VOTE411 Voter Guide

I know how to win for Asheville and achieve progressive results. I've served on City Council, as Vice-Mayor, and as Mayor. I led our city through Hurricane Helene and secured $225 million in federal recovery funding. I co-chair Gov. Stein's Advisory Committee on WNC Recovery, serve on U.S. Conference of Mayors task forces, and am past chair of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition. I'm deeply rooted in Asheville, earned a JD and an MPA from UNC-Chapel Hill, worked as counsel for the legislature, and I help people resolve disputes as a title and easement litigator. I led the fight to keep our water system, keep our AAA bond rating, to invest in our Fire Fighters’ REST program, cancel the Flock contract, and get Costco back to the table.

1. Stand up for Asheville: Protect our recovery and our residents from politics and overreach in Raleigh and Washington. 2. Housing people can afford: Preserve and build deeply affordable housing so working families can stay in the city they love, with protections for renters and longtime homeowners. Support our local businesses by ensuring workers can live and work her in Asheville. 3. Safe neighborhoods: Violence reduction, especially gun violence, mental-health responders on crisis calls, and public safety built on trust and restoring the ranks of our police force with men and women living in Asheville.

I’ll deliver on recovery, affordability, and safety. I fought for $225 million in recovery dollars; 70% will be directed to working neighborhoods; $15.5 million for small business grants. I advocated for affordable housing and we have 231 of new units and hundreds in the works. When the legislature tried to take our water, I fought it and we won. When federal raids spread fear, I rallied city and county leaders to ensure local police stay out of immigration enforcement. I called for ending our Flock contract over reports it shared data with ICE elsewhere. I'll keep delivering results on the issues that matter to our residents, showing up in Raleigh and DC, working with Gov. Stein and our partners, so Asheville gets what it needs to recover.

I graduated high school here and raised my sons here. My husband, Mark, teaches at Enka High School, and we are a public-school family. Since Hurricane Helene, my focus has been to finish the rebuild to meet our community’s needs for affordability, equity, and recovery. Seventy percent of our $225 million recovery grant is aimed at low- and moderate-income neighborhoods, and community Helene Recovery Boards guide how it's spent. Recovery dollars are building resilience, too: more than $150 million for North Fork water filtration, rebuilding river parks and new community resilience centers. We're backing local jobs with $15.5 million in direct help for small businesses. I'm proud to be endorsed by Gov. Josh Stein, Asheville's Fire Fighters, Rep. Brian Turner, Sen. Julie Mayfield, County Chair Amanda Edwards, Comm. Al Whitesides, the Sierra Club, Asheville for All, Avl Families for Manheimer, and many more residents and trusted leaders. Asheville is worth fighting for, and I'm not done.

In my 2nd term on Council, I show up prepared and ask hard questions. I collaborate with colleagues and local subject matter experts instead of just consultants, and have the courage to stand up for community values.

My 26-year career as a music educator currently includes 34 families.

My service experiences include: Council Committees–Planning, Economic Development, & Environment, and Policy, Finance, & Infrastructure; Liaison–French Broad River MPO, Alcohol Beverage Control, Urban Forestry, Transit, and Neighborhood Advisory Committee; and Community Organizing–Just Economics Policy Advocacy, Asheville Music School, Better Buses Together, and former Station Manager of 103.3-AshevilleFM, overseeing operations with 100+ staff from 2012-201

1. Public Safety:

- Championing Constitutional rights, as I did organizing to end Flock’s surveillance contract; - Adding certified mental health professionals to police and fire as part of data-driven solutions to address public safety issues; and - Using best practices to prevent and reduce homelessness.

2. Affordability: - Building & preserving affordable housing; - Ensuring fair water rates, not residents subsidizing largest accounts; and - Supporting local and living wage businesses for a more stable economy.

3. Climate & Neighborhood Resiliency: - Protecting Asheville from data centers; - Securing food & water systems; - Advancing energy efficiency, renewable energy, and waste reduction; and - Bolstering neighborhood plans.

Everyone in Asheville deserves to be safe, but a narrow definition of public safety limits successes and creates new problems. True public safety identifies needs and utilizes correct tools. Sending the right person with the right tools and training during crises isn’t some far-off dream.

Asheville should partner to expand Buncombe’s Community Paramedicine program with staff uniquely qualified to connect people with behavioral healthcare and substance use treatment; bring Durham’s HEART program to Asheville; engage community health workers for violence interrupter programming; and regain our living wage certification so first responders can afford to live in the communities they serve.

I believe in democracy and doing the people’s work in public so meetings are more inclusive and efficient, not behind closed doors.. If elected mayor, I’ll be setting the Council agenda with City Manager DK Welsey–I’m eager to work with her to regain public trust in City Hall.

More of my work with and for Asheville: Neighborhood Resilience including Urban Forestry • Funding Deeply-Affordable Housing, Expanded Transit, and Reparations • Saving Grey Eagle and Depot St from Hotel Overlay Map • Leading Not Lagging on Living Wages and Firefighter Pay Equity • LGBTQ+-inclusive Non-Discrimination Ordinance including Veteran and Pregnancy Status • Reproductive Rights • Prioritizing Violence Prevention & Youth Mentorship

I’m endorsed by the WNC Central Labor Council, EqualityNC, the LGBTQ+ Democrats of Buncombe County, Sunrise Movement, Buncombe Register of Deeds Drew Reisinger, Rev. Amy Cantrell, and many neighbors like you who are ready for trusted leadership for the change we deserve.