Original interview preparation materials | 2026 Onslow County Board of Commissioners candidate series

Hubert United prepared ten standard core questions for every participating commissioner candidate and three additional questions tailored to each person. This page preserves those prepared question lists. It is not a verbatim transcript, and actual spoken phrasing, follow-ups and interview order may vary. Each interview recording is linked from the election archive.

Ten common core questions

1. What does responsible growth look like for Onslow County, particularly in rapidly developing unincorporated communities such as Hubert?
2. Do you believe roads, drainage, schools, emergency services and utility capacity should generally be in place before higher-density development is approved? If so, how would you put that principle into practice?
3. When evaluating a rezoning, what factors should commissioners consider, and how should they weigh the applicant’s property rights against the effects on neighboring landowners and the surrounding community?
4. When new development requires road, drainage, water, sewer, school or emergency-service improvements, who should bear those costs: developers, taxpayers, utility ratepayers, grants or some combination?
5. What specific actions would you support to address traffic, drainage, school capacity and emergency-service demands caused by continued residential growth?
6. How should Onslow County protect working farms, rural land and established communities while still accommodating new housing and economic development?
7. Hubert is a large unincorporated community with no municipal government dedicated solely to its needs. How can Hubert and similar communities gain a stronger and earlier voice in county decisions?
8. What would you do to improve government transparency, public notice and residents’ ability to understand and participate in rezoning and infrastructure decisions?
9. If elected, what would be your most important priority during your first year of the new term, and how would residents measure whether you accomplished it?
10. What is one specific, measurable commitment you are willing to make to the residents of unincorporated Hubert?

Wording note: In incumbent candidate scripts, question 9 sometimes reads “If reelected” or “If elected or reelected,” in place of “If elected.” The substantive question is the same.

Candidate-specific prepared questions

Rebecca Cooper

1. Based on your research into development and infrastructure throughout Onslow County, what specific change would you make to the county’s rezoning process so commissioners consider the cumulative effects of multiple developments rather than evaluating each project in isolation?
2. You have discussed responsible growth and developer accountability. What enforceable policies or conditions would you support to ensure that developers contribute fairly to the roads, drainage, schools, utilities and emergency-service capacity their projects require without shifting an unreasonable share of those costs to existing residents?
3. Drawing upon your business education and current MBA studies, what changes would you support in the county’s budgeting and long-range capital planning so infrastructure investments keep pace with residential growth while maintaining fiscal responsibility?

Whitney Cantrell

1. Your professional background involves managing the day-to-day operations of local small businesses. What specific private-sector management practice would you bring to county government to improve budgeting, accountability or service delivery, and how would the public measure whether it worked?
2. Through collision repair and towing, you have a firsthand view of the consequences of crashes, congestion and unsafe road conditions. What specific road-safety or transportation improvements would you prioritize as a commissioner, particularly for rapidly growing corridors such as NC 24 and Queens Creek Road?
3. Your campaign emphasizes “responsible, managed growth” and putting the community first. What objective conditions would cause you to vote against—or require substantial changes to—a rezoning proposal because roads, drainage, schools, utilities or emergency services are not prepared for it?

Tim Foster

1. During your time on the Board of Commissioners, what have you learned about the cumulative effects of residential development, and is there any county vote, policy or review process that you would now approach differently?
2. Based on your experience as a teacher, principal and school administrator, what should the county do differently to ensure that school enrollment, transportation, staffing and facility capacity are meaningfully considered before major residential rezonings are approved?
3. As chairman, what additional coordination would you support among the Board of Commissioners, Planning and Development, Onslow County Schools, ONWASA, emergency services and transportation officials so residents can see a complete and realistic assessment of infrastructure needs before major growth decisions are made?

Dr. Michel Leandre Jr.

1. You bring a Ph.D. in Organizational Leadership and decades of experience in the Marine Corps, ministry, corporate work and government. Which lessons from those different leadership environments would most directly shape how you govern as a county commissioner, particularly when residents, staff, developers and fellow commissioners strongly disagree?
2. Your campaign emphasizes “community wellness,” including attainable housing, mental wellness, youth support and empowerment, safe neighborhoods, and support for veterans and military families. What specific county-level initiative would you pursue first under that agenda, how would you fund it, and what measurable result should residents expect?
3. As a retired Marine and a former Hubert resident, how would you ensure that the needs of military families and large unincorporated communities such as Hubert are reflected in county budgeting, land-use and infrastructure decisions rather than considered only after problems arise?

Royce Bennett

1. ONWASA has explained that it cannot know whether a developer will request sewer service until a request is submitted. At the same time, ONWASA plans infrastructure using anticipated growth projections. How should residents understand the relationship between expanded sewer capacity and the development that follows or becomes possible because of it?
2. What have you learned during your current term about the cumulative effects of development, and is there any county vote, policy or process that you would now approach differently?
3. Because you participate in county land-use decisions while also chairing ONWASA, what additional coordination do you believe should occur among commissioners, Planning and Development, ONWASA, the school system, emergency services and transportation officials before major rezonings are approved?

Additional written question: ALPR camera oversight

The ALPR camera question was a separate written follow-up and was not part of the ten original common recorded interview questions. Its exact wording and all five complete written candidate replies are preserved at County Commissioner Candidates Answer the ALPR Question.

Prepared question text was cross-checked against Hubert United’s interview scripts and the saved Bennett interview question document. Published for historical accountability, not to recommend or oppose any candidate. Return to the 2026 Election Archive.