Abuzuaiter, Landau, Hayworth, Jobe in city council race

Joel Landau confirms that he plans to run in District 4. Mike Barber says he currently plans to run for reelection in District 4, but doesn't rule out a bid for mayor. Teresa Jobe confirms that she plans to run for council, but hasn't decided whether to run at large or for the District 4 seat. Cyndy Hayworth plans to challenge Zack Matheny in District 3. Marikay Abuzuaiter plans to run for an at-large seat. Julie Lapham is considering running at-large.

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Sandra Anderson Groat, Greensboro’s mayor pro tem, observed that many of her colleagues seem to be running for reelection, even though filing doesn’t take place until July 3 and the municipal primary won’t happen for another nine months.

Preoccupied with settling affairs for her failed homebuilding business, Groat said jockeying for November was far from her highest priority.

“If I don’t feel like I can make a difference, I don’t need to be up there,” she said. “It’s the second year of the term. I’m supposed to be doing the job I was elected to do, not running for reelection.”

As Groat expresses circumspection, other council members are openly declaring their campaign plans and a host of insurgents convinced that something has gone significantly wrong with city council stand poised to enter the fray. Some of the loudest complaints are lobbed at the council’s fractious conduct and its perceived deference to real-estate and development interests.

“I know my phone rings off the hook because I was Yvonne’s campaign manager, with people saying, ‘What on earth is going on with city council? They’re like a bunch of kitty cats playing in the sandbox,’” said Julie Lapham, a health researcher who managed Yvonne Johnson’s successful 2007 bid for mayor.

She sat in a Jan. 21 city council meeting, shaking her head at a decision to table a rezoning request for a self-storage facility. Her disgust only rose when the council deliberated at length over a decision to restore the protest petition to Greensboro.

“Why on earth do we have to wait thirty years for this?” she asked. “This should be a no-brainer.”

Lapham said she is considering a run for one of the council’s three at-large seats. Lapham currently serves on the Greensboro Commission on the Status of Women.

One person with definite plans to vie for one of the three at-large seats is Marikay Abuzuaiter, who was edged out in the 2007 general election by Mary Rakestraw by 623 votes.

“What I would like to see on council is more professional demeanor,” she said.

The sitting mayor announced plans to seek reelection at a press conference on Jan. 13. Three days later, District 4 District 4 Councilman Mike Barber led his own press conference, feeding speculation that he would challenge Johnson for the seat.

Reached by phone on Jan. 23, Barber said he is currently running for reelection in District 4, but had not ruled out a run for mayor.

“Since I live in my wife’s dictatorship, she will decide sometime in March,” he said. “I’m honored and humbled that people have shown interest in my candidacy. Years down the line, I will be proud to tell my children that people considered me worthy of the office.”

One sitting council member has announced her retirement. District 2 Councilwoman Goldie Wells said she will not seek reelection in November. So far one person — Ray Trapp, interim executive director of the Triad Apartment Association — has announced plans to run for the seat. Trapp was in the audience on Jan. 21 when Wells led the charge on a vote that saw council request the restoration of the protest petition. Trapp did not speak on the issue. Instead, Triad Real Estate and Building Industries Coalition President Marlene Sanford spoke on the apartment association’s behalf, arguing in favor of maintaining the city’s exclusion from the protest petition.

District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny, a one-term representative, has said he plans to run for reelection. Cyndy Hayworth, who ran in 2007, told YES! Weekly she plans to challenge Matheny for his seat this year.

Hayworth is the president of Junior Achievement of Central North Carolina, and serves on the Greensboro Zoning Commission. Matheny and Hayworth served together on the commission until Matheny was elected to city council. Hayworth has developed a reputation for taking a tougher line against developers than her rival.

Teresa Jobe, a self-described “stay-at-home mom” who serves on the Greensboro Commission on the Status of Women with Lapham, confirmed recently that she plans to run for council, but said she had not decided whether to run at large or in District 4.

Jobe applauded Barber’s press conference, but said, “I don’t think that because of where they are and how long they’ve been on council, they’re able to come up with fresh ideas, and we need more youth and more ordinary people on the council.

In a Dec. 8 post on her Teresa Talks blog, Jobe took a critical stand against the council’s decision in favor of rezoning land for Kotis Properties at the intersection of Spring Garden Street and Holden Road, allowing the developer to put in a Dunkin Donuts store. Although Barber cast the lone vote against the rezoning, Jobe faulted him for not effectively advocating for his constituents interests.

“Mike Barber did not address the council in opposition to the zone change,” she wrote. “He did not go to bat for the people in his district. Mr. Barber’s vote was merely a political move, designed as a half-hearted pitch to his constituents.”

The protest petition represents another arena in which Jobe suggested the sitting council is motivated more by political calculation than principle.

“The ones who are against it know that if they didn’t vote for the protest petition, they would get voted out of office next time,” she said. “I think that was purely political — especially Robbie Perkins.”

The District 4 contest is shaping up as a crowded field.

Joel Landau, co-chair of the Greensboro Sustainability Commission and a progressive standard-bearer in municipal politics, confirmed Sunday that he plans to seek the District 4 seat. Landau was eliminated in the primary in 2007, but redistricting the following year moved him from District 5 to District 4. He said he enjoys a strong base of support and good name recognition in the district, and would offer voters a meaningful alternative from Barber.

“I’m more working with people and working together to find solutions, where he throws stuff out there on his own and let’s everybody deal with it,” Landau said. “Also, I’m more attuned to neighborhood groups and their concerns. Mike’s more aligned with the developers.”