Gastonia City Council Special Meeting: Ward 4 Vacancy Interviews - January 6, 2025
Gastonia City Council Special Meeting: Ward 4 Vacancy Interviews - January 6, 2025
On January 6, 2025, the Gastonia City Council held a special meeting to interview five candidates for the vacant Ward 4 city council seat previously held by Councilman Charles Odom. The meeting featured 30-minute interview slots per candidate, with council members and the mayor asking questions. The council adjourned without making an appointment, planning to reconvene the next day.
Interview Candidates
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Reese Barnett: A lifelong Gastonia resident and regional lead for school-based therapists. She identified honesty, trustworthiness, and open-mindedness as her top qualities. She described homelessness as a symptom of systemic unmet needs and advocated for mental health resources. She supported the Caramont Baseball Park as an economic driver and expressed interest in mentoring and small project funding to support schools. She is planning to run for the seat when it comes due.
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Cheryl Little John: A lifelong Ward 4 resident, former collegiate athlete (University of Tennessee, NC State), business owner (Smith's Old Food Bistro, Legacy Event Center), and federal law enforcement veteran. She listed public safety, economic development (code enforcement, beautification, landlord accountability), and homelessness as the top three issues. She proposed summer youth programs at Irwin Center and leveraging her relationships to attract events to Caramont Park and downtown. She acknowledged being fired from the city's Parks and Recreation department but framed it as a lesson learned. She expressed openness to running for the seat.
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Carl A. Harris: A long-time community volunteer serving on the Planning Commission, County Planning Board, Affordable Housing Advisory Board, and other committees. He advocated for "smart growth" with analytics that consider the full community. He identified affordability/workforce housing as a top issue and called for a "city center partnership" to revitalize downtown, starting with streetscape improvements and incentives for property owners. He stated affordable housing, homelessness, and youth engagement as priorities. He plans to run for the seat.
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Angela Pell: A lifelong Gastonia resident with experience running a homeless day shelter, serving on the mayor's task force on homelessness, and as a Gastonia Housing Authority Commissioner since 2019. She identified homelessness/affordable housing, public safety, and economic equity across wards as the top issues. She suggested incentives for mixed-income housing, loan forgiveness for police officers, and greater collaboration among service providers. She stated she would not be reluctant to disagree with Councilwoman Barber, with whom she has a personal relationship. She plans to run for the seat in November.
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Alison Pell: A downtown property owner and resident, architect with 34 years of experience. He moved to Gastonia in 2003 and invested in historic buildings. He proposed repurposing the old bus station as a farmer's market, attracting committed developers, and addressing homelessness through church involvement. He identified attracting the right businesses and homelessness as key issues. He expressed openness to running for the seat if he proves effective.
Key Outcomes
- After the interviews, the council discussed the selection process. Mayor Pro Tim suggested narrowing candidates to a top two to build consensus, but Councilwoman Barber requested time to deliberate overnight. Councilman Gallagher supported "marinating" on the decision.
- The council voted unanimously to adjourn and planned to reconvene the following day (January 7, 2025) to make the appointment.
Meeting Transcript
I am the mayor of the great city of Gastonia. On behalf of myself and the city council, I'd like to welcome you to the special meeting on Monday, January the 6th, 2025. I will now call the meeting to order. This special meeting is to interview candidates for the vacant ward four seat city council seat vacated by Councilman Charles Odom. At our regular city council meeting on December 17th, 2024, five candidates were selected to interview this evening. Each interview time will be allotted approximately 30 minutes, which gives each council member and myself, along with oh, along with myself, approximately five minutes for questions to each candidate. Our city clerk will start the timer for 30 minutes at the beginning of each interview. If a candidate is in the middle of response, I will allow the time for the candidate to finish that response. Are you here? Yes, you are. She is here. Yes. And Alison Pell, he is here. To keep this in the line, like we've done the last two times that this uh issue has come up. We will start with uh Miss Barnett, but I would like to ask for the other prospective candidates and interviewees to step out of the room while the other candidates are being interviewed. Um you don't have to because this is an open meeting, but the last two times, it's been once since I've been here and it was once when Brenda Craig was selected when they did it back in the 90s, 80s, early 2000s, yes. So we would like to kind of follow that precedent. So at this time, if you are a candidate, I would ask you to leave. I can't say you have to leave, but I would ask that you leave uh to follow the protocol and procedure that has been set forth before in this process. Thank you. There's a question. Is there a designated waiting area? Yes, you can just it's right out front there. Or they can go upstairs. Or they can get you can go upstairs and we can uh send somebody up to grab you. Oh, yeah, send them to the Allison. Let them know that we have a conference room at the end of the hall and you guys can go down there. All right. I forgot about that. Why didn't you tell me, Mayor Pro Tim? Ms. Barnett, would you like to come forward? And when we start this, the first candidate we will start to my right. We will start with Councilman Casupius. We will proceed to ward six, and then I will follow up as the last person. Then when we go to candidate number two, we will start with councilwoman barber, and we will go back to council uh person, councilman Casupius, and then followed up by myself. So at this time, Councilman Casupius, the floor is yours. All right, thank you, Mayor. Um, and thank you, Miss Barnett for being here. I I know the I know exactly how you feel right now. Um to give you just maybe 30 seconds, an opening statement. Um just kind of touch on the highlights about a little bit about yourself, and then I can follow up with a couple questions for you if you don't mind. Okay. So my name is Reese Barnett. I was born here, I practically lived here on my life. Um I've ran for the seat twice. I believe in giving back and making an impact where you're planted. So it's my desire to give back to the community. Um I also have worked in several sectors of the community that I feel like have given me an experience to aid in the uh growth and sustainability of a quality of life for citizens. I'm a mom, I have two kids, but they're grown.
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