The challenger: Robin Mann
Sitting at a small conference table in her spacious but utilitarian office, Robin Mann pulls out two slightly faded photos.
They showed a much younger Robin Mann when she spent time working on a scallop boat.
After moving here in 1984, Mann says, she experienced life the way many Outer Bankers have — on a fishing boat, waiting tables, handling rental houses and selling real estate through the economic ups and downs — before taking over as chief financial officer of her husband’s boat-building business.
And as head of finances and human resources at Paul Mann Custom Boats, she says, she has confronted the kinds of decisions many business and government leaders faced during the long recession — cutbacks and layoffs.
“I have spent my entire adult life making a living right here in Dare County. That’s very important,” she said.
Mann, a Democrat, is campaigning to unseat Republican Jack Shea, a chemist and corporate manager who is running for a second at-large term on the Dare County Board of Commissioners.
This is Mann’s second run for a seat on the board. In 2006, she finished second in a three-way primary for Commissioner Virginia Tillett’s District 1 seat.
Mann says her business experience will serve her well as commissioner. In addition to handling the finances, she said, she built and trained a workforce, set up benefits packages, negotiated contracts and manages computer technology in the office.
Besides her work experience, Mann points to a long record of civic involvement in making a case for her candidacy. They include helping to revive the Manns Harbor Civic Association, getting involved in creating a scholarship fund for students connected to the commercial fishing and marine industries and serving on the Oregon Inlet and Waterways Commission.
In addition, Mann was recently appointed to the Board of Trustees of College of The Albemarle and helped found the Purple Martin Society, which advocates protecting the birds that return each season to roost at the north end of the “old” Manns Harbor bridge.
She married Paul Mann in 1996, and in 1997 left Resort Realty to go to work with the boat-building company. The company added a new building and grew from 10 employees to more than 53, she said, before the recession and a drop-off in work meant a reduction in the workforce to around 28.
“I have been in control of the budgets for all of that,” she said. “That’s part of my experience.”
Having seen how fragile her own business is, Mann says she understands that the county needs to diversify its economy. But the shoreline and tourism trade also need to be protected to keep tax rates low, she said.
“That needs to be an automatic,” she said. “We need to take care of our infrastructure,” referring not only to beaches but also roads and bridges. At the top of the list is a replacement for the Bonner Bridge.
Mann is an advocate of beach nourishment and says it is long overdue.
At the same time, she said, the county cannot overlook the essential services it provides.
“With the economy being worse, we have more people relying on those services,” she said, “so we need to make sure that we are taking care of our people.”
Mann said the county needs to take advantage of technology to bring in smaller businesses with year-round jobs, people who would “hire three or four other workers.” College of The Albemarle, she said, can be a valuable resource for training in the boatbuilding trades and other disciplines. Too much skilled labor is going elsewhere, she said.
“We can bring high tech here, and through the Chamber, support the Create the Future Initiative,” she said.
Create the Future sees the effort to expand fiber optic networks into rural areas as an opportunity to expand business and educational opportunities in eastern North Carolina.
If elected, she said, she would like to see an economic development committee formed and possibly an economic developer hired to lure business to Dare County. Mann also said there is an untapped resource within the retirement community that might be able to help bring new year-round jobs to the region.
As for Dare County’s economic future, Mann said that when construction returns, “it will be different,” less focused on the go-go building of the past decade. And while boat building, especially high-end fishing boats, will remain, Mann is even more realistic.
“Let’s face it,” she said, “we build a toy,” a product very vulnerable to economic cycles.
But she said she is concerned about water-related industries.
“The one thing we have not taken care of is our fishing industry,” she said. “We’ve lost a lot of commercial fishing due to the lack of stabilizing Oregon Inlet. The fear of Oregon Inlet has affected not only commercial fishing since the 60′s, but it’s affecting us now.”
She notes the lucrative recreational fishing industry is equally hurt by the inlet woes.
Two contrasts with Shea stand out out. Mann would have supported the 2-cent property tax increase had she been serving on the board. She said doesn’t understand how Shea’s support for “English as an official language” has helped Dare County or “brought any advantages to our area.”
Mann has faced some questions related to her work on a citizens committee examining zoning in Manns Harbor. They centered on opposition to a hunting and fishing camp in Mashoes, a condominium development in Mann’s Harbor and support for new zoning rules that some contended would restrict her boat building competition in Mann’s Harbor.
Mann said that opposition to the Mashoes project came from citizens, not from her personally. Because zoning for Manns Harbor and Mashoes is the same, the concern was that the hunting lodge with 800-square-foot cabins would set a precedent for higher density development in the entire area.
She scoffs at the idea that she was against the proposed condo project because it would block a view of the sound from her home. Developers wanted to buy public right-of-way from the state for 23 septic systems, which would have meant moving U.S. 64/264. Concern over septic systems near shellfish area waters and the sale of public land for private development spurred local opposition, she said.
A local group lobbied DOT not to sell the land, and by the time the developers switched to a plan for stacked dry-docking for boats, another group was successful in obtaining Waterfront Access and Maritime Industry Funds to buy the old Manns Harbor Hotel/Marina site as a commercial and recreational fishing access operated by the state.
On the zoning issue, Mann said her own boat facility was built when all of Manns Harbor was zoned S-1, which allows virtually any use of property. One of Mann’s competitors had vacated a large boat building facility and relocated to Wanchese. Residents, concerned by a possible blight of large structures as boat builders migrated to Wanchese, asked for restrictions on lot size and coverage.
Mann served on a 10-person committee that unanimously advocated 20,000-square-foot lots, while keeping the height restrictions to 30 feet, which is higher than Mann’s current building. Boat building is still a permitted use in Mann’s Harbor, and buildings can be 30 feet high, but their size is now restricted to 10,000 square feet, which Mann says is “large enough to build big boats.”
Mann was born and raised in Suffolk, Va., and moved to the Outer Banks in 1984.
She helped found the non-profits Dare County Marine Industry Association and the Dare County Boat Builders Foundation, serving as treasurer on each board.
She is on the Manns Harbor Beautification Committee, is president of the Manteo Rotary Club and is legislative chair with The Outer Banks Chamber of Commerce. She has served in the past with numerous other organizations.
This story was written and reported by Rob Morris and Russ Lay.
link to Robin Mann’s website »
link here for more on Mann’s opponent, Republican Jack Shea »
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