John Burns: Coble avoiding issues

In his initial letter to the League of Women Voters of Wake County, Commissioner Paul Coble claimed that he wouldn’t attend three public forums because the league is engaged in a lawsuit against Wake County. There is no such lawsuit. Coble’s Sept. 5 letter “ GOP commissioners attending plenty of forums” backs off that claim, asserting that the deposition of the director of the Wake County Board of Elections in a statewide suit is enough to give rise to a conflict of interest.

Coble also refused to attend a WakeUp Wake County forum because the group has taken positions different from his, making it ineligible to sponsor forums. If that were a universal criteria, no politician would ever appear at any forum sponsored by any group.

Shunning the League of Women Voters forums is another example of Coble’s disrespect for opinions other than his own. Those forums would have required him to answer for the mass exodus of quality teachers from our public schools on his watch. He would have had to defend his rejection of budget requests from the Wake County schools. And he would certainly have needed to explain years of inaction on a transit plan.

I’m running to pull us together, not continue to drive us apart.

John Burns, Raleigh

The writer is Paul Coble’s Democratic opponent in the Wake County Board of Commissioners race.

This story was originally published September 9, 2014 at 5:26 PM with the headline "John Burns: Coble avoiding issues."