Boone, Stacy Phillips, and Brian Hines. I am definitely not an undecided voter and there’s little doubt which candidates I could or do support, but this questionnaire was intended to benefit the hundreds of other voters in the Huntersville Politics group who are still undecided and who don’t know the candidates/issues as well, so it’s disappointing more candidates didn’t participate.

Election day is Tuesday, November 5. If you need more information about local elections, you can visit the Mecklenburg Board of Elections website here.

Eric

– A specific agenda item you want to work on if elected:  I want to continue to accelerate the town’s infrastructure projects (roads, sidewalks & greenways) to complement the over $550 million worth of local, state and federal road projects.

– For incumbents – any vote over the last two years you would change and why – or, if none, any item you wish you the board would have accomplished and why:  The hiring of a full-time town attorney sooner than we did. The new attorney has reviewed and updated many procedures and contracts benefiting both the town and its citizens.

– What is the proper role of town government and do you think there is any limit to what town government can use taxpayer dollars for:  The role of town government is determined by State statute, which a town should adhere to and not stray away from. Towns get into trouble for example when they buy bankrupt cable companies and try to compete with the private sector.

– If you are running on an anti-growth platform, how do you intend to legally halt or slow down growth in Huntersville? Be specific.:

– If not running on an anti-growth platform, how do you plan to deal with growth challenges if elected?:  Allowing for a wide variety of housing options balanced with commercial development should be the goal of town government. Updating the 2030 community plan will help direct the town staff, developers and elected officials well into the future.

– Should town government select winners and losers in business by providing tax incentives/tax rebates to certain companies over others:  In general, I am against any type of incentives given to one company over another. It should be government’s goal to keep taxes low combined with common sense regulations to create a positive environment for all businesses to flourish.

Only under VERY rare circumstances should government offer tax incentives to a business. A good example of this is when BMW received tax incentives to locate to the Greenville-Spartanburg area of South Carolina. BMW’s presence in the area brought in related businesses and suppliers that transformed the area from the dying textile industry to a high-tech manufacturing destination.

– Are you hoping to benefit yourself personally if elected? If yes, explain. If no, one example of prioritizing Huntersville over your own self-interests:  No, I only own my home and do not have any business interests in Huntersville.

– If elected, is it more important to you to vote the will of the people (however that is determined) or to vote your conscience (except when the board is acting as a quasi-judicial body):  An elected official should always vote their conscience after considering all sides of an issue and be able to articulate why he or she voted in the way they did.

– Does the town need to do more to ensure transparency and accountability in its departments, including the use of independent, professional audits?:  The town has a financial audit every year. In addition, with a new town manager and town attorney in place over the past 15 months, many areas of town government have been scrutinized internally and with assistance from outside professionals.

– Do you support the public education status quo in Huntersville?:  I think Huntersville should continue to pursue all options proposed by the Huntersville Education Option Study Commission to ensure excellent education options for all children in the town.

– Cats or Dogs (or Chickens)?:  Dog

– Best place to get pizza in or around Huntersville:  I grew up in a family with a pizza restaurant, so pizza is one of my favorite foods. Fortunately, in Huntersville we have many great pizza establishments!

– Your favorite 19th century French political economist:

– Person/group most responsible for influencing your political views?:  My dad. He taught the value of hard work and not relying on government to be successful.

– How can readers find out more about your campaign? (social media, website)?:

www.electjohnaneralla.com

704-895-0586

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