Name: Shayne Frey
Party Affiliation: Republican
Career: Retired U.S. Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel and Six Time Combat Helicopter Pilot with more than 30 years of Active-Duty Service. After retiring from the military, I continued serving locally as an Asst. Varsity Baseball Coach at Topsail High School, a Pender County Schools bus driver, and substitute teacher. I also serve on the Pender EMS & Fire Board of Directors.
Degree: Bachelor’s Degree – Criminal Justice - Penn State
Master’s Degree - Aeronautical Science – Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
USMC - Military aviation and leadership background; extensive professional military education throughout my career.
Q. What qualifies you to serve on the Board of Commissioners?
My qualifications come from leadership, accountability, and real-world experience. I spent over three decades leading complex military organizations in extreme high-pressure environments where decisions had real consequences for people’s lives and valuable resources. That experience taught me discipline, fiscal responsibility, and the importance of planning ahead.
Locally, I’ve worked directly with our schools, students, parents, teachers, and first responders. I’ve seen overcrowded classrooms, overloaded buses, and strained infrastructure firsthand — not from reports, but from daily personal experience. I understand how county decisions affect residents because I live with those decisions like everyone else.
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?
The current board has succeeded in recognizing the need to support county employees and first responders, and I believe that commitment is important. However, too many decisions over the past decade have been reactive rather than proactive — particularly around growth, schools, and infrastructure.
What needs improvement is long-term planning, coordination, and accountability. Growth has been approved without sufficient consideration of school capacity, road congestion, and utility limits. My top priority would be restoring proactive planning so infrastructure and services keep pace with development — not fall years behind it.
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?
Pender County needs more representation on the WMPO board, more seats at the table.
I do not support a tri-county transit tax as it is currently being discussed. Pender County residents are being asked to help fund major projects in New Hanover and Brunswick counties without clear, direct benefits or guaranteed investments in Pender County infrastructure.
Before asking our residents to pay more in taxes, there must be a clearly defined list of projects located in Pender County, binding commitments on funding allocation, and assurance that our taxpayers will receive proportional value for what they contribute. At this point, those assurances do not exist.
Pender County should not be treated as a funding source for infrastructure projects elsewhere. Our focus must remain on meeting our own pressing needs — including roads, schools, and utilities — before asking residents to take on additional regional tax burdens.
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?
The issues appear to stem from leadership turnover, process breakdowns, and insufficient internal controls. The phishing incident highlights the need for stronger cybersecurity protocols and oversight.
Stability will require experienced leadership, better succession planning, clear accountability, and investments in staff training and systems. Transparency and regular reporting to commissioners and the public will also be critical to restoring trust.
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?
The 2026 revaluation will likely result in significant increases in assessed values due to market conditions. Revaluation itself is not a tax increase, but it can become one if tax rates are not adjusted responsibly.
More frequent revaluations can reduce sticker shock, but they also come with increased administrative costs. The key issue isn’t frequency alone — it’s whether commissioners commit to revenue-neutral tax rates and resist using revaluations as a backdoor tax increase.
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?
Supporting county employees and first responders is essential, but it must be done responsibly. I support competitive pay and benefits paired with performance-based budgeting, waste reduction, and prioritizing core services over non-essential spending.
Good stewardship means aligning compensation decisions with long-term fiscal sustainability, not short-term political pressure.
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?
Transparency must not depend on any single outlet. As commissioner, I would support proactive communication through public meetings, clear agendas, detailed financial explanations, and direct outreach to residents through multiple platforms.
Even when disagreements exist, openness builds trust. Residents deserve timely, accurate information about decisions that affect their lives.
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?
If federal changes shift additional administrative costs to counties, the state must play a significant role in funding and implementation. Counties should not be left holding unfunded mandates.
I would advocate for state support, efficient administration, and coordination with workforce development agencies to minimize cost impacts while ensuring eligible residents receive services.
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 infrastructure is one of the county’s most critical responsibilities, especially as growth continues. While Pender County has made investments in its utilities, we need to be more strategic in how those systems are expanded and managed to ensure reliability, affordability, and long-term sustainability.
I support incentivizing — not forcing — well users to connect to the county system where capacity already exists. Many residents rely on wells by choice, and any effort to expand connections should respect property rights while offering reasonable financial incentives, cost-sharing, or phased connection options.
At the same time, the county must prioritize extending sewer service to areas where septic systems are failing or at risk of failure. That is not just a growth issue — it is a public health and environmental concern. Targeting those areas first protects groundwater, nearby waterways, and existing neighborhoods.
Going forward, water and sewer planning should be closely tied to growth decisions, with developers paying their fair share, and with a clear focus on solving existing problems before expanding capacity solely to support new development.
Q: If elected, how will you approach the issue of development?
Growth is inevitable, but reckless growth is not. I support responsible, organized development that respects property rights while ensuring infrastructure, schools, and all required services can support it.
This means better proactive planning, using legal tools available to the county, and requiring development to be aligned with community capacity — not approved simply because it is proposed.