HOPE MILLS – So much for your voice in Hope Mills.
Mayor Pro Tem Kenjuana McCray, Commissioner Bryan Marley and Commissioner Joanne Scarola voted on July 7 to change board terms from two-year to four-year staggered terms, including the mayoral term. They believe longer terms will bring more stability to the town regarding projects and long-term strategic planning.
Not everybody agrees, including Commissioner Jerry Legge and Commissioner Elyse Craver, both who voted in opposition, and they have support from Meg Larson, a former town commissioner who wrote a July 23 email to members of the Cumberland County legislative delegation in hopes they’ll overturn the decision or at least allow Hope Mills residents a voice in the Nov. 4 general election.
It doesn’t appear that concerned town residents, who are balking at the change in the charter, if you give a listen to Craver, will be seeing a referendum.
“A total of 33 citizens are currently gathering signatures for a petition,” Commissioner Craver said Wednesday. “We actually require 1,164 signatures, which is 10% of the total number of registered voters. The board of elections indicates that we have 11,164 registered voters, encompassing both active and inactive individuals.
“The majority of those collecting signatures are senior citizens. They struggle to endure the heat during the day, as well as the thunderstorms that often occur in the late afternoon. With only seven days remaining to collect these signatures, it seems unlikely that they will achieve the necessary amount.
“Our alternative is to seek intervention from our legislative delegation,” Craver said. “Former Commissioner Meg Larson has reached out to each of our delegates with a letter requesting that they halt this initiative at the state level.”
Email to state legislators
Larson, 56, who was a town commissioner from 2017-2019, wrote to the county delegation on July 23.
“As you may be aware, on July 7, 2025, a vote was taken by the Hope Mills Town Board to approve a change in our Town Charter to 4-year staggered terms for the mayor and board members instead of having the issue placed on the local ballot in November 2025,” Larson wrote to Sen. Val Applewhite, Sen. Tom McInnis, Rep. Diane Wheatey, Rep. Charles Smith, Rep,. Frances Jackson and Rep. Mike Colvin. “The vote passed 3 to 2 with Commissioner Scarola, Commissioner McCray and Commissioner Marley voting in favor and Commissioner Craver and Commissioner Legge voting against.
“The idea of expanding to 4-year staggered terms in office was put on the ballot three election cycles ago in both Fayetteville and Hope Mills. In November 2018, efforts to expand election terms from two years to four years both resulted in defeat. In Hope Mills, the unofficial results showed 2,591 people voting against the change, while 1,955 people voted in favor of it. The town recently scheduled a public hearing on June 30, 2025, at 6 p.m. to gather input from residents about the change to 4-year staggered terms. Many residents spoke up in opposition of the change. One person spoke up about it being placed on the ballot and no one spoke in favor of the change.
“I am aware that a petition signed by 10% of registered voters in Hope Mills could lead this to becoming a referendum placed on the upcoming 2025 ballot. However, with a time constraint of 30 days, soaring summer temperatures and heat advisories, sporadic rain and families on summer vacation have all placed a lot of obstacles and a major burden in the path of citizens when this could have easily been placed on the November 2025 ballot to allow citizens to decide how they want their government to operate.
“Democracy works when people go to the polls and vote,” Larson wrote. “This action by the Hope Mills elected officials, which denied that opportunity, is taking democracy out of the hands of the people, and that is inexcusable. As our state and local representatives, I am aware that you have the ability to stop this process to change our Town Charter or to have it placed on the ballot in November 2025 for the people to be able to vote on how they want their municipal government to operate in Hope Mills. I am asking you, as our representatives, to help restore your constituents’ faith in our democracy.”
Don’t look for a referendum on the town charter this fall, and don’t expect at least one legislator to intervene.
“I have no intention on intervening with something that Hope Mills has the legal right to do,” Sen. Applewhite said Thursday, with the caveat that she only was speaking for herself and not fellow state delegates representing Cumberland County. “I’ve not heard any opposition from any other citizens.”
Sen. Tom McInnis says he wants to hear from Hope Mills residents before taking a position.
“Nothing is a done deal until we hear from the citizens, as I understand a petition is floating around on the matter,” McInnis said Thursday. “The petition is to put such action to a vote of the people. I understand that the last time such an item was brought forth to the people by referendum, it failed, so I’m interested in what the voters have to say on the matter before I commit to any position.”
‘Disregard for the citizens of Hope Mills’
Nine Hope Mills residents voiced their objection at the June 30 meeting called by Mayor Jessie Bellflowers and the board to hear about residents’ thoughts about extending term limits for the top three vote-getters in the November election, and the mayoral term, too. The fourth and fifth finishers will serve two-year terms.
