Name: John Miall
Profession: Retired Local Government / Consulting / Retail
In up to two words, describe your political affiliation: Conservative Democrat
In one brief sentence, describe yourself and why you’re running: Having been born, raised, educated in, and after 34 years of service to the Asheville community I seek to use the management and leadership skills I have to deliver real solutions and take Asheville in a fiscally responsible direction while enhancing our quality of life.
General questions
These questions are about problems, challenges or topics facing city government and how you would try to deal with them if elected.
1) According to recent studies, Asheville has an extremely low amount of available housing and the city’s currently making national lists as an unaffordable place to live. What steps would you pursue to deal with this issue?
This has always been the case in Asheville. When I graduated college in 1975 I spoke with a realtor when looking for an apartment for my wife and I. He told me realtors almost never listed rentals since they typically went quickly by word of mouth. Available rentals for young people and older people on fixed incomes has always been in short supply in this market.
In more recent years, it is a reputation well deserved and well earned. The current leadership has raised taxes twice in two years. They have added new fees for everything short of breathing air, and raised all of those in the past two years. All while curtailing services like leaf collection, repairing community pools like Walton Street, and keeping up streets and sidewalks. Never in the 218 year history of Asheville has so much been gouged from citizens for so little service. This week’s City newsletter announced they won’t even be providing plastic bags for leaf collection as they have done for over 30 years.
Two things need to happen. First is to strengthen the Housing Trust Fund. Stop giving millions to a museum and developers, and invest in our people. Secondly, is to lower taxes and fees so landlords don’t have to pass those costs on direct to consumers.
2) During the past year, we’ve seen an increasing numbers of concerns raised about de facto racial segregation in Asheville, an issue worsened by the impacts of redlining, racism, urban renewal and the state of public housing. If elected, what specifically would you do to help address this problem?
This question invites one to examine one of my fellow candidates She claims to have headed the City’s Affordable Housing Committee since 2011. If affordable housing is in as short a supply as we are told in question 1 above, and if race relations related to housing are as bad as we are told, would you think she has accomplished anything? And, yet our current crop of leaders are falling all over themselves touting her candidacy. A popular notion of insanity holds, “It is doing the same thing the same way and expecting a different result.” Nothing will change until we change our leadership and their hand-picked cronies.
We have to begin NOW to elect leaders who reflect our diverse community. For years City Council had black representation, but for all the chest beating Progressive natter, not one attempt has been made to recruit and support black candidates for City Council. Shame on our leaders and their Progressive kin.
Secondly, we have to hire minorities in top leadership positions in the City. To my knowledge not one person currently in a department head level job (all hired by the City Manager) is black, Latino, or anything else that would represent a diverse community [Editor’s note: Parks and Recreation Director Roderick Simmons is African-American]. Hiring on the basis of qualifications and skills is not mutually exclusive of hiring minorities who possess those requirements. Other communities do it every day.
Finally, I would note that the current transformation of public housing to a non-profit private entity may hold some promise for improving public housing. But, I think it is more likely we will see a “Pisgah View” Golf Resort & Brewery in lieu of housing.
3) From internal disputes and problems with morale to concerns about racial disparities, many are wondering about the state of the Asheville Police Department. What specific steps do you see as necessary to reform the APD and improve relations with the community?
I am proud to have just received the endorsement of the men and women in law enforcement throughout our region who are member of the PBA.
I have many friends who work in the Asheville Police Department, and many more who have retired from careers there. I can tell you without reservation that the mishandling of the former Chief situation did more to damage morale than anything I had witnessed in 30 years working for the City.
The men and women who serve us in that department are well trained, and to my experience are highly devoted to enforcing the law without consideration of race or gender.
When the former Chief demonstrated more than once he was inept the Council continued to prop him up and Councilman Bothwell among others took to social media regularly to chastise those brave enough to speak up and accuse them of racism. I remember several of his rants that assured taxpayers “another shoe is going to fall….” Leading the public to believe that more was to be learned than what was being reported.
Well, when it was over the only “other shoe” that fell was the one that fell from Council’s collective mouth when they had to admit it was time to change.
The Asheville Police Department finally has a Chief that appears to be making decisions based on best policing practices from what I am hearing. I wish her the best, and if elected I will work tirelessly to support and uphold the Chief and the men and women who serve us every day.
4) Wages in Asheville are well below the state average and federal data shows pay for many jobs here remains stagnant despite the tourism boom. If elected, what specific steps would you pursue to help boost local wages?
We have to stop the pandering to special interest hoteliers and brewers and devote time, energy and resources to recruiting higher paying jobs outside of the tourism industry.
The idea of “living wage” is not the solution and touting it is further pandering to residents clamoring for higher wages. It is a short term fix and artificially raises the cost of goods and services.
Educating our youth and workers is the first step. Asheville pays a full $.15 on its tax rate for a separate school system (City Schools) and all we hear is there is an “achievement gap.” If we are paying those kind of dollars for those kind of results we need to be asking, “Why.”
Along with educating our youth and workforce we need to be looking for and recruiting businesses that pay more. A recent trampoline company could not get a building permit issued by the City after months of trying. They took their 45 jobs and went to Charleston and opened a business there. WLOS and the Citizen Times reported a City spokesperson as saying they had doubled the staff in zoning to 57 people in 2 years and there was still a lot of training that needed to be done. I hold they have so many people falling all over themselves that decisions aren’t getting made. Cut that staff to half, and empower those left to make decisions and get permits issued. As it stands now, Asheville has a reputation as a place you cannot do business. That has to change.
5) The last city budget estimated the total cost of the city’s infrastructure needs at around $400 million. What steps would you encourage to address this problem, what funding sources would you use and what would the top priorities be?
I would appoint a panel of internal and external financial experts along with Council to conduct a line by line review of every dollar being spent in every department budget. We need to know where our taxes are going.
For 25 of my 30 years as an employee of the city I had to submit balanced budgets. Never once did I submit a budget to the City Manager that would have required a tax increase. I know how budgets work and how to balance them.
My priorities would be public safety, streets & sidewalks, sanitation, and parks. Those core services should come first and foremost in every budget every year. Not one penny for a museum, hotel, a river front, or bike path or anything else until core services are being funded in full. Rather than fees for garbage collection I would favor a fee for bike paths and greenways. We need to fund NEEDS with tax dollars, and WANTS with fees. Our priorities need to be realigned with the needs of the people paying the bills.
Yes/No questions
These questions are about specific proposals Council has or may consider, and how you would vote on them. The first word of each answer must be Yes or No. An explanation of one’s position — or an alternative proposal — may follow.
1) A majority of Asheville City Council recently approved increased fines and enforcement to strengthen the ban on short-term rentals (i.e. Airbnb and similar sites) in most areas of the city. Do you support this move? NO
2) City staff recently proposed a detailed plan to restrict busking in downtown in three major spots, with specific rules on the numbers of performers and the amount of space they can occupy. Do you support this proposal? NO
3) Do you support a $12.50 minimum wage for all city of Asheville employees, regardless of classification or status? NO
4) Will you approve city funds to support the proposal, backed by the city-county African-American Heritage Commission, for a monument on Pack Square marking the contributions and history of Asheville’s black citizens? YES
5) This year’s city budget included a property tax increase, with a majority of the current Council claiming this was necessary due to revenue changes at the state level. Do you support that increase? NO