WATAUGA COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, Dist. #3
The NC State Legislature gerrymandered Watauga’s Commissioner districts last year. As a result, if you want to know which county commissioner candidates are running in your new district, you should first determine which County Commissioner district you live in by clicking HERE. (Scroll down to “Jurisdictions,” and look for your County Commission District number)
If you live in Watauga Commission District #3, below are your candidate options to represent you on the Watauga County Board of Commissioners.
NOTE: You may vote for one. Candidates are presented below in the order they appear on your ballot.
Reason for my Endorsement: Council is the perfect candidate to represent his rural commissioner district, is a working stiff, and smart as a tack. I believe he would be an extremely effective, non-partisan commissioner and am very excited about his race.
You can watch the Watauga County Commissioner candidates at the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce 2024 Candidate forum in the video below at roughly the 2:51:00 mark:
Braxton Eggers (Republican)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083363237296
Eggers has not posted to his FB page since he won his Commission seat in 2022, and the website he had in 2022 has disappeared.
In an open session of the County Commission in late 2023, Eggers (along with fellow Republican Commissioner Todd Castle) denied that he had any forewarning that Sen. Ralph Hise planned to change the make up and electoral process for choosing the Watauga County Commission.
On the surface, Eggers is completely and carefully free of the visible Trumpism that has taken over his party. So he’s something of a moderate. Or is playing one. Eggers is a Watauga native who has owned and operated Mountaineer Bail Bonds for the last 16 years, which he says have given him an inside look at problems with mental health and substance abuse policies. He is married and has three children.
In 2022, Eggers ran on a platform of bringing down Watauga’s property tax rate to help working families:
“I hope the County sends out property tax bills very soon. So that those on fixed incomes, families with children, and people working extra shifts just to make ends meet can have time to plan for this bill. I have also had these same questions and I hope I’m wrong. Times are hard for people let’s not put more burden and worry on them. Vote November 8th!!!”
Eggers has now gone through two budget cycles, however, without proposing any reduction.
Eggers did not respond to the Pam’s Picks questionnaire and is therefore not eligible for endorsement in this election. You can read his responses to the 2022 Pam’s Picks Questionnaire HERE.
Jon Council (Unaffiliated)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61557090064977
https://www.councilforwatauga.com/
Read Jon Council’s full and unedited answers to the 2024 Pam’s Picks Candidate Questionnaire HERE.
Council, and unaffiliated voter, is the rare bird indeed, qualifying for this ballot “by petition,” after knocking on hundreds of doors in the new District 3 to get signatures on the required petition. Council is a construction worker and house framer by trade who has been endorsed by the worker’s advocacy group Down Home NC.
No Democrat filed to run in District 3 after it was gerrymandered by Republican NC Senator Ralph Hise to heavily favor a Republican. Council believes that there should always be a choice of candidates and believes he can provide an important voice for working people in his district. He was profiled in a Barn Raiser online magazine interview last October and pointed out that “development” in a mountain county is “just another extractive industry”:
“We’re in a place that’s got heavy tourist traffic at different times of the year with ski resorts and other recreation industries. We’ve seen a lot of single-family homes that have been turned into Airbnbs and short-term rentals, which makes it difficult for working-class people to find places that they can afford to live and work. Because we’re a pretty low-income community, we’ve seen how easy it is for outside interests with a lot of money to come in, buy up land, parcel it off and develop it, not for the people who live here, but for second homes or for short-term rentals for people that are living elsewhere.”
Council was also profiled by the Democratic blog WataugaWatch in March:
“Jon Council is characteristic of any number of smart and determined young people (he’s 32), for whom college didn’t click, which makes him not a candidate for a white-collar type job but worthy of respect for the struggle to live reasonably in a society that does not value physical labor and native smarts nearly enough. Jon and and wife Peden have learned ‘make-do’ — living ‘on the cheap’ — but knowing the benefits and pleasures of a vibrant community of similarly struggling working people who help one another and understand barter/borrow.“
In his answers to this year’s Pam’s Picks questionnaire, Council, an unaffiliated candidate, says he is running because he believes “partisanship has no place in local policy” and notes that the majority of working people who live in the rural community he will represent if elected likewise is not associated with a political party. He says he is “intimately familiar with the realities and issues facing our county and the people that live and work in it.”
Council notes that he volunteers regularly in organizing river cleanups and working “in conjunction with multiple non-profits and community action organizations in the area and (has) 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.”
If elected, Council says the first proposal he will bring to the table for Board consideration is to reallocate funds from our current model of tourism development, claiming the current model favors the County’s short-term rental industry:
“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.”
Council would prefer a County focus on providing sufficient funding to infrastructure and funds to restore riparian zones to decrease the risks of further destructive floods in our county:
“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…and a drastic increase in funding for potential flood mitigation and other essential infrastructure…. 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.”
Council supports a bond referendum to raise the necessary funds to build the proposed Brookshire workforce housing development saying he believes the public should have a voice in how the County develops real estate. He also supports a Homestead exemption for reduced property taxes for low income, elderly and disabled, and/or long-term local families living in Watauga County and a revenue neutral budget to bring down property tax rates for local homeowners who he believes are already struggling financially.
Regarding the State Legislature’s redistricting of Watauga’s commissioner districts, which left over 20,000 Watauga voters without the chance to vote for candidates they want to represent them in local government for two years, Council says, “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.”