Share
Mecklenburg Republicans nominated Matthew Ridenhour, the Iraq War veteran who won election to District 5 on the board of county commissioners this month, to fill the vacant seat of the late commissioner Neil Cooksey.
If appointed by the county commission on Tuesday, Ridenhour would start his term just two weeks early, but he would be able to represent District 5 when the board is expected to take action on findings by a firm hired to review Mecklenburg’s 2011 property revaluation.
“There were a lot of folks in the community and in the Republican party that recognized that with the meeting coming up on the 20th regarding the revaluation, we needed to have someone representing District 5 on the county commission,” Ridenhour told the Observer late Thursday.
Ridenhour was the only nominee.
On Tuesday, the board is likely to take action on findings by county-hired Pearson’s Appraisal Service about the controversial revaluation.
Commission Chair Harold Cogdell, could not be reached for comment late Thursday. He has told the Observer he wants the seat filled before that meeting.
Overall, Pearson’s found the revaluation to be acceptable. But of the 52 Mecklenburg neighborhoods with the fastest-rising values, the study showed 20 had serious problems. They found another 18 with minor flaws.
The firm also reviewed 151 randomly picked neighborhoods and found that 49 had at least minor problems – and 15 of them had major ones. Curl emphasized that the properties could have been under-valued, as well as overvalued, when compared to other properties in a neighborhood. Staff writer April Bethea contributed.
