ROANOKE, VA – The election is less than a month away - and while all eyes are on the presidential race, here at home, we have several key local elections.
One of those is the Roanoke City mayoral race.
For the next three weeks, each of the three candidates will be joining us for a digital exclusive interview to discuss their experience, goals, and key issues voters are concerned about.
First up, Councilwoman Stephanie Moon-Reynolds sat down with 10 News Anchor Abbie Coleman.
You can watch the full interview, or read a full transcription of the conversation below.
Coleman: “We are less than a month out from the election, and I want to talk to you a little bit about your campaign and some of the issues that are really affecting Roanoke. But first, I want to talk about your history. You have been a public servant for over 40 years. Where did you get your start, and how did it get you to where you are today?
Moon-Reynolds: “My start actually started in the City Clerk’s office, Council’s office. I started at the age of 20 in 1978. It’s hard to believe when I think of that. I had met Noel Taylor after five interviews, and I just worked my way through all the promotions, and I became City Clerk. I was city clerk for 13 years, and then I had a desire to run for public office, and I did during the 2020 election.”
Coleman: “Working as a clerk, you got to see a lot. What was it that really sparked you to move from City Clerk to running for office?”
Moon-Reynolds: “Good question. Working with the council, I have confidence. But being in the back room, in closed sessions, things you would hear that would make your heart hurt and you feel down, or things you saw in the administration, being a council-appointed official. You would meet with the administration, your heart would hurt. That’s what made me want to be in public office.”
Coleman: “You joined council as a nonpartisan member, and you’re running for mayor as an Independent. We live in a very divided society. There are very clear sides to an election. Why did you choose to run as an Independent?”
Moon-Reynolds: “Well, when I was in the Clerk’s office, you had to be nonpartisan. So, when it was time for me to decide which way would I go, I wanted to be an independent, because you’re nonpartisan number one. But then I had someone talk to me about going to the Democratic Party Committee. I went there. It wasn’t a fit for me, things that were going on, I just wasn’t happy with. So, when I decided to run after the deadline, it was independent, and it fit me. I was comfortable with it because I wanted to be the voice for the people and not be a voice for a party.”
Coleman: “In this political climate, what do you think is appealing about running as an independent candidate?”
Moon-Reynolds: “I think people get to see their choices. You don’t have to go along party lines. You can look at issues. You can look at the person who’s running. Do their issues align with you? And you go with that. Local elections should not be about parties.”
Coleman: “If you’re elected, you would not only be the first woman mayor, but the first black woman mayor. How historic is that, not just for you, but for Roanoke as a whole?”
Moon-Reynolds: “I’m not one who looks at things like that, but I understand it. For me, it means that I’ve achieved another goal in my life. But when I look over the City of Roanoke, I think about the youth. Young girls, black, white or brown, older, who have been waiting on things to happen, to see change. For Roanoke being segregated as it has been in the past, when we look at how many blacks live in Roanoke, I think it’s going to mean a lot to them to see we have a black woman who grew up in Southwest, who came out of poverty and made her way through life and achieved her goals, and now she’s mayor. And then I think about little girls who see me, and I take pictures with them, and I inspire, and they say, ‘I can do it too’. That’s what it means to me.”
Coleman: “Did you ever think all those years ago that you would be here, you know, being an inspiration to these young girls?”
Moon-Reynolds: “No, never did. Just felt that this was something that needed to be done. Very determined. An overachiever all my life. In fact, even in high school, I usually would find myself being the only black female or just a black person in my classes, so it is part of my makeup, absolutely.”
Coleman: “Let’s go into the issues a little bit. There are a lot of issues concerning Roanoke in this election, and for you, what is the issue that you are most concerned with?”
Moon-Reynolds: “One of the main things, before I get into the issues itself, is looking at, I’m fiscally responsible. I would want to find out how healthy is Roanoke financially? What is our buying power? How much expense do we have? How long is it going to take to get out of debt? And once you do that, you can see your services making sure you’re able to meet those basic services that take care of your citizens. One of the things I would like to see when we talk about priorities, I don’t have priorities - I call them focus. What you need to focus on, and there’s several things you need to look at. One of the things I look at when, I want to say, we could talk about homeless, we could talk about public safety. There’s so much out there that it can kind of overwhelm you, but I’m up to the task. When I think about bringing people to the table. I’m about community engagement. Who should be at the table? Who should be talking about this? We talk about engaging community, but yet we don’t. So whatever I want to focus on when we get in office, to talk about, we need the right people at the table.”
Coleman: “Some of these issues that you brought up, homelessness and gun violence, these are issues that are top of mind for voters. In terms of addressing homelessness, specifically, what would you like to see done?”
