I am running for the Buncombe County Commission because I believe we can bring people together to tackle the challenges and opportunities facing all of Buncombe County.
For the past eight years I have been fortunate to have the chance to serve on the Asheville City Council. Since 2008, I have also worked as a partner at FLS Energy, a locally owned solar energy development company. These experiences have shown me how much we can accomplish when people come together for a common purpose. These are some of the accomplishments that I am proud to have been a part of.
Asheville has emerged as a national leader for clean, renewable energy:
- Asheville City Council committed the city to reduce its carbon emissions by 80% and to require all new municipal building to LEED Gold standards.
- We replaced our old, polluting diesel buses with a new fleet including many clean, quiet hybrid buses that use far less gas and are replacing our old city street lights with new LED bulbs, which will save taxpayers $650,000 a year in lower utility bills.
- We supported Asheville Green Opportunities, to provide job training and mentoring for young people so they can develop work experience and marketable skills in the new clean energy economy.
We have worked to grow a stronger local economy and support working families.
- We partnered with Buncombe County to bring Linamar to Asheville, who will create at least 400 or more good paying manufacturing jobs and put the property formerly occupied by Volvo back into productive use.
- We invested substantially in Mountain BizWorks to help provide aspiring small business owners with loans to help them get their new businesses off the ground.
- We adopted a policy to assure that Asheville employees and contractors with the city are paid a living wage.
- We partnered on the development of projects like the Glen Rock Hotel Apartments on the French Broad Riverfront, which provides 60 families with an attractive, affordable home.
- We held the line on property tax rates.
- We invested more than $35 million to fix our long neglected water infrastructure.
Asheville has advocated for building a safe, inclusive and respectful community.
- Our City Council extended equal workplace rights so that all our public employees receive the same benefits for doing their job, regardless of sexual orientation. This is a common practice amongst private sector employers but only a handful of local governments in North Carolina have taken this step.
During a time when state legislators are trying to change North Carolina’s Constitution to discriminate against many of our citizens, I am proud that our community is standing up for equality. I support equal rights for all our citizens.
Serving on the Asheville City Council has been a rewarding and humbling experience. While there are some decisions I might make differently with the benefit of hind-sight, we made real progress tackling important issues.
I ask for your support in my campaign for County Commission. Together, we can make our county a model for what an inclusive, sustainable and innovative community can be for the rest of North Carolina and the country.
Brownie Newman