For the Pender County Board of Commissioners District 2 race, Randy Burton will face challenger Dan Kinney. Burton was appointed after to the seat after Wendy Fletcher-Hardee resigned.
In-person early voting begins on Thursday, Oct. 17 and ends at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2. Absentee ballots must be requested by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 29, and those ballots must be returned to the voter’s local board of elections office by 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.
Randy Burton
- Age: 57
- Occupation: Criminal Investigator/Law Enforcement Officer
- Family: Sheila Burton, wife; three children; three grandchildren
- Education: Bachelor of Science in fire science administration, Columbia Southern University; Advanced Law Enforcement Certificate, N.C. Criminal Justice Training and Standards
- Political Affiliation: Republican
Dan Kinney
- Age: 74
- Occupation: Retired
- Family: Married, two adult children, two juvenile Huskies
- Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Pittsburgh
- Political Affiliation: Democrat
What are the three biggest infrastructure needs in Pender County?
Burton: 1) Additional roads and highways to handle increased population. 2) Additional School capacity to provide quality education for our children. 3) Additional water and sewer for our citizens.
Kinney: The significant infrastructure needs involve roads and traffic. These are state and federal issues, but they require extensive input from county commissioners and planners. We must ensure more than adequate access to our business park. We must ask why U.S. 17 in Pender County can be a virtual parking lot, while traffic flows freely along its counterpart in Brunswick County? What did Brunswick do right? What did Pender do wrong? Another need is an extensive, unbiased assessment of how unbridled development is affecting our traffic and school population. How can we control growth to minimize the impact on existing infrastructure?
What should Pender County do to promote economic development?
Burton: Continue to reach out, recruit and partner with business both large-scale and small. This will bring much needed quality jobs to our county with added tax base to invest in the much-needed infrastructure referenced in question one.
Kinney: Continue to enhance and promote our 330-acre Pender Commercial Park which has welcomed both national and international businesses. We should endorse and embrace Kamala Harris’s proposal to increase the tax deduction for small business start-ups ten-fold, from $5,000 to $50,000. We can attract more working families to live throughout the county by making the county friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists. The unincorporated areas of our county do not encourage non-motor vehicle traffic. Encouraging alternate means of mobility is healthy for everyone, particularly for families with children wanting to call our county home.
How can the county manage growth?
Burton: By realizing growth is inevitable, we need a proactive, common-sense approach that involves all stakeholders, business, citizens, landowners and county government. Pender county is one of the fastest growing counties in NC and currently revising the Unified Development Ordinance plan along with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan that will serve as our tools for future growth and development.
Kinney: Review both residential and commercial growth intelligently. What impact will a new development have on schools and traffic? Are more or new traffic signals needed. Should a developer incur the cost for new lanes, intersections or signaling within the confines of existing state laws and regulations?
What is the biggest issue residents in Pender County face right now?
Burton: The immediate need our citizens face is twofold, one being road and highway infrastructure relief and the second is getting good quality water to those who have been waiting for several years to get into the system. The Utilities department is working diligently to expedite the water to citizens that have been waiting and as for the roads and highways, we rely on the NCDOT for those improvements and really need to lobby harder to advance the citizen’s interest here in Pender County.
Kinney: There are more than one. One: Development in the east is out of control. We must encourage and incentivize development in the west. The unequal distribution of affordable housing negatively impacts our quality of live. Removing established trees for new construction is causing flooding in previously flood-free areas. As construction grows, increased assessment, tax and insurance rates leave seniors in homes they can no longer afford. Two: Drugs and drug crimes, particularly involving Fentanyl, are plaguing our county. We need a drug treatment court as proposed by DA Rebecca Donaldson and provide access and transportation to drug treatment programs.
Why are you the best candidate for this position?
Burton: I bring a background in both county and municipal government with over 32 years of experience working in EMS, Fire Rescue and Law Enforcement for both Pender and New Hanover Counties. I along with my family are from Pender County and I am familiar with the needs that will set our county on the right path for smart common-sense growth with service to our citizens as a top priority. Being a public servant my entire adult life and NOT a politician is a good thing that our citizens want and deserve.
Kinney: Most local and state officials are part-time with full-time interests other than our own. My interests are Pender County taxpayers, having retired after 40 years of public service at both the county and state level. I have served on the boards of community and youth sports organizations, gaining experience in listening to and learning from the most important stakeholders in a community: families and their children.