Moon-Reynolds: “I would like to see us move the HAT team. The HAT team currently is located down near the Amtrak. It should have never been put there when it was relocated from Salem Avenue. It should have been put over in Northwest, over by the Social Services building, so that the wraparound services that are needed, the clients can have. It was not done. I would like to see that number one: move the HAT team from Downtown. Move it over to Northwest. And also come together with community partners. Let’s talk with those that work for VA mental health workers. We have a lot of veterans who are homeless, who have PTSD, who need mental health. You have others who need jobs. Let’s look at those who can help get jobs. There is so much around homelessness. Those are the things that I would like to talk about at the table with mental health, with local law enforcement. Let’s talk with health care workers. Let’s talk with social services. Let’s talk with nonprofits. Let’s see how we can, as a community, bring this into, I want to say, bring it into coming to eradicating it, not increasing it.”
Coleman: “Another issue that is top of mind for voters is gun violence. We have seen a number of homicides this year, and we’ve seen several nonfatal, gun-related incidents as well. In terms of gun violence, do you think that we are moving in the right direction? We’ve had Chief Booth in office for about a year now - Do you think we’re moving in the right direction, and where do you think we need to go from here?”
Moon-Reynolds: “I believe we are. Chief Booth is one that has had experience. He understands it. He gets it. And even in his year, we’ve seen things put in place that had not been. I believe the last report I saw, we were down from this time last year. We had 20 we’re to seven. So that shows there is a decrease in gun violence. But my focus is, I look at, let’s be honest, let’s be real. It’s black on black. And the gun violence, when we look at where it’s occurring, it’s actually in the Northwest community. So I look at, okay, we need to now bring resources into Northwest. When we look at Northwest, what is available for the kids, what is available period for the community? It is a lot of slums. It is blight, overgrowth, what have you we have got to, the city has got to look to invest, in order to get investors to look at you’ve got to put money in it first offer incentives, and once we start doing that, look at workforce. Look at activities for these children between 14 to 16 even to 18 to 25. I believe Goodwill has an adult high school. Some may want to go back. To me, the important thing is also looking at the education piece. We say, read by third grade, so many of them are past that. They cannot read. So reading helps you to get through life. If we don’t help these kids learn to do things such as read, such as understand, comprehend, we’re going to continue to have repeat performances. So for me, bringing the people to the table - ex-felons. Look at the ex-felons talking with these children. We have barriers that prevent that. Yet we keep saying we want to help youth, we want to curb gun violence, but we don’t want ex-offenders to be part of this? Something is wrong with this picture.”
Coleman: “And you brought up an interesting point about youth and young people specifically. There’s been a lot of focus over the last few years about curbing violence in young people. We’ve had the curfew, we’ve had different community events to try and curb this violence. But what steps do you think specifically need to be taken for young people?”
Moon-Reynolds: “Again, those things have been nice, but that’s all they are. They’re nice. I want to see something sustainable. We talk, we hear kids saying there’s nothing to do here. We hear adults say, kids need something to do, but yet we don’t bring the youth to the table. We don’t involve the youth in the conversations. We sit around and say, ‘This is what we’re going to do for you.’ And they may say, ‘That’s not what I asked for.’ So until we are ready to truly listen and be in a position, because the city is in that position to really listen and say, These are the tools we need. These are the resources we’re going to continue to get where we get. I have been an advocate for youth from the beginning. I even coached a youth basketball team for instruction. I coached 10 years for five-year-olds, up until they graduated. I looked at being on the national scene. I’m on the National League of Cities, a government agency which is for community, a council for youth education and families. I have been able to last two years, this is my second time, to be able to courie youth to a conference, something they have never been able to. Last year with the schools, we couried six. This year, I understand we have eight. So I’ve always thought, even when I was clerk, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to have the kids go outside of their their locality, find out what other kids are doing across the country? This is their opportunity to go and listen and see these things firsthand and come back into their community, talk with other youth and do this?’ Another thing I want to do is I want to have a youth council, a community council. I’m working with some of the advocates now we’re talking about that trying to put this in place. Several localities already have that. Richmond has one. One that really came to mind was from Savannah that Chris Morrow, a former city manager, brought to us. Sherman Lea, Mayor Lea, wanted that we just had not been able to get it going. But that’s one thing that I really would like to see happen.”
Coleman: “While we’re on the topic of young people, teenagers, kids, I want to talk a little bit about schools, specifically school funding. Over the past few years, the standard was that schools automatically got 40% of the budget surplus. That has changed this year to now, where they can apply for up to 40%. I know that that decision caused a lot of backlash. I know that this is not the end of that discussion by any means. What are your thoughts on that budget surplus? Do you think that 40% should automatically go to the schools, or do you think, ‘yeah, they should have to apply.’”
