County Races Firing Up

And they're off.

The political pot shots are flying in the 2012 Guilford County Board of Commissioners races in what's turning out to be three very lively contests. Of course, these races might just seem lively because, in the last county commissioners election, two years ago, all five candidates ran uncontested in the general election for the five open seats that year.

So the county commissioners races are due for a little excitement – and that's what they've gotten.

This year, District 5 Republican candidate Jeff Phillips is coming hard after At-large Commissioner and District 5 candidate Paul Gibson. Phillips has been pointing at Gibson's record of past property hikes as well as Gibson's promise to – if elected to represent District 5 – push for a sales tax increase.

Phillips said he's highly opposed to property tax increases and sales tax increases.

That difference prompted the conservative Phillips to say this week: "Voters have a clear choice in District 5."

In the District 6 race, on the other hand, Democratic candidate Linda Kellerman is attacking her Republican opponent, Hank Henning, for opposing a tax increase: Kellerman recently posted on her campaign's Facebook page that it was irresponsible of Henning to sign a no-tax-hike pledge.

In District 4, Republican Alan Branson is banging heads with incumbent Democratic Commissioner Kirk Perkins for dominance in the district that spans much of eastern Guilford County. Perkins, like Gibson, has voted for multiple property tax increases during his eight years on the Board of Commissioners, and Branson wants everyone to be aware of that.

The six candidates have just now started campaigning at full speed, and county voters can expect things to get more heated between now and Tuesday, Nov. 6.

The first county commissioners candidate forum of the general election, put on by the League of Women Voters, was held on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Greensboro. Sometimes at these types of candidate forums there are only a few more spectators than there are candidates. However, the large gathering room at Holy Trinity was packed, even though it was a lunchtime forum on a Tuesday.

The large audience was engaged, erupting in applause at times for the liberal Democrats, and grimacing when the Republicans spoke. The strong interest in the commissioners races this year may partly be connected to the heated nature of the 2012 presidential election.

Henning was the only no-show at the forum. He said this week that he had a "business-related conflict."

After Monday, Dec. 3, there will be a total of nine Guilford County commissioners – eight from districts and one at-large commissioner – as opposed to the current board's makeup, with 11 commissioners, nine of them elected from districts and two elected at large.

The Districts 4 and 5 races have younger Republican challengers going up against older Democrats. In District 4, political newcomer Branson, 45, is running against Perkins, 60, a two-term Democratic commissioner. And in District 5, the conservative Phillips, a financial advisor who owns Phillips Wealth Management, is trying to beat Gibson, 65, a self-employed textile salesman. Gibson is running for a district seat for the first time.

Gibson was elected at-large to the Board of Commissioners in 2004, and he also served as an at-large commissioner from 1984 to 1988.

In District 6, there's no incumbent in the race. Kellerman, 59, is a retired computer-aided design designer for a trucking company, and she's the only woman running for commissioner this year. She's up against Henning, 37, a veteran of the Iraq War who has a Jamestown address and works for Brady Services, a distributor of heating and air-conditioning products.

At the League of Women Voters' forum, Gibson was unabashed in stating that he wants to see an increase in the sales tax in Guilford County. Gibson said loudly and proudly that he thinks the Board of Commissioners should vote to put the quarter-cent sales tax hike back on the ballot and then convince voters to pass it.

Guilford County voters have already voted down the sales tax increase three times, but that doesn't keep some commissioners – including Gibson – from continuing to push it.

"It would raise $14 million to $16 million and a large percentage would be paid by those who are from outside the county," Gibson said at the forum.

This week, defending that position, Gibson said Davidson County and other Republican counties have passed the quarter-cent sales tax increase, and he said doing so in Guilford County would take some pressure off the need to raise property taxes.

"I'm going to do what I think is best for Guilford County," Gibson said.

He said sometimes that means taxpayers have to pay more, and he added that his fellow commissioners often want to cut the most needed services to avoid a tax increase.

Gibson has been a big supporter of the Interactive Resource Center in Greensboro, which aids homeless people, and he's a staunch defender of keeping nurses and dentists in the school system to make sure that disadvantaged students get proper dental and medical care.

