BREAKING: Bokhari to leave City Council for federal transit post, report says
South Charlotte Republican's departure will leave a vacancy on the 11-member council
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Outspoken Republican says he’s resigning from the Charlotte City Council to take a post as the No. 2 transit official in the Trump administration, WFAE reports
by Tony Mecia
Charlotte City Council member Tariq Bokhari says he plans to resign from the council to take a job in Washington as the country’s No. 2 transit official.
In an article posted to WFAE’s website this afternoon, Bokhari confirmed that he plans to accept a job as the deputy administrator for the Federal Transit Administration.
The Federal Transit Administration is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation and provides financial and technical assistance to local public transit systems.
Bokhari, first elected to the City Council in 2017, is one of two Republicans on the 11-member council. He’s the founder of the Carolina Fintech Hub, which aims to foster innovation and talent development in the financial technology sector.
Bokhari has a reputation as an outspoken advocate for his beliefs. He’s known as a supporter of police and an opponent of higher taxes. Over the years, he has clashed with the council’s Democrats and with Democratic Mayor Vi Lyles — though in recent months, he appears to have assumed a lower profile. He tends to speak less frequently at meetings than many of his colleagues.
In 2021 and 2022, he helped lead the charge against Charlotte’s Unified Development Ordinance, arguing that it would result in denser housing in single-family neighborhoods. It passed by a narrow margin.
After being on the losing side of a vote in that debate, he granted an interview to Axios Charlotte in which he vented frustrations and unloaded on several of his colleagues. He called Democrat Malcolm Graham a “political hack” and said Lyles was “incredibly partisan” despite “playing a kindly grandma on TV.”
Record on transit: On transit, Bokhari has seemed to try to steer a middle course between supporters of the city’s plans, which include many of Charlotte’s largest businesses, and a Republican base that generally opposes higher taxes. The plan envisions raising Mecklenburg’s sales tax to 8.25% to help pay for $25B in expanded transit and road construction, though it also counts on several billion dollars in federal transit money.
Bokhari has worked to establish himself as a liaison on the issue between the Democratic-controlled City Council and the Republican-controlled state legislature.
On key votes last fall to support the city’s plan to seek a tax increase and to spend $91M to buy rail lines between uptown and northern Mecklenburg, Bokhari was the only “no” vote on the council. He cited concerns over higher taxes.
He has also proposed some nonconventional solutions to solve Charlotte’s traffic problems. In March 2021, Bokhari suggested that Charlotte talk with Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. to explore the possibility of building tunnels beneath busy intersections. “This is the kind of thing we have to think about and infuse disruptive innovations into our approach, or we’re just going to keep having the same conversations over and over again,” he said at the time.
Nothing apparently came of the idea, though Bokhari later said he met with a Musk representative and had a productive conversation, The Ledger reported at the time.
Replacement to be named: The City Council would name a replacement for Bokhari. It would have to be a Republican who lives in his south Charlotte district, which includes the SouthPark area.
The last time there was a vacancy on the City Council, in 2021, the council accepted applications and received more than 100 of them from eligible residents before voting to appoint former council member Greg Phipps.
Bokhari’s current term runs through December of this year, and the seat will be on the ballot in November. It is far from a safe Republican seat, as Bokhari won re-election the last few times by just a few hundred votes.
His wife, Krista Bokhari, ran unsuccessfully last November for a state House seat in a similar district. WFAE reported that “it’s possible” that Krista Bokhari would be appointed as her husband’s replacement.
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I could not be happier to see Bokhari leave Charlotte but given his track record it may present a problem for raising federal transit funds for expansion of the city’s transportation system.