Incumbents sweep Black Mountain Town Council election
King, Hay and Pertiller retain seats, Stone runs unopposed to finish term
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
November 6, 2024
Pam King led all candidates with 2,502 votes in the 2024 race for Black Mountain Town Council. The incumbent will begin her second term later this year. Photo by Fred McCormick
The current Black Mountain Town Council will remain intact, following the Nov. 5 Buncombe County General Election.
Incumbents Doug Hay, Pam King and Archie Pertiller, Jr. will each retain their seats on the town’s governing board while Ryan Stone ran unopposed to fulfill the remaining two years of his term. The unofficial results will be certified, Friday, Nov. 15.
The current town council members defeated three challengers: Dan Cordell, Rick Earley and Lisa Milton. Stone, despite facing no opposition, led all candidates with 3,832 votes.
King, who received 2,502 votes, led all candidates in the contested election, followed by the 2,501 ballots cast for Hay. Pertiller, the vice mayor of Black Mountain, garnered 2,445 votes. Cordell, a retired Black Mountain building inspector, received 2,322 votes, according to the unofficial results, while Earley, who fell short in his second campaign for a seat, earned 1,898. Milton received 1,383 votes.
Each of the candidates, who ran for the first time in 2020, will return for a second term, reflecting community support for current policies and the town’s response to Tropical Storm Helene, according to King.
“I’ve heard a lot of people express gratitude for this town’s leadership, and by that they don’t mean me, they’re talking about our town administrators and emergency services,” she said, outside of the polling site at St. James Episcopal Church. “I think everything we’ve experienced these past few weeks brought people to a new realization of how important it is to have people in those positions who know what they are doing.”
The natural disaster not only interrupted the campaign season for all candidates, it also “reshaped conversations,” according to Hay.
“People want an engaged, transparent town council, and they want recreation and for us to invest in our youth sports and parks,” he said. “People also have concerns about the growth of the town, and managing that in a smart way. Obviously, the storm changed so many of the conversations we were having, but those needs still exist.”
Pertiller, who was stationed daily at the disaster management information center for weeks after the storm, heard numerous concerns about local recovery.
Doug Hay retains his Black Mountain Town Council seat with 2,501 votes in the 2024 General Election. Photo by Fred McCormick
“I didn’t campaign at all in October, because I’m a sitting council member and my first thought was, ‘I have to do something to help my hometown,’” he said. “Volunteering at the chamber really allowed me to hear what people were saying. Recovery is going to be a long-term process, and we have to make sure we do everything in a fiscally responsible way.”
Winning re-election validates the importance of the council’s work over the last four years, according to King.
“Personally, I’m grateful that the entire council voted to address an aging fleet of public safety vehicles,” she said. “Our police and fire chiefs came up with a more efficient replacement system so we would have reliable vehicles in a pinch. Because of that, we were fortunate to have our emergency vehicles running during and after the storm.”
King plans to focus on rebuilding the town in her second term.
“There is still a lot of unknown, and even though I learned a lot in my first four years, there is now a bunch of new stuff to learn from this storm,” she said. “Going forward, I’m going to be asking questions about how this impacts building codes, where development occurs and how those decisions impact affordable housing. There are a lot of things we have to think carefully about.”
Bringing visitors back to town and stimulating the local economy is among Hay’s top priorities.
Black Mountain Vice Mayor Archie Pertiller, Jr. is one of three incumbents to retain his town council seat, according to the unofficial 2024 Buncombe County General Election results. The election will be certified, Nov. 15. Photo by Fred McCormick
“The storm certainly complicates things on the financial end,” he said. “Right now we need to get everything back open and make sure we’re taking care of our residents and getting services up and running. But, there is so much damage to our infrastructure and buildings, we have to take care of that stuff before we go back and revisit what we had in the works before.”
His prior experience on the board will allow him to “hit the ground running” when addressing these issues, he added.
“I don’t have to worry about getting caught up to speed, so that’s a huge bonus,” Hay said. “I’ve learned and met so many people over these past four years, I’m now part of local groups that I barely knew existed before. Relationships in the community are huge, both for getting things done and for gathering a variety of perspectives.”
Pertiller intends to continue conversations that began in the aftermath of the disaster.
“I don’t have an agenda, I just want to do what’s best for this town,” he said. “It’s important to listen to concerns and needs and find ways to address them to the best of our ability.”