Jan. 21, 2010 The Forum heard this morning from seven of the eight Democrats on the March 3 County Commissioners primary ballot. With three at-large seats to be elected in November, and no Republicans having filed, three Democrats will effectively be chosen in the primary to serve two-year terms. ... Continue Reading →
Election 2018: Pat Cotham
Page initiated Aug. 28, 2018 Pat Cotham is a candidate for an at-large seat on the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. Below are video or audio files of statements made by the candidate or surrogates at the Forum during the 2018 election cycle. To start a video, click on it. Aug. 28, ... Continue Reading →
Primary Election 2018 results (preliminary)
Tuesday, May 8, 2018 10:40 p.m. Percentage of votes as reported May 8 by 10:40 p.m. According to the Board of Elections, these percentages do not count absentee and provisional ballots. Victors may change, particularly in the Senate 39 Democratic primary, where the difference in vote totals stood ... Continue Reading →
2 pipelines: school-failure-to-prison; and prison-back-into-society
April 24, 2018 Perhaps this is one of the things the Forum does best: bring folks together out of their silos to meet, explain their silos and then, perhaps, go away to contemplate how to knock down the silos. Educator and longtime Mecklenburg resident Ken Simmons said he had never met Henry ... Continue Reading →
Cotham comments on need for local governments to work together
Aug. 22, 2017 County Commissioner Pat Cotham, commenting this morning after presentations by five Democratic candidates for Charlotte City Council at-large seats, made a pitch for all local governments – city, county and school board, along with state officials – to take joint ownership of ... Continue Reading →
Open Forum: Dance, KIPP, voc ed, Council, housing for all
Clockwise from top left: Blanche Penn’s grandchildren J' Nair and Yariah; KIPP Charlotte Principal Elizabeth Simpson; Damiko Faulkner; J.R. and Dr. Trasha Black; Pat Cotham; LaWana Mayfield. July 25, 2017 Today's Open Forum did what Open Forums nearly always do. It put out on the public table for ... Continue Reading →
County commissioner candidates
Oct. 4, 2016 The police shooting in Charlotte and the street protests that followed hung over the conversation at the Forum this morning. And well they should have. For while the county commissioner candidates addressing the group have no direct say in police matters, they sit in the middle of ... Continue Reading →
4 commissioners address county topics
April 28, 2015 No, said Pat Cotham, she did not go to Raleigh to lobby legislators to rewrite election laws for county commissioners. Yes, said Trevor Fuller, the task force on social mobility will find a way to involve everyone who wants to be a part of that study. And so it went. The Forum ... Continue Reading →
The outlook for 2015
Jan. 6, 2015 In an impromptu presentation, elected officials serving at the local and state levels offered comments about the issues they expect to be dealing with this year. Predictably, many of the issues revolved around money. But there was also talk about jobs, the homeless, education, the ... Continue Reading →
At-large commissioners
All five candidates for at-large seats on the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners spoke Tuesday. They are, from top right in photo: Republican Emily Zuyus, Republican Scott Carlisle, Democrat Trevor Fuller, Democrat Pat Cotham and Democrat Ella Scarborough. Fuller and Cotham are ... Continue Reading →