BY STACIE LETT CAIN
A month after receiving a vote of “no-confidence” by the Mooresville Town Board of Commissioners, Mayor Chris Carney did not attend Monday’s board meeting.
Carney, who has brought unwanted national attention to the town for his questionable after-hours conduct in Town Hall, remained the topic of discussion during the public comment portion of the board meeting. No reason was given for his absence. Mayor Pro Tem Eddie Dingler presided over the meeting.
“The term thoughtful growth has been mentioned several times by this board in meetings the public is allowed to go to,” Mooresville resident Lynn Taylor said. “But to date it has only been attributed to land use. In light of recent events, it would appear that thoughtful growth should also apply to people.”
Citing numerous instances of the embattled mayor’s actions being reported by major news outlets, Taylor pleaded with the board to find a way to move forward. Carney has said he will not resign despite court documents alleging that he was caught on video in Town Hall with a female contractor without his pants on. Three former town employees have also sued the town in federal court alleging that they were targeted for termination for raising concerns about the mayor’s conduct.
“I am highly vexed over this entire mayoral situation,” she said. “It is dragging the Town of Mooresville through the mud nationally and internationally. MSN within the last 24 hours has reported that the mayor has spoken with them and yet again he has refused to step down. Truth be told: This situation is beyond embarrassing. What kind of man does not listen to his board when they are telling him they have no confidence in his service? If the mayor truly held Mooresville residents in high regard, he would resign rather than drag everyone of us through this. We need healing. We need to safeguard our town for the future so this doesn’t happen again.”
Commissioner Dana Tucker had requested that commissioners discuss what further action the board could take against the mayor during Monday’s meeting. But that discussion was removed from Monday’s meeting agenda because Tucker did not attend the April 29 agenda meeting.
Tucker said he will ask that the discussion be placed on the agenda for the May 18 meeting.
Mooresville resident Richard Beck criticized the board for removing the item from Monday’s agenda.
“Each of you is admonished for not understanding your acquiescence to the bully tactics being employed by the mayor,” he said. “You failed to comprehend that impact on the community. Many cannot wait for your terms to expire. It is shameful. The mayor seems to believe he is beyond reproach for his actions. The fact that this item was removed during the pre-agenda meeting while the board member who brought it forward was not in attendance needs to be clarified.”
OTHER BUSINESS
In other business:
♦ The board voted to approve a request for the annexation and rezoning of 48 acres located at 175 Owens Farms Road for the future site of the Electric Utility Operations Center of EnergyUnited to serve residents in the Lake Norman area.
“Our current building in Cornelius was built in the 1980s when we had 4,500 residents we serviced in the area,” said EnergyUnited Vice President of Energy Delivery Steve McCachern. “We now have over 45,000 customers, and it was time to build a new building.”
The new Utility Operations Center will include office space, operations, warehousing, fleet maintenance and outside storage for equipment. About 35 EnergyUnited employees and 15 to 20 contractors will work at the facility.
“I guess I am not against this project,” Commissioner Edward Karriker stated. “My hesitation is that we don’t know what the Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) is going to look like before we vote on this.”
The TIA was waived by the Transportation Engineer because the only triggering factor was the intersection itself, not traffic volume.
“In the community we hear many times ‘we don’t want, we don’t want, we don’t want,’ ” he continued. “But do you say no to something big and stand the chance of getting hundreds of homes in here instead?”
♦ The Board voted to approve the rezoning and annexation requests unanimously to rezone the 48 acres from Iredell County Residential Agricultural (RA) and Town of Mooresville Residential Limited Service (RLS) to Town of Mooresville Conditional Hybrid Light Industrial (C-HLI) with Commissioner West and Mayor Carney not in attendance.
♦ The Board also set the Williamson Road Townhomes annexation request and Brentwood Phase 5 rezoning request for their June 1 meeting.