Who is Pat Cotham, at-large Democratic Mecklenburg County commission candidate?
Political party: Democrat
Age as of Nov. 8, 2022: 72
Campaign website: www.patcotham.org
Email: patcotham@gmail.com
Occupation: County commissioner and senior recruiter
Education: B.A. Spanish, B.J. Journalism The University of Missouri
Have you run for elected office before? (Please list previous offices sought): yes, 2012, 14, 16, 18 and 2020 for at-large county commissioner
Please list your highlights of civic involvement:
Named “Charlottean of the Year” Trustee at Blumenthal for seven years and also education committee for 20 years. Former member of Arts and Science Council, Center City Partners, 2012 Host Committee for DNC, Steering Committee for Cain Center of the Arts, Housing Advisory Committee. Current member of Refugee Stakeholder Committee, LGBT Chamber, International Minority Coalition and NAACP. Active volunteers with our neighbors and help people with records find employment.
What more can county government do to help CMS close achievement gaps and support students in impoverished families?
This is a difficult question as our manager and the board have tried with extra money even though 1,000 teachers have left and 7,000 students. CMS has not communicated well and they restrict interaction with us. They have not given us what we requested and they have made some joint meetings adversarial. I wish our chair would stop meetings with CMS chair as we are “in the dark.”
How do you plan to collaborate with other local and state elected officials?
I continually reach out to other elected officials who are open to communication. I hope to build a good working relationship with Jeff Jackson on federal issues. I interact with the governor’s office, and the state treasurer called me, and I hope to go to Raleigh to meet with him. I read a lot of news articles so I can usually talk about issues in other bodies of government.
How do you plan to approach the county’s upcoming revaluation and how will the results inform your stance on the 2024 fiscal year’s tax rate?
I am worried about the tax rate with the increase in values. My starting point is we will likely need to lower the rate so owners can afford their homes and places of business. I expect some of my colleagues will disagree.
Name a quality about yourself that makes you a good leader:
I am curious, which makes me dig deep into issues so I can make better decisions for the people.
What one professional or political accomplishment are you most proud of?
I am proud of many things but the many times I have been the top vote-getter is always reassuring to me that I am doing a good job for the people.
This story was originally published October 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
