What makes someone trade a badge for a ballot?

Adele Walker’s journey from NYPD family roots to Florida police officer to downtown Selma business owner is anything but ordinary. But what happens when the woman who “never wanted to be in politics” decides to step up and run for mayor? In this episode, we explore how frustration turned into purpose — and why Adele believes real change in small towns starts when ordinary people stop staying quiet.

We talked to Adele a little bit about her growing up in Brooklyn, New York. Her time as a police officer in Florida, her time as a realtor here in Selma, North Carolina. How her and her husband sort of accidentally got into the antique business. We also talked a little bit about her vision for Selma and what she wants to see if she were elected Mayor.

So listen in.

Jonathan Breeden: Hello and welcome to another edition of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden, and on today's episode we have Adele Walker, who is a candidate for mayor of Selma, North Carolina. She's gonna be on the ballot on November this sixth

Adele Walker: November 4th.

The Best of Johnston County Podcast comes out every single Monday. It has now for right at two years. We're over a hundred episodes and we're very happy to have made it to a hundred episodes. And our plan is to bring you a hundred more over the next couple of years. So if you would do that, you would be aware, made aware of future episodes of The Best of Johnston County Podcast.

And if you wouldn't mind, go back and list some of the previous episodes over the last couple years, we've had the vast majority of the county commissioners, we've had the county manager, Rick Hester. We've had the County Parks Director, Adrian O'Neal twice. We've had Chris Johnson, Johnston County Economic Development Director.

We've had tons of small businesses, just dog people, Woody Bailey, Woody's computing, talking about local IT services. We have had all kinds of guests. So if you love Johnston County as much as I do, this is the podcast for you. Welcome, Adele.

Adele Walker: Thank you.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Adele Walker: My name's Adele Walker. I am a real estate agent in downtown Selma, and I also own a antique and thrift store called Walker's Treasure Box.

Jonathan Breeden: I did not know that. I've learned something new and downtown Selma's full of antiques and antique stores. That's sort of what it was known for.

Adele Walker: Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, it still is. I mean, maybe there's not as many antique places, but it's still a great antique location, correct?

Adele Walker: Correct. Yes. Yeah, I co-own that with my husband.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. How many antique stores are in downtown Selma now?

Adele Walker: Unfortunately a few have closed, so we've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that's good. That's good.

Adele Walker: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: They all doing a good job.

Adele Walker: Yeah, they're doing great.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm. Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: And we'll talk a little bit about Eastfield in a minute, but so where'd you grow up? You sound like you're from New York.

Adele Walker: Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. And at some point, I think you've told me before we started recording, you moved to Florida?

Adele Walker: Yes, my parents moved to Florida my middle of my sophomore year, moved to Miramar, Florida and then we moved to West Palm Beach all my last two years of high school.

Jonathan Breeden: I gotcha. And then you went back to New York for a little while, but you ended up back in Florida and you became a police officer.

Adele Walker: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: Tell me a little bit about that.

Adele Walker: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: Why did you become a police officer?

Adele Walker: It has always been my dream. I have four new uncles that are New York that are retired New York City police officers. My brother's a retired New York City firefighter, so we're a family of service and I've always just wanted to be a police officer. It always been my dream since I was a kid.

Jonathan Breeden: So, where were you a police officer and, I mean, what were your jobs?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Well that's cool. That's cool. So did you have to like chase people down and cuff 'em .

Adele Walker: Well, absolutely. I sure did. Sure did.

Jonathan Breeden: I gotcha. I gotcha. So, when and how did you end up moving to North Carolina?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And where did you live then?

Lived here in Garner Clayton.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So is that when you moved to Selma?

Jonathan Breeden: Oh that's good

Adele Walker: when we purchased the building in Selma and then we came back and built the building 'cause it was just, it was a, it was a gut job in the building in Selma.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. So y'all both, that's where the antique shop is now?

Adele Walker: Antique shop is downstairs and we have a, an apartment upstairs.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. So you live in the store?

Adele Walker: We do. We have a 2,500 square foot apartment, three bedroom, two and a half bath upstairs on top of the store.

Jonathan Breeden: So you really do live in downtown Selma?

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. I did not know that. That's interesting. Well, that's definitely gonna make you an advocate for downtown.

Adele Walker: Absolutely.

Jonathan Breeden: If you live there and your business is there.

