OAK ISLAND — Oak Island resident Mike Defeo is running for election on Town Council.
Author’s note: Port City Daily’s candidate interviews are largely unedited. Edits have only been made to correct spelling or grammatical errors. Candidates were not given word or character limits to answer each question.
What is your campaign platform?
Engagement, Preparation, Planning and Communication in order to position Oak Island for the future. Engage and partner with our citizens. Prepare by ensuring our existing infrastructure, equipment, code, processes, skills, and abilities are sufficient. Strategic planning and skilled execution with input from our citizens and businesses. More effective communication between the town and citizens.
What makes you qualified to serve on Town Council?
Member of Oak Island Planning Board 2 years; Member of the Hurricane & Damage Assessment Team; Full time resident; Effective consensus builder and change agent; Small business advocate; 50 years professional experience in strategic planning, project management, process and procedure development, vendor/contractor vetting and performance accountability; quality assurance/auditing
What are the top three issues Oak Island is facing right now and what’s your position on these issues?
I am making a distinction between issues and projects. There are many projects such as Beach Nourishment, and Infrastructure that will be addressed along the way. I am presenting the issues that represent the biggest challenges that I believe need to be addressed by the Oak Island Town Council going forward.
Growth is the number one issue that will impact Oak Island and it is happening all around us. Most of the growth will occur on the Oak Island mainland over the next 3 to 5 years. During this period it is estimated that the population will double. Today our culture is a small residential and vacation beach town with a laidback family and pet-friendly atmosphere that we and our visitors love. The new mainland residents will have a different set of needs and wants. We need to begin planning now to address the new requirements while preserving our island culture. Currently, we are not ready to deal with the impacts of this growth. I will be proposing an approach that will enable us to upgrade the skills, systems and processes we will need to address existing and future issues in a more efficient and consistent way.
One of the other major issues we face is the problem our businesses have in attracting and
retaining employees, particularly during the tourist season. As you are aware there are
restaurants that cut back on the hours and days of operation because they don’t have the
necessary staff. Developers and contractors have trouble lining up tradesmen to help build,
maintain and improve houses. Residents have trouble finding plumbers and electricians to do repair work. Vacation rental agencies have trouble turning around short-term rentals due to a lack of staff to do quick repairs in the few hours they have between rentals.
I recently met with Dr. Gene Smith, President of Brunswick Community College and Greg Bland, Vice President of Continuing Education, Economic & Workforce Development at Brunswick Community College to discuss potentials in partnering with them to develop options and hopefully solutions to our employment issues. I was amazed at how many opportunities there are for training and apprenticeships for restaurant workers, tradesmen and other resources. I will be proposing an approach to develop solutions via a partnership between businesses and the Town of Oak Island. An example of this approach is the Oak Island fire department has already partnered with the college training their employees.
Affordable housing for Oak Island is another pressing need. When you mention this hands go up in the air and you hear ‘can’t happen on Oak Island’. That may be true but ignoring the problem should not be an option. After all there is the mainland. I met with an Oak Island realtor who is actively putting together plans to develop affordable housing in Brunswick County. These plans could include opportunities for Oak Island. I will be proposing an approach to develop solutions via a partnership between realtors, developers, businesses, other stakeholders and the Town of Oak Island.
Another issue that doesn’t get much mention is the lack of citizen participation in the running of Oak Island. Too often, the Town Council makes decisions with limited input from our citizens. Often the only input they receive comes from those who may benefit from the decision. We need to promote a higher level of participation at board, committee and council meetings. Also, we need to take advantage of the talents of our citizens to advise the council on issues presented to them. I will be proposing we re-establish a number of advisory boards that had been dissolved 4 years ago by the current council as well as new boards as needed.
The existing and new issues/projects we will be facing over the next 4 years will be impacted to some degree by the growth issue.
Oak Island bungled its choice of parking company consultants this spring. What’s your take on what happened?
I have said all along the council members acted in good faith in selecting the vendor. They did not have sufficient information to make an informed decision. A RFP was submitted and responded by two vendors. They should have been vetted completely but were not. It is questionable if the selected vendor even met the basic requirements of the RFP. Two residents checked out the vendor and found the issues that had been reported and in turn
notified two of the council members. This is when the special council meeting was called. While the issue was mitigated appropriately during the meeting, no one mentioned the citizens who alerted them and as a matter of fact took turns taking credit for finding the problems. Transparency was absent in this meeting.
Could it have been prevented?
Yes. It would be tempting to point the finger at the town manager and staff but that would be too simple and incorrect. The town manager and staff lacked a process that would have guided them thru the whole vendor acquisition process. They conducted the vetting to the extent they knew how.
Some island residents continue to air grievances, one year after Hurricane Florence, that town officials unreasonably kept people from returning to their homes in a timely manner. Do you agree with this perspective? Why or why not?
There were some major communication issues with the town’s responses to issues that arose. However, the safety of the residents was the first priority of the town officials. I think the town officials acted appropriately.
Should the town work to attract new business opportunities?
Of course. I do think we should alter the zoning ordinances to restrict bog box stores like Publics or DG to commercial districts on the mainland.
How do you define transparency?
It is the willingness to freely and proactively share information whenever possible. Open and honest engagement.
How can the town work to be more transparent?
Town officials do not proactively engage with the public. Generally, information is posted to the website or imbed in agendas. As a result many changes that effect residents go unnoticed because there is no push of information to the general public. These are
some simple examples but it does reflect the lack of a communication process within the town organization.
What is one action/vote Oak Island got wrong in 2017-2019?
Paid Parking. No planning, no process resulting in one of the most embarrassing situations. If it wasn’t for the citizens who found the problem we could have ended up with a major fiasco.
What is one action/vote Oak Island got right in 2017-2019?
Approval of the UDO.
Anything else you’d like to share with voters?
We need the right people with the right skills to lead us. Your vote in the council election starts the process; our continuing participation will achieve the results. In summary, I am committed to working with the Town Council, Mayor and available resources to address existing issues/projects as well as planning for the future growth of Oak Island.
Learn more about Mike Defeo’s campaign platform on his website or Facebook page.
