Election 2025: Meet Southport Alderman candidate Bonnie Bray

SOUTHPORT, NC (WWAY) — The 2025 municipal election is underway, and Southport voters will soon decide who will serve as the city’s next mayor and aldermen.

To help voters learn more about where each candidate stands on key local issues, WWAY sent a questionnaire to all Southport aldermen and mayoral candidates. The questions cover topics such as growth and development, public safety, housing, and transparency in government.

Not every candidate responded to our request. For those who did, we are publishing their responses in their entirety, to give voters a direct look at their priorities and perspectives before heading to the polls.

Background and Motivation

1. Tell us a little about yourself — your background, experience, and connection to Southport.

I have been a resident of Southport since 2010, when my husband and I moved here from Maryland. My professional career includes 22 years as a local government finance officer, followed by five years of consulting on fiscal matters for towns and cities across North Carolina, as well as for the NC League of Municipalities.
Beyond my professional work, I have actively supported the Southport community through volunteer service with several non-profit organizations and city appointments. I have been deeply committed to public service throughout my adult life and pledge my knowledge and experience to making meaningful, positive contributions to Southport’s local government and its decision-making processes.

2. Why are you running for the Board of Aldermen, and what inspired you to seek public office?

I am running for Southport alderman for reasons that stem from the love I have for our community and my commitment to its well-being. Two attributes distinguish me from the other Ward 2 candidates and provide a basis for my wanting to participate in this way, at this time.
I have a deep background in managing the fiscal resources of local governments in towns the same size as Southport, which requires a different skill set than is needed to work in a state government department. I believe Southport is suffering from a lack of financial wisdom and needs the kind of practical insight I bring to the table.
I have also participated, boots-on-the-ground, in a wide variety of volunteer positions with local nonprofits since I retired from working full time in 2018. This experience has given me a unique perspective on the amazing depth and breadth of Southport’s non-governmental civic life, which I know firsthand is only fully understood through direct participation with other volunteers working on behalf of the common good.

3. What are your top three priorities if elected?

Storm water management, traffic congestion, and infrastructure improvements are top of my list for attention, in that order. The challenges we face from these big issues are exacerbated by Brunswick County’s explosive growth rate, which brings tens of thousands of visitors to Southport in search of its quaint, downtown charm but does not contribute to upkeep. Our challenge involves balancing the need to fund ongoing advancements without starving the parts of the public treasury that pay for other vital services and finding other sources of funding to get the job done more quickly.

Growth and Development

4. How would you balance the preservation of Southport’s small-town character with new residential and commercial growth?

Adoption of the Southport Local Historic District Design Standards currently before the board of aldermen is a critical factor in ensuring Southport’s small-town character is preserved. Without it, existing properties have no protection from being razed or irrevocably altered — our history, just erased.
New residential and commercial growth taking place outside the historic district should be guided by more flexible zoning options that encourage the development of affordable housing for starter and middle-class families, accessory dwellings to accommodate elder lodging, and more rental units. We need more viable housing options for workforce people who contribute to our quality of life through their employment — teachers, first responders, healthcare technicians, retail and restaurant staff, etc. — so that they can afford to live where they work. We should also explore the use of conditional zoning features that require housing developers to take responsibility for infrastructure installations and improvements.

5. What role should the city play in guiding development along Highway 211 and surrounding areas?

Although Southport is directly affected by growth outside our city limits, we historically have had very little influence on the external powers that be, i.e. Brunswick County officials and legislators in Raleigh. That said, we must continue to assert our authority when applicable and increase our efforts when ignored.
Removal of Southport’s extra-territorial jurisdiction (ETJ) last year and recent threats of de-annexations represent a particularly abrupt decline in our autonomy imposed by Raleigh. To minimize further intrusions, Southport’s elected officials will need to expand relationships with our state representatives, not lessen their involvement, and claim our seat at the bargaining table.
County citizens are individually trying to combat the rampant growth forced upon all of us due to lax zoning laws that have increased flooding, strained transportation and existing resources, and caused environmental damage. Similarly, our business before the county commissioners in Bolivia would be maximized by working directly with these residents of homeowner associations along the 211 corridor. As Brunswick County’s “downtown” directly serving five municipalities in the 28461 zip code, as well as with Oak Island and Caswell Beach, Southport also has an opportunity to join forces with our cities and towns to create an organizing force with a very loud voice.

6. How should Southport plan for sustainable growth that protects natural resources, historic districts, and waterfront access?

The board of aldermen recently approved a new comprehensive master plan, which will be instrumental to guiding Southport’s land use and development for the next 25 years. It provides a much-needed update to the existing 2014 plan (amended 2020), reiterating our five core values:

· Preserve the city’s historic character

· Protect the city’s shoreline vista

· Support the city’s central business district

· Preserve the city’s residential areas

· Protect the city’s area of environmental concern

This plan is aligned with the Coastal Area Management Act applicable to all coastal communities statewide. It is also congruent with the city’s 2023-2028 Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan, as well as the Buildout Analysis completed for Southport by the Cape Fear Council of Governments in 2023, the city’s Urban Forestry Management Plan and the Comprehensive Pedestrian Transportation Plan. Add these comprehensive guidelines to the currently ongoing waterfront stabilization efforts and pending historic district plan approval and we have a very handy blueprint to follow.

