Filing closed July 15
by Kara Lopp
Come November, voters will choose town mayor and commissioners in both Matthews and Mint Hill and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board of Education members. Filing for all positions ran from Friday, July 1 through Friday, July 15. There are new faces in nearly all the races, with the school board seats drawing the most number of candidates – 17 people vying for three seats.
The current elected officials who have filed for re-election
are:
Matthews
• Mayor Jim Taylor
• Commissioner Paul Bailey
• Commissioner Suzanne Gulley
• Commissioner Jeff Miller
• Commissioner Nancy Moore
• Commissioner Kress Query
• Commissioner John Urban
Mint Hill
• Mayor Ted Biggers
• Commissioner Lloyd Austin
• Commissioner Mickey Ellington
• Commissioner Brenda McRae
• Commissioner Tina Ross
The challengers are:
Matthews
Town commissioner:
• Joseph Pata, a 50-year-old vice president and project manager with Bank of America who currently serves as an at-large commissioner on the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Commission. A native of Queens, N.Y., he has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from St. Johns University and an MBA in Management Information Systems from Pace University.
Pata has four children. His family attends St. Matthew Catholic Church where he serves as a Eucharistic Minister.
Mint Hill
Mayor:
• Jean Bonner is a 56-year-old Mint Hill native who owns Angels Rest Day Spa in Mint Hill. Bonner is a graduate of Independence High School and has an associate’s degree in communications from Wingate University.
Commissioner:
• Christopher McAvoy, a 33-year-old patent attorney with Husqvarna, has lived in Mint Hill for six years and lives in the Hidden Hills subdivision. He earned his law degree in 2005 from the Boston University School of Law and has both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from North Carolina State University. He and wife Kristen have two sons Connor, 2, and John, four months. McAvoy is a member of St. Luke Catholic Church and Pine Lake Country Club in Mint Hill.
• Eric Random, 30, moved to Mint Hill about three years ago after growing up in the Charlotte metro area. A system analyst and project manager for Wells Fargo, Random and his wife have three children ages 14, 13 and 7 – all in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. He said he enjoys spending time with family, working around the house and fishing.
• Derrick Snyder, 31, works in fiscal support with Mecklenburg County’s Land Use and Environmental Service Agency and moved to Mint Hill three years ago. A native of Weston, W.V., Snyder was appointed as Weston City Clerk from August 2005 to January 2008. He has a double-major bachelor’s degree in business administration and political science from West Virginia Wesleyan College and is working toward an MBA from Montreat College. Snyder volunteers with Mint Hill Arts and attends Crosspoint Church in
Charlotte.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools
Current school board District 6 member Tim Morgan, who represents Matthews and Mint Hill, is running for an at-large seat. His challengers are:
• Scott Babbidge, a 42-year-old Matthews resident, is National Sales Manager for Mooresville-based Life with Bills – a web-based, financial literacy software designed to teach users how to be financially responsible. He has a bachelor’s degree in public administration from the University of Maine and has served on his homeowner’s association, including previously serving as board president of the Matthews Grove HOA. Babbidge recently launched the nonprofit REACH Across America (REACH stands for Re-emphasizing Economics And Civics in High Schools).
He and wife Linda have one daughter, Sierra, who graduated this year from Providence High School and will attend the University of North Carolina at Wilmington this fall.
In his spare time, Babbidge enjoys cooking, dining out, economics, writing, playing golf and travel.
• Larry Bumgarner, a 56-year-old Mint Hill resident, has a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bumgarner says he retired early, is a conservative and currently helps people find jobs. He’s been married to Christy for 36 years. Bumgarner was one of the original volunteers for the Gang of One, working with gangs. He served previously on the Citizens Transit Committee for The Charlotte Area Transit System and the Mint Hill Education Committee as the town’s liaison to Independence High School.
• Maria Collias of Charlotte is a retired teacher and school counselor who has been in education since the 1960s. During her career she worked at: South Mecklenburg High School, Charlotte Country Day, Providence Day School, Eastway Middle School, Westerly Hills Academy and Kennedy Middle School. She has a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s degree in counseling from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is a member of Saint Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church.
• Elyse Dashew, is a 41-year-old mother of two children in the district. The Charlotte resident has a bachelor of arts degree from Brown University and formerly ran Beowulf Inc., a small publishing company. She has served as a PTA officer and as chair of the School Leadership Team at Smith Language Academy. Dashew is also a co-founder of the grassroots group MeckFUTURE, an organization formed to unite families from more than 40 schools in support of sufficient school funding.
