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DUSENBURY: Cable deal was the 'back breaker'
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Published: October 23, 2009
Rhett Dusenbury has expressed his opinions many times at Mooresville town board meetings. Now he wants a seat on the board because he believes his voice has not been heard.
Dusenbury, who is running against incumbent Frank Rader for the board's at-large seat on Nov. 3, moved to Mooresville in 1997, and since then has watched the growth of the community and monitored local politics.
Recently, Dusenbury says he's seen "the elderly people who were born and raised in Mooresville being priced right out of town with higher taxes and increasing water and sewer rates."
But it wasn't until the town's joint purchase with Davidson of cable system MI-Connection that he decided to run for office. Dusenbury calls the MI-Connection the "back breaker."
"The public meetings were held, an overwhelming majority was against it, and they still went ahead and purchased the cable system contrary to the sentiment of the people," Dusenbury said. "What a tragedy. Here are people struggling to pay for water bills and we're going to buy a cable system with taxpayer money."
"I'm a limited government kind of guy, and I could not take a chance on another four more years of liberal spending policies."
Dusenbury, who worked on Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory's Iredell County gubernatorial campaign, also thinks the public MI-Connection board meeting does not do government transparency justice.
"Holding board meetings on Wednesday nights at 7:30 at night would be a lot better for Mooresville residents than 7:30 in the morning," he said.
Dusenbury said residents he's talked to tell him they wish they had had a chance to vote on the MI-Connection purchase.
"How can they have a public referendum for an $8.5 million parks and recreation bond and then just purchase a $92 million cable system on their own?" Dusenbury said. "(The town board) had numerous opportunities to exit the deal but they just had to have it.
"We have had the past problems with the wastewater treatment construction. Here we have people struggling to pay for water and sewer, and now we're paying for a cable system, which is a luxury.
"(Residents) are worried we're going to have to pump more money into (MI-Connection) than we will ever be able to get out of it."
Dusenbury believes thoughts of reeling in spending will be in the hearts and minds of voters on election day.
"Spending is a major issue I've heard people talking about," he said. "They don't understand why the Town of Mooresville continues to spend while the average resident is budgeting."
Dusenbury points to a proposed $10 million capital improvement project to upgrade the Mooresville Municipal Golf Course as an example of the town not having its priorities straight during a recession.
He said local governments should focus tax dollars on necessities not non-essentials like a cable system and subsidizing a golf course.
"The obligation of government is to supply its citizens with the elements of society that they cannot supply in an organized fashion themselves," he said.
Those necessities include fire, police, education, affordable water/sewer, transportation and parks and recreation, he said.
(A complete Q&A with Rhett Dusenbury can be read at www.mooresvilletribune.com)
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