Commissioner candidates address the Forum

Oct. 26, 2010

Five candidates for the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners, all Democrats, participated in the Forum Tuesday. Republicans in the at-large and contested district races were invited.

Surrounding Forum convener Sarah Stevenson, center in the photo above, were, from left, District 3 incumbent George Dunlap, at-large incumbent and board vice-char Harold Cogdell, at-large incumbent Dan Murrey, at-large incumbent and board chair Jennifer Robert, and District 2 incumbent Vilma Leake

Audio material is posted below for the candidates' opening statements and answers to several of the questions asked from the floor. The answers are posted in the order in which they were given. The substance of each question is paraphrased below.

Opening statements

 
 Dan Murrey

 Jennifer Roberts

 Howard Codgell

 Vilma Leake

 George Dunlap

Q: Will you consider raising taxes after the election to pay for county services?

 Vilma Leake

 Jennifer Roberts

 Dan Murrey

 Harold Cogdell

 George Dunlap

Q: Historically, when one of the at-large commissioners has been black, it has been difficult to get the black incumbent re-elected. What will it take to make that happen?

 Harold Cogdell

 Jennifer Roberts

 Dan Murrey

 Vilma Leake

 Harold Cogdell

Q: What will commissioners do to hold the school board accountable for raising academic achievement?

 George Dunlap

 Harold Cogdell

 Dan Murrey

 Jennifer Roberts

 Vilma Leake

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On a separate page of this site are videos of the three at-large candidates addressing a question of whether they would stand with Save Our Schools, a grass-roots parent group, on Wednesday, Oct. 27, as the group requests that CMS suspend its process of identifying schools to close to allow time for more public input. Vilma Leake also answerered the question. No video of her answer is available.

 Here is the audio of her response.