In this Issue of Hey Cherokee County…

✅ Steve Coleman Spent Four Years Learning What Government Can't Do. Now He Wants to Find Out What It Can.

✅ Three Constitutional Amendments, Contested Local Races on November Ballot as Early Voting Begins

Cherokee County Events

October 24th

October 31st

October 31st

November 9th

November 21st

A county commissioner called Steve Coleman not long ago with what seemed like a reasonable question.

How much money, the commissioner wanted to know, was Coleman looking for the county to pitch into his school consolidation plan?

Coleman's answer was immediate.

"Zero," he said. "None."

He'd been trying to make that point for years — that the school consolidation plan he'd championed since the beginning of his term on the Cherokee County Board of Education would be completely paid for with grant money and didn't require a single additional tax dollar other than the required local match. The call was almost funny to him. Not because the question was unreasonable, but because the answer had always been so simple, and somehow it kept getting lost.

It's that kind of disconnect — between what Coleman believes should be obvious and what government actually manages to accomplish — that led him to file for the District 3 seat on the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners. Four years on the school board convinced him that the people holding the purse strings needed someone who understood what was actually being asked of them.

Now, in a second conversation with Hey Cherokee County, Coleman gets specific about how he intends to use the authority he spent four years trying to work around.

What Changed

On some issues, his position has evolved. For example, Coleman didn't always have a problem with Flock cameras.

He previously sat down with the current sheriff and talked through what the technology could do. Flock systems use fixed cameras to capture license plate data — logging where vehicles have been, storing that information for a set period before it's deleted. The pitch at the time made sense to Coleman: locate abducted children, find elderly residents with dementia, track suspects moving across state lines.

He still sees the value in those use cases. What changed is everything around them.

"I'm a no for that right now," he said.

His concern isn't the cameras themselves or the data sitting on a server. It's who can access that data, under what circumstances, and whether there are real safeguards preventing it from being used beyond its original purpose. In his view, those guardrails don't yet exist in any meaningful way.

He suggested that counties and municipalities have more leverage than they realize. They own the systems. They pay the service fees. If enough of them demanded clear parameters — or pulled their contracts until those parameters were met — the terms could change. Until then, his position is against it.

"The parameters should have been set prior to it ever being something that you used," Coleman said.

He isn't ruling out future support. But he wants the rules written before the system runs, not years after it already has.

Your Land, Your Neighbor's Peace

The question of where government authority ends runs underneath several of the most contested issues facing Cherokee County right now, and Coleman has a clear starting point.

"I do not think the government should be able to tell you what to do with your own personal private property," he said.

He has 22 acres here. Neighbors across the ridge. Neighbors up on the mountain. He's a building contractor by trade, and he believes property owners should generally be free to use their land as they see fit.

But freedom cuts both ways, Coleman added, acknowledging that the right to develop your land carries a personal responsibility not to make your neighbor's life worse in the process.

“Peaceful enjoyment is meant for everybody," he said. 

That's where it gets complicated.

He pointed to the noise complaints that followed cryptocurrency mining operations in the county as a concrete example of what happens when that responsibility goes unmet. Residents dealt with the disruption for an extended period before cooling system changes brought the noise down. Coleman's argument is that those effects should have been anticipated and addressed before the facility ever started running — not negotiated after neighbors had already spent years pushing back.

The same thinking shapes how he looks at the county's potentially growing data center industry. There's a real trade-off at play: residents who oppose large industrial facilities are often the same residents who oppose property tax increases that would fund public services. A facility like the one in Marble, Coleman said, could eventually generate between $14 million and $25 million annually in county revenue.

He isn't anti-development. He's anti-surprise. Coleman argues that before any industry sets up in Cherokee County, officials owe it to residents to understand the full picture — the benefits, the drawbacks, what people living nearby will actually experience, and what the county will realistically get in return. 

When asked whether there's a clean policy answer that balances property rights with protecting neighboring landowners, Coleman said there are limits to what the government can actually do.

"I don't think you can govern or come up with a policy that would help you either way with that," he said. "I think it comes down to just common decency and being human."

When asked what’s the biggest mistake Cherokee County could make as more development comes in, Coleman pointed out two he believes local leaders have repeatedly made in the past. 

“Not getting constituent buy-in before decisions are made, and not knowing start to finish every aspect of it that you could possibly know and have all of the contingencies figured out prior to ever starting the process,” he said. “This county is so retroactive to things it absolutely drives me bonkers.” 

Are You Getting What You're Paying For?

Coleman's frustration extends to county government broadly.

He believes Cherokee County residents aren't seeing enough return on the taxes they pay. He knows the government does work that goes unnoticed — infrastructure, maintenance, the thousand things that don't make headlines. He gives credit for that.

