Buncombe's unaffiliated candidates face off against Democratic commissioners at CIBO forum

ASHEVILLE - After gaining access to the ballot through signature campaigns, in a somewhat unique election year for Buncombe County voters, two unaffiliated candidates will face off against their respective Democratic challengers, who both now sit on commission.

At an Aug. 2 forum, those candidates met to talk issues. Hosted by a conservative business group, the forum held focus on taxes and spending, with slams against the status quo and a large turnout from the groups' members.

Vying for Buncombe County Commission chair is Democrat Amanda Edwards, in the middle of her term representing District 3, and former sheriff Van Duncan, who obtained enough signatures to qualify for the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate.

Running for District 2, which covers the northern and western portions of the county, is incumbent Democrat Terri Wells, and Bruce O’Connell, owner of Blue Ridge Parkway's Pisgah Inn and a former Republican congressional candidate. O'Connell also clinched enough signatures to run unaffiliated.

Who are the candidates?

Duncan billed his campaign as a "course correction." He was sheriff from 2006-2018 and said after he retired, he thought he was done with political office. That changed, he told the crowd at the Council of Independent Business Owners, when he was approached in December by people who asked him to run.

"It was due to a thing that happened with commissioners," he said. "(Asheville Police Department) went out and did a clearing of the streets of folks, who were repeat offenders and had really degraded downtown life for both the folks that live there and the businesses. And the commissioners pretty much lambasted them for it. That upset a lot of downtown folks, and it upset a lot of community folks downtown."

According to previous Citizen Times reporting, he was speaking of a Nov. 7 meeting where commissioners criticized several APD special "quality-of-life" operations that resulted in arrests of those police said were repeat offenders in and around downtown. The operations have continued. The most recent was announced in a June 21 news release that named 22 people. Charges include possession, second-degree trespass, larceny, panhandling and public urination.

Critics of the downtown sweeps say most charged are unhoused people facing low-level crimes and whose arrests only exacerbate the city's and the county's problems and clog the justice system and jail.

In December, the sheriff's department presented a report to commissioners requesting $186,000 for deputies to patrol downtown Asheville. This came after meetings with business owners who expressed "public safety" concerns, citing in a letter, among other asks, "removal of vagrants from public property and on our city streets."

A February Citizen Times investigation found despite the focus there, problems with safety are not primarily downtown. Three of Asheville's public housing units have a higher rate of violent crime than downtown, but police spent over nine times the amount of crime prevention hours in Asheville's city center than in all of public housing combined during 2023, a July investigation showed.

Commissioners did not immediately vote to grant funding at the December meeting, but approved $56,000 for additional patrols later in January.

Duncan pointed, too, to considerations of greater short-term rental restrictions — with hope to find regulation that would not restrict homeowners from earning income — and a nearly $29 million "budget shortfall" faced by the county prior to the June passage of its $626.4 million budget.

Edwards, first elected in 2018, is the executive director for the Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College Foundation. She stressed her six years on the board, calling them "transparent, accountable service."

"I am honest, proven and ready. I have more than 20 years of nonpartisan service working in the nonprofit industry across Buncombe County," she said. "I first ran for County Commission in 2018 with the goal of restoring trust and accountability to Buncombe County government. I have delivered ethics reforms, grown high wage jobs, doubled investment in education and increased pay for sheriff's deputies, detention center officers and paramedics."

Her focus? Economy, environment, education and emergency services.

O'Connell asserted his unaffiliated status, calling the current all Democrat board a "monopoly." He said he will prioritize taxes, affordability, crime and security, education and infrastructure.

"Those are what matters most to the people who have asked me to run ... I will dig into that budget, I will find the waste and I will reduce your taxes and I will do everything I can do to cap property taxes for local residents so no one has to worry about being taxed out of their home," he said. "If you elect me, I will bring a conservative voice to the county commission and bring some balance to local government."

Wells was elected in 2020 and is a ninth generation of her family to live and farm in Sandy Mush. During her term, she said she's been conserving family farms, connecting communities to broadband, investing in public schools "with the largest increases in funding in the past decade."

"I want Buncombe County to be strong for all of us, but also all your children and grandchildren," she said.

