Candidates for commissioner, Clerk of Court take questions at town hall

ROCKINGHAM — The Ashley Chapel Community Center hosted the first of its two debates between candidates for local office, this one dealing only with candidates for Richmond County Board of Commissioners and Clerk of Superior Court.

The moderators, Nic Nicholson and Sheila Brosier, as well as audience members, asked the candidates questions on a wide range of topics. Due to the length of the event and the number of speakers, we have highlighted below each candidate’s response to one of the more substantive questions.

Future articles will provide further details on what was said over the course of the evening.

For this question, the candidates’ full answer is summarized and we have included one or two of their exact quotes that contain their most salient points. Their responses are presented in the answers they were given Thursday night in order to maintain the continuity, as some candidates based their responses on those of others.

The candidates present were as follows:

• Tavares Bostic (D) – running for reelection to Board of Commissioners

• Ashley Brower (unaffiliated) – running for Clerk of Superior Court

• Don Bryant (D) – running for reelection to Board of Commissioners

• Abbie Covington (D) – running for Board of Commissioners

• Kevin Clark (D) – running for Board of Commissioners

• Vickie Daniel (D) – running for reelection as Clerk of Superior Court

• Jason Gainey (R) – running for Board of Commissioners

• Michael Legrand (D) – running for Board of Commissioners

• Robin Roberts (R) – running for Board of Commissioners

• Linda Ross (D) – running for Board of Commissioners

• Bryan Stanback (unaffiliated) – running for Board of Commissioners

Several submitted letters expressing regret for why they could not be there. Commissioner candidate Karen Everett (R) said she had a prior engagement, incumbent Commissioner Rick Watkins (R) was sick and incumbent Vice Chair of the Board of Commissioners Justin Dawkins (R) had a pre-existing scheduling conflict with work, according to their letters.

Next week, the Ashley Chapel Community Center will host the candidates for the Board of Education and Sheriff’s Office. It will be held on Thursday, April 21 at 6 p.m.

Question (Nicholson): Over the last two years, COVID-19 has ravaged our country and our community. In Richmond County, 190 people have died since the pandemic began, and now we are coming to live with it. COVID’s not gone — there’s another variant every time you turn around. As a county commissioner, what mitigation procedures would you put in place to help protect our community from COVID in the future?

• Tavares Bostic (D) – incumbent

Bostic expressed grief for the loss of family and friends that many in the county experienced, likely those in the room as well, in his answer. He noted that much of what commissioners can do and the resources at their disposal are determined by the state, but maintained the county leadership did as much as they were allowed to do to protect residents by relying on the expertise of former Health Director Tommy Jarrell and current Health Director Cheryl Speight for guidance.

“The one thing that I consistently said from 2020 to now, is our ability to get rid of COVID-19 is a community effort,” Bostic said. “The idea of wearing your mask, socially distance, wash your hands — all of those things were on all of us.”

He added that the continuing health of the community requires residents to “do the right thing for one another, and not overly politicize it.”

• Don Bryant (D) – incumbent 

Bryant said that county leadership “did an excellent job” with COVID-19, referring to the relatively high vaccination rate for the county (currently 55.2% of those 12-year-old and up are fully vaccinated), which he credited to Jarrell’s leadership.

“The biggest thing is listen, take care, wear a mask. It’s never going to be over,” Bryant said. “You’re going to be taking a booster shot probably from here on out.”

• Abbie Covington (D)

Covington spoke from her experience serving on the Richmond County Board of Health, saying that she knows how underfunded the county’s Health Department has been at times in the past. In that context, she highlighted the Health Department’s leadership for their “resourcefulness” in finding funding to mobilize staff and resources to respond to the pandemic.

“Our county has now been made critically aware of the absolute necessity of a responsible, well-funded health department and our board of commissioners needs to look at that seriously in the future so that they have the funds that they need to do the jobs that may crop up the day after tomorrow,” Covington said.

