Pam’s Picks Questionnaire 2024 General
Charlie Wallin, Commissioner District 4
1. What unique qualifications/experience will you bring to the table if you are re-elected to the Watauga County Board of Commissioners?
I am a two term County Commissioner. I currently am the Vice-Chair. I have served on numerous boards in the county both government and non-profit (WAMY, Appalcart, DSS, Watauga Arts Council and Appalachian Theatre Board). I have also spent eight years as the Vice-Chairman of the Watauga County Planning Board. I served as the Chair of the Committee that wrote the last strategic plan for the County. A plan that the Commissioners just unanimously approved was a well written document and only approved an expenditure to work with the High-Country Council of Governments to do just an update. I have also been a Director in various capacity in Campus Dining at Appalachian State. I have served as the Staff Senate President, a member of the Board of Trustees, Chair of the Campus Occupational Health and Safety Committee and other various Boards and search committees. I have also volunteered at many non-profits in various capacities Oasis, Hospitality House and Hunger and Health Coalition. I have just started my 3rd term on the Town of Boone ABC Board and have been Chair for 5 of the 7 years I have been on. I have filled all the roles on the Raven Rock Meadow POA and currently serve as Secretary. I have been reelected every year eligible for the entire time we have been in the neighborhood which is now 20 years. I am a member at Grace Lutheran Church where I served the max two terms and 6 years on the Church Council where I was President or Vice President for 5 of those 6 years. I also served as Chair of their Pastor Search Committee. I currently serve as an Assisting Minister.
I have demonstrated a love of this community and a passion to serve in whatever capacity I am needed.
2. What is the first proposal you plan to put forward for action by the Board if you are re-elected to the Watauga Board of Commissioners? Please explain.
Building our Infrastructure projects. We have the land secured for our new Emergency Management/911center and Ambulance facility on 421 East next door to the Transfer Station. We are now in the planning phase portion so that we can start building a facility that will finally give those on the Eastern side the relief they need with an ambulance that doesn’t come from the other side of town when called. We will also be gaining a Emergency Management/911 center so that it will free up much needed space for the sheriff’s department as well as give us a 911 center that is got the room needed for Emergency Management and the call center. Since taking over the 911 from the Town and even before, we have utilized a space that is much too small for our growing operation. As seen by the recent catastrophic flood we can use a facility that can truly function as a Command Center with the proper space needed.
Another infrastructure need is the continuing additions and buildings for the County Schools. Parkway school needs additions due to the growing population so that we can get students out of mobile units. With our forward thinking we believe that this facility could be done without having to secure bonds and we can pay for the whole facility essentially with cash on hand. We can also do much needed upgrades for the school as well in the process. We can then look to replace Hardin Park school which is outdated and at the end of its life span. The open concept craze of the 60’s and 70’s just doesn’t work anymore. We have enough land to build on the existing land which will help as we look at a 120+ million-dollar facility that is big enough to house all the students and get them out of mobile units as well. Everyone deserves an environment that is conducive to learning.
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’m going to break the rules and give you two for the same reason. The number of teachers we fund in Watauga County is now over 100 positions. The second is the increased funding in staff and resources at the DSS. It is ludicrous that the State of North Carolina and the legislature continues to sit on a 5-billion-dollar rainy day surplus fund when we have so much need. The reason we keep these line items is that they will not step up and fund what they have for years funded. In the case of education, it is Constitutionally mandated to fund the public school system to an adequate level. For DSS it is unfunded mandates that have led to increased staffing and expense costs plus the over 15-million-dollar reduction in mental health funding over the last 5 years.
Right now, it would be housing. For both quantity and affordability. If we had unlimited resources, it is the most critical component to Economic Development and the most voiced reason of need. We can not seriously attract the workforce nor the companies we might desire without having adequate housing. We took a small step last year in the budget as I advocated to allocate 90,000 dollars to WAMY to help with rental housing needs in rural areas under the caveat that renters who received this help could not raise rents. I was also one of only three commissioners who voted to approve the housing study by the UNC school of government and the study of housing at Brookshire.
4. Do you support or oppose a return to a revenue neutral County budget to lower County property tax rates. If yes, why did you vote for a continuation of the higher rates in the last two budget cycles instead of lowering the property tax rate? If no, please explain.
If it was financially feasible to maintain our current funding levels and lower the rate, then I would absolutely do it in a heartbeat. I just don’t see how that can happen at this point and time with the budget needs facing this county. We have school needs that were punted under Republican control of the Commission for 6 years that we are still playing catch up with. We also have had to increase our pay to stay competitive and provide our employees with the quality of life they deserve without having to maintain two and three jobs. We also have county needs that need to be addressed such as the new Emergency Management and 911 building as well as the Eastern Watauga Ambulance base. Ambulance service is critical in all areas, and we continue to work through our plan to shore up all areas of the county.
I did vote yes for the reasons above and was proud that it was a unanimous vote the last two years showing bipartisan support for the work we are doing in this county.
