Dunlap Appointed to Mecklenburg County Commission

Mecklenburg County Commissioners have approved George Dunlap's appointment to the board with a 6-to-0 vote. He's schedule to be sworn-in tomorrow. Republicans Bill James, who led the charge to hold up the appointment, and Karen Bentley were absent. Commissioner Dan Bishop was one of the four Republicans who blocked Dunlap's appointment last week. He says he still has reservations, but says fighting the appointment would cost too much. "Whether Mr. Dunlap serves a couple weeks in my remaining term or not is not the end of the world. It's not worth the distraction of having all of you ladies and gentlemen here. And it's not worth our being in court fighting lawsuits about it," says Bishop. A hearing was scheduled this afternoon in a lawsuit the Mecklenburg County Democratic Party filed to force the board to approve Dunlap. The party has now dropped that lawsuit. Dunlap says he believes the commissioners realized the law was on his side. "It was going to happen either today or it was going to happen at some subsequent meeting especially in light of the fact that I've been elected to fill the next two year term," says Dunlap. Democrats in district three chose Dunlap, a 13 year veteran of the school board, to fill the late Valerie Woodard's seat. Republicans said they did not approve Dunlap last week because of concerns about how he was elected and outbursts they described as threatening.