Nancy Hoffmann is treating her candidacy for the District 4 seat on Greensboro City Council as a full-time job. The 69-year-old businesswoman has been putting in 12-hour days, which she said are normal for her.
“I don’t need a lot of sleep,” she said during an interview this morning at Spring Garden Bakery and Coffeehouse, “and I have high energy all the time.”
She finished the previous day at about 10 p.m., having met with one set of voters in the afternoon, attended a dinner to honor fellow Greensboro Human Relations Commissioner Maxine Bakeman, and then met a second group of voters.
“I’m a busy and active person who is energized by relationships with people,” Hoffmann said. “That’s the best thing about campaigning. If I had known I liked this so much, I think maybe I would have come to it earlier in life. At the same time, maybe I wasn’t prepared before. When you come to a point in your life like this, you want to be as prepared as possible."
Hoffmann’s campaign slogan and signature image reflect a careful process of considering what kind of candidate she wanted and then translating it into a simple and effective marketing device. The slogan “Creating a city council worthy of its citizens” reflects her focus on drawing on the wisdom, energy and commitment of civil society.
The signature image — people of all ages, including a cyclist in open space with trees depicted in various shades of green — reflects a pluralistic and sustainable vision of community. As she pointed out, her motif is not traditional red, white and blue.
“There is a huge amount of energy in this city, a huge amount of creativity and a lot of smart people,” Hoffmann said. “If we can find a way to harness that energy and direct it, that’s what city council should do.”
She added, “I don’t feel that all knowledge and good ideas are vested in nine people on council so I want to be open to all good ideas, good initiatives and policy proposals. Those can and should come from the people. Elections are always about the future, so I want to hear from the young people. I want to be looking out 10 years to set strategy for the city. I don’t think there’s been any of that for the past two years.”
Hoffmann was recently elected chair of the human relations commission, a position she would have to give up should she be elected to represent District 4 on the city council. Her opponent in the chair election was Marikay Abuzuaiter, a fellow commissioner who is also running for city council but at-large.
“We have big issues that divide us sometimes, but I feel that we have many more commonalities that unite us,” Hoffmann said after assuming the chairmanship from her predecessor earlier this month. “And with that focus, I think we can continue to be strong advocates and to do the work of the commission for this community.”
The tumultuous course taken by the human relations commission to prepare and read a resolution to the city council opposing the reopening of the White Street Landfill has somewhat mirrored the chaos surrounding council’s deliberations on the issue. As a body, the commission has found itself strained by accusations of exclusion among members and barely veiled allegations of political pressure from staff and council members to derail the resolution.
“When I became chair, I made the comment that this commission is just as diverse as the city is,” Hoffmann said. “We got a very strong resolution that was supported by everyone on the commission. That’s a good example of what it takes to reach some consensus on a thorny issue. It’s like the old adage: You might like to eat the sausage, but you don’t necessarily want to see how the sausage is made.”
The commission recommended in its resolution that the city not reopen the White Street Landfill based on inconclusive evidence on whether landfill has caused health problems to neighboring residents and widespread perceptions of racial injustice related to the move.
Hoffmann said in her response to a YES! Weekly election questionnaire that the “municipal solid waste issue has been handled poorly and clumsily,” adding that she favors “a regional approach for the long term” that would “ensure that northeast Greensboro remains available over the next two decades for residential and business expansion and development.” Her response stopped short of saying that she would be opposed to reopening the landfill, even as a temporary measure until a more long-term solution is viable.
Notwithstanding the nuance of Hoffmann’s position, her candidacy has generated significant interest in a district where at least some voters appear to be restless.
Incumbent Mary Rakestraw, part of the conservative faction intent on reopening the landfill, narrowly beat out a more progressive candidate two years ago. Rakestraw antagonized some constituents earlier this year by submitting and a redistricting map that ejected part of the politically active Lindley Park neighborhood, which supported her opponent in the last election. The council rescinded the decision following a public outcry.
Rakestraw and three other council members have also been criticized for appearing unresponsive to citizens’ pleas to keep the landfill closed and for not explaining their adequately decision.
Pledges on Hoffmann’s campaign website to listen to all people, return citizens’ voice to council discussions, explain the rationale for her positions and votes, be accountable and operate independent of faction seem calculated to present a contrast to Rakestraw.
Tony Collins, a general contractor who formerly served on the city’s zoning commission, is also a candidate in the District 4 race.
In her role as a member of the human relations commission, Hoffmann chairs the complaint review committee, which hears complaints about the police department and fair housing. That role gives her a rare vantage point on interactions between citizens and police officers.
Along with Human Relations Director Anthony Wade, Hoffmann met with an executive recruiter hired to undertake the city’s search for a new police chief last year. And Hoffmann and Wade were part of a panel that interviewed the two finalists before City Manager Rashad Young hired Ken Miller for the job. Notwithstanding her familiarity with the police department, Hoffmann indicated she respects a separation between the roles of council and staff.
“It is not my role a private citizen, a commissioner or a council member to try to micromanage the police department,” she said. “We brought Chief Miller here to be a change agent. People are resistant to change…. I’m confident in him to work through [the] issues.
“It’s handled organizationally through the organization,” she added. “If there’s some problem, then it’s the role of the city manager through the department heads to address it. It’s a matter of the org chart.”
Hoffmann indicated that beyond the landfill controversy, she would like to focus on sustainability, economic development and quality of life.
She said she hears from residents “things like we really want to provide opportunities in the future to reduce travel by automobile so people can walk or use an Italian motor scooter and revitalize some of these inner-city neighborhoods so that they’re thriving places like Lindley Park and Sunset Hills.”
Like everyone, Hoffman would like to see the city attract more high-quality employers like HondaJet. Building on Greensboro’s enviable quality of life and promoting diversity is the way to do it, she suggested.
“My gosh, we’ve got a rich history,” she said. “We’ve got diversity and quality of life. There are very different people who come her to be successful. We’ve got seven major institutions of higher education. I will take Greensboro any day over Raleigh and Charlotte. We have all the amenities of a very good city in terms of music and theater.
“I’ve lived in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles,” the candidate added. “I know what great cities are. We have that on a small scale. I met a couple when I was canvassing a couple weeks ago who moved here from Manhattan. They love it here.”
Hoffmann argued that the turmoil on council is a hindrance to corporate recruitment.
“The first thing businesses always look at — of course, they’re going to do their due diligence — is the schools. Then they’ll look at infrastructure. It becomes a problem if they look at city council and it seems to be dysfunctional. I think we need to fix that so it’s not a negative and it becomes a positive.”
No comments:
Post a Comment