1. Public Employee Living Wage Commitment: As a county chapter of the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, we require all candidates seeking our endorsement to pledge to advocate for and ensure that public employee salaries meet or exceed a living wage. Please read and sign the pledge here before continuing your endorsement application: https://www.pcncdp.org/pledge. Once you have signed the pledge, please indicate doing so below:

 a. [I have signed the Public Employee Living Wage Pledge!]
 b. [I have chosen not to sign the Public Employee Living Wage Pledge at this time.]

Do you support placing limits on the size of campaign donations for candidates running for positions on the Wake County Commission? If so, what should be the maximum amount for all categories of donations? Additionally, have you accepted contributions from the real estate industry or its executives? If yes, from which entities, and why did you accept those contributions? Please explain your position and reasoning.

Yes, I support placing limits on the size of campaign donations. I am saddened by the pressure to raise so much money in politics, and I believe that the Citizens United decision was harmful to our democracy. I think the current maximum of $6,800 is high; $5,000 seems a more reasonable limit. As of now, I have about 280 donors, and the average contribution is less than $300, with about a dozen at $2500 or more. Most of my donations are from friends, fellow Democrats, and acquaintances I have made throughout my life. I have one PAC contribution for $250. I have a few friends who have donated who are also in real estate, but these donors are folks I know personally and consider friends.​

How will you ensure that the County fully funds public schools, universal preschool, provide a living wage for support staff and supplement the salaries for teachers to provide a living wage for Wake County? What strategies would you use to address funding gaps and prioritize equity in education?

I am a fierce advocate for public education. I have supported better funding for our public schools for more than 25 years–there is no other candidate in this race with my depth of experience, mostly gained from my 11 years as a school board member and years as a PTA leader in my children’s public schools. I am running for County Commission precisely because these are critical times for public schools. We need Commissioners who are committed to improving the Wake County Public School System, which can only be done with supported, well-paid staff and educators. While I served as a member and Chair of the WCPSS School Board, I fought to increase the educator supplements for WCPSS employees–and I was successful. In fact, while I was Chair of the School Board, the School System received its most significant increase in funding from the Commissioners since the 1990s. I have fought for living wages, salary supplements, and sound working conditions for our educators and school staff. I have supported universal PreK. When running for the School Board, I consistently received the endorsement and support of Wake NCAE. I will continue to pursue varied strategies, including seeking higher funding for WCPSS, expanding PreK throughout the county, and supporting opportunities for marginalized students. I am the only candidate on this ballot who has elected experience doing this work. I also fully support Wake County’s Inclusive Prosperity goals in their strategic plan. I recognize the need for geographic equity in school facilities. I have fought against book bans, which targeted books that tell the experiences of black, brown, and LGBTQ people. I will continue to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in education so that all students feel a sense of belonging in their school communities.

How will you allocate county funds to provide full coverage for community college education for high school graduates, and how will you prioritize workforce development programs, including clean energy and other high-demand sectors, to ensure equitable access and good-paying jobs?

While serving on the School Board, I voted to expand Early College opportunities for high school students, increased co-curricular enrollments at Wake Tech, and fostered greater collaboration with Wake Tech at all levels. I will continue to support and fund those opportunities. I was on the Board when we expanded technical education, including the opening of Vernon Malone College and Career Academy, where we worked collaboratively with Wake Tech to build a public high school around the trades needed to jumpstart good-paying careers for our students, so they can enter high-paying jobs that are sustainable in the future economy. I have the experience, knowledge, and dedication to continue this work and support Wake Tech and career development as a County Commissioner.

How will you utilize county funds to establish, expand, and fully fund Mobile Crisis services routed through Public Safety Telecommunicators and Call-Takers. to respond to mental health and substance use issues, and what steps will you take to ensure these services are accessible countywide?

I support integrating Mobile Crisis services into public safety communications to respond to mental health and substance use crises. The consolidation of Emergency Medical Services has been a great strategy to create county–consolidated, countywide EMS services, resulting in greater equity for residents. I will seek to build on this model, adding mental health supports. As a member of the Live Well Wake coalition, I collaborated with leaders from Alliance Health Care, NAMI, and other County partners. More work is needed to consolidate services at the County level and to leverage existing nonprofit organizations that are successfully doing this work. I have worked with leaders at the Poe Center for Health Education (where I am past chair of the Board) and UCA WAVES, a youth mental health collaborative, which I see as strong models for reaching youth in our community. I have served for four years on the Wake County Health and Human Services Board, which gives me a strong knowledge base to help address these issues with my fellow Commissioners. I will support adding social workers and nurses, funded through the County, to the School System to serve our students. Mental health supports are critical to the health of our community, and more services are needed, particularly for our youth.