5. What are your specific ideas for providing more affordable workforce housing in Watauga County? Please explain.
I currently sit on the Housing Task force and have been involved in many iterations over the years. It is going to take a collaborative effort on many fronts to address the needs. We have already started that collaboration by working with the Town to have water and sewer to the potential facility at Brookshire. We have also partnered with the High-Country Council of Governments and the UNC school of government to do site studies to know the potential impact and cost we can have. We have also had discussions with the school board on how we can partner to help them secure the grant from the State Employees Credit Union that helps with funding costs for housing for schoolteachers. It only must be 50% teachers. If we have available slots, we will allocate them to County and Towns needs for their employees. We know that Boone for instance has struggled with hiring Fire Fighters and Police Officers due to housing. We have an endless supply of workforce that we can house if we work together.
The task force has been busy looking for ways that they can leverage funding from both a private and public and grants. They have also toured facilities and leveraged information from other counties and municipalities of how they have made these partnerships work. They have also been working to find developers and other partners who work to make projects like this happen. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel we just have to leverage the resources out there to come to a solution. They recently toured a manufacturing facility for housing as well. To see the partnership, they might be able to leverage on that front as well.
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 would support a referendum. It doesn’t mean that it will happen. I hear all the time that we don’t let citizens have a say in how we spend money. Bonds are perfect ways to let citizens voice their opinion in whether there is interest in using it for housing. I feel that the public sees the need and would support the measure. Now before I would put that bond on the ballot, I would want to make sure that it is a sound initiative with the financial support need to make it a success and give us the most bang for our buck. I don’t want to put something out there that will not help us in the end or doesn’t make financial sense.
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.
I have advocated and lobbied for one. In fact, when we set our legislative priorities for this session of the legislature that we submitted to the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners I pushed for it to be included. People think it is a pie in the sky ask but we need to ask. We have families hurting in the area and if I can find them relief, I want to do that. We have many out of state and non-Watauga residents who are profiting off their property but not having to pay for the added strain on our infrastructure. I have publicly stated in meetings that if we were given that right I would reduce the taxes on the low income, elderly and disabled, and/or long-term local families living in Watauga County and raise the rate on those who have second homes 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?
I think it is a travesty. And to be accurate it was 22,696 voters before the latest registration increase. That number has probably crept to closer to 25,000. This could have been avoided as I have stated publicly by consulting with local officials before making the decision. This is yet another example of the Raleigh legislature overreaching and meddling in our local government. If they truly wanted to do this and get all the commissioners elected on a 4-year term, they could have left the districts as they are and then made the two positions that are truly up for reelection in 2026 be the one’s that would be exempt for this election. But no they had play party politics and redraw the maps by a secret process behind closed doors that yielded maps that are heavily gerrymandered and taking away the rights of the citizens of this county to voice how they were drawn. If that wasn’t enough, they then took the two commissioners whose terms expire and place them up for reelection while the one commissioner district that would have been up is now not up for reelection. Kind of funny that the current office holder of that soon to be appointed district is a Democrat who currently resides in that new District. They also have taken the map drawing and completely ignored townships and precinct lines carving up the county and making it much more expensive to hold an election. In Brushy Fork alone we have to have 3 separate ballots since they split it three ways. For early voting each location has to have at least 10 different ballots to account for all the variations that could happen if someone walks in. This also puts undue stress on our local county board of elections and the folks working the polls because they can’t risk messing up one ballot. If they do, they could put the whole election results in jeopardy.
It is why I was completely in support in two measures that we did. We voted to authorize the County Attorney to file a declaratory judgement to determine the intent of this awfully written bill. We did so not only for the citizens, but our local board of elections needed clarification they weren’t getting from the state board of elections nor the legislature. I also supported putting the Structure Change referendum on the ballot. In fact, I was the one who motioned for it. We used an independent map maker who does this for a living. The name is public knowledge. We tasked them with drawing three new district lines protecting townships and not splitting precincts. We further charged that they must keep the population requirements of the statue plus we asked for no data on political affiliation so that our decision would sole be based on merit. We asked for a minimum of three maps to choose from. We took the map that made the most sense. We also set them to begin in 2026. We would now if passed would elect three commissioners from their own Districts and two at large districts voted on by the whole county. In my statement I said that many people had come to speak for and against in the public comment portion and we could all bring more people on both sides but the only true way to decide what the people want is by the Structure Change referendum. Again, we should let the people decide not Raleigh.
As a side note I was the only Commissioner that when we received our declaratory judgement voted against accepting it. It might have been a fruitless endeavor to some to appeal, but I felt like we owed it to the disenfranchised 22,696 citizens of this county.
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?
We need more facilities, and we need more teachers. I still can’t believe that my opponent in the debate said that he hadn’t even read the study. How if you are going to be an effective leader do you not read the report that was funded by taxpayer dollars by the county commissioners to figure out the true needs. The study found that we are short 579 birth to 5 years slots and 1,672 after school slots If filled we would could potentially add 300 more workers to the workforce as they would be able to get a job. The Average pay is $14,71 an hour while the cost of childcare is $900 a month which is between 11-21% of a family budget. These facts are alarming, but we know the challenges and we can work to overcome them.
