September 26, 2007 News & Views » Cover

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The Contender 

Can Beverly Earle defeat Pat McCrory and become Charlotte's next mayor?

click to enlarge ANGUS LAMOND - GIANTKILLER?: Beverly Earle

Page 2 of 5

When McCrory mentioned prosecutors, he was poking at a sore spot. After his re-election in 2005, McCrory told the Observer his top priority was pressuring state legislators for more funding to hire prosecutors. District Attorney Peter Gilchrist has said he needs more prosecutors in order to properly try suspects and avoid having convicted criminals walking the streets. Since the criminal justice system is funded by the state, local officials can do little to increase the number of prosecutors other than pressure the county's state legislators to get them more money. With that in mind, McCrory led a "caravan" to Raleigh in February to pressure the legislature.

The way McCrory set up his caravan struck some people as an unnecessary politicization of a crucial issue. Traditionally, local officials lobby the county's legislative delegation ahead of time before making an appearance in Raleigh. And if the locals hold a Raleigh press conference about the issue at hand, it's usually along with the delegation. If you show up at the General Assembly and act otherwise, it's widely seen as an attack on your county's state legislators.

At the time of the caravan, McCrory told CL's Tara Servatius, "We've attempted to lobby for funding the other way for a decade and ... have been ineffective in getting our point across, and thus we are bringing in more of a grassroots coalition to express our concerns."

Earle felt the mayor was showboating and, more important, had been ineffective. "He didn't even let us know he was coming. We read in the paper that he was planning the caravan, and I kept hearing about it. Finally, I approached Boyd Cauble (senior assistant to the city manager, responsible for working with the Mecklenburg delegation), and told him 'This isn't how you approach the legislature -- your boss hasn't indicated to us that he's coming down here.' So later we get an e-mail from McCrory saying he was coming; this was two weeks after the whole thing had been planned. And when he came, he still did not involve the delegation in his press conference. I can tell you, it didn't help the perception of Charlotte in Raleigh. They already think we have everything and don't need anything more. Just because there are Democrats in the leadership, that doesn't give us any more edge to get what we want. Everybody's down there fighting for their district, and then you've got a mayor who comes down and acts arrogant, alienates everybody, well, at the very least it doesn't help us get what the city needs."

Beyond the prosecutor issue, Earle feels the city needs a more balanced community approach to dealing with crime. "We do need more DA's," she says, "and there's a plan for that, but I can work better with the legislature in terms of getting more DA's. McCrory can't make anything happen in Raleigh.

"In the area of young people and gang violence, we need more preventive measures. For instance, there are nonprofits that are getting state funding and foundation funding, and then you have churches -- local government needs to be working with these groups in a coordinated effort to create more preventive measures. I've talked to several churches that are doing things to keep youth out of gangs -- the city needs to be working with those groups. We need to work with the county, too. The city isn't responsible for social services, the county is; but if we can work with them to deal with dysfunctional families where a lot of the troubled kids come from, and also work with the school system, and make it all a coordinated effort -- rather than go around making speeches and putting on a show at the legislature -- then we can get some real progress made.

"Statistics show that for every 10 kids you have a chance to touch, that's at least five that you won't have to deal with in the criminal justice system. But it takes another approach than what we've had here in Charlotte, and that's all about working with community and neighborhood and churches and the county and schools. And that's just to deal with this one issue. I've already said I think we need to have a business advisory council. Maybe we need a crime advisory council, too -- let's see what other cities have done to deal with crime and use their successful ideas. Get some fresh ideas in here, especially since the way it's been handled lately isn't working."

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Click here to see a list of Beverly Earle's contributors – and how much they donated.

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