Challengers look to make education, road work key issues in bids to unseat District 4 incumbent

By Adam O'Daniel - Adam O'Daniel

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Roddey eyes roads, contracts

Roddey, a lab tech at AbitibiBowater and a former Northwestern High School football standout, is telling voters his ideas for the future include limiting the amount of tax dollars given to out-of-county companies, making developers foot more of the bill for growth and finishing county road projects.

One of Roddey's ideas is to require contractors who win county projects to spend a portion of their budgets in York County. State law requires bids to be awarded to the low bidder, but Roddey wants to investigate how to ask the contractor to spend dollars locally, helping small and minority businesses in the process.

"As many tax dollars as we can keep in York County, the better," Roddey said. "The general contractor may be out of Charlotte, but some of the subs need to be local businesses."

Blake, the incumbent, also said he wants to investigate how to award more contracts to local businesses.

Roddey said he supports policies that require developers to pay for school and public facilities. He said property tax changes have crimped school budgets, and county leaders should help find alternate ways to pay for educational opportunities.

"Developers shouldn't be allowed to come in and do their thing while leaving the county footing the bill," he said. "They should be partly responsible."

Additionally, Roddey said, if elected, he'll push the council to finish "Pennies for Progress" road projects. He thinks the council should have more oversight of the 1-cent sales tax program in light of the recent shortfall. And he'll support the program again in 2010 if the money is still needed.

"People need to be held responsible. If I make a $22 million mistake at work, I get fired," Roddey said, referring to the Pennies shortfall. "We have no room for error with taxpayer money."

Roddey's opponents said they want to learn more about the recent Pennies for Progress shortfall before supporting any future projects.

"I'm a visionary, and I want to get York County lined up for the future," Roddey said. "I'm just as common around town as McDonald's. So my views are in line with the decisions everyday people make. When I get in there, those are the people I'll be taking care of."

County Council members serve two-year terms, beginning in January, and are paid $15,500 annually.