Looks like a lot of folks are rallying behind Jennifer Roberts to be appointed mayor to replace Patrick Cannon. Well, at least quite a few who are social-media savvy. Not only has a Facebook group, Jennifer Watson Roberts for Charlotte Mayor, popped up, but there’s also an online petition out now.
The Charlotte Business Journal reports seeing Roberts leaving the Government Center late Thursday:
Roberts played coy when asked if she was in the running for the vacant Charlotte mayor’s post following Wednesday’s arrest and resignation of Patrick Cannon. Charlotte City Council members are set to meet at 6 p.m. on Monday to appoint a new mayor.
“I’m not saying,” Roberts responded.
How interesting. Last year, we listed Roberts as one of our dream candidates for mayor:
A progressive who strays from dogmatic rhetoric, a strong female leader who spent eight years as Mecklenburg County Commission chairwoman championing for education and the poor, and a former foreign service officer with the State Department and Morehead Scholar at UNC Chapel Hill – these are just a few of Jennifer Roberts’ accolades. But perhaps her best attribute? She doesn’t take anything – not even pillars of her party’s agenda – at face value.
Other folks being considered for the position include state Sen. Dan Clodfelter, former council man James Mitchell, who lost in the Democratic mayoral primary last year to Cannon, and even council woman Patsy Kinsey, who served as mayor after Anthony Foxx left for D.C.
Can’t wait to see what happens.
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2014.
I’m a Democrat and I generally like Jennifer, however I can’t forget her opposition to holding a review of the 2011 revaluation. It produced an excess of more than $40 million in new revenue and turned out to be deeply flawed. Sadly, it was the republican representatives who supported the independent review. This was a huge issue for me and almost ruined me financially. Jennifer had said she thought the revaluation was fair and that, “We can look at keeping tax rates the same or maybe even have a little reduction to ease some of that revaluation pain”. Well, I’m a landlord and my property valuation – and thus my taxes – were artificially increased by an average of 74% in 2011 while the tax rate was dropped by about 2%. Do the math…and the “revenue neutral” thing went totally out of the window. My hard-fought appeals finally brought it down to a 23% increase but I had to spend @350 hours on appeals, and I shouldn’t have had to. Where were the democrats when taxpayers who were victimized by the Assessor needed help? She was happy to take all of this new money that has now largely turned out to be unjust. The public outcry for justice was overwhelming and she only warmed up to the idea of an outside review when it became clear that it was going to happen.
Here’s a quote from an article at the time:
Mecklenburg Commissioners Chairman Jennifer Roberts that a recent call for the county to redo its recent property revaluation would be “counter to current state law, would cost taxpayers additional money, and would not support fairness in the assessment process.” Wow.
So, what I want to hear from Jennifer is, how would she work to restore public trust in local government? Can she?
http://charlotte.johnlocke.org/blog/?p=11781
http://davidsonnews.net/blog/2012/11/21/meck-tax-assessor-resigns-faulty-reval-stumps-commissioners/
http://www.northcarolinapropertytaxlawmonitor.com/audits/
http://pundithouse.com/2010/11/the-magically-invisible-tax-hike/
http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Meck-commission-expands-review-of-tax-revaluation-181114571.html
If you like higher taxes by all means support Jennifer Roberts!
Charlotte needs to hold a special election (if given permission by the general assembly) to give the people a voice in who their mayor is! http://www.change.org/petitions/charlotte-city-council-call-a-special-election-for-the-mayor-of-charlotte
rockonstones:
When did the Mayor acquire the authority to raise your taxes?