Mooresville mayor: November election will be my last bid for elected office
Mooresville Mayor Chris Carney said the Nov. 4 general election will be his last bid for elected office.
Carney faces challengers H. William Compton Jr. and Patrick Wright for a second two-year term.
Carney was a Navy Seabee from 1991 to 1999, an elected Mooresville town commissioner, and, later, an appointed state senator representing Iredell, Gaston and Lincoln counties.
He defeated now-deceased, former town commissioner Bobby Compton in the last mayoral race by a more than 2-to-1 margin.
In an interview with The Charlotte Observer at Town Hall on Aug. 8, Carney said a top goal if reelected would be “to really solidify us as a premier defense industry corridor, especially at exit 31.”
Interstate 77 exit 31, the Langtree Road interchange that overlooks Lake Norman north of Davidson, already is home to Corvid Technologies, a leading aerospace defense contractor.
Carney said an ongoing effort includes establishing “cooperative agreements” with European countries for defense and other companies to locate North American operations here. He met this summer with Finland’s ambassador to the U.S. at Finland’s Honorary Consulate in Charlotte.
“I think that will give us long-term economic stability, no matter recessions, because, as we know, defense and health care always spend money, even in recessions,” he said, referring to agreements with other countries.
And he would “double down” with schools and other community partners on after-school literacy programs for children in kindergarten through fifth grade, and skilled workforce training for older students in trades such as welding, heating and air and electrical.
“Lowe’s has always told us they’d be really excited to do a program like that,” Carney said about the Mooresville-based home improvement chain’s interest to bolster training in the trades.
“We just need to get everybody to move that forward,” he said. “We’ve got the right partners that want to do it.”
Town Hall issues
Carney said he also would continue to focus the town’s workforce on customer service.
“The one thing we’ve said all along is we want to get to a more customer-service mentality,” he said. “When you walk through Town Hall, when you walk in and don’t feel a different tone that way, then certainly we’re not doing our job.”
“We’ve had some staff changes, and getting that to settle down is important,” Carney told the Observer, a week after WBTV reported that more than 100 employees across all departments left the town payroll over the past year.
Carney also made headlines this year after acknowledging to media outlets that he and a woman twice triggered alarms in Town Hall one overnight in October 2024, prompting police response both times.
He told media outlets that he had too much to drink at a gathering with other town officials at a bar a couple of blocks down Main Street from Town Hall. The alcohol mixed badly with medications he was on after the death of his father, so he went to Town Hall until the effects wore off, he said. That was safer than driving the several miles home, he said.
He previously took a leave of absence as mayor after his father died.
Dealing with growth
Carney also has helped lead Town Board efforts to build and expand roads to meet ongoing population growth and to eliminate massive, cookie-cutter apartment complexes via new zoning rules. Previous boards approved the apartments, he said.
He told The Charlotte Observer that after many months examining the proposal, he and the six-member board would vote down a rezoning request on Sept. 15 by Teresa Earnhardt, wife of the late NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt. About five days later, the developer withdrew the proposal.
Teresa Earnhardt had wanted Colorado data center developer Tract to put a $30 billion center on her 400 rural acres in east Mooresville near Cabarrus County.
In June, in another move that captured media attention, Carney asked the local delegation of state legislators to give his town the option to cap property taxes for longtime residents, disabled veterans and first responders. He doesn’t want growth to price them out, he told the Observer.
If the General Assembly approves the request, Mooresville would become the first municipality in the state authorized to cap, or freeze, taxes for such adults, Carney said.
Post-mayor plans
Regarding life after elected office, Carney said he will respond however the community needs him. “I don’t plan on ever leaving,” he said.
He and his wife, Francie, have been involved in “almost every charity” in town “at some juncture, and we’re going to continue to do that,” the father of three said. “I just hope these four years will have helped impact the next generation, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.
“And then, hopefully, I can go on to be ‘that old guy,’” he quipped.
“The only thing I could ever imagine is, if somewhere the state governor needed help with some agenda that helped other people, whether that would be transportation, economic development,” he said.
“Or (help with) just kind of smoothing out the fact it’s become so tribal in the way the sides fight,” he said. “I’ve had pretty good success getting along with both sides of the aisle that I hope we can get back to a place like that. Just because we don’t see the world from the same lense means we’re enemies.
People agree on most issues in life, just not the “fringe issues,” Carney, a Republican, said. “The middle stuff is where most agree, and we’ve gotta get back to that,” he said.