Share
One Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board candidate declared bankruptcy after failing to pay taxes for about four years. Another faces a lawsuit from a bank that says he owes it $7,000, according to Observer record checks.
Two others faced questions about whether or how long they've lived within the districts they hope to represent.
Teresa Tudor, a candidate in the nine-way race for the District 2 seat, acknowledged that she failed to pay taxes from about 2000 to 2004. The disclosure came after the Observer questioned her about a 2007 bankruptcy case.
Tudor, a 35-year-old computer specialist, characterized her failure to file as a youthful indiscretion.
"I was going to owe (taxes) and I was being selfish. I said, 'I don't want to pay this. I don't think this is fair,'" she said. "It was a mistake I made when I was young and I regret it."
She said after the IRS threatened about three years ago to garnish her wages, she filed for bankruptcy on the advice of an attorney. She said she opted out of the bankruptcy case early this year after questioning whether the attorney was directing enough money to the government.
She said she worked out a deal with N.C. tax collectors and has nearly finished paying the more than $2,100 she owed. In November, she will start repaying the approximately $10,000 she owes the federal government.
She believes the fact that she's acknowledged her mistake and is working to rectify it will reassure voters about her fitness for office.
"My constituents are people who have made mistakes in their lives," she said, "and hopefully (the tax problem) is something they can overlook."
William "Pop" Woodard, one of her competitors in District 3, was sued by Citibank late last month. The company alleges he failed to make payments on a debt of just over $7,000.
Woodard said the lawsuit stems from a dispute over what he owes on a company-issued credit card he used until about 2004.
"It's really a company issue," said Woodard, who worked for AT&T at the time. "I've been in discussion with them, but we just can't come to terms. I guess if we can't come to terms we need to go to court."
His court records also show a driving while impaired charge and conviction in 1996. He said he was pulled over after he left a Tega Cay golf tournament on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
"I had to plead guilty to that one because I was drunk. No other explanation for that," he said. "I shot a 74 and beat everybody. I guess I celebrated a little too hard."
Meanwhile, candidates and campaign watchers have raised questions about whether - or how long - two other candidates have lived in the districts they hope to represent.
One, Nicole Hudson, says she moved into Charlotte and the District 3 zone from Fort Mill in June. She filed on July 6 to run for the school board, records show. Tudor questioned whether Hudson could have a full grasp of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools issues having just moved into the city.
But Hudson dismissed such concerns, noting that in recent years she participated in the Leadership Charlotte and Leadership North Carolina civic education groups. She also served on an advisory committee for the N.C. State Board of Education while living in Fort Mill.
Hudson said she moved to Fort Mill in 2003, and bought a condo in uptown Charlotte about three years later. The condos, called Quarterside, were later converted to apartments, and she now rents there. She said when she tried to sell her Fort Mill home, it stayed on the market more than a year due to the bad economy. She is renting it out.
The mother of two First Ward Elementary students says voters are more interested in education than in her living arrangements.
"They want a voice, they want someone who's going to advocate," she said. She added that her critics seem to think that "just because you lived across the border you didn't get TV or news. Fort Mill might be slow, but it's not that slow."
Richard McElrath, the sole remaining candidate for the District 2 seat, said he expected to face questions about the home he owns on Lake Norman, outside his district. He said he and his wife still live in the west Charlotte home they bought more than 20 years ago.
They recently bought a small home outside Huntersville to fulfill his retirement dream, but McElrath said they won't move until the house is renovated and his wife retires. He said he doesn't expect that to happen during his four-year school board term.
"My first priority is the school board," he said. "I'm not going anywhere that's going to jeopardize that."
Another District 3 candidate, Hans Plotseneder, filed a 2005 lawsuit in small claims court against Bank of America over overdraft charges connected to ATM transactions.
He filed for bankruptcy in 1997, court documents show.
Staff researcher Maria David and staff writer Ann Doss Helms contributed to this report.
