Name: Joseph A. Cina
Party affiliation: Republican
Career: Regional Manager / Business Owner
Degree: B.S. Criminal Justice
Q: What qualifies you to serve on the board of commissioners?
Statutorily, I am a resident of Pender County, I am a registered voter, I am over 21 years of age, I am affiliated with a party for over 90 days, and I have not been convicted of a felony. Personally, I am a single father of 3 children growing up in Pender County and attending Pender County Schools. I am a homeowner and a small business owner in Pender County. I have served my community for over 2 decades to include appointed positions and voluntary positions. I have served on the Pender County ABC Board, Tourism Development Board, Juvenile Crime Prevention Board, and the Cape Fear Fair and Expo Board all with the purpose of making Pender County a safer and more enjoyable place to live and raise a family. I am an active member of the Rotary Club and have coached numerous sports in our community to dozens of children over the years. I have had the honor of substitute teaching in Pender County Schools and currently own a local small business in Pender County. I am invested in our community and have proven my dedication to making Pender County a desirable and safe place to raise a family.
Q: What is your view of the current board’s leadership? What are they succeeding at, and what needs to be improved? What would your top priority be?
Anyone who steps forward to serve on a community board deserves to be noticed and thanked for their service. It is hard to be critical of current elected officials as one does not know their restrictions or what may occur behind the scenes on topics especially those that could be controversial. For instance, one of my top priorities would be to focus on the current Unified Development Ordinances. These ordinances are supposed to restrict and help control over development. They should help to protect our infrastructure, but unfortunately they are outdated. Apparently if I am correct they were last updated in 2010 and are far overdue for a review for practicality and effectiveness. There has been community outcry to address these ordinances in order to prevent the "rubber stamping" of new developments that continue to place more strain on our current infrastructure particularly as it relates to traffic and school overcrowding.
Q: Local leaders on the WMPO board are considering a tri-county transit tax to fund significant infrastructure projects, like the replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. It will require buy-in from the state legislature as well as local leaders. Where do you stand on this proposal?
Until recently the WMPO had not really been noticed nor vocally spoken of in our community. We currently only have one representative on this board which is far less than our community deserves. Other communities have more positions which allows them more voting power during topic discussions. Not much education has been shared as to what they actually do for our community. I would not support a tri-county transit tax primarily for these reasons. Pender County does not have equal representation on the board and receives far less in funding for our roads. Future projects in Pender County are also not prioritized in the same manner as other counties primarily because Pender County only holds one vote on the entire board. I would be more inclined to ask for more representation on the board before ever considering any votes that will cost Pender County residents more in taxes.
Q: The county finance department had a challenging 2025, with leadership changes, budget delays and, finally, a phishing scam that cost the county over $650,000. What do you think led to these challenges, and how do you think the department can reach more stable ground?
Without at a minimum of being a county employee it is near impossible to answer this question without assuming. I will say that transparency with the community would greatly help to keep the community's trust in our local government. Positive or negative the community wants to know what is taking place with their tax dollars. The longer it takes to share that information the more the community will lose their trust and rumors will begin to spread and take over the conversation whether true or false. Obviously some things did occur, so policies and procedures will need to be updated and changed to prevent the recurrence of these types of situations from occurring. We are all human and mistakes do happen. We have to overcome those mistakes and learn from them to prevent them from occurring again.
Q: Pender County will be conducting a tax revaluation in 2026 – its first since 2019. How do you think that will impact the county, and should revals be done more often?
It was stated in the beginning of this re-evaluation by the lead representative for the company doing the evaluation that they will be seeking 100% value for all properties in Pender County. Obviously if this occurs we will see a considerable increase in property values. We hope to see the current seated County Commissioner aware of this increase and would like to see a vote to lower the property tax rate so as to prevent property owners in Pender County from paying an increase. The increase in new development properties now paying in our tax fund should be enough to cover our growth expenses without having to raise tax payouts for our current property owners. Without having the county manager's office provide hard data it is hard to give a definitive answer, but I strongly feel at a minimum the rate should be adjusted down to prevent an increase in property payouts especially since we as county government are far above our statutory requirement for our savings balance.