Adele Walker: Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: So when did you become a realtor? I know you worked with Real Broker LLC.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. And is, where's your office for that?

Adele Walker: In Selma as well? I have my office right in my building where my antique store is.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. All right.

Adele Walker: Everything is one stop shopping.

Jonathan Breeden: One stop shopping. That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, that's great. That's great. Alright, so we'll ask a couple realtor questions. I love realtors. What is the number one mistake you see buyers make when they're coming into your office to buy something?

Adele Walker: They think they can get the world for a little bit of money. They don't realize, I have to show them reality, what they can actually afford. They have to sometimes be willing to take less than what they actually want.

Adele Walker: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, so that's tough. So, all right. What would be one thing that a seller could do to make their home more attractive to a buyer?

Adele Walker: Carb appeal is number one, I would say. And also making sure that their home doesn't have any type of odors. I've had a lot of those.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay. Pet odors.

Adele Walker: Pet odors or cigarette odors. You definitely wanna make it welcoming. Welcoming. When people walk into your home, the first thing that they smell is definitely something that's good.

And I, you know, staging your home is really good. You could use your own furniture to stage. Less is best just showing people the, able to see the size of their rooms with less furniture.

Adele Walker: Okay.

Jonathan Breeden: So like we took her couch and her living room furniture and put it in the dining room. So we had a dining room, but we didn't really actually have a dining room.

Adele Walker: Right.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, and, and the first thing, April Steven said to me, one of our now county commissioners was, you gotta get some of this furniture out of this house.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: And I'm like. She's like, it's not gonna sell. Like I go get a storage unit or something, but you've gotta get some of this furniture out of this house.

Adele Walker: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: And, and I, she was absolutely right about that, so. Alright, so, what, tell me a little bit about the antique business you have. I love to go antiquing. I'm a sort of an old soul. I love downtown Selma. Not been antiquing there in a few years. Did go there. Few years ago with my in-laws and stuff, but, so, so what kind of antiques do y'all specialize in?

And I am totally decluttering. I do not like, do not like garbage. So. I was moving to Florida, we were dating, and I told him, I said, if you're gonna follow me to Florida, I'm not taking any of this junk. So I posted on Facebook and while he was at work, got rid of everything within a couple of hours for free.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh.

Adele Walker: Emptied his garage. So that's how you know he absolutely loves me. We moved to Florida and when we moved to Florida, I started working as an assistant manager at the Goodwill in Florida. Started realizing that Sarasota's Goodwill is one of the highest, over a million dollars just in a couple of months at their stores.

Let's buy a building. And that's what we did. And that's how it all started. It started with my husband. So we buy storage units and you never know what you're gonna find. We have found lots and lots of antiques. We buy really good storage units. We find a lot of other stuff as well.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh man.

Adele Walker: Very unusual things.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I used to love the show's, storage Wars.

Adele Walker: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: I watched it religiously.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I think I've seen just about every episode.

Adele Walker: Yes.

Jonathan Breeden: And I know that some of that was staged.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: But some of it was real.

Adele Walker: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: I don't know how much was staged and how much was real.

Adele Walker: Yeah, yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: But

Jonathan Breeden: Well, I did hear that sometimes the producers would hide stuff in the units

Adele Walker: mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: To make it more interesting.

Adele Walker: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: But sometimes they would buy units and there's nothing in 'em

Adele Walker: Correct.

Jonathan Breeden: Of any value and they would lose money.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: So, they were an interesting, you know, and, and I, you know, it, it was a TV show.

Adele Walker: Yeah.

Jonathan Breeden: But the people that were in it were real storage buyers. Yes. You know, and I think as they had to create more and more episodes, maybe it got more and more.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: You know, they would put stuff in it, but still, I, I found it to be fascinating. You don't have any idea what you might get.

Adele Walker: Yeah, we don't, we actually, we buy them online and you don't, you just see pictures of it.

Jonathan Breeden: And you know, oh, you don't actually go and be in, you know, be like, we do it online, you know?

Adele Walker: No, we do it online from pictures and you know. Knock on wood. We've never purchased a unit that's made us lost money.

Jonathan Breeden: That's impressive.

Adele Walker: The Florida units are much better. We actually found $4,000 cash in one unit, so that was very

Jonathan Breeden: Oh my goodness. That's awesome.

Adele Walker: Yeah, it was awesome.

