While there are four women vying for seats on Asheville City Council, Gwen Wisler will not be getting my vote. I base this decision largely on Gwen’s lack of advocacy to fund for Youth Transformed for Life, Hillcrest’s summer youth enrichment program. As chair of the Finance Committee, this is an issue she owns.
Dee Williams, Sheneika Smith and Kim Roney, on the other hand, will be getting my support. I believe Dee, Sheneika and Kim understand that sufficiently funding a program like YTL is the best investment our city can make.
While Vijay Kapoor and Rich Lee may have a similar position as Dee, Sheneika, and Kim [regarding] sufficiently funding YTL, Vijay has never served on a board or commission with the city, something that I believe makes sense before making the leap to City Council. And while Rich has, I’ll be voting to make history by working to see Asheville City Council be made up of a record-setting five women. I hope you will join me in doing the same!
Sincerely,
— Timothy S. Sadler
Asheville
Editor’s note: Xpress contacted Wisler about the point raised about her in the above letter, and she provided the following response: “As a member of the Housing and Community Development Committee, I consistently make investments in programs that serve children in public housing, and if it were up to me alone, we would fund them all. Of $158,400 in awards, $75,700 funded youth-centered programs that serve children in public housing, including My Daddy Taught Me That, One Youth at a Time, IRL and 10 more. We received competitive funding requests for triple the available funds. Full disclosure: I also volunteer with IRL, which is an Asheville Middle School after-school program.”
Although Roney was a very distant third place choice for me. Williams, Smith, Roney is probably how I would have voted too, If I was a resident. Though I might also have written my own name into the third slot instead. Or maybe Lulz.