Four candidates seek POA board seats

The POA board serves the Village similar to a municipal government’s city council, with the chief executive officer acting somewhat like a mayor. The board does not have day-to-day management responsibility of POA personnel, which is handled by the CEO.

Don Hart, Marty Inkrott, John Orr and Steve Schneider are running in the current election.

Don Hart and his wife, Donna, live in the Chota neighborhood, are members of First Baptist Church in Tellico Village and are avid golfers.

He is a member of the Conservative Club of Tellico and serves on the committee for election integrity. He started out to be an actor and spent 19 years in the investment business and real estate land development. He also worked as an auto mechanic and partnered in owning two full-service gas stations.

Hart started a management consulting business for small businesses. For the past 20 years, he has been a pastoral counselor and an ordained minister.

As a member of the board, Hart said his first responsibility is to represent the 7,500 residents of Tellico Village and not the POA. He said he believes the board must be more responsive to the needs and requirements of residents.

Marty Inkrott is the current POA president and is running for a second term.

Inkrott was president of New Villagers in 2019 and is a member of the Men’s Golf Association and Pickleball Club. He and his wife, Carol, moved to Tellico Village in 2016 and love golf, pickleball, boating and jet skis, hiking, working out at the Wellness Center and participating in several wine and play groups.

His reasons for running include sustaining first-class amenities, ensuring infrastructure is maintained and fiscal responsibility.

Inkrott retired after 36 years at Marathon Petroleum Company and two years at Pilot Flying-J. He has many years of experience negotiating contracts, strategic planning, project management and developing/managing budgets. He was a board member for a nonprofit, A Kid Again, for eight years.

John Orr and his wife, Kirstin, moved to Tellico Village 2½ years ago. He retired in 2013 from Ingersol Rand as director of finance for their $2 billion North American Services business. He then served as adjunct professor of finance at the University of North Georgia.

He has run a variety of businesses and real estate ventures, including planning, building and operating a student housing complex.

Orr served eight years on the board of his previous community as treasurer, focusing on fiscal accountability/conservatism. He has served on the Tellico Village Finance Advisory Committee and believes strong financial presence on the POA board is essential. His priorities will be infrastructure, operating efficiencies and improving the capital approval process by requiring a sound business case/purpose for each project.

Steve Schneider and his wife, Debbie, have been residents of the Village for six years. During his tenure as a board member he has focused on operational security, guided the rebuilding of reserve funds, supported the development of a 10-year financial plan and an updated strategic plan and played a key role in executing a succession plan for the replacement of the CEO this year.

Schneider’s 35-year career with Alcoa and Century Aluminum included operations finance, procurement and executive management as the SVP chief accounting officer for the $1.5 billion public company. His responsibilities included financial planning and analysis, internal and external financial reporting, internal controls, procurement and capital project management.

He said his past experience positions him to provide continuity to the new CEO and future chief financial officer.

The voting process is managed by an outside service to keep results confidential until the voting period concludes. Votes can be cast digitally or by paper ballot.

Results will be announced at the end of November and winners introduced at the December board meeting.