Jonathan Breeden: That's awesome. So then you have to. I guess get somebody to haul it up here from Florida if you're gonna sell it in Selma.

Adele Walker: We did. Yeah. Well, yeah, we haven't bought it. We, we haven't bought any from Florida in a long time.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adele Walker: Because we've had so much luck with actually people who, when they pass away and they know I'm a realtor, their families contact me and we've actually been ended up buying homes now.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adele Walker: We've done a lot of stuff for people.

Jonathan Breeden: Oh, cool. Cool.

Adele Walker: We've bought collections of things.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Adele Walker: From people that have passed away.

Jonathan Breeden: Well, that's awesome. Well, the one thing I want people to understand is Goodwill is not a charity, right. It is a for-profit company. I think based in Chicago. I'm not like we got Goodwill at 40 42.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: I'm not saying they don't do good work.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: But it's not a charity, you know, we now have, yeah. The Durham Rescue Mission over here at 40 42, and it is more of a charity than, than Goodwill.

So I would definitely say visit that it's in the old Badcock Furniture business building. Right. Right behind the cookout and the Just Tires and the Panera Bread

Adele Walker: mm-hmm

Jonathan Breeden: here at 40, 42, 40 Veterans Parkway, 40 36, whatever you want to call it.

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Adele Walker: Being mayor definitely was not something in the books for me. I had no desire at all to run for any political office. I enjoyed the behind, the scenes, helping the politicians go out and helping them get elected. That's what I did. But what I found in our town that things were being done that were, unethical, immoral and there was a lack of compassion in our town.

So what I found, people were sitting around at the coffee shop on a given day just complaining, complaining and talking about what the administration was doing and everything. And I just said one day, why are we just sitting around here at a coffee shop complaining? Why isn't anyone doing, why don't we actually talk about it? When I started talking about it, I actually got a phone call from one of the residents. Adele, you need to stop. Be quiet. Don't say anything. You're gonna make us look bad.

No one else is gonna do it. People are gonna keep complaining and,

Jonathan Breeden: alright, so what are, what are some of the things that you want to do if you're elected Mayor of Selma?

Adele Walker: Number one is looking to our infrastructure, our pipes. We have clay pipes in the majority of our town. And I found that out when I built my BU building a month after building my building, there was sewer coming into my building, spending nearly a million dollars building my building, and I've got sewer coming. Why find out that the town pipes, which the mayor, the current mayor, continues to say it's not the town pipes, but it is the town pipes main line had broke, the clay pipes broke and the sewer was coming into my building.

Well, I don't like that excuse. Right. We, you make changes.

Jonathan Breeden: So the pipes I mean, the town doesn't just have the money to fix the pipes. I mean, it has a little bit, but a lot of that stuff comes from the state.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: When it becomes major projects like that.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Now the town of Selma was awarded some money from the state to move a pump station to help Eastfield.

So that is happening right now. Larry Strickland got that money for the town.

Adele Walker: Mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Do you know how much money it would take to fix these clay pipes?

Adele Walker: Larry Strickland had actually told me that over $20 million was given to fix the pipes.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adele Walker: Okay. I don't know exactly where that money is.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adele Walker: We, so that is one of the things I wanna go in. I wanna look at the books. I wanna make transparency. I want our checkbook to be online, for our taxpayers to see it is the taxpayers money. Let 'em see where the money's being spent, where is, where are we receiving the money from?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adele Walker: That pump station that I told the pump station was not, was just completed recently for all the buildings at Eastfield, right? There was no sewer system. They were doing pump and hall.

Jonathan Breeden: Right?

Adele Walker: Why were they doing pump and hall after it was built? The restaurants, they still haven't even filed for a permit for a pump station, for the permits, for the restaurants. Why are we building restaurants when we have no sewer system?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. So you don't think they should be building what they're building at Eastfield right now?

Adele Walker: No. We need to get a sewer system in first. Why are we putting restaurants without a sewer system? Pump and Hall is a temporary fix. It's something temporary for building not for that. I am all for having these wonderful, big businesses, but we need to do it proper. Just like with our pipes. We need to have a foundation first. You don't go and build a home, and then you put in pipes after.

Makes no sense. Why is that being done?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adele Walker: How is that even done?

Jonathan Breeden: So you would be your position that they should stop issuing building permits for eastfield.

