Name: Dee Williams
Profession: Self-employed Contractor: Community Economic Development Professional. Real Estate Broker.
In up to two words, describe your political affiliation: Independent.
In one brief sentence, describe yourself and why you’re running: I know how to help decent hard working people who want a fair shot at the American dream, to help themselves.
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 is caused by low wages that are paid by a proliferation of service sector and entry level jobs without portals of advancement. As a tourist/resort town, real estate is prohibitively expensive, and out of the reach of average citizens the cost of housing is high, transportation options are few and unreliable. The City must invest in local businesses and stop incentivizing low wage hoteliers to come to Asheville. Local businesses have the ability to create in-demand jobs which pay living wages. This supply chain would be developed and would focus on areas that municipal, institutional, and large regional anchor employers and industries purchase. Dee Williams would spear-head a regional Purchasing Council which would grow local small businesses and “marry” them up with large anchor institutions. The accessibility, connectivity, and efficiency of public transit in Asheville must also be addressed, as the lack of it adds to an additional burden on low wealth households who depend on it to travel to work, job training, education and for basic transportation.
Entry level jobs in supply chain management, logistics, and healthcare would offer training and portals of advancement. There should be a shift away from job creation that pays low wages to jobs which are sustainable because they “feed” the local supply chain and they are created by local small businesses. Dee Williams would work with local non-profits, community-based organizations, and staff to assist them in adapting their business model and building their respective capacities, where necessary to find a niche or supply chain to help their clients train for and get jobs on which they can support a family. Dee Williams is the only candidate with training, experience, and a track record in helping citizens break the cycle of dependency through job training, job development and entrepreneurial development.
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?
With a decline in federal funding, the local Housing Authority, as it is now constituted, cannot adequately deliver services to public housing residents. The Authority needs to re-tool to maintain ownership of the land where public housing is/was located with a non-profit which would maintain permanent affordability, a development arm which should be a for-profit which would build/manage scattered site affordable housing for very low income folks, workforce housing and a non-profit with a suite of wrap-around services to move tenants to –self-sufficiency. All of these entities would be owned, managed by HACA. Ideally, the Authority should have developed a non-profit entity to maintain perpetuity of the land’s affordability, a for-profit which develops affordable, mixed income, and work force housing units, and a non-profit which provides a suite of services to help residents who are able-bodied to become economically self-sufficient.
The Process of selecting the Housing Authority Board needs to be changed from being selected solely by the Mayor to all of Council. The current City Ordinance must be changed to involve more qualified individuals to serve as Commissioners. The oversight which HUD gives municipalities over Housing Authorities can include performance metrics that are tangible in desegregating housing and helping residents to become self-sufficient.
Many of these neighborhoods have become integrated, but many residents who are of color, still lag behind, economically and socially. It is vital that Council have among its ranks a minority economic development professional who has been more successful than any other, such as Dee Williams.
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?
The morale of APD has been low as a result of a lack of leadership from Council and the City Manager, and then cascaded to the Chief and senior officers. There must be integrity, due diligence, adequate policies, procedures and training which re-enforce a culture of honesty, fairness, and truth for this organization to function.
When the issue of the Evidence Room and the irregularities, along with the lack of adequate policies and procedures as pertains to chain of custody, lack of checks and balances, that is a direct reflection of the inability of Senior City Management to conduct departmental head performance management assessments, and the failure of City Council to reciprocally conduct those same reviews for the City Executive.
The problem with morale was further exacerbated with the selection of Chiefs from outside the ranks and the area and the selection of candidates who had the absolutely worst track records which were documented and which Council ignored. It added insult to injury when a Chief was selected, and each member of that Chief’s family was given City jobs using taxpayer funds.
The issues of race relations cannot be solved with hiring a Chief who is a racial minority or a woman. The culture of any organization will “eat policy for lunch.” Relationships must with officers and the black community on an on-going basis. Police officers need to become familiar and learn the black community via social and cultural activities and interactions. There must be Council members with “social capital” in the black community. There is only one – Dee Williams. Dee is the regional coordinator of the “Ban the Box “movement in WNC. Dee has a long history of educating; job training, hiring, and coaching folks who are felons, as a high school teacher, construction company owner, and community leader.
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?
