Positive Messages: Jay White E-mail #2

This is the second e-mail sent from the Jay White campaign.

This is the second of several emails leading up to the November election about Jay White , why he is running for County Commissioner , and what he hopes to accomplish.

Several of you have told me that recent events concerning the Tribune building and the jail have caused you to lose faith in our elected officials. It appears as if their decisions did not take into account any input from the public and in fact were contrary to public opinion. While I will not second guess the decisions made by the current board of commissioners, I do think things should have been handled differently.

For our local government to be successful, it must have the trust of its citizens. County Commissioners have an obligation to educate the public on the issues we face. They have a responsibility to listen to the public and to consider their opinions when deciding what is best for our county and its future generations. The public must hold Commissioners accountable by demanding they support their decisions with sound reasoning and logic. While I can not guarantee you will agree with all of my decisions if elected, I can guarantee that I will listen and that you will know the reasons behind my decisions.

County Commissioners have an obligation to make decisions in a timely manner. Sometimes delaying a decision is necessary in order to gather the information necessary to make a sound and solid decision. However, delaying tough decisions can also cost taxpayers money as we have seen with the jail issue. Sometimes delaying decisions can cost us more than just taxpayer money; it costs the public’s trust and it keeps this County from moving forward towards the future. We can not spend so much time deciding issues that they become moot or that we create other more serious problems. We can not put off until tomorrow what needs to be taken care of today. We must look towards the future and make decisions today that will help us get there.

There are several key areas we need to be addressing now. We must address the county’s involvement with the interbasin water transfer. This transfer is in the best interest of our County and we must continue to work towards getting it passed. However, we need to be researching alternative means of supplying our citizens with water.

We must address the issue of overcrowding in our schools. Our children are paying the price for the indecision of our elected officials. We need to stop planning for yesterday and look to the future. We need to make decisions today that will enable us to have enough classrooms five, ten, twenty years from now. We need to decide today how we will pay for these schools, and where they need to be built. Tomorrow will be too late.

We must make decisions that will increase our commercial development and reduce our tax burden. In order to do so, we need to create and maintain regional partnerships that work together towards a common plan. Not having a common plan can jeopardize our County’s local heritage.

This election we have a chance to decide what kind of place Cabarrus County is going to become – what kind of leadership we want making decisions. As a county commissioner, I'm committed to putting people first and politics second. We already have too many people creating problems; I will be a problem solver.