"It's a sin to let a child suffer for lack of dental care," Gibson said.

He said he often finds Phillips' message confusing.

"I don't understand what he's talking about when he says 'limited government.'" Gibson said. "I understand what smart government is, I understand accountable government, and I understand open government."

Phillips said this week that he feels as though Gibson is creating a straw man to run against because Gibson often makes it sounds like he, Phillips, doesn't want to help the disadvantaged, while that's simply not true.

At the debate, Phillips made it a point to say that he's all for helping the less fortunate, but Phillips said the county needs to make sure that those getting government assistance have met the proper eligibility requirements.

"We all have a responsibility," Phillips said of helping the poor.

He encouraged people to go to his campaign website and watch the video of a News 2 story that shows Phillips and others working for a program called Night Watch on one of the coldest nights of the year. That program provides blankets and other help to homeless people.

In another issue – the county's stance toward illegal immigrants – Phillips went after a statement Gibson made on welcoming all immigrants to the county. Gibson told those at the forum that he believed with all his heart and soul that Guilford County needed a big sign at every entrance to the county that said, "Welcome Everyone."

After Gibson made that statement at the forum, Phillips posted on his website: "Although Commissioner Gibson opened his arms up wide to embrace all immigrants legal and illegal, he did not answer the question in relation to the local economy. How does a 'sanctuary' nature for Guilford county effect the 17.5% unemployed black males in Guilford County? How do we afford more social services to these immigrants in a county where already, 38% of citizens receive county assistance? Who benefits from the encouragement of more immigrants into a county that already has the lowest household income of all urban counties in the State?"

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Phillips' statement on his website concluded: "If we bribe them with benefits, they will come, but then what will Paul Gibson do with them once here?"

Gibson said illegal immigrants are here in Guilford County and it does no good to pretend that's not the case.

"What are we suppose to do, throw these people in the bushes?" Gibson said. "I believe we have a moral obligation for example to treat undocumented children in our dental clinic as well as our children's health clinic. Our schools should educate all children just like they are currently doing."

"The Bible says the poor will be with us always," Gibson said, and he added that it was our job to help those poor even if we can't eliminate poverty.

Gibson said there are some cuts that can be made in county government but too often those cuts are made in badly needed social services.

"We built a $100 million jail and I'm not going to take that out on DSS [Department of Social Services]," Gibson said this week.

Gibson said sometimes that means paying more in taxes.

"I don't like taxes anymore than anyone else," Gibson said. "I have to pay them too."

After Gibson was elected to the board in 2004, he voted – usually along with the Democratic majority of the board – for property tax increases in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. In 2009 and 2010, the budgets didn't have a tax increase. Gibson voted against those two budgets.

In 2011, when there was another tax increase, Gibson voted for the budget, and, in June of this year Gibson and the rest of the board voted for a slight decrease in the property tax rates, though that situation is complicated by the countywide revaluation. Gibson has, for years, been a strong advocate of increasing the sales tax in Guilford County.

One race that many observers say is too close to call is Branson versus Perkins in District 4. On the one hand, Perkins is the incumbent with a lot of name recognition; on the other, Branson has some high-profile conservative supporters, including Commissioner Billy Yow, who's extremely popular in many parts of the newly drawn and largely rural district.

Also, Perkins has a lot of new districts to worry about that he's never run in before, and he has voted for a lot of property tax increases over the years.

At the League of Women Voters' forum, Perkins said those tax increase were necessary largely because, in May 2008, voters approved the hundreds of millions in school, jail and other bonds. He said that both inmates and school children need adequate facilities.

"I try to remember that everyone's child is someone's kid," he said at the forum, adding that that's true of people whether that person is a student in the county's schools or an inmate in the county's jails.

Perkins spent much of his life as a prison guard and prison supervisor before going into real estate.

Branson had some criticism of the current board. He was critical of a plan to move ahead quickly with renovating the old jail and using it to hold federal inmates.

"There's a lot of unknowns out there," Branson said of the plan. "How many federal prisoners will the state bring? That question still hasn't been answered."

On this issue, Branson and Perkins seem to have a lot of agreement. Perkins wrote in an email this week, when asked about the county holding federal inmates, that he needs more information on cost versus revenue.