• Michael Legrand (D)

Legrand noted that we’ve all known someone who’s been affected by the pandemic, and encouraged the public to continue to stay “vigilant” and remember that no one is 100% immune to COVID-19, even with the vaccine and boosters.

“Yes, we got to live with it, but we also have to make sure that we’re taking the necessary precautions to be healthy and stop the spread,” Legrand said. “We can’t become so comfortable that we don’t take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread.”

• Linda Ross (D)

Ross stressed the need for effective communication from health officials to the communities so that people can be informed on how to be safe ahead of time, noting that the pandemic actually started in late 2019 but information about it didn’t become widely available until months later which caused some people to be left uninformed and make poor choices.

As a pastor, she said she kept her church working during the pandemic taking food to those who were at risk.

“Wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, vaccinated or not vaccinated — that’s up to you. The main thing is to be safe and make sure that everybody else is safe, and not to run in fear. Because when that fear hits, somebody is going to be left out,” Ross said. “We’ve all got to make sure that we help one another and communicate with one another.”

• Kevin Clark (D)

Clark said that addressing COVID-19 is less about how the general public behaves but how the government serves the public, and asked the audience where the government has failed. He pointed to one failure: the mostly empty and unused Hamlet Hospital building next to Richmond Community College.

“FirstHealth came in and bought the hospital, they came and bought that hospital and closed it down. Why was this allowed to happen?” Clark asked.

He also questioned the state’s decision not to use it to help keep COVID-positive people away from their families where the virus could spread, despite leasing it out to help if other hospitals had patient overflow.

• Bryan Stanback – Unaffiliated

Stanback noted the importance of trust and respect between elected officials and the communities that they serve.

“We’ve got to respect every person’s life as you respect your mother’s life,” Stanback said emphatically. “That’s how you change things when you value the life next to yours.”

He urged commissioner candidates to recognize that a phone conversation or telling someone to go to a meeting won’t spark real change, but a real, face-to-face conversation is how a relationship can be formed.

• Jason Gainey (R)

Gainey, who serves as President of Sandhills Best Care, a mental health clinic in Rockingham, alluded to the dangers of the pandemic that go beyond the virus itself.

“For every 20 cases we saw of COVID, we saw 200 related cases of depression, and fear, and anxiety related to that very thing,” Gainey said.

Gainey cautioned that there is still a need to be careful and safe, especially with the elderly and most vulnerable to COVID-19, but that people need to be outside again. He praised Ross for her church remaining active through the pandemic, and said that the ability to worship and stay connected is vital.

• Robin Roberts (R)

Roberts cited her 35 years of experience in the restaurant business that allowed her to guide her staff at Hudson Brothers Deli through the pandemic. Roberts said she made her employees sign up for every program and resource that was available to them.

“Communication was the key,” Roberts said.

In battling a pandemic, Roberts said that the community coming together to work as one was crucial.

• Vickie Daniel (D)

Daniel said that, as Clerk of Superior Court, she made sure that boxes and boxes of masks, wipes and hand sanitizer were provided for the public who visited the Judicial Center.

“I was proactive, but it was because I was concerned about the safety of the people and making sure that they had what they needed,” Daniel said.

Jurors were provided with all the supplies that they needed, she said, and as a result of communication with Jarrell, Speight and Sheriff Mark Gulledge, they kept a conference room full of supplies for anyone who needed them.

• Ashley Brower – Unaffiliated

Brower referred to her experience as a probation officer where her work didn’t stop due to the pandemic.

She was still required to assist people in their homes and transport them to a mental health facility if needed, but safety precautions such as masks and social distancing were in place.

“It’s not the government’s responsibility, it’s the people’s responsibility,” Brower said, agreeing with similar comments made earlier by Stanback and Bostic. “I’m fairly healthy, fairly young. I have an obligation to the elderly and vulnerable to stay safe and mask up for their purposes if nothing else.”