What's the plan for the tax reappraisal?

In June, both the city and county raised property taxes — a .63-cent increase for the city, 1.96 cents for the county — and with an incoming reappraisal year, moderator Buzzy Cannady said "all indications are that property owners are going to be shocked." He asked if candidates would publicly commit to maintaining a revenue neutral tax rate.

Duncan said "revenue neutral would be a good play." With the reevaluation, he wondered if they could lower the rate, instead, calling it "unbearable."

Edwards said the county must set a rate that it can sustain for four years so residents do not face year-over-year increases in order to sustain the budget.

"I think it's really important to understand what the (N.C.) General Assembly puts on us and what we can and cannot do because of the legislators in Raleigh," she said. "Honestly I think if we fully fund our public schools it would greatly reduce our tax burden on Buncombe County taxpayers. I think too often we compartmentalize the issues that we're facing and we miss the big picture ahead of us."

For O'Connell, the answer was more cuts and to "cap" property taxes, saying Buncombe County has "a spending disease."

Property values are continuing to go up, Wells said, which means taking a "hard look" and lowering the rate.

Both she and Edwards stressed the difficulties of this budget year, which was also the refrain at the June meeting when the budget was approved, with commissioners calling it one of the "toughest" they've ever worked on.

"At the end of the day, it was so important that we continue to fund our public schools and our public safety, and those were the two areas that grew in our budget. We made cuts everywhere else. " Wells said.

Top priorities and budget cuts

When asked to name their top three issues, affordable housing, education and public safety were most common.

O'Connell said priority issues must be dealt with before "(Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), pride parades and transgender bathrooms."

A May county news release announced gender-inclusive bathrooms in its buildings, starting with libraries. It said the initiative reflects a commitment to foster "a diverse and inclusive workplace." The release also noted it is a "low-cost" and "easily instituted accommodation."

"We can have those kinds of things once we take care of what matters most," he said. "We've got to focus on the things we need before we focus on the things we want." Later during the forum he would call general obligation bonds "deals with the devil," and said he would stop all funding for reparations, focusing instead on "education, safety, taxes and infrastructure."

Duncan, in naming priorities, along with education and budget cuts, called out people experiencing homelessness, specifying the "20% that refuse to go into shelter and live on the street."

"We're going to have to come to grips with a strategy that effectively deals with that population and moves them to a better place while we restore the ability for businesses to run and people to feel safe when they go downtown," he said.

Duncan told the Citizen Times that the 20% figure cited was an estimation provided by Scott Rogers, with ABCCM, and Micheal Woods, with Western Carolina Rescue Ministries.

The area's latest point in time count, typically a single-night census of its unhoused population, found 739 total people experiencing homelessness in Asheville and Buncombe County — 520 in shelter and transitional housing, 219 unsheltered.

An April presentation of the data did not include a metric for people who had "refused" shelter. Of the count, 230 people were found to be chronically homeless, meaning they had been unhoused for at least a year and have a disability.

A newly restructured Continuum of Care, a collaborative, community-driven planning body, is charged with developing and overseeing an effective system of homelessness response in Asheville and Buncombe County. Lacy Hoyle, the county's homeless program manager, is on the board. It also has non-voting liaisons from both Asheville City Council and county commission.

Edwards said she "will not compromise" on mandated services, public education, emergency services and public safety.

"I will also ensure that we were fully continue to serve people who desperately need Buncombe County Health and Human Services, whether its public health, attaining health care or receiving other adult protective service alongside veteran services," she said.

“We have to make sure ... we are not compromising safety and education. Because that compromises our future, and we want a stronger future for Buncombe County," Wells said.

More: Blue Ridge Parkway Pisgah Inn owner O'Connell makes Buncombe Commission ballot; Who is he?

More: Former Buncombe Sheriff Van Duncan wins ballot spot for County Commission chair

More: Amanda Edwards declares for Buncombe commission chair. Newman, Whitesides, Sloan endorse

More: What to know about 4 Buncombe County commission candidates running in March 5 primary

More: Asheville's Community Responder Program is new first response to homeless encampments

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email [email protected] or message on X, formerly Twitter, at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Buncombe commission candidates talk taxes, budget cuts at CIBO forum