Liar, liar, pants on fire

Liar.

It's a word that has been used often by Mayor-hopeful Jared Esselman and his campaign to characterize an at-large commissioner candidate, Skip Alexander, who has apparently been circulating a two-page document of his concerns about the would-be mayor and the truthfulness of some of his credentials and statements.

Earlier this week, Esselman wrote a document of his own in rebuttal of Alexander's document. In it, he makes the jump from Alexander being a liar to opposing mayoral candidate Miles Atkins being a liar, asking citizens: “Do you want another pair of liars representing you in office? These two politicians are willing to lie to you now, how much will they be willing to lie about once they are in office?”

Esselman calls Alexander a liar over an assertion Alexander makes that Esselman wants to radically restructure Mooresville's form of government, eliminating the need for a town manager and instead passing those duties – and the hefty salary – to a full-time mayor. Alexander cites a letter that Esselman wrote to commissioners in March to back up his allegation.

But Esselman says that letter was just a research paper he wrote while still studying at Harvard. “My thesis was: Instead of going through the hiring process (once Town Manager Steve Husemann resigned), here's another option,” Esselman said in a phone interview with the Report on Monday.

In his rebuttal document, Esselman says: “Skip is taking my college research and using it to deceive the people of Mooresville.”

To the Report, Esselman said that his “research paper” was essentially just “copying and pasting what (other cities) do” to provide some alternatives for the board to consider. He says he never suggested that the commissioners should restructure Mooresville's government.

But that's not exactly true.

In fact, in a March 13 e-mail to commissioners, the mayor and town attorney - obtained by the Report in a public-records request - Esselman writes: “We may not be a major metropolitan area but we are the largest city in Iredell County and we have witnessed the Council-Manager systems’ flaws and failures time and time again. Now is the time to adopt a new system!”

“ … the Town of Mooresville currently uses the Council-Manager form of Government. This form is very traditional for American cities and certainly has its benefits but also has its detriments,” Esselman writes. “I might suggest that with the rate of growth Mooresville has been experiencing and with the Town’s growing prominence in both Iredell County and the Piedmont region, transitioning to a Mayor-Council form of government could be incredibly beneficial.

“I ask the City Council to consider revising the Town Charter so as to create a Mayor-Council system of government. The timing could not be more appropriate. The need could not be more present.”

He also included potential changes to the town charter that would include granting the mayor the power to appoint deputy mayors to “serve at the pleasure of the mayor,” and he included an annual salary for the mayor of .33 percent of the town budget's general fund … just like Alexader states in his two-page document.

In a separate document Esselman sent to commissioners on March 13, the mayor-hopeful writes: “With Mayor Montgomery not seeking re-election, and since the Town Manager resigned, we as citizens are in the perfect position to vote on a referendum revising the Town Charter and creating a Mayor-Council structure for our town government.

"Mooresville needs full time leadership, and a full time Mayor."

Interestingly, on the following day, March 14, Esselman filed his Statement of Organization with the Iredell County Board of Elections to run for Mayor of Mooresville.

Just a research paper? Or a proposition to radically restructure Mooresville's town government?

You decide.