Infrastructure and Public Services

7. What infrastructure improvements do you believe should be prioritized, including roads, stormwater, and utilities?

Southport elected officials in the previous administration established a six-year capital improvement program funded by an annual appropriation of one penny of the city’s 31-cent property tax rate. This dedication is independent of ongoing expenditures for road improvements, storm water management measures, work funded by the electric fund to bury overhead electric lines, and funding for waterfront stabilization. In addition to supporting these projects, I will advocate for a new police headquarters building to accommodate expected growth in the number of officers and staff for the next 40 years. This would be on a par with projected needs guiding the construction of Southport’s fire headquarters in 2010.

8. How would you ensure city services and staff are adequately supported to meet residents’ needs?

Southport seems to be doing a good job of supporting staff with appropriate salaries and benefits, as well as including ample staff development training monies in the annual budget. I think they would also profit from an ongoing forum between citizens and staff members who provide city services to formally engage on this topic in a manner that allows free and open dialogue. Southport’s monthly newsletter brings city employees of all ranks into the spotlight, as contributors to the quality of life in Southport, and I would absolutely encourage this to continue. However, it would be similarly useful to bring residents more into the open with employees, so the latter can gain insight into how effective the city services actually are.

9. How should Southport address parking, traffic congestion, and pedestrian safety concerns?

There are so many ways — large and small — the city could address our transportation issues. Some of these are currently ongoing, some are awaiting grant awards, some are contingent on the completion of related work. None of them involve paid parking!

Large: resurface the roads, install more crosswalks, build more sidewalks, bury electrical lines underground, construct electric charging stations

Small: update road striping, fill potholes, clean up business district parking in city rights of way, add more golf cart restricted parking

Community and Economic Vitality

10. What ideas do you have for supporting local businesses and tourism while maintaining residents’ quality of life?

The city manager hosts regular monthly meetings with Southport business owners to discuss a whole range of issues they are experiencing with varying amounts of success and failure. By all accounts his roundtable method has been embraced by all participants — I see this as a model for the kind of city staff/resident forum I’m proposing above in question #8. Business owners were instrumental to the defeat of paid parking as a topic of conversation recently after they pointed out the devastating effect it would have on retail employees and regular customers. We need to make it easier for residents and visitors to shop locally by addressing the parking, traffic congestion, and pedestrian safety concerns noted above in question #9.

11. How would you promote affordable housing and workforce housing opportunities in Southport?

To the affordable housing zoning ideas I listed to question #4, I would add one thing. Brunswick Partnership for Housing is a non-profit organization that serves the population of unhoused people in southeastern Brunswick County and works to build transitional housing opportunities for families in Southport. They have proven to be a reliable partner with the city, possessing a great deal of knowledge about specifically local conditions and the broader implications of homelessness in general. If we are ever to understand what is needed to keep more people in homes of their own, the relationship between Southport and Brunswick Partnership for Housing is one that should be supported to the fullest extent possible.

12. What should the city do to enhance parks, recreation, and community spaces?

Southport’s parks and other community spaces provide an abundance of opportunities for city residents and visitors to spend time in the open air together comfortably while engaged in a wide range of other activities, such as shopping, dining out, playing sports, visiting a museum, listening to music, going to the library, or dog walking through neighborhoods. After the city met the challenge posed by supporters of Franklin Square Park last year, it appears to be honoring its ongoing responsibility to maintain and nurture all outdoor landscapes well. The fact that our parks are regularly occupied year-round speaks volumes about the service they provide.

The city’s recreation program is an area I know very little about — I pledge to remedy my current lack of information about it. Thanks for raising this question.

Leadership and Accountability

13. How will you ensure transparency and communication between city government and residents?

The virtues of transparency and communication between city government and residents in Southport have been tested during the last two years. What was especially productive and calm leadership from the dais during the previous administration has since become drama and more drama. I will actively work to undo that damage by staying true to the values of public service that put collective effort and collaborative practices at the top of all agendas.
We need to replace the gavel with receptive listening. We need to distribute information well in advance of deliberation. We need to give stakeholders the tools to influence our decisions, instead of beating only our drum. We need to govern, not shout.

14. What do you think Southport does well, and what would you like to see improved?

Rather than being under assault from ever more threatening external forces, Southport is a city made up of people who continue making it as perfect as it can be from the inside out.
We do that by giving of our time as volunteers in service to the larger community. We do that by sustaining our local businesses and institutions. We do that by sharing more than the time of day with our neighbors. These collective joint efforts nurture our lives here every single day.
They also give us just exactly what we need to confront the challenges we face. Whether it is the county’s fast pace of development, the quality of representation in Raleigh, or our city’s own self-generated malfunctions, quick fixes are not the answer. Finding long-term solutions is plain hard work that starts with a commitment to the common good. Fortunately, we’ve got that part nailed.

15. What makes you the best candidate to represent your ward and the people of Southport?

I am a Ward 2 candidate for alderman at a pivotal time for our community. Southport is facing increasing pressure from rapid development, long overdue storm water management issues, and a growing list of concerns that continue to impact our daily lives, not to mention the ongoing road construction activity that is making us all crazy.
Now more than ever, we need thoughtful, experienced leadership to help navigate these issues and ensure the voice of every resident is heard and valued. Southport was founded on the principles of respect, honor, and a deep regard for the rights of the community members. Today, we are called to show that same courage — balancing our individual interests with the collective well-being of our neighbors.

We don’t need to be adversaries. Instead, we must come together as a village of engaged, committed residents, all invested in the future of our city. This election is your opportunity to support the kind of capable, visionary leadership Southport needs to navigate today’s challenges and shape a thriving tomorro