In a city where off-year local elections typically attract less than 20 percent of registered voters to the polls, candidates for city council have been cranking their campaigns into high gear for a final push in the last week before the Nov. 8 elections.

Councilman Donald Sparks and Councilwoman Laura Padgett are up for re-election this year, and a third seat currently held by Kristi Campos will soon be vacant. Campos is opting not to run again in order to focus more attention on her family life.

With an age range of nearly 40 years, the field of nine candidates is a diverse one, with each candidate bringing to the electoral battle their own unique backgrounds and beliefs about what role the city council ought to play in a town saddled with double-digit unemployment.  Besides jobs and the economy, however, many other issues have consistently received attention on the campaign trail, from perennials such as crime and taxes, to more Wilmington-centric problems posed by the new Cape Fear Public Utility Authority and the city’s aging infrastructure.

Neil Anderson, a territory manager for a local furniture company who holds a master’s degree in business administration from Queen’s College in Charlotte, views further, nonspecific budget cuts and lower taxes as the best way to tackle unemployment and improve the local economy.  He has criticized the council’s decision to purchase the Inland Greens Golf Course and proposes the city cover only essential services such as the police and fire departments.

Co-owner of a local real estate business, Napier Fuller holds a master’s degree in city planning from MIT and believes that his educational background and entrepreneurial experience gives him a unique perspective on how to tackle job creation, public safety and traffic issues in Wilmington.  He supports the creation of a public safety commission, as well as moving Wilmington away from reliance on heavy industry. Calling Joshua Fulton’s proposals for massive budget cuts unrealistic, Fuller believes some fat could be trimmed by shrinking the Development Services department in the midst of a relatively stagnant housing market.

Joshua Fulton, a UNCW creative writing graduate student, holds largely libertarian views and has repeatedly criticized the current council for increasing debt and spending as well as lacking transparency in doing so.  He advocates changing zoning practices in Wilmington in order to attract more businesses, including opposition to the 330-ft bar rule as well as reducing the current green space requirements for businesses.

Matt Hinson, newly retired, has set about doing the two things he couldn’t do as a police lieutenant for the Wilmington Police Department: grow a beard and run for public office.  His platform also consists of cutting regulations and lowering taxes, although he warns that doing away with the CFPUA isn’t feasible at this point in time.  Running a zero-dollar campaign for which he has refused to accept donations, he is depending on the powers of social media and word-of-mouth to spread his beliefs that the council needs more common sense in government and that the entire council needs to sit down and examine the budget line-by-line to find and eliminate excess spending.

Margaret Haynes, a former appointee to the county commissioner’s board, believes that this experience has prepared her to most effectively work with commissioners to tackle many of the problems held in common by the two governmental bodies.  While saying she would absolutely be opposed to raising taxes, she also stated that they’ve cut all they can cut.  Haynes holds a master’s degree in business administration from James Madison University. 

Frank Meares, the youngest candidate in the field, is a self-described Christian conservative Republican and has set his sights on infrastructure, strictly embracing free market values and targeting wasteful spending.  He proposes that the city sell off Inland Greens Golf Course and the newly constructed convention center in order to balance the budget.  He also supports dissolving the CFPUA and lowering salaries for city government workers.  Recently, Meares criticized Councilwoman Padgett’s support for the creation of a city arts council.

Ricky Meeks, who has run for council before, as well as for mayor and the New Hanover County school board, is focusing on public transit as the city’s most important issue.  Meeks serves as a member of the Wave Transit planning committee and supports funding for a train running from Wilmington to Raleigh as well as one running from Wilmington to Charleston.  He also lists low taxes as an important part of his platform.

One-term incumbent Ronald Sparks believes that the most important issues facing Wilmington are housing, infrastructure and public safety.  He cites his career-long background as an engineer, including a 15-year stint as the city engineer, as valuable experience that gives him a depth of knowledge on infrastructure and planning absent from the rest of the candidate field.  While his campaign four years ago focused on his opposition to the creation of the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority, he believes dissolution of the authority would be unrealistic.  Regarding budget cuts, Sparks said that essentially everything that could be cut has been cut.

A four-term incumbent, Councilwoman Laura Padgett is campaigning with a focus on supporting parks and recreation, public transportation and affordable housing.  Like Sparks, she believes that the city’s budget has been trimmed as much as is realistically possible and would not rule out tax increases as a possibility to raise revenues for maintaining public services.  She also voiced concern with some of her opponents’ proposals to sell off green spaces and do away with public newsletters and signage, which she called crucial to raising public awareness on city initiatives.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8. Polls will remain open from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.  Additional information about the candidates can be found at the independently run website ncvoterguide.org.