City Council Hears from Candidates for Empty District 6 Seat

Members of Charlotte City Council held a special meeting Thursday afternoon to hear from candidates vying for former council member Tariq Bokhari’s vacated seat. The replacement for Bokhari, a Republican who represented District 6, must be a registered Republican who lives in D6 and is over 21 years old. The term ends in December. 

Bokhari stepped down from his seat on April 20 after accepting a job with the Trump administration as deputy administrator for the Federal Transit Administration, the number two position in the US Department of Transportation. Bokhari was one of only two Republicans on Charlotte’s 11-member city council along with D7 rep Ed Driggs. 

Council members have expressed a preference for filling the seat with someone not seeking to run in D6 in December, since whomever council appoints will enjoy the advantages of incumbency if they run for reelection.

Along with Mayor Vi Lyles, seven council members were present at Thursday’s meeting: Mayor Pro Tem Danté Anderson, Reneé Johnson, Marjorie Molina, Malcolm Graham, LaWana Mayfield and Dr. Victoria Watlington.

Nine candidates applied for the seat, five of whom were present at the meeting: business owner and property manager Sary Chakra, former NC Rep. and city council member Andy Dulin, former council member and Republican mayoral candidate Edwin Peacock III, retired medical practice manager James Rice, and local anti-domestic violence advocate La Reshia Poore, who had originally been ruled ineligible due to a misunderstanding about her voter registration.  

Deputy City Clerk Billie Tynes announced during Thursday’s meeting that she had pulled up the NC Board of Elections paperwork and found that Poore actually was a registered Republican voter, so she was allowed to apply for the D6 seat and address council at the meeting.  

Another candidate, conservative columnist and former Charlotte Agenda editor-in-chief Andrew Dunn, notified council in advance that he could not attend the meeting but included a video presentation in his email. The video was not played publicly at the meeting.

Conspicuous by her absence at Thursday’s meeting was Tariq Bokhari’s wife, Krista Bokhari. In his final town hall in April, Tariq Bokhari supported his wife for his former seat and she has already gained endorsements from NC Sen. Vickie Sawyer, NC Rep. Tricia Cotham and the Mecklenburg County GOP.  

Krista, who ran for NC House District 104 in 2024 and lost to Democratic incumbent Rep. Brandon Lofton, has recently taken an aggressive stance toward city council and called on CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings to resign after the city reached a reported settlement with Jennings during a closed-door session related to text messages he received from Tariq while he was still on council last summer. 

After the settlement, Krista wrote long social media posts denouncing the actions of council members and defending her husband’s actions. At least one council member, Malcolm Graham, has already spoken publicly about his reluctance to appoint Krista due to her being a family member of the rep she would be replacing. 

Each candidate delivered a five-minute statement before receiving questions from council members.

Candidates’ statements

Referring to his work in stormwater and infrastructure construction, Chakra said, “I deal directly with budgets, code enforcement and quality of life issues that matter to everyday people.” He also praised the departed council member he hopes to replace.

“Bokhari expressed hope that whoever filled his seat would continue to prioritize public safety and infrastructure,” said Chakra, a first generation Lebanese American born and raised in Charlotte.

In the interest of transparency, Chakra also noted that he fully intended to run for the D6 seat when it came up for election in November.

“If selected, I’ll be a voice for our neighbors and a bridge for this community,” Chakra concluded.

Dulin, who represented District 6 from 2005-2013, said he was proud of the work city council did during his tenure, in particular the building and expansion of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.

“I’m particularly interested in economic development,” Dulin said. “We’re growing a city where people want to come live.”

“I had a really wonderful run on city council,” Dulin noted, adding that he did not intend to run again in the fall. “I’m just thrilled to have the opportunity to come down [and serve] for a short period of time.”

Like Dulin, Peacock has previously served on council, representing the city at large from 2007-’11.

Referencing his career as a mortgage loan officer, Peacock stressed the importance of affordable housing for the city.

“[For] everybody in Charlotte, we don’t want to see them just have shelter, we want to see them have a place that they can own and build equity in the community,” Peacock said.

Peacock assured council that he does not intend to run for the seat when the current term ends.

Rice told of his hard and impoverished upbringing, raised by a single mother in Kentucky and Florida, before finding a position in the banking industry and moving to Charlotte where he transitioned into medical industry management. 

The five-minute limit on statements ran out before the 80-year-old Rice could finish his story.

“My point is that there are two things in our lives that are very important to us, our health care and our money, and I’m very experienced in managing both of those,” Rice concluded.

“I go into schools every day through CMS to be able to share about the awareness of teen dating violence,” Poore told council, explaining her contract job with Mecklenburg County, counseling young people on domestic and teen dating abuse. She added that her focus for Charlotte was on safe neighborhoods, and increasing economic opportunities for residents.

“If given the opportunity to be able to sit on the council, I will continue to encourage people to let them know their voice matters,” Poore said, adding that she plans on running for the D6 seat in the fall. 

Council questions applicants

Council member Marjorie Molina of District 5 asked Peacock and Dulin for their opinions on the proposed one-cent sales tax increase to help fund transportation projects including roads, buses and light rail. 

Peacock referred to his previous support for using a half-cent sales tax that had been approved by Charlotte voters to help fund the city’s first light rail line.

“That half-cent sales tax discussion that we had in 2007 is largely proven to be exactly … what the city staff planners told us about the opportunity for improvement — not only in reducing congestion, but [in] economic development,” said Peacock, who went against the Republican Party line in opposing a repeal of the half-cent tax. 

Peacock also noted that, in 2007, council was united in forming a consensus for the proposal.

Stating that D6 voters supported the half-cent sales tax referendum in 2007, Dulin added that the district could similarly support the current proposal for a one-cent tax increase.

“What would be helpful to the council and to the city is to have a salesman like myself to go out and sell it [to D6],” Dulin said.

When asked by Dr. Victoria Watlington if he held any positions today that ran counter to positions he had back in 2005-2013, Dulin noted that he used to have doubts about the streetcar line that now runs east-west through Uptown, connecting the Five Points area near Johnson C. Smith University to the Elizabeth neighborhood, but has become a big transportation supporter since.

“It turns out that light rail line, the Blue Line to Pineville, we took a lot of flack for that back in the day — and sure enough, it’s a home run out of the park,” Dulin said.  

Poore stressed that council needed to listen to the public when trying to persuade people to support a proposal.

“That’s what [builds] the support of the community whenever you’re putting out a [proposal],” she said. “People want to know that they can at least be heard, their problems [and] issues are being heard.”

Mayor Lyles concluded Thursday’s meeting by stating that council will appoint Bokhari’s replacement during its next scheduled meeting on Monday, May 19. 

“I feel more comfortable if we as a body have a chance to have a discussion prior to us just submitting [our choice],” said District 1 rep Dante Anderson, “and the only way that happens is if we have a chance to dialogue amongst ourselves.”

“Let’s figure out if we can make that possible,” replied Lyles.

Monday’s meeting begins at 5 p.m. and will be streamed on the city of Charlotte’s YouTube and Facebook pages.