Jon Council, Commissioner District 3

1. What unique qualifications/experience will you bring to the table if you are elected to the Watauga County Board of Commissioners?

I am an unaffiliated candidate running in a district where the large majority of voters are not registered to either party. I am not beholden to the political aims of a larger state or national organization, I believe that partisanship has no place in local policy and intend to serve on a basis of public service, transparency, and accessibility.

My wife, Peden and I have lived and worked in multiple areas of the High Country for nearly all of our adult lives and are intimately familiar with the realities and issues facing our county and the people that live and work in it. I am a house framer by trade, but over the past years have spent my free time volunteering to organize river cleanups and issue campaigns to benefit the often overlooked vulnerable parts of our population. I’ve worked in conjunction with multiple non-profits and community action organizations in the area and have managed to enact real change that has improved the quality of our environment and the lives of the working class members of my community. I possess an extensive knowledge of our indigenous species and ecosystems, as well as a thorough understanding of land management and current sustainable development practices.

Recently I have been actively organizing hundreds of volunteers and coordinating with multiple local, statewide, and national relief groups and government organizations in order to aid with the ongoing disaster relief operations in our area and provide much needed resources to our struggling neighbors. I have participated firsthand in the difficult work required to rebuild our communities and maintain a working knowledge of the means and effective strategy that is necessary to be successful in this work.

2. What is the first proposal you plan to put forward for action by the Board if you are elected to the Watauga Board of Commissioners? Please explain.

I am seeking to reallocate funds from our current model of tourism development. Currently the funds generated by the Watauga TDA are primarily beneficial to the short-term rental industry and its many proprietors that are largely controlled and operated from outside of our area. The residents and entrepreneurs in our area only receive the benefits of these programs by proxy in the dollars that are spent in our restaurants and businesses and the jobs that those businesses provide.

The rampant development and encouragement of our tourist and short-term rental industry has displaced many of the working class citizens that fill these roles and removed the homes in which they reside from our long-term housing market. Multiple counties and municipalities in our region have successfully engaged the state legislature in redistributing these funds and provided for the needs of the workforce in their surrounding areas. I seek to do the same.

3. If you could eliminate one line item in Watauga County’s budget, what would it be and why? If you could add one line item to the County budget, what would it be and why?

I honestly don’t see the need or efficacy in deleting any line item wholesale, however I do see a real need in reduction and reallocation of funds in many of the line items of our county budget. I would add a line item and ample funding to our infrastructure such as the potential flood mitigation budget in hiring and compensating a director and team that is actively working to restore riparian zones and decrease the risks of further destructive floods in our county. $22,500 is a paltry sum and obviously not adequate to the task of protecting our residents from further devastation.

4. Do you support or oppose a return to a revenue neutral County budget to lower County property tax rates. Please explain.

● I would absolutely support a revenue neutral budget for the coming year, a large percentage of our county residents are already cost-burdened and with the added costs of home repair and property loss in a market that has changed rapidly in the last decade I think increasing the proposed county budget next year would be short sighted and place the onus of raising those funds on people who are already struggling.

5. What are your specific ideas for providing more affordable workforce housing in Watauga County? Please explain.

Please refer to my answer to question #2.

6. Do you support or oppose a bond referendum to raise the necessary funds to build the proposed Brookshire workforce housing development? Please explain.

I support a bond referendum. I believe the public should have a voice in how our government levies our budget and how we go about developing our available real estate.

7. Do you support or oppose a rebate Homestead exemption for reduced property taxes for low income, elderly and disabled, and/or long-term local families living in Watauga County? Please explain.

Of course I do.One of the major platforms of my campaign is ensuring that the vulnerable residents of our county can continue to afford to live here.

8. The State Legislature’s redistricting of Watauga’s commissioner districts left over 20,000 Watauga voters without the chance to vote for candidates they want to represent them in local government for two years. Regardless of Raleigh’s provisions regarding appointed representation for voters in these two districts, what is your personal opinion on how those two district seats should be filled for two-year terms?

My personal opinion is that it is criminal to deny ANY voter from the right to elect the people representing them in local government. Any alternative to democracy is abominable and un-American.

9. According to a recent study, Watauga County is approximately 1600 slots short of available childcare openings in local childcare centers. What is your plan to address this problem?

In addressing the housing crisis facing our county and the current drain on the available workforce, I think that the natural path to attracting more childcare providers and employees is apparent. Providing more affordable space for working class residents is the keystone aspect of filling these roles.

10. What ideas do you propose to bring to the table to commit the County’s support for sustainability and conservation protection of Watauga’s waterways in undeveloped areas of the County? Please explain.

The protection of our vulnerable watersheds and ecosystems is paramount to our continued viability as a community and the health and safety of our neighbors throughout the region. As we have seen with the catastrophic flooding and environmental damage in the wake of Hurricane Helene, stewardship of the environment and our riparian zones is crucial to our infrastructure, our access to clean water, and the continued productivity of our agricultural land and community centers. I would recommend the implementation of a budget that provides for a sustainability department (much like the town of Boone), and a drastic increase in funding for potential flood mitigation and other essential infrastructure. The protection of our environment and the health of our population go hand in hand and cannot be divorced from one another. Without proper environmental protections we call into question the ability for this land to continue to provide for future generations of Wataugans. I love and cherish this place and am committed to preserving its character and culture in a way that necessitates standing up to harmful development practices and opposing the continuing trend of promoting profit over our people and our environment.