Tony Collins (left) chats with developer Milton Kern at Fishbones today before announcing his candidacy for the District 4 seat on Greensboro City Council.Tony Collins, a construction contractor who has previously served on the city’s zoning commission and coliseum commission, announced his candidacy for the District 4 seat on Greensboro City Council today at Fishbones, a popular restaurant in Lindley Park, where he was surrounded by building trades professionals and experienced political hands.
“This has been burning in my gut for a little while,” Collins told a crowd that included former Mayor Keith Holliday, developers Milton Kern and Dwight Stone, and Doug Galyon, a former member of the NC Board of Transportation who is the father of the candidate’s business partner. “Greensboro’s a great place. We don’t need to reinvent this town. We don’t need to change its nature. We’ve just got to have a different style of leadership. We’ve got to start looking forward.
“I think some on the council have kind of lost their way,” he added. “I think everybody starts with the best intentions. We’ve gotten into some of the nit-picky, petty type things that can go on…. The council cannot affect a lot of jobs, but we can certainly lay some great groundwork, and lay the circumstances to build a better economy and bring some jobs.”
Collins is the second challenger to emerge against incumbent Mary Rakestraw. Nancy Hoffmann, a member of the city’s human relations commission, announced her candidacy earlier this month. The participation of at least three candidates ensures a primary contest and gives the challengers additional time to gather media exposure before the final campaign push in October.
Collins was introduced by his campaign treasurer, Art Winstead, who called him a “leader” and a “consensus builder.”
Holliday, who served as mayor from 1999 to 2007, echoed that characterization.
“This guy is a consensus builder,” he said. “You’ve got to understand consensus building. Consensus building is not a four-letter word. Whether you’re going right or left, everybody needs to be rowing together to take this city in a progressive direction. That shouldn't be a four-letter word either. In North Carolina, Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Raleigh-Wake have been the two legs that have kept this economy growing. The Triad needs to be the third leg. Tony understands investment and development.”
Holliday has become an ardent crusader against reopening the White Street Landfill in the past six months, and he cited the issue as critical to an understanding of how local government and economic development intersect.
“You don’t build a landfill four miles from downtown Greensboro and in the heart of one of our growth corridors,” he said. “Water and sewer and street development is crucial. There are 108,000 new popelle that are going to be here in 20 years.”
Collins said that while he has not taken a firm position in the debate, he is glad the landfill will not be reopening immediately. A lawsuit by landfill opponents forced the city to issue a new request for proposals and hold off on expanding the facility.
“I’m glad that the process has slowed down,” Collins said, “so that we can take a more careful review and talk with the neighbors who are most impacted.”
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