Moon-Reynolds: “When I came into learning more about the 40% I wanted more knowledge on it. Two members of council met, and there was a subcommittee. So what was learned in those meetings never really was revealed. I spoke with the chairman of the school system, trying to get my head around what was being done. I’m still not sure. I hear different things from different sides. Education calls it a sure-up. City wants to call it a surplus. They are saying that this 40%, at the end, the quarter end, helps to make them whole. We’re saying apply? So we’re saying if there is no money at the end, you get none. What I would like to see is that if there is a surplus if we want to call it, you go to the table and talk with the schools. You don’t take it from them and say, ‘Okay, now you need to apply for it, and we’ll decide if we should give it to you.’ I don’t even like that. I think we need to stay at the table. Come with some understanding. It may not be a 40%. It may go back to 38% but I think they need to know, to know how to build their budget for the whole year. You can’t build the three-quarters of the way and then say, well, we’re going to wait on the last quarter to determine if we can do this or that. You’ve got to have some assurance. What is going to be futuristic? What do we have to plan this? So that’s what I would like to see. Let’s have these discussions, and let’s decide. Even if we have to do it on a yearly basis, we meet with the schools jointly. We meet twice a year. By August of the prior year, which we just had, there should be some discussions going on now. So by January or February, when we meet again, we’re able to know because we’re working on our budget now going for the next fiscal year. So everybody kind of has an idea at the estimates that are coming in, what the revenues are generated, what you anticipate. You can have those discussions perhaps, and also you’re hoping that you’ll know from the state. How much money they anticipated to give the schools from the state, the schools need to know so that they can plan accordingly.”
Coleman: “Switching gears, we are in a time of transition, not just with council, but also in terms of the city manager. Bob Cowell is no longer working for the city, and we currently have an interim city manager. As we move forward in that process, how crucial is it to find a city manager who really is invested in the City of Roanoke, and not only that, but to have a good working relationship with city council?”
Moon-Reynolds: “That is important, because the code Commonwealth says you have a manager/ Council, form of government. So that’s important. When you get a manager in, you’ve got to have a strong working relationship. And we are at the end, we’re coming out of a council election, so we are going to be working together. I would like to see the successful candidates at the table, because I think any manager would want to know, going forward, who their bosses are going to be, who are they going to have to work with? And if you think about it, we got three regardless of the outcome, it’s going to be three new council members. That’s half of your council, minus your mayor. You got three incumbents that will be there, and you got three ones coming in. So the decisions got to be there, otherwise you’re going to find yourself with four making this decision. And even I myself, would be very uncomfortable with that. So I think it’s crucial that the incoming, successful candidates have a seat at the table, have a part of the discussion, the decision-making, although they cannot vote on it. But I think that the successful candidate needs to know that discussions have been had, and the three successful candidates coming into Council are on board with the decision.”
Coleman: “We’ve talked about a lot of issues, a lot of very important issues. If you were elected, what would be first on your list to tackle?”
Moon-Reynolds: “First on my list to tackle would be meeting with the interim city manager. Because I don’t think we would really have one, even if we did, I think I would meet with the interim and a new city manager, and the council, the incumbent ones, as well as the council. We need to know the forecast, financial forecast. If there are things, any projects we’re trying to get done, we need to know what is our buying power? How much have we spent? What is the debt? We have a debt ratio going here. We need to know, how much have we spent in money? How many grants do we get? The whole, across the board, you’ve got to know before you start. I don’t think that’s ever been done. We think what the city manager tells us is true, is it really again, I have been at that table, and so I question a lot of things on council I’m not comfortable with but the majority goes along with it, and you’re either going to be part of the consensus or you’ll be the lone voter, which I have done. So those kinds of things play in my mind, and then you’re able to say, let’s start talking about these complex issues over the next three to four months. We’ve got to get grounded. We’ve got to get rooted. I am that person who really wants to communicate. I believe in communication is key. You’ve got to have that at the table the right people and bring all all across the board to the table to talk about issues in order to have some resolution.”
Coleman: “Stephanie, is there anything else you want to add that we haven’t talked about today?”
Moon-Reynolds: “No, I think we’ve covered it. I just think going forward, the city needs to heal. I think it’s going to take all of us. I think everyone has a role to play. You can’t just sit on the sidelines. You’ve got to be ready to roll up your sleeves. If we want to see change, everyone has to be part of the change, and their voice need to be heard. They need to speak out and speak loud and come forward and say, I want to help. Where can I fit in? What can I do? Where do I get information? And we’ve got, as a local government, we’ve got to have that transparency. We have got to be willing to recognize we work for the public. We are public servants, and that’s what I would like to do as mayor. Open that back up.”
Candidates David Bowers and Joe Cobb will be joining us over the next two weeks.
Tune in Sunday, October 27 on-air and online for a live interview with former mayor David Bowers during 10 News at 7 a.m.
Tune in Saturday, November 2 on-air and online for a live interview with Vice-Mayor Joe Cobb during 10 News at 7 a.m.
You can find a full-length, digital exclusive interview on our website for the other two candidates, after their interviews on those dates.