Q: This past year, commissioners authorized several large raise packages for county employees, including $900k for fire and EMS staff and $331k for PCS bus drivers. But those decisions did not come without debate over how to be good stewards of taxpayer money. What will you do as commissioner to fund critical public services and recruit/retain quality staff, while also keeping money in taxpayers' wallets?
We must provide our community with quality employees, so that they receive quality service in return. The term you get what you pay for becomes relevant in this situation. We have to constantly observe our neighbors and their pay scales, benefits, and incentives in order to attract quality employees to our team. We must remain open minded and constantly gather information that will help and guide us to make good conservative and financially responsible decisions for our community. This may be a pay adjustment, it may be an equipment upgrade, or even a look at the benefits we offer to our team. Seeking help from a consultant outside of our team will also offer a good tool to refer to when making these decisions. I also would be inclined to bring in a consultant group to help attract healthy businesses to our community especially hotels that will allow us to collect a hotel tax that can be put back into our community. Approximately a few years ago the county manager's office made this request during a commissioners meeting, but it was denied. I would like to revisit the idea and move forward with this option to bring in more funding from outside our community.
Q: Pender County has very few news outlets. One of the largest local publications is the Pender Topsail-Post and Voice, which is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the county. As an elected official, how will you promote transparency and communicate important decisions to residents?
This is a very challenging question to answer without insight from the county manager's office. I have seen the general statute interpreted several different ways over the last year. Most importantly I am pro small business and I do believe in investing in our own community first. However, we as a community expect our local elected officials to save us money if possible without making unnecessary sacrifices. It is my understanding that our local commissioners have the option to advertise the statutory obligated civil matters using our own resources such as online although this would not provide a great amount of coverage throughout our community especially with announcements. The listings must be published on a weekly basis also and this needs to be taken into consideration. An important factor in deciding which way to go with this topic is to understand that our judicial district includes New Hanover and Pender Counties. Therefore, we have to consider an avenue that will ultimately send out our notices and information to the most community members available especially when it comes to auction announcements, to maximise our efforts while also considering how much we are paying using tax dollars. I would like to see all options available presented to the community for feedback and then presented to the commissioners board including that feedback. This will help to keep full transparency of the process moving forward.
Q: WUNC reports federal changes to SNAP funding may require county governments to cover additional costs associated with Medicaid – counties would have to ensure recipients (including veterans, people aged 55-65, and parents of kids over 14) meet work requirements, which would cost Pender County more money. How would you approach this funding issue?
We absolutely must take care of our veterans and explore all options available to maintain this service throughout our community. We have to stay in contact with our state representatives and build a strong relationship in order to address this issue at a state level first. Hopefully, working together we can get some state assistance and then visit our options at a local level to make up for the difference. We will need to meet with all of our neighboring counties and together learn from each other on what each of us are doing to solve this issue in our communities. Together we will be able to come up with a solution to solve this issue.
Q: Do you feel the county’s current water and sewer utilities are being adequately funded and managed? Do you think it should be a county priority to connect people using well water to the county's water and sewer?
Water and sewer utilities have remained a constant topic throughout our county over the years. I do know we need to visit the guidelines currently set in place for developers when building a new community. Too many water systems have failed or are failing causing community members to fend for themselves. This is not acceptable and should not be allowed. We all deserve the right to clean water in our community and most protect this right. I do believe that community members deserve a right to connect to water and sewer if they choose too, but I fully understand that under our current UDO we have allowed development to outgrow and move faster than our infrastructure. This needs to be addressed and especially in areas such as Rocky Point where they have yet to be over developed although it is coming especially if we do not address the UDO. Infrastructure needs to be allowed to catch up and put into place to allow our citizens to decide which direction they want to go. Unfortunately, I do not have any knowledge on the current funding placed into our water and sewer utilities and would need to seek advice from our county manager's office and comparison data to other counties of similar size and population.
Q: If elected, how will you approach the issue of development?
I would task the county manager's and the county attorney's office with gathering all intel as soon as possible on how we can gain immediate control over this situation. We cannot stop development, but we must begin to control it and slow it immediately, so that our infrastructure can catch up. Doing nothing has seemed to put us in this situation and it is time to try something for our citizens. We must be transparent in this process and share each step with our citizens to earn their trust. We have to show that we are in this fight with our citizens and ultimately gain control back over our overpopulated east side while protecting our west side from the same overdevelopment that has struck us already on the east side.