• Tom Davis is a 65-year-old Vietnam veteran who retired as a U.S. Air Force Strategic Planner on Air Staff at the Pentagon. The Mountain Island resident spent more than 20 years in the business world, retiring early as a manager with The Yellow Corporation to return to active duty to assist in the development of the Air Force Strategic and Long Range Plans. Davis has provided pro bono planning work to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the county’s Veterans Services Office. Davis has an associate’s degree in business from Gaston College and a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of The State of New York. In 2004, he served as chair of the North Mecklenburg High School School Leadership Team and has served as co-chair of the county’s Status of Veterans Initiatives and as a member of the school district’s Education Budget Advisory Committee. He and wife Marsha have four children, all Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools graduates. The family attends Cooks Memorial Church.
• Ericka Ellis-Stewart, 37, is a business intelligence specialist with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Belk College of Business. She has a bachelor’s degree in history and organizational communications from Queens College in Charlotte and currently serves on the board of the Mecklenburg County PTA Council. Ellis-Stewart served on the 2010-11 Harding University High School Leadership Team where she served as president and was PTSA Scholarship Committee Chair at the school last school year. She also served on the 2010-11 School Leadership Team for Piedmont Middle School.
Ellis-Stewart and husband Marcus have two children.
• Lisa Hundley (could not be reached by press time)
• Keith Hurley is a 45-year-old banking industry executive who lives near SouthPark. The 20-year Charlotte resident said he grew up surrounded by educators, with both parents and other family members serving as teachers. Hurley has a bachelor’s degree in finance from The State University of New York. He has three children, a rising fifth grader and twin rising second graders at Beverly Woods Elementary.
• Mary McCray recently retired after 34 years of teaching, 24 of them in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The Charlotte resident served as the first full time release president of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Association of Educators. A native of Mt. Gilead, N.C. McCray was educated in the public schools of High Point and Albemarle. She has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from North Carolina A&T. McCray has served on the National Council of Urban Educators, National Council of Teachers of Math, National Council for the Social Studies and the International Reading Association. Locally, she has been selected by her peers to be Teacher of the Year for her school, and was awarded the Civitan’s Citizenship Award for Civics Education.
She has three children: Erinn, Keenan and Lauren.
• De’Shauna McLamb of Charlotte is a mother of three and a former daycare owner, office manager and accountant. She has served as a parent advocate and liaison between teachers and students. McLamb is associate minister at Greenville Memorial AME Zion Church and serves as a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Central Jail chaplain intern, Junior Achievement Teacher and motivational speaker. She has served as an Education Committee member for Congresswoman Sue Myrick and helped organize campaigns for seven candidates in city and county government.
• Ken Nelson, 40 of Charlotte is a business analyst with Keane. He has a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Delaware and serves as the Ninth District Congressional coordinator of the Campaign for Liberty, treasurer for the North carolina Republican Liberty Cacus. Nelson is a member of Uptown Church and he and wife Christy have a 3-year-old daughter, Ashlyn.
• Hans Peter Plotseneder, or “Dr. Plots,” teaches business and German at West Mecklenburg High School and previously taught at Independence High School, where four of his five children graduated. The 66-year-old has a Ph.D. in social and economic sciences and a master’s in education. A resident of Charlotte’s Hickory Grove area, Plotseneder previously served as a vice president at Bank of America, president and CEO of a software company in Atlanta and the worldwide program manager for ergonomics and human factors at IBM. He has two grandchildren.
• Aaron Pomis, 36, of Charlotte, is a former Teach for America teacher and founder of Teach For America – Charlotte, which has helped nearly 200 teachers find success teaching in high-poverty schools in the area. Pomis has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana. He moved to Charlotte from his Teach for America position in Durham to serve as director for the new program. Pomis has previously served as an elected member of a local school council in Chicago affiliated with the Chicago Public Schools. Pomis also was the founding science teacher at KIPP Charlotte in 2007 and this year was named the dean of instruction at KIPP Charlotte.
• Darrin Rankin (could not be reached by press time)
• Lloyd Scher, 61, of Charlotte, is a former Mecklenburg County Commissioner who served from 1992 to 2000. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science and sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an associate’s degree in industrial relations from Miami Dade Junior College. Scher is a writer who has two books in the works and has written for TV shows, and movie scripts which have been recognized by the screenwriting magazines. A member of south Charlotte’s Levine Jewish Community Center, Scher also is a member of the Lions Club and Rotary International.
He is a foster father and has five grandchildren.
• Jeff Wise moved to Charlotte 13 years ago from Columbus, Ohio. He is employed by architecture firm FreemanWhite where he works as director of information services.
In the fall of 2005, Wise was part of the inaugural Cultural Leadership Training program that is run by the Arts & Science Council. After completing the program, he was nominated to the Board of Directors for The Light Factory. He now serves as chairman of the Education Committee for The Light Factory. Wise has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The Ohio State University and has completed coursework for a master’s degree in Arts Administration from Winthrop University and is in the process of completing his thesis.
Wise spent six years marching with the Canton Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps and has helped on the administrative side of the corps, too. He met his wife, a middle school band director in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, through the corps. The couple have a 3-year-old son.
Comments