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Two weeks after the arrest and resignation of Patrick Cannon, Charlotte has a new mayor.
WCCB was there for Dan Clodfelter’s swearing in. The city’s fourth mayor in about a year tells WCCB News @ Ten anchor Will Kennedy about his top priorities for the Queen City.
There is so much to do, so much to digest. New Charlotte mayor Dan Clodfelter hit the ground running, diving in at a crucial time.
“I don’t have the mandate to sort of give to the council a script and say, ‘Throw out everything you’ve been doing Mister Manager, Council, and here’s my list and let’s go to work.’ So I’ve got to approach it very differently,” says Mayor Clodfelter.
The mayor took in his first budget meeting Wednesday afternoon. He’ll lean on others early.
“Obviously go to the manager and his staff, who, as I said downstairs, they’re just absolutely first rate,” continues Clodfelter. “And to the council members themselves who’ve been through the grind, and have really been working very hard.”
He’ll use his own experience in Raleigh to help move the needle on issues like the city’s fight to control the airport.
“We’ve got other things to do, and the state has many other issues. This does not need to be a point of irritation between us,” says the Mayor.
And to continue to push projects like the Gold Line.
“I think what the council and the manager did a year ago was a very commendable way of keeping the project alive and in progress without breaking the city’s finances,” says Clodfelter.
Dan Clodfelter says he has no plans to run for the mayor’s office in the next election. It’s all about moving the city forward right now, and fighting the twin perils of politics: partisanship and corruption.
“I don’t want to see that infection creep down from Washington. It’s dangerous. It’s poisonous,” says the new Mayor. “We’ve never had it here, and I don’t want to see it come.”
Ex-mayor Patrick Cannon faces up to 50 years in prison if he’s convicted on federal corruption charges. The case could go to a grand jury next week.