Adele Walker: So we finally have a sewer system. Yes. We need to have a sewer system. We absolutely need to have a sewer system first, and then we have our sewer system, then we can have all those great restaurants and everything else. So, and just one thing.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

Adele Walker: There's a lot of other issues.

Jonathan Breeden: What's your second big issue?

Adele Walker: Our second is our electric deposits for new renters moving into town.

Jonathan Breeden: Okay.

That is ridiculous. There's no town that requires an $1,800 deposit if you do not pay your electric. It's turned off immediately. No one's gonna have an $1,800 bill in one month. So why would you do that? It makes no sense why that is being done and there's no reason for it. I have people who have reached out to me who have maxed out credit cards to put on lights and water.

We, we don't need to be doing that to people. That's not right. And what was the, is the current administration's answer when someone comes in? Well, if you can't afford our electric, then get the heck out of Selma.

Jonathan Breeden: Yeah. Well, Selma is 60% rentals,

Adele Walker: correct? Correct.

Adele Walker: mm-hmm

Jonathan Breeden: as well. I think that's a little surprising to people that live out here in Cleveland and Clayton and stuff. That, that, that's how it is. What'd you think about the tax increase? 70% tax increase on the citizens of Selma. The county reevaluated.

They raised the values of the tax base in Selma, about 70%, and the Town Council chose not to change the rate passing a 70%, which is almost doubling the town taxes on the citizens of Selma. Did you think that was a good idea? And will you continue? That increased tax rate if you are the mayor?

Jonathan Breeden: So the Code enforcement, code enforcement, that's a big thing.

Adele Walker: Oh, that is a huge issue.

Jonathan Breeden: I know when Mayor McAllister was here, he talked about the code enforcement and putting the shine on the ma on onto Selma and how he was, he was really doing that and, and getting more involved in that.

I mean, I don't know if you've seen that. What do you think about code enforcement?

Jonathan Breeden: Okay?

Adele Walker: So I, I, I don't 100% blame the employees. The employees walk around on eggshells. There's been a loss of over 80 employees in the four years with the current administration, and I've got the list of those 80. I've spoken and gone out and spoken to 25% of those 80 employees, they all have the same common denominator. They left because of one reason. A couple of them have asked me if I become mayor, if I would hire them back.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Adele Walker: I told em that's not my job, but.

Jonathan Breeden: Right. I understand. I understand. So,

Adele Walker: yes.

Jonathan Breeden: So, what else are you planning to do? You wanna make code enforcement friendlier?

Adele Walker: Friendlier.

Jonathan Breeden: And maybe more consistent.

We've got single moms with five kids. One small trash can is not enough. And if they wanna get a second trash can they have to pay well. They're also on a set budget as well as just like a lot of people are.

Jonathan Breeden: Right.

Adele Walker: So we need to help. It's not about giving charity, it's about having some compassion for some of these people and at a time we need to be able to help our community.

We only have 7,000 residents. I think we can afford with our $30 million budget to actually help our people and actually be able to show some compassion in the town.

Jonathan Breeden: I got you. All right, and I guess before we get to the last question, I guess before we, before we get to the last question, what's the other, what's one more thing you want to do for the town?

Jonathan Breeden: All right, well, how can people reach out to you?

Jonathan Breeden: Alright. And early voting starts by the, this episode's gonna run next week tomorrow. Right. So early voting tomorrow will be ongoing as this, as this episode runs.

Adele Walker: Yes.

Adele Walker: Harrison Center in Selma,

Jonathan Breeden: at the Harrison Center in Selma, which is a beautiful building. I've been there

Adele Walker: mm-hmm.

Jonathan Breeden: Many times. It's, it's really, really a beautiful building.

Adele Walker: I love the people. People are pretty amazing, and that's what brought me back to Johnston County.

Jonathan Breeden: And almost everybody says we're over a hundred episodes. 95% of the people say it's the people. I think it's the people. Adele Walker thinks it's the people. So anyway, we'd like to thank Adele Walker for being our guest on this week's episode of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Like we asked you earlier, please like, follow, subscribe to this podcast wherever you're seeing it.

Tag us in your Instagram stories, Best of Johnston County, and leave us a five star review down below to help raise our visibility so other people will be aware of The Best of Johnston County Podcast. Until next time, I'm your host, Jonathan Breeden.

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