Marikay Abuzuaiter, a candidate for Greensboro City Council, speaks to landfill opponents at Laughlin Memorial United Methodist Church last month.
On a sweltering night in mid-July Marikay Abuzuaiter stood in the midst of a packed crowd at Laughlin Memorial United Methodist Church during a meeting of residents opposed to the reopening of the White Street Landfill that was led by former Councilwoman Goldie Wells.
Abuzuaiter is vice chair of the city’s human relations commission, which had undertaken a contentious process to draft a resolution against reopening the landfill. More than that, she is a business person with commercial ties to east Greensboro and a member of the grassroots movement to keep the landfill closed. She told residents in the church that she and fellow Commissioner Michael Roberto had fought “long and hard” for the resolution, and urged them to show up for a city council meeting the following night.
“We are not looking for the credit,” Abuzuaiter said. “We’re just letting you know that it took six months. And there were many, many times that I got thrown under the bus, and I’m still getting thrown under the bus. And I think there are several people here who can attest to that. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that tomorrow night this resolution will be read.”
Roberto chimed in: “I really do think we need to give Marikay some credit here because she has been in on this stuff from the start. She’s had to weather the storm that has been thrown at her for being a private citizen and standing up and also being a commissioner. All kinds of things have been thrown at her. She’s the driving force.”
Wells also attested Abuzuaiter’s dedication to the fight, and to her closeness to the community.
“You know, it’s a heart matter,” Wells said. “It’s about relationships. And the relationships have been formed.”
Wells noted that Abuzuaiter has been active with Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro because he husband owns a business in the area.
“She has been with us, and when you form relationships and when you care about people, you’ll go the extra mile,” Wells said.
Abuzuaiter lost a bruising election to the position of chair of the human relations commission to Nancy Hoffmann, who also happens to be a candidate for city council, in District 4. A couple weeks after the resolution was read, Chairman Abdel Nuriddin relinquished leadership of the commission to Hoffmann. He ended his remarks by acknowledging the tension on the commission and paying tribute to Abuzuaiter.
“I want to thank Marikay for the work that she’s actually done out in the community and as the vice chair of this body,” he said. “There have been times when there have been differences of opinion by commissioners as it relates to how we should go about doing this work, but I think at the end of the day we found out that we are together, and we can make things happen. So I’m appreciative of the work that you’ve done to cause this body to be a bona fide force I think here in the city of Greensboro.”
Abuzuaiter said her experience on the human relations commission has given her good preparation to serve on city council.
“I think it proves I will fight for the concerns of residents,” she said. “That is, after doing all my research and listening to residents.”
Abuzuaiter was appointed by former Mayor Yvonne Johnson to chair the international advisory committee under the human relations commission. She is no stranger to municipal politics. Twice she has run at large, and twice she has placed fourth out of six candidates in the general election balloting with the top three finishers securing seats on council. In 2007, she was beaten out by Mary Rakestraw, and in 2009 she lost to Danny Thompson. Both are conservatives who are part of a narrow majority currently intent on reopening the landfill.
Johnson is running at large this year and is expected to perform well because of voter mobilization against the landfill and because of her supporters’ desire to vindicate her loss in the 2009 mayoral race to Bill Knight. Nancy Vaughan, who is mayor pro tem by virtue of winning the largest number of votes two years ago, is running for reelection. Johnson and Vaughan are expected to finish in the top three. That makes Thompson a natural target Abuzuaiter, who is making her third bid for council this year. He will be tough to beat: The third-place finisher in the at-large contest for Greensboro City Council historically tends to be a conservative candidate, and the conservative base will likely rally behind Thompson because he has come under such considerable fire from landfill opponents.
Through her service on the human relations commission and presence at numerous community events, Abuzuaiter has distinguished herself more as someone who is attuned to relationships and responsive to concerns than someone who has mastered the fine points of every policy detail. All the same, she hold an almost intuitive understanding of how local politics works, having attended more council meetings than probably any challenger with the possible exception of Cyndy Hayworth.
“I am very, very willing and able to sit down and talk to everyone,” the candidate said during an interview at the Green Bean coffeehouse a couple days ago. “Everyone who is at the table needs to have a voice. Everyone who is affected should have a voice.”
