Whitesides Announces Candidacy for Re-election to County Commission

Al Whitesides announced that he will run for re-election for Buncombe County Commission in District 1.

First appointed to the Buncombe County Board of Commis-sioners in 2016 to fill a two-year term, Whitesides was then elected to a full four-year term in 2018. A life-long resident of Asheville and Buncombe County, he is a Vietnam War veteran and retired banker.

During his five years on the commission, Whitesides has supported affordable housing, improved broadband accessibility, enhanced pre-K education, and the development of 21st-century policing policies such as alternative sentencing. He has also been a strong proponent of targeted economic development that would provide jobs with living-wage incomes along with benefits such as good health insurance; he is the Commission liaison to the Economic Development Committee of the Chamber of Commerce; the Metropolitan Sewage District Board, and the County’s Internal Audit Committee and Early Childhood Committee.

A longtime advocate for public education, Whitesides served eight years (two terms each) on the Asheville City Board of Education, the board of trustees at his alma mater, NC Central University in Durham, and on the board of trustees for UNC Asheville. He has also served on nonprofit boards in the community, including the United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs, the YMI Cultural Center, the Arc of Buncombe County, and the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army.

Whitesides retired in 2010 from a forty-year career in banking; his wife, Shirley, is retired after 34 years as a teacher in Asheville City Schools. They met as fellow students at NC Central University in Durham and have been married over 50 years. The Whitesides have two daughters, Dr. Sherry Poole and Kimberly Wilson, both of whom live and work in Buncombe County, and three grandsons.