Mayor
For Davidson Mayor, aShortChronicle recommends Rusty Knox. Knox is known, liked, and respected from one end of Davidson to the other and will be the most effective at restoring community trust in Town Hall. He will be an effective leader regardless of the ultimate makeup of the new Board. Importantly, when you think of Davidson and its small-town character, Knox is one of the facets of that character that likely comes to mind. Moreover, Knox has proven his willingness to fight to maintain that small-town character. His founding and leadership of the Paradise Lost group was instrumental in stopping the Catalyst Project that would have damaged Main Street’s character beyond repair. He took the same stance when it came to the recently dropped Beaty Street Luminous project. He spoke out against the mass rezoning of Davidson’s Rural Area, particularly the parts that make major development easier. As a Davidson native, Knox has known many of these landowners for decades and speaking out against this rezoning required political courage. He also supported giving the public the chance to vote on a new Town Hall building rather than the Town unilaterally deciding on that major spending item. That shows he has enough trust in the public to make the right decisions when needed. For all these reasons and more Rusty Knox is the right choice to lead Davidson going forward.
Commissioner
This is a change election and with that in mind here are five challenger candidates who are more than capable of doing the job. aShortChronicle believes this mix will provide a diversity of opinion and experience as well as geographic representation across town. Importantly, this group is focused on transparency and a willingness to fight to keep Davidson's small-town character rather than just managing the decline of it. While confident everyone of these people will work for all of Davidson, they are ordered by the rough geographic location of where they live to show that aspect of the group’s diversity.
West Davidson
David Sitton – Sitton has been a leader in the fight against the Beaty Street RFP and the Luminous Project. He deserves the credit for spearheading the effort to get an independent appraisal of the Beaty Street property which significantly increased the pressure against the proposal to sell off the town owned property. In conversations with Sitton, it is crystal clear he “gets it” when it comes to the issues of transparency and earnestly involving the citizenry that have plagued Town Hall led projects in recent years.
Sam Weaver – Weaver is the youngest candidate on the ballot. “Experience” however is not the only quality in choosing a good Commissioner. Here at aShortChronicle a willingness to ask hard, and at times uncomfortable, questions is highly valued. Weaver has proven his willingness to do that. You can be confident that Weaver will not simply go along with bad ideas and instead will look for ways to stop them, all while doing it politely and with tact.
Middle Davidson/Concord Road
Ryan Fay – Fay’s business experience will be a great addition to the Board. While Davidson is not a Fortune 500 company and should not be managed from the top as if it is, having corporate experience on the Board dealing with large budget issues like Mi-Connection will be very valuable. In conversations with Fay he favored putting the new Town Hall spending up for a vote and more creative thinking rather than the unilateral decision the current Board made to spend millions on a new Town Hall. Fay's statements opposing the Griffith Street Hotel are also right on target.
Shana Erber – At a recent event Erber cited the Davidson-Concord Road speed limit fight as well as the Rural Area Plan as the issues motivating her to get more involved in local politics. Those are issues near and dear to our heart here at aShortChronicle. In our opinion that says a lot about the common sense perspective Erber will bring to the Board, and common sense is one of the things that has been sorely missing from the dais at Davidson Town Hall. She has also taken a hard line stance with developers on enforcing the town's planning ordinance.
East Davidson
Matthew Fort – Fort will bring a numbers background to the Board that will be very useful. His work experience in corporate divestitures would benefit truly assessing what it takes to get out of Mi-Connection and execute on those plans. Fort has also espoused strong views on openness and transparency and has stated he will donate his commissioner's salary to charity. Those are all things showing he truly understands the meaning of being a citizen servant.
Incumbent Option
aShortChronicle also sees the value of continuity. With that in mind there is one incumbent also recommended for your consideration.
Jim Fuller – Fuller has been on the Board since 2011. While he has not always taken the positions advocated by aShortChronicle, he is by far the best of the current Commissioners when it comes to being an advocate of the people. He opposed the Beaty Street Luminous Project. He voted against spending for a new Town Hall without a referendum. He has also asked the hardest questions on the Griffith Street Hotel and long been an advocate for protecting the West Side neighborhood. Fuller regularly talks about Davidson Core Value #5 espousing Davidson’s small-town character. If you want to include one incumbent, Fuller is the one to choose.
Now it is time to go vote. Polls open for early voting at Cornelius Town Hall starting Saturday. If you want true change at Town Hall with a focus on openness, transparency, and trust, aShortChronicle recommends filling your ballot and not leaving any of your Commissioner votes uncast as long as they are votes for change. However, in this election with so many candidates running in both the Mayoral and Commissioner races there is the real risk of diluting the vote. With that in mind aShortChronicle strongly recommends concentrating your votes around the candidates listed here. Rarely do voters get the opportunity to fill a ballot and really implement change. Davidson voters have that opportunity this election, so they need to take it.
Vote early or vote on election day, but please vote. This election will be a pivotal one in the town's history.
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