Endorsement: Our choices in a crowded field of Durham County commissioner candidates | Opinion

This latest term for the Durham County Board of Commissioners has been productive and, of late, rather uncontroversial — if you disregard the messy way in which it voted in 2021 to oust former county manager Wendell Davis. But will enough voters consider that when voting in the March primary election to significantly alter the board’s composition?

Not only did the 3-2 vote that resulted in Davis’s firing elicit charges of racism and “lynching” from the board’s two Black members, but it also put the county on the hook to pay Davis, who is also Black, after he filed a lawsuit accusing commissioners of “undermining” his office: commissioners voted 3-1 last year to settle the lawsuit for nearly $800,000.

Discounting that messy separation, the board has done some good things for county residents. Although much remains to be done, it has made progress confronting a stubborn affordable housing problem, and it helped push through the largest school bond in the county’s history.

Durham County residents are blessed with a surfeit of qualified candidates seeking to join or replace incumbents on the board. All have experience in public service and have demonstrated commitment to making the county a better place to live and work.

There are, unfortunately, only five seats on the board, but 11 candidates, nine of whom responded to interview requests.

Those include Mike Lee, a former Durham school board member. Lee, director of customer service for a tax and compliance software company, touts his 27 years in leadership roles in politics and business. He said he is proud of his role in raising pay for classified staff in public schools while he was on the school board.

Renee Vaughan is a certified research administrator at Duke University. Vaughan’s focus on the board would be housing and “economic parity… so people can afford to live where they work.”

The Rev. Fredrick Davis’ priorities as a commissioner would be developing affordable housing and figuring out how to handle growth in the county. Davis, pastor emeritus of First Calvary Baptist Church, formerly served as a school board member and is founder of West End Community Inc., which was started in 1993 to address issues facing West End residents.

Jovonia Lewis, a current school board member, entrepreneur and founding executive director of the nonprofit EPiC — Empowered Parents in Community — cites affordable housing, healthy workplaces and a living wage as being of paramount importance for the board.

Nida Allam, the current chair of the board of commissioners, is seeking her second term. She said she is proudest of her efforts to help the board pass the largest school bond in history, and of her efforts to fund the position of senior coordinator for the Immigrant & Refugee Support Program.

Incumbent Wendy Jacobs, a self-described “full-time public servant,” views “decent and safe housing as a basic human need” and right. “For children to do well in school, they need safe housing.”

Incumbent and past chairperson Brenda Howerton, an executive coach, cited as being among her proudest accomplishments the board’s funding of the Hayti Reborn Justice Movement, which helps train people who’ve never had a job. The county put $2 million into that program, she said, “because the best way to stop a bullet is a job.”

Incumbent Nimasheena Burns, vice chair of the board of commissioners, cited her efforts to expand investments in Black maternal health with new programming, equipment and staff support, and her efforts to increase “funding to culturally competent nonprofits working with mothers of color.”

Burns, External Relations Liaison at the N.C. Department of Public Safety, touted her support for new investment in the Hayti Reborn Justice Movement. That program helps Durham residents become qualified for high-paying jobs that are recruited to the city.

Longtime educator Michelle Burton, former president of the Durham Association of Educators, said the most important issues facing the board of commissioners are affordable housing, living wages and public education. Burton said “We have a well-funded educational system, but we need to focus on mental health, housing, income inequality and transportation… These children are expected to deal with all of that and come and be ready to learn? That’s asking a lot.”

It’s also asking a lot for an editorial board to easily pick one of these qualified challengers to join the four incumbents on the Durham County Board of Commissioners, but we think Mike Lee’s energy and leadership roles in politics, business and community volunteer work will add a needed perspective. We also endorse the four incumbents in the race, Nida Allam, Nimasheena Burns, Brenda Howerton and Wendy Jacobs.

This story was originally published March 4, 2024 at 11:01 AM.