Friday, March 7, 2008

Candidate Questionnaire: Cecil Bothwell

Cecil Bothwell is seeking our endorsement for the Buncombe county commission. His response to our questionnaire is below, with our questions in bold.

For more on Cecil's campaign, visit his website.

1. In what areas do you think Buncombe could be leading the rest of the country?

I believe that we should become leaders in planning and implementation of sustainable resource-use practices and a sustainable economy. I use “sustainable” in it's ecological sense, the no-net-growth model embodied in a forest. Kerala, India, for example, is on track to becoming a zero-waste state where everything is recycled. There's no reason we can't aim for that in Buncombe.

2. What is your number one priority with regard to development and land use?

We need to aim for hub-and-spoke development, in which homes and businesses are situated in walkable clusters along transit and utility corridors. I would advocate true-cost accounting for utilities and infrastructure and openly debate the question of whether new septic tanks should be prohibited, or at least prohibited in multi-family developments in order to cluster development along sewer lines.

3. Growth projections for Buncombe are continually revised upward. Have previous approaches to development become obsolete? Would you support a temporary moratorium on development while the county works with municipal governments to prepare for these new projections?

Yes. And yes.

4. How can the county practice environmental stewardship and promote broad-based economic growth at the same time?

This may seem contrarian, but I take exception to the economic theory implicit in this question. Economic growth as usually defined is a fraud because it requires externalization of environmental and resource costs. A more meaningful way to frame the question is, “Can we promote broad-based social benefits without practicing environmental stewardship?” The answer to that question is “no.” Viewed globally, water shortages are already constricting grain supplies and we are near if not past the peak on oil production. To ignore those twin crises and their near- and long-term implications in our community is to imperil our citizenry. Food security, for example, is a very real looming threat.

5. Many of our members want their local governments to lead the way in promoting energy independence and combating global warming. In what ways should the county work towards these goals?

We should build a peaking power plant in Woodfin. (joking folks)

I believe we should follow Asheville's lead in energy efficiency planning, and upgrade the building code to require lower-impact construction. One problem faced at the household level is that photovoltaic and active solar heating systems have relatively high upfront costs. Other municipalities have used their borrowing power to offer low-interest, long-term loans to homeowners and commercial property owners which are billed with property taxes. That way, the cost is apportioned to current and future owners, each of whom gain immediate reduction in energy costs and pollution. We should back up CEAC's recent suggestion to Progress Energy that it encourage people to switch to gas-fired hot water whenever a water heater needs to be replaced. Better still, switch to solar.

6. Do you see a role for the county in promoting energy efficiency in transportation and residential and business use?

Absolutely. I would support changes to the property tax code that gradually impose differential vehicle valuations based on efficiency. My answer to the previous question is just one way the county could promote energy efficiency, and I think my answers to most of the questions so far relate to this question as well.

7. The county government plays a central role in providing social services. Where has it been most successful? Where does it most need improvement?

The county has done a pretty good job overall in the areas of education and public health. However, the drop-out rate, particularly among black male students, remains far too high both here and across the country. There is some suggestion that there is even collusion involved, permitting drop-outs to stay out in order to raise the system's subsequent test score averages. I'd investigate that and I would seek improvements, but anyone who claims to have a sure cure is hallucinating.

I think the county dealt remarkably well with the mental health care crisis dumped on us by misguided legislators in Raleigh, but the crisis isn't over and the county has a major role in improving availability and continuity of mental health services. Treatment is cheaper than jail cells.

One hears many stories about problems in the Division of Social Services, some of which are undoubtedly true. As a commissioner I would do what I could to pierce the veil at DSS. The difficulty there is intrinsic to that department's function, dealing with highly personal and often highly charged interpersonal issues.

8. Do you think that the current commission has carried out its work in a manner that is sufficiently transparent? If not, how would you change things?

Based on my years covering the commission as a reporter, I believe that most decisions are made in secret, based on conversations and consultations that violate either the spirit or the letter of the state's open government laws. I would not be party to back-room discussions and I would publicly expose any such discussions of which I had knowledge. I would keep constituents informed of pending development matters and vote to televise the public comment section of commish meetings.

9. Has the current commission made decisions that you strongly disagree with? If so, what will you do to remedy those decisions if you are elected?