On one issue, she has made up her mind and is not open to compromise or striking deals.
“We’re in a situation where it’s feasible it could open,” Abuzuaiter said of the landfill. “We are going to destroy a neighborhood. We are going to put at risk people who live in that area. There have been no valid health studies. What about the people who shop in that area? I remember the Carolina Circle Mall – the stench [when the landfill was open]. There was trash all over White Street.”
She also condemned the way the landfill issue has been handled by council.
“How dare anyone vote on a contract after seven [business] days,” Abuzuaiter said. “I was sitting in the audience saying to myself: ‘I cannot believe this.’ That is not representation of your community. For someone who favors opening the landfill, it is going to save each property owner $12 a year. That’s one dollar a month to save our neighborhoods and to save the racial division in our city and to save property values. I got so upset. Not upset. But I’m passionate.”
Abuzuaiter’s community involvement has put her in close quarters with various civic actors who aren’t necessarily in accord. As chair of the international advisory committee, she has seen police build understanding in meetings with immigrants who come from places in the world where law enforcement is feared because of rampant human rights abuses. Along with fellow commissioner Michael Roberto, Abuzuaiter also attended a community meeting last fall in which citizens were encouraged to file official complaints about discriminatory treatment by the police with the US Justice Department and a former police captain made allegations about employment discrimination and retaliation implicating city leaders up to City Manager Rashad Young.
Roberto asked questions of former police Capt. Charles Cherry, while Abuzuaiter invited people to an upcoming human relations commission meeting which was held at a special time to allow people to attend who might not be able to get off work during the regular meeting time.
“I guess I’m one of those people – I don’t look at the world through rose-colored glasses – but everyone needs to be at the table,” Abuzuaiter said recently. “We have a wonderful police department. I don’t know how to solve it. That’s a tough one.
“Within the department, we both hear a lot of things,” she added. “I don’t know how to filter through all that.”
In the wide field of candidates – both political newcomers and veterans – in the at-large race, Abuzuaiter argues that two qualities make her stand out.
“We have never had a representative on that council from a true small business position, no one from the service industry and no one from the international community,” she said.
Abuzuaiter is also quick to argue that she is qualified to represent the city at large because she has some kind of dealing with every district in the city. A few examples: She owns Mahi’s Seafood Restaurant in District 3, she runs a a residential property business in District 1, her husband owns a gas station near NC A&T University in District 2 and they live in District 4.
Under Abuzuaiter’s leadership, the international advisory committee has hosted workshops to help immigrants understand how to access local services such as the 911 call center, sponsored an anti-human trafficking seminar and held fair housing workshops that were translated into Arabic and Swahili. A workshop coming up will be translated into French.
“Those are exciting, positive things that need to be on council,” Abuzuaiter said. “I think international people will be more comfortable coming to a council member who has that kind of experience.”
As an entrepreneur herself, Abuzuaiter said she would like to find ways to help small business owners, whether through some kind of incentives or simply having staff available to explain ordinances and fees that affect them. Yet she said the biggest challenge for small businesses is recent corporate layoffs that have reduced demand for their services.
She said council needs to support staff more, adding that she’s worried that pay and benefits for police officers and firefighters isn’t competitive enough and that neighboring municipalities such as High Point are hiring away some of the city’s best employees.
“The dissension in our current council has affected staff,” Abuzuaiter said. “Our employees are leaving in droves, whether it be through early retirements or to take advantage of other opportunities. As long as Greensboro has the council-manager form of government, that has worked well. As long as council is micro-managing staff, they can’t get anything done.”
As someone who has tried to make herself heard by the current council, Abuzuaiter said she favors moving speakers from the floor back to the beginning of council meetings – reversing a change made almost two years ago by Mayor Bill Knight.
Having been on the other side of the podium, Abuzuaiter said she feels some members of the current council have displayed disrespect toward citizens. She can also envision herself on the dais being the target of a constituent’s ire.
“Sometimes, when people are very passionate it’s hard to calm them down at that moment,” she said. “I would hope that citizens would have tried to contact me beforehand. Then, if the person wants to get up and berate me, that’s their right. I wouldn’t argue. Then, if they have a valid point, we need to look at it. I don’t believe in attacking anyone. But I will defend myself.”
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