McCrory: Charlotte, state legislature must ‘repair some relationships’

Addressing the Charlotte Chamber’s annual retreat, Gov. Pat McCrory said the city and state legislature must find a way to reconnect following years of bruising fights, culminating in the House Bill 2 controversy.

“There’s going to be a need to repair some relationships in Raleigh,” said McCrory, who spent 14 years as Charlotte’s mayor. He’s in a tough reelection fight with N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic nominee for government.

Tensions between Democrat-controlled Charlotte and the Republican-controlled N.C. General Assembly have been growing for years, since a 2013 attempt by the legislature to remove control of the city’s airport from Charlotte City Council. The fight over HB2, which negated a Charlotte anti-discrimination ordinance to protect LGBT individuals, has ramped up those differences.

McCrory defended HB2, and said outside groups brought the LGBT issue to North Carolina to gin up controversy. He said Charlotte leaders need to understand that large parts of the state think differently from them.

“There is a totally different opinion on this issue in Shelby, North Carolina; Lincolnton, North Carolina; Wadesboro,” said McCrory.

The governor also addressed recent protests in Charlotte, following the police shooting death of 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott. He said the issue attracted more attention from the national media than a similar shooting in Oklahoma because Charlotte “was easier for the press to get to than Tulsa.”

McCrory said he and law enforcement officials are studying how police can deescalate and defuse volatile situations. He also called for more job-training programs and examining schools to see what they can do to reduce inequality.

“There’s no doubt there’s an underclass being left out” of the growing economy, McCrory said.

And though Mayor Jennifer Roberts criticized McCrory for what she said was a mischaracterization of Charlotte’s nondiscrimination ordinance, she said the way the city and state worked together during the shooting protests was a model for cooperation.

“We so appreciated those national guardsmen and guardswomen,” Roberts said.

This story was originally published October 4, 2016 at 6:42 PM with the headline "McCrory: Charlotte, state legislature must ‘repair some relationships’."