The incumbent commissioners are either incompetent or corrupt.

The Woodfin lease to Progress Energy is, perhaps, the most glaring example I can offer. All five voted to affirm a contract discussed in secret and written by Progress which granted an 80-year lease to a wide swath of pristine river frontage for one dollar per year, with no restrictions on use. They lied to us about it: said it was “former landfill” when, in fact, it was land approved for a landfill but never used (which the state government told me could easily be legally removed from the landfill designation for development purposes); and commissioners said the lease was only valid for construction of a power plant, when it explicitly permitted “any use.”

Selling of the downtown park property to developer Stewart Coleman is another example of either incompetence or corruption. On that latter case, I would vote to take back the land via declaration of eminent domain and buy him out. The deal is rife with insider dealing and idiocy. It's my impression that Coleman has no intention to build on that property but is using it as a pawn to force the city to trade more valuable property for that parcel. Coleman said as much at a Pack Square Conservancy meeting I attended, and that he'd cooked up the deal with former City Planning Director Scott Shuford in a private meeting in 2005. We shouldn't permit insider dealing to be rewarded, but the cost of condemnation and buy-back will be worth it to preserve the park.

10. Do you have a plan for how you will win this election? If so, could you briefly describe the elements of your plan?

Between now and May 6 I'll be putting in an appearance at every community group meeting or public event where talking to voters seems promising. Because I have a strong base in the progressive community in Asheville, much of that effort will involve reaching out to people beyond the city limits.

I intend to raise at least $20,000 for the primary race in order to do cable TV ads ($12,000), direct mail ($4,000) and 1,000 yard signs ($3,500). (These numbers are quick estimates based on previous experience.) Given the size of the county and the likely high turn-out due to interest in the presidential contest, I believe TV may be the only way to reach a wide swath of people.

My web site is already up and generating donations, though I know from past experience as a Web marketer that generating fresh hits is a tough sell. My e-list runs to about 5,000 people now, and if I could garner average donations of just $5 per person, I would exceed my immediate goal.

If I raise much money, I will divert a significant portion of it to a meaningful gesture such as Brownie Newman's distribution of compact fluorescent bulbs during the recent city council race—to campaign by making a difference instead of printing vast amounts of literature full of empty promises. One possibility for the general election is to run a series of free greening classes in conjunction with other environmentalists, to make a political pitch but also offer practical advice for individual action.

11. Would you call yourself a political progressive? Why or why not?

Utterly. One of my cats is named Chomsky, for Noam. Another is named Clare, for Hanrahan. Havoc is just Havoc.

  • I'm a member of the ACLU, the Unitarian Universalist Church, the American Humanist Society and DFA.
  • I ran Cynthia Brown's pro-union/anti-war/environmentalist bid for the U.S. Senate in WNC in 2002.
  • I co-founded Sparechange? a group which successfully challenged Asheville's unconstitutional panhandling law in 2002 and went on to organize Support Our Soldiers: Bring Them Home! and other peace demonstrations starting in 2003.
  • I attended the School of the America's protest in 2003.
  • I created and became chief organizer of the Asheville Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour event in 2003.
  • I was co-coordinator of Dean For America in Asheville in 2004.
  • I co-founded the Asheville Coalition in 2005 which evolved into the Robin Cape and Brian Freeborn campaigns.
  • I attended the anti-war rally in DC in September 2006.
  • I created a jail ministry at the Buncombe County Detention Center and have been an active participant since 2006.
  • I attended Building Bridges in 2003 and 2006 and helped facilitate another session in 2007.
  • I have been a volunteer client escort at Femcare, for three years in the 90s, and am currently, since 2006. (We help fend-off the shouting, aggressive protesters.)
  • I created the Asheville-Buncombe Policy Institute in 2007, a progressive think-tank which began its work with a white paper on transparency in local government.
  • I am on the Board of Directors of two nonprofits doing educational projects in Bolivia and Guatemala.
  • I am a tutor at the Reid Center under the auspices of Partners Unlimited.
  • I am chair of the Human Rights Team at the Unitarian Univeralist Church of Asheville, attend meetings of WNC Amnesty International and organized the annual UUCA Human Rights Fair in 2007 and 2008.

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