Sally Bailey, who has lived in Hope Mills for 40 years, was against a charter change proposal in 2023, and she’s against it now.
“This came up a few years ago, and most people I’ve talked to now don’t want it,” Bailey said, according to a CityView report by Jason Canady.
She said town commissioners don’t engage with residents in her neighborhood.
“How do I feel like you can serve four years,” she told commissioners, “when you still don’t know who we are or what we do?”
Carlene Bailey, according to Canady’s report, said she voted against four-year terms in 2018. She is opposed to four-year terms now.
“This was addressed, and your constituents very clearly said they were not in favor of it,” Carlene Bailey said. “So, I’d like clarification on the truth about the new resolution you’re proposing and why you feel it’s necessary to reintroduce it when the constituents of this town clearly said they were not in favor of it.”
Others to include Nora Armstrong, Kelly Sykes, Ron Gosciniak, Amanda Ingram, Richard Luetgenau, Mark Hess and Todd Henderson expressed their opposition for four-year staggered terms. Henderson, according to the Cumberland County Board of Elections, is challenging Bellflowers for mayor.
“Four years is too long,” Sykes told commissioners.
“This proposal is insulting,” another said.
Others told commissioners that if two terms are good enough for the U.S. Congress, then two years is good enough for Hope Mills commissioners and the mayor.
A commissioner’s plea
“I really wish that y’all would reconsider and to approve this to go on the ballot in November and let us show our citizens that we are listening to them,” Commissioner Craver pleaded with fellow commissioners before the July 7 vote. “They [Hope Mills registered voters] voted against it in ‘18. That does not mean that they will vote against it in this election. I do beg you and plead with you that you will not pass this tonight, but to place it on the agenda on the ballot for November.”
Craver’s plea fell on deaf ears.
Craver says she is disappointed there was even thought from the board about a change to two-year terms.
“I’ve been flooded with calls, emails, and messages from citizens who oppose four-year staggered terms, urging me to vote against it,” she has said. “I’m disappointed in my fellow board members and their disregard for the citizens of Hope Mills and their desire for how their government should be run.”
Her disappointment was in Scarola, too, who said she was against four-year terms in 2023 because, “I am totally on the citizens’ side” and “I’m not going to take away the voice of the people.”
Times change.
Towns change.
Hope Mills has changed, too.
“We’re not the same town we were in 2018,” Mayor Jessie Bellflowers was quoted by Jason Canady after the June 30 meeting to hear from Hope Mills residents. “Look at the amount of growth that has happened in the last seven years. What we and the board are looking for is consistency and continuity.”
Now, barring an eleventh-hour petition from registered Hope Mills residents, a referendum in November to vote for staggered four-year term limits, it’s que sera, sera in Hope Mills government, and the clock is ticking.
“The total number of signatures that have been reported to me is 321,” Elyse Craver said Friday morning. “I know there are more, but I do not know how many. I do not believe we are going to reach the goal.”
‘The right thing to do for the town’
Meanwhile, back at town hall …
“It was the right thing to do for the town,” Commissioner Bryan Marley has defended his vote, according to a CityView report of the July 7 meeting. “It has a lot to do with continuity and the town being able to do more things with grant opportunities and funding. Some of the questions lenders ask are about terms and how the town operates the continuity of government. We have a lot of projects going on right now and we need that stability.”
Stability, Commissioner Scarola defends her vote for strategic planning and on-going town projects.
“A lot of the stuff we do is long-term plans,” she was quoted in Canady’s report, “and we have to look long term.”
No argument from Mayor Pro Tem Kenjuana McCray.
“I think it’s the right decision,” McCray previously told CityView. “It may not be popular among some people, but I hope it’s the right decision.”
Epilogue
You cannot help but wonder how Hope Mills mayors and commissioners of yesteryear, such as E.N. Brower, John Henley, Al Brafford, McKinley Hall, Edwin Deaver, E.A. “Pete” Warner, Eddie Dees, William “Bill” Luther or a Bob Gorman would have handled the issue.
Who’s right?
Who’s wrong?
Who knows?
In this once old mill town called Hope Mills, you might say, it’s water under the dam.
But Meg Larson’s July 23, 2025, note to our Cumberland County delegation in Raleigh should resonate with residents, no matter the town, city or municipality they call home.
“Democracy works when people go to the polls and vote,” Larson reminded. “This action by the Hope Mills elected officials, which denied that opportunity, is taking democracy out of the hands of the people.”
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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