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Mecklenburg County commissioners address Charlotte protests

By Liz Foster
By Liz Foster

CHARLOTTE — Mecklenburg County commissioners met Tuesday afternoon to talk about how to address concerns of people protesting and the community as a whole, following unrest after the officer-involved shooting of Keith Scott.

"We've been through a very tumultuous week," Commission Chairman Trevor Fuller said in his opening statement.

It was a much calmer, almost somber meeting inside the chambers compared to Monday night when dozens of people berated Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts and City Council members in the same chambers for how they handled fallout from the shooting last week.

"It didn't surprise me," Commissioner Pat Cotham told Channel 9 about the emotional and tense City Council meeting. Cotham said she understands people wanted their voices heard and hopes the two government bodies can work together to heal the community.

"We are where we are and we're all neighbors of each other. We need to be grown-ups and we need to try to work with each other,"
Cotham said.

Many in the community are critical of Roberts, who worked with commissioners years ago when she was on the board.

The longest serving commissioner, Bill James, said one part of her leadership style hasn’t changed. “When faced with conflict, she tries to figure out a way to avoid it,” James said.

County commissioners unanimously approved a resolution to seek programs and actions to address concerns of the community in the long term. But there still seems to be dissension on how to do that.

"To me, this is not sufficient to meet what people were crying out for on the streets of this city," Fuller said.

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