About This Questionnaire
Thank you to each candidate for participating in the Inform Cabarrus 2026 Cabarrus County Commissioners General Election Questionnaire. We appreciate their willingness to serve and their commitment to the citizens of Cabarrus County. These responses are intended to help voters better understand each candidate’s priorities, values, and vision for our community’s future.
All answers are published exactly as they were submitted, without editing for content, grammar, or spelling, to ensure full transparency. Questions left unanswered are marked “no answer submitted,” and candidates who did not participate are noted as “no response received.”
1. Cabarrus County is growing quickly. As a commissioner, do you favor providing the necessary infrastructure to support that growth?
Yes. 100%. We know that population growth is outpacing our infrastructure improvements. We also know that infrastructure improvement projects are not getting cheaper year after year. I will work with our municipalities to discuss the growth in our County, plan for future development, and begin the process of expanding water/sewer capacities, school funding, and road projects. There is also advocacy that needs to take place between local leaders and our state legislative contingent to ensure that our county gets its adequate proportional share of state funding. We need more assistance from Raleigh to sufficiently meet the demands of our growing County.
2. At current tax rates, most residences don’t pay enough property tax to support the public services provided for them by the county and cities (schools, law enforcement, utilities, fire protection, etc.). Property taxes would be much higher if we didn’t have business property taxes to make up the difference. Considering that businesses require the county to spend much less tax money than residences, what is your position on supporting business recruitment to bring new businesses to our county and to encourage local businesses to expand?
I am a strong supporter of the Economic Development Corporation and the work they do to support Cabarrus County. Their advocacy for this county is vital for our overall financial health. I am also an advocate for the use of economic incentive grants to support business growth. With various metrics attached, they can be economic powerhouses for a county. From a tax perspective, industrial developments pay out significantly more in taxes per acre than residential. The use of incentives brings high-end jobs to our county, which provides our residents with opportunities for financial growth which empowers them to reach a higher level of economic independence. Costs increasingly outpace income growth but if residents have the ability to get an education, learn a trade or job skill, or participate in workforce development, they will have ample opportunities to find higher paying jobs that exceed inflation, as long as the jobs exist here in Cabarrus County.
3. The Water and Sewer Authority of Cabarrus County is responsible for operating our wastewater treatment plant on Rocky River. Currently, the plant is near capacity and requires several expansion projects to handle our continuing residential growth. Do you see helping expand sewer treatment capacity as part of your role as commissioner?
As stated earlier, I will push for upgrades to our infrastructure, to include improvements in sewer capacity. This is one area where not doing anything not only dampens economic growth but will affect a majority of the households in Cabarrus County. Prolonging these improvements will ultimately cost more, due to the inflationary environment that exists and from the loss of economic growth. In addition, the expansion should not just meet our current demand, but significantly exceed it.
4. County commissioners don’t run schools directly, but their decisions greatly affect them. How would you support strong public schools?
First, we need to fund the necessary new and replacement schools that are needed now. These projects are not getting cheaper. For me, “kicking the can down the road” is a misuse of future tax dollars. Next, we need to begin the process of catching up with our deferred maintenance on the existing schools in our county. If maintenance is not kept current, it will ultimately lead to faster degradation of existing schools which will lead to replacement. Finally, we need to ensure that our county teachers are provided with the highest supplement possible and one that is not merit based. While all of this is not attainable immediately, it needs to be prioritized and done as quickly as possible while still maintaining our overall excellent credit rating.
5. How important do you feel public services, such as parks and libraries, are to the quality of life in Cabarrus County?
While I do not typically use either libraries or parks on a regular basis, I spoke to many people that do during the primary season. In their stories, they each had different reasons for using them and to different extents. For those that regularly use them, it adds immensely to their quality of life and, in many cases, to their overall well-being. Parks and libraries also offer educational programs to the citizens which improves the mind and the body and ultimately leads to a better life.
6. Please list what, if elected, will be your top three priorities and how they affect the Cabarrus County citizens.
#1: Provide for the needs of our schools. Delaying projects that needed to be done years ago only increases the tax burden on our citizens. We need to quickly get these projects completed.
#2: Ensure that our county services are maintained, and even improved, through wise investment into our employees. I want to make sure they are paid a competitive wage, given competitive benefits, and are provided the best equipment possible. When services are provided effectively and efficiently, our citizens benefit by having quality services provided for them, more efficiently and effectively, and by having an overall safer, more prosperous county.
#3: Bring trust back to the Board! After so much turmoil recently, we need our citizens, county employees, and businesses to have a renewed trust in county leadership. All of these recent fiascos has brought distrust and embarrassment to our county. When trust is lost, citizens feel neglected and betrayed, employees leave causing loss of services, and businesses see this uncertainty and will likely not invest in our county. All of this causes harm to our citizens.
7. In recent years, it has become evident that some commissioners have been influenced by partisan leadership to take actions that benefit party leaders rather than the majority of Cabarrus County citizens. Please explain how you will balance political pressure versus what is best for the citizens.
There really is no balancing involved, from my viewpoint. I feel no political pressure to confirm to any party. I have always, and will continue to, make decisions based on what I feel is the right decision for the most people. I truly despise political theater and the antics that follow. It’s one thing when it happens in Washington or Raleigh, but when our local leaders play political games, I find it quite off-putting. I want to be able to see a constituent in the grocery store or a restaurant and be able to look them in the eyes and tell them why I made a particular decision. It may not be a decision they like but I will know, and hopefully they will know, that it was made with the absolute best of intentions, and without political prejudices.
8. Many residents of our county feel strongly about retaining their rural and agricultural identity. How would you balance the desire to retain open land with the increasing need for housing, schools, roads, and businesses as our population grows?
I fully support our farmers and the overall desire that many have to maintain as much of our rural identity as possible. I purposefully bought land far out in the country because I love the beauty and peacefulness that it provides. I raise chickens and I am also a beekeeper so I understand how important all of it is to our County. I also understand that growth, and the need for it, is coming. I support a very slow approach to the extension of water/sewer lines into the rural areas. When water/sewer lines are extended, it inevitably leads to involuntary annexation by our municipalities and then more growth. This is not an anti-growth stance, but rather a more “deliberate” approach until existing infrastructure is upgraded.
9. Please list what activities of civic engagement you have participated in that helped develop and inform your interest in serving the citizens of Cabarrus County through elected office. Things such as: What organizations are you a participating member of; what non-profit organizations have you contributed to or volunteered for; and any other activities that you feel have helped prepare you for elected office?
#1: I am a retired Chief Deputy that ran the daily operations of the office. This included the budget. I know how to work through budgets, deal with various kinds of people, and I am not afraid to fight for what is right.
#2: I am a member of Cross of Christ Lutheran Church in the Rimertown area where I am also the current President of Church Council.
#3: I have a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice Administration from East Carolina University.
#4: I am a graduate of the UNCC Public/Non-Profit Leadership Academy
#5: I am a proud past Master of Allen-Graham/Cabarrus Lodge #695 in Kannapolis where I am also the sitting Secretary of the lodge.
#6: I am a proud member of the Oasis Shrine and Cabarrus Shrine Club.
10. If elected, are you willing to work with members of political parties other than your own to serve the needs of the citizens of Cabarrus County?
What made me decide to run was the hyper-partisanship that existed in our County. Several of our elected officials were making decisions based on what their party leadership wanted, as opposed to what is best for their constituents. I have no problem working with anyone in order to keep our County moving in the right direction.