Do you support placing a bond referendum on the next Wake County ballot to fund solar panel installation on public buildings? How will you also use county funds to address affordable housing preservation, promote mixed-income developments, and advance climate resilience in vulnerable communities? Why or why not?

When I was on the School Board, my family and friends pushed me to advocate for solar panel installations in our public schools so that schoolchildren could see solar panels as everyday structures. I will continue to support clean energy and green buildings for county-funded facilities. I will approach all decisions with a lens that supports climate sustainability.

Housing remains a top concern in every survey conducted by Wake County staff. I commit to working on various strategies to address the housing and development concerns of Wake County residents. Housing stability is public safety, and a comprehensive approach is needed. Strategies must include preservation of existing housing (fast, affordable solutions), as well as a long-term strategy to add more mixed-income and affordable developments. Density should be incentivized for urban areas with infrastructure, while policies should also disincentivize sprawl. County staff should work more collaboratively with municipal leaders to address the housing infrastructure needed for our diverse population on a countywide basis. Consolidating our efforts for housing could make it more sustainable and less expensive. Housing stability leads to education and workforce stability, key strategies for thriving communities.

How will you support the establishment of a local Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and what specific topics or systemic issues should it examine to promote racial equity and community healing?

I believe systemic racism and bias are undermining our democracy and our community. I have long seen integrated schools as an effective means to achieving racial equity. I will continue to fight current re-segregation efforts from state leaders, who are funding school privatization and the private school voucher program, which takes $500 million annually from the state–money that should be going to public schools, not private schools that have no taxpayer accountability. I would like to learn more about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission proposed in this question.

How will you allocate resources to fully fund County Health and Human Services programs, with attention to preventive care, substance use treatment, and reducing health disparities among marginalized populations?

As mentioned above, I have served as an appointed member of the Wake County Health and Human Services Board for the past four years, and I previously worked as a health care policy analyst with a foundation associated with the N.C. Office of Rural Health. I have extensive knowledge and work experience as an advocate for public health and social services. In addition to public education, public health and human services are my top priorities. As an attendee of Live Well Wake meetings, I recognize the health disparities in Wake County. I will continue to advocate for expanded services, with a special focus on vulnerable populations. Public health saves lives and benefits everyone; its programs remain critically needed investments for our county. For social services, one specific concern and priority will be addressing the foster care system and improving children’s services, from vaccinations to housing and food security to basic health care and protections. I have a specific interest in expanding maternal and child health programs offered by the County, particularly to ensure access to reproductive and maternal health care services, from contraception to well-child care and post-partum visits. In particular, I want to explore embedding more county nurses and social workers in our public school buildings, since the State is failing to fund enough of these positions. I also recognize the need for varied strategies to address substance use treatment in our county. I have supported expanding access to Naloxone and other harm prevention resources for residents. The expansion of services at the County’s regional centers will remain a key strategy for expanding equity in services for our 1.2 million residents across our 835-square-mile county.

How will you ensure that Wake County’s budget and policy decisions are transparent and that residents have meaningful opportunities to participate in governance, particularly communities historically excluded from decision-making?

I remain committed to open government, and while I was chair of the School Board, I encouraged public participation and input from across the district and from diverse populations. Our Board held interactive hearings on student assignment, the budget, academic policies, and other important issues. I will continue to support such strategies. In this campaign, I have engaged with residents throughout the County and from diverse populations. My experience engaging with a wide variety of people and stakeholders, along with my diverse county-wide experience, will help me be an effective Commissioner from the start of my term. When I served on the School Board, I held “office hours” in various parts of my district to meet with and hear from residents. I intend to have an open-door policy to hear from residents, and I will also intentionally seek out residents from marginalized populations to seek out their points of view. Budgets reflect our community’s values, and budgeting should be conducted through transparent, open processes that are accountable to taxpayers.

How will you ensure that professional and family caregivers are paid a living wage, programs supporting elders and persons with disabilities are fully funded and accessible, and that low-income seniors are protected from excessive utility costs (for example, through automatic circuit setters or other measures)? Please explain your approach and reasoning.

As the caregiver to my 62-year-old spouse, who is disabled, this question is personal as well as of intense interest to me as a candidate for the County Commission. I recognize the important role County government can play in helping vulnerable seniors and people with disabilities who need community support. I will support programs that provide resources to caregivers and those with disabilities, seeking strategies that are financially sustainable and fair. About 66 people a day are moving into Wake County, and demographically, these newcomers are increasingly older adults. (In the past, newcomers were more likely to be families with young children.) As our county’s population ages and with increased numbers of older adults moving here, there will be a need for a fair, means tested approach to these issues. Wake County has limited programs to help low-income people with utility costs, such as the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program, and I would like to learn more about innovative approaches (such as circuit setters) to expand support for vulnerable people. Some additional points of interest include making high-speed broadband internet more accessible in our public schools and public spaces, as well as programs to help people age in place and live independently.