But he also believes residents should be able to drive around and see progress with their own eyes.

"Cherokee County doesn't pass the visual eye test to substantiate the amount of taxes we pay to the product that's given," he said.

When asked what one thing Cherokee County government spends money on that he believes taxpayers aren't getting enough value from, Coleman said, “the school system.”

And he wasn't talking about buildings alone. A county where 65 percent of the population is over 65 depends on the next generation staying and being prepared to work, to start businesses, to fill jobs in healthcare, construction, and the trades. When that pipeline thins out, Coleman said, everything else gets harder to fund and harder to staff.

"Fix the school system," he said, "you fix the county."

Buy-In

Four years on the school board taught Coleman something he says he didn't fully expect: that an individual board member has far less authority than it looks like from the outside.

He entered office with a list of things he wanted to accomplish. He learned quickly that most of them required persuading other people to agree. He says he wishes he'd pushed harder, earlier.

The experience reshaped how he thinks about the job he’s applying for now. What he wished he'd done more — and what he says he intends to do as commissioner — is get out ahead of things before decisions are already half-made.

"You have to bring people along," Coleman said. That means being more visible and more vocal — on social media, at community meetings, in conversations — not to sell a conclusion, but to make sure people understand what's actually being decided and why.

Asked whether he'd vote against the wishes of his constituents, he said he would, but only if he believes they don't have all the information and are letting personal interest cloud what they're willing to see. 

"If I know something they don't know, it's my job to go get them that information first," he said. “My personal opinion does not matter, period. If I bring that to you and you still choose not to go that way just because of your personal opinion, I'm gonna take my education over your personal opinion on that." 

It's a hard line to take. But in Coleman's view, the softer line is what got Cherokee County here — decisions deferred, plans abandoned, problems handed off to the next person willing to avoid them. 

The toll shows up everywhere you look. An aging population with no pipeline of young workers to replace it. A housing market that keeps climbing while wages in the trades and healthcare stay flat. A school system that has been one board election away from starting over for the better part of a decade. Coleman isn't pessimistic about any of it; he's just impatient. He thinks most of these problems are solvable, and that the main thing standing between Cherokee County and solving them has been a shortage of people willing to make decisions that outlast their own term. 

Paid for by Steve Coleman, candidate for the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners District 3 seat. Hey Cherokee County accepts paid political advertising. Candidates and campaigns may contact us for rates and availability.

Early voting begins Thursday, October 15, in North Carolina, giving Cherokee County residents their first opportunity to cast ballots in the November 3 general election.

Along with races for local, state and federal offices, voters will decide on three proposed amendments to the North Carolina Constitution, addressing voter identification, income taxes and property taxes.

Three Statewide Constitutional Amendments

All North Carolina voters will be asked to vote For or Against each of the following proposed amendments:

1. Photo Identification for Voting

This proposed amendment would expand the North Carolina Constitution's existing photo ID requirement from in-person voting to include all methods of voting. State law already requires voters casting absentee ballots by mail to provide photo identification or qualify for an exception. The amendment would make that broader requirement part of the state Constitution, rather than leaving it solely in state law.

2. Maximum State Income Tax Rate of 3.5%

This proposed amendment would lower the maximum income-tax rate permitted by the NC Constitution from 7% to 3.5%. 

3. Limits on Property Tax Increases

This proposed constitutional amendment would require the state to establish limits on how much local governments can raise property taxes. The amendment itself does not set those limits. Instead, state lawmakers would determine the specific restrictions through future legislation, including any exceptions that might apply.

Contested Cherokee County Races

Several local offices have multiple candidates on the ballot.

Cherokee County Board of Commissioners

Cherokee County Board of Education

Uncontested Cherokee County Races

Several local candidates appear on the ballot without a listed opponent:

The ballot also includes two candidates, Colby Davis and Jamie Lance, for two positions on the Cherokee County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors. This nonpartisan contest also provides space for write-in candidates.

Federal, State and District Races

Beyond county offices, Cherokee County voters will also select candidates for several federal, state, and regional positions.

Federal races include the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives District 11, while state legislative races include North Carolina Senate District 50 and North Carolina House of Representatives District 120.

Judicial races include North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Seat 1, three North Carolina Court of Appeals seats and three District Court Judge seats in District 43.

Voters will also select a District Attorney for Prosecutorial District 43, although only one candidate appears on the sample ballot for that office.

Early voting begins October 15. Election Day is Tuesday, November 3.

This overview is based on the Cherokee County sample ballot for Murphy South precinct and the North Carolina State Board of Elections' statewide referendum list.

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