"I don't feel that enough research has been done by staff at this point," Perkins said. "I think it could be a net cost to Guilford County to house federal inmates. Maybe we could lease the old jail to the US marshals office and let them house inmates as needed. That way we would not get caught in a negative expense situation as well as avoiding other issues concerning additional inmates."

On a different topic, Branson said he would focus on creating jobs in Guilford County – something he said he doesn't feel Perkins has done much to promote.

The Sept. 18 candidate forum was unusual in that the candidates were asked quite a bit about issues over which the commissioners have little direct say – such as immigration policy or the county schools' practices.

The Board of Commissioners does hold the purse strings for the schools. The board decides how much county money the schools get in the county budget each year, and Board of Commissioners also has the ultimate say in whether a school bond is placed on the ballot or not.

Branson said at the forum that someone needs to get a tighter handle on school spending. He said the school system could, for instance, when building new schools, use more "standard architectural design" – rather than treating every new school as a highly innovative project that requires expensive architectural design.

"To go green is fine and well," he said, but he added that the county needs to "weigh our options" and look more closely at costs.

Since Henning wasn't at the forum, Kellerman was able to say anything she wanted without having to worry about being challenged by her opponent, though she did not have that much to say about the issues.

Kellerman has had a strange trip to say the least to get where she is now politically.

On the afternoon of the last day of filing earlier this year, a Democratic organizer asked her to file to run in the District 6 race since no other Democrat had filed to run for the seat. But that same afternoon, unbeknownst to Kellerman, Dan Miller, a college professor, also filed to run.

Kellerman then withdrew from the race, and began campaigning for Miller, but Kellerman, whose name remained on the ballot, won anyway. It's widely believed that Kellerman won because county voters vote for women over men whenever they know very little about either of the candidates.

After winning the primary, she decided to commit fully to a campaign and she said that she's spent a lot of time studying the issues. However, at the forum, some of her answers seemed to indicate a lack of certainty about what a county commissioner does and doesn't do.

She said at the Sept. 18 forum that she has volunteered at schools and that she wants to keep technology in the county's schools current.

Kellerman, who still seems to be largely a candidate in search of a coherent message, stressed at the forum that she believed the county should supply the "basic health needs" of county residents.

Recently, Kellerman, on her Facebook site, went after Henning for signing a no-tax-hike pledge.

After he signed the pledge and announced it, the following appeared on Kellerman's campaign Facebook page: "My opponent, Hank Henning has tied our hands. By signing this NO TAX pledge, he has eliminated some of the options we may need to consider to solve Guilford County's Massive Debt. TELL HANK, DON'T TIE OUR HANDS! Vote for Linda Kellerman!"

This week Henning said he thought it was interesting that Kellerman was attacking him for signing a pledge not to raise taxes.

"I don't think it's irresponsible to do what voters want," Henning said.

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Henning said he feels as though he has a good start toward winning the general election since he did a great deal of campaigning in the District 6 Republican primary.

Henning also said he felt like, due to running a strong campaign in that primary, Republican voters in District 6 now know who he is, and now, he said, he's knocking on doors trying to sway the voters on the fence.

Kellerman never ran a campaign to win the primary because she wasn't trying to win it. On the day of the primary in May, she was passing out campaign materials at the polls. However, the materials were for Miller, her opponent.

Henning said, despite Kellerman's attack, he's proud of his commitment to cut spending and find efficiencies rather than doing the same old thing and raising taxes.

"I'm not satisfied we're spending money efficiently," he said.

He said a gap between spending and available funding should mean cuts in spending rather than higher taxes.

"Why do we always return to the revenue side?" he said. "We always go to raising taxes."

He said he doesn't meet a lot of undecided voters this year and he thinks that it will be a matter of "each side getting the base out."

No matter how the elections turn out, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is going to look drastically different after Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, when the new commissioners are sworn in. That's because three long-time commissioners – Mike Winstead, Billy Yow and five-time Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston – decided not to seek reelection this year, and one commissioner, John Parks, who's term expires, is unable to run due to the redistricting by state legislators last year.