Name: Nicole Townsend
Profession: Organizer
In up to three words, describe your political affiliation: People-Centered Movement
In one brief sentence, describe yourself and why you’re running: I am running for Asheville City Council because I believe that we need officials who stop silencing people who bring forth constructive critique and creative solutions to the issues at hand.
General questions
These questions are about problems, challenges or topics facing city government and how you will try to deal with them if elected.
1) Despite pressure from the transit workers union, riders and council repeatedly designating the bus system as a major priority, senior staff have consistently failed to provide it the funds even the city’s own plans say are necessary. How do you plan to deal with this situation?
Those who work in government, either as elected officials or as hired staff must work for the people, not against the people. I believe that we must be willing to part ways with staff who are not adequately serving the community, as we have witnessed with our former City Manager and one of our former Police Chiefs.
I believe that my role on council would be to request that senior staff break down the budget line-by-line to see where each penny is allocated. Then, we have the opportunity to follow the money and make a decision, as a community, through a participatory process, about what we need to divest from so we can invest in what we need. Transit can not wait, and we must take progressive measures to ensure it is fully funded and accessible.
2) Despite an incredibly poor environmental record, especially on the storage of dangerous coal ash, Duke Energy has kept gaining power in the city’s sustainability decision-making process. How will you respond to this?
I support a Green New Deal for Asheville that has a strong race and class analysis. This means that I support breaking the Duke monopoly and working towards putting an end to the harm they have caused in our community. The entities that harm us are not the entities that need to be part of the decision-making process regarding healing. Duke is buying the support of our beloved organizations through writing large checks, which means even when they are not physically at the table, they are still being represented.
I fully support the work of grassroots organizers who have brought forth innovative solutions that include building statewide power that would push the State to allow municipalities to have our own energy cooperatives. I believe that this would allow us to also begin creating more green-collar living wage jobs.
3) The city of Asheville’s land and facilities are dotted with blatantly racist monuments and memorials, from the confederate regime monuments in Pack Square to paintings like “the white man’s family council” in council chambers. What’s your plan to remove these?
In 2017, I was arrested alongside four other organizers as we attempted to remove the Robert E. Lee plaque that sits in the middle of our downtown square. How dare we create a racial healing proclamation as a city without acknowledging the white supremacist that we honor each day via monuments, street names, and paintings.
I believe that we must collaborate with the African American Heritage Committee, local historians, and community members so that we can remove that of which honors white supremacist and place them in a museum in which we can create space for difficult conversations about the racial harm that has been done to the people who are Indigenous to the land that Asheville occupies, Black people and people of color.
4) Senior staff have repeatedly ignored council on issues ranging from transit and development to refusing and delaying implementing rules reining in the police department. If elected, what will you do when senior staff outright ignore or defy elected officials?
As I stated in question 1: “Those who work in government, either as elected officials or as hired staff must work for the people, not against the people. I believe that we must be willing to part ways with staff who are not adequately serving the community, as we have witnessed with our former City Manager and one of our former Police Chiefs”
5) Mayor Esther Manheimer, with the complicity of much of the current council, has repeatedly tried to silence dissent by enforcing a made-up rule against applause or demanding that locals have to give their addresses (they don’t). What will you do to ensure locals can criticize local government without fear of intimidation or retaliation?
I want our community members to have the space to express themselves in the council chamber that they pay taxes for. So yes, folks must clap, they must celebrate, they must bring signs, they must come ready to give public comment until the late-night hours. Every monumental progressive change that has happened in our country was made possible because community members have shown up, agitated, and disrupted. We must praise the moments in which community members show up and engage in the process of government.
I do not believe community members should be required to give their address during public comment.
Yes/No questions
These questions are about specific proposals Asheville City 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. Answers in this section that do not begin with “Yes” or “No” will not be published.
6. During the year-long hotel moratorium, council is reviewing the city’s rules on hotels. Will you reject final power over hotel approval being given to an un-elected board like planning and zoning?
Yes.
7. The APD is the largest police force per-capita of any major city in the state, has some of the worst racial disparities in enforcement and a long history of targeting the homeless and impoverished. Will you support cutting the APD’s budget by at least $7 million?
No. At this time, I need more information about the context of the $7 million that would be cut. Currently, I do not believe that we should continue to increase the APD budget. I also believe that if we are diving into a conversation about divesting from the APD budget we need to step back and create the space for the community to name that dollar amount as well as where it would be re-allocated to.
8. Asheville is one of the most unaffordable cities in the country. Instead of giving city-owned land to private developers, will you support the city building housing and turning it over to independent tenant co-ops to own and run directly?
Yes.
9. Will you publicly call on the Buncombe County commissioners to abolish the Tourism Development Authority by repealing the hotel tax it relies on for revenue?
Yes.
10. City workers face a major wage gap, with some senior staff raking in $150,000 (or far more) a year while firefighters, water system workers and many others remain desperately underpaid. Will you support a minimum salary of $40,000 (tied to inflation) and a maximum salary cap of $100,000 for city workers and staff?
Yes.