The study produced a four-pillar approach to tackling the problem.
The first pillar is to recruit and retain. We need to make sure we can get quality teachers but also retain the ones we had. When out canvassing I ran into a childcare worker cleaning a house. She said she loves being a childcare teacher, but it wasn’t sustainable being a single mother raising two children. That is why she was out cleaning houses and she also house sits. She said if salaries don’t improve, she was going to be forced to find another profession. This is where I feel the seed money, we gave the Chamber is going to come in handy. We can see how we can at least get folks to $15 an hour. It’s not much but we can’t go from zero to a hundred overnight. We also need to look at what training needs and certain levels of certification that if you obtain you will be rewarded with and increase. Much like they did for schoolteachers who obtain a masters or become Nationally Board certified. An idea they had that we utilized at App was to be in buying consortium. We were able to enter in an agreement to be a part of the US Foods premier program. It is set up for those of us who are self-operated to have leveraging power when buying. Use this tactic can free up more money for salaries.
The second pillar is straightforward. Affordable and Accessible. You leverage all opportunities to increase funding and not discount using multiple such as public private partnerships and using the Chamber fund. The Chamber has already stepped up and is offering $125,000 out of the fund which will go to help families make their tuition especially in the light of the Hurricane and the devastation is has had on families. Last thing they need is to worry how they are going to keep Children in Childcare.
The third pillar is Promote Availability, Sustainability and Stability. We have a great example of this out on George Wilson Road and Lynhill Daycare. The new owner has done a great job expanding availability and paying teachers a living wage. We need to harness the model they are building to teach others to do the same.
The fourth pillar is Advocate, Encourage and Expand. We need to be advocating the legislature more. They have made empty promises that they are going to do more and even promised to restore funding to childcare when the COVID money expired. Instead they chose not to hammer out a budget amendment and not fund childcare setting back providers even more. We also need to leverage businesses taking advantage of the Family Forward NC.
I advocated in the last budget to allocate more resources than originally agreed upon in the budget. When we made our last changes before passing, I put on the floor the need to increase the funding for the Children’s Council to 25,000 and to allocate 50,000 for the Boone Chamber and their Child Care fund that we helped create. Originally, we had set aside $75,000 for people to make their best pitch for what they would use the money for. I didn’t think that was a good approach. We have never given the Chamber the chance to see what they could do with the extra resources.
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.
I believe we have a great start with our HILO. It really restricts areas that can have businesses that are harmful to the environment. We cannot completely ban them, but you can severely limit where they are located. If this had been in place, we wouldn’t have had the monstrosity out on 421 and the asphalt quarry. We also wouldn’t have had the battle out on Rainbow Trail
A step we fell short on with the Rainbow Trail potential permit was not being more extensive with the criteria that had to be met. We thought that we could deny and only use a no brainer reason that turned out to make things more complicated. If we had just made a more exhaustive list, we could have saved a lot of angst for many homeowners in that area.
I have been proud of what we have been able to accomplish by leveraging TDA money and using it to protect our streams. We have been able to put into conservation easements river access areas that will protect our waterways plus allow for the enjoyment of our many rivers in the High Country. We have also been able to take the money and help the Blue Ridge Conservancy purchase land that is going to stream restoration and green way expansion. The middle fork greenway project will connect the existing green way in Boone and end in Blowing Rock. We have also provided resources to purchase land around other rivers as well to put them in conservation easements to protect them.
We have also engaged other local nonprofits who are working to secure grant funding to assist with stream restoration projects. One such project that has been completed is around Brookshire Park and the New River. We have worked to restore it to the original path while also planting vegetation that will stabilize the bank so that it will hold when flooding occurs. The project as funding comes available will hopefully one day reach all the way to Todd. We have also invested in restoring the area around the Jewish Synagogue and the Ag Extension building by restoring the creek and removing barriers and daylighting to improve the drainage and the area.
As we look to transition out of the old Valle Crucis school, we looked at how we can use the old property to better alleviate flooding in the area by restoring as much of the natural buffer as possible. We also took measures on the new school to protect a trout stream as well as have as much barrier and ecosystem to alleviate flooding as well. We want what we do in that area to benefit everyone and preserve the natural beauty that is there and enhance it and make it better than what we started. The Park has been yet again another vital tool for not only Valle Crucis but all schools in Watauga County to come and learn and appreciate what we have.
We have even partnered with the Town to help with restoration projects on the greenway especially around the High School and down near the Hunger Coalition building. The High School area is so vital to the learning of the students of this county. My daughter has directly benefited from this experience. They can take walks from the school and study many different ecosystems, fish and plant species all in a class period. Hands on learning is the most effective way to get students engaged and caring about the environment they live in.
I am open to other areas that we haven’t even thought of. I recognize the importance of protecting our streams and rivers and the attraction they are for many. Whether you are an avid kayaker, fisherperson or just some one who wants to lazily float down the river you should feel safe in our waters for not only now but future generations.