I will work with anchor employers to develop entry level jobs in supply chain management, logistics, healthcare which offer training and portals of advancement. City Council, along with the business community could be a “bully pulpit” for facilitating this shift away from job creation that pays low wages to jobs which are sustainable because they “feed” the local supply chain and they will be created by local small businesses. Dee Williams will work with local non-profits and community-based organizations to assist in helping them to adapt their business model, where necessary, to find a niche or supply chain to help their clients train for and get jobs on which they can support a family. This is specifically targeted to low-income citizens who live in public and publicly subsidized housing. Dee Williams is the only candidate with training, experience, and a track record in helping citizens break the cycle of dependency through job training, job creation and entrepreneurial development.
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?
Priorities would be existing infrastructure, rather than a focusing on extension of infrastructure. There would be the establishment of areas for Priority Funding, based on a 20 year plan to fix $400 million dollars in infrastructure needs.
The City should prepare a separate section of the City Budget which deals solely with infrastructure repairs/maintenance, rather than co-mingling other capital improvements in with infrastructure. The areas of infrastructure include: water, roads, mass/public transit, green infrastructure, multi-modal/alternative s to car transportation.
The $400 million dollar budget/for infrastructure could be projected out over 20 years with 10 million per year coming from the water enterprise fund as a transfer to the Infrastructure Fund.
There could be an allocation of $10 million per year from the water fund for 20 years = $200 million dollars. There could be the $1.7 million dollar tax increase which was just assessed and allocate the same amount yearly for 20 years to the Infrastructure Fund; it would equal $34 million dollars.
Grants from the US Department of Transportation for TIGER grants and the EPA for Green Infrastructure improvements in older and economically distressed neighborhoods for Complete Streets Projects every five years for a total of $21 Million dollars per grant project = 105 Million dollars, and an additional allocation from the General Fund to the Infrastructure Fund in the amount of 1% of the General Fund = averages $3.05 million dollars/year for 20 years = $61 Million dollars.
Allocation from water (fund) existing – 10 million/yr x 20 yrs. = $200M
Gen. Fund Alloc.1.7 – recent tax increase x 20 years = 34 M
Grants –US Dept. Transp/EPA -5 proj x$21 M each = 105 M
From Gen. Fund – avg-1% Gen. Fund/Yr. =$3.05M/yr x 20 yrs = 61 M
Total to Infrastructure Fund over 20 years $400M
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?
Yes. I believe that these short term rentals exacerbate the affordability of housing in the City because it drives up speculation in real estate and many of the rentals are owned and rented by absentee owners. Many of these rentals undermine the character of neighborhoods in which they are located because of increased traffic, noise, and many people who have no ties to neighborhoods. These short term rentals undermine housing affordability in Asheville.
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. I do not support the heavy-handed, unilateral way in which the restrictions were formulated without input from the musicians, artists, or the public. Some of the spots where the buskers are prohibited need to be regulated if they are in an area and the performance and crowds they bring may compromise public safety, but all of this could have been worked out and compromised with other areas substituted without limiting space of performance and outright prohibition of certain areas. These performers are vital to the character and flavor of downtown.
3) Do you support a $12.50 minimum wage for all city of Asheville employees, regardless of classification or status?
Yes.
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?
No, because the move is a deflection which is totally superfluous to the needs of the African-American community in Asheville. With more than a 50% poverty rate, over 48% of African-American children failing in City Schools, and with over 50% of African-Americans living in public/publicly subsidized housing, a granite monument cannot cure these ills. This monument is a “shiny thing” that has been offered by persons who may be well-intended, but clearly have a lack of pulse on the black community, and the dire economic and socially deteriorating circumstances in this City. This Commission deals with issues which will not address those which can improve the everyday lives of our citizens. I am elected to enhance the quality of life for all our citizens and the best way to do that is not to commemorate what was in the past in a stone monument, but to provide portals of opportunity for our citizens to have a “shot” at the American Dream today.
A monument, a symbol, and even civil rights without economic clout is a “ borrowed event”, for they can be taken away at any time.
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. We cannot tax our citizens in Asheville every time a revenue stream is reduced in Raleigh. The business license tax discontinuance was cited as the culprit. It is the job of elected officials to have garnered this information during the previous fiscal year. The City Council did not appear to have either the acumen nor the courage to cut waste in the City budget , coupled with the lack of compassion for our citizens, who on average, are having a hard time, financially. It goes to the lack of respect, due diligence, care, and an arrogance that citizens will not turn out in an off year election and make them accountable.