Political Beat Preview: One-on-One with Mayor Vi Lyles

CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles is seeking a fifth term in office, facing four challengers in the upcoming primary election on Tuesday.

Lyles is running against Brendan MaGinnis, Sydney Acute McDaniel, Delter Guin, and Gemini Boyd.

Despite the competitive race, Mayor Lyles has maintained a low profile this election season, opting not to make public endorsements or hold many campaign events.

ALSO READ: Political Beat Preview: Charlotte Mayoral candidates

The Political Beat’s Joe Bruno sat down with Lyles for a 1-on-1 interview. Their interview is below:

Joe Bruno: Why are you running?

Vi Lyles: To finish some of the things that I think are most important for this community...the transportation bills. I mean, those kinds of things are things that we need to complete and to do this. I think running for office for continuity, as well as to close out, I believe the most important thing that we can do for the city for decades coming.

JB: Why is the transit plan the right plan?

VL: Well, it’s the right plan because it’s the, I think, the second or third right plan that we’ve tried to do, and it has finally captured the attention of the public and the residents that we have, and they are willing to participate with us. Now, yesterday, we had a big kick-off. And you know, you don’t think about some of these small things, the blind, the lion, the blind people that are here, and they came in and said, we’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Well, I understand that, and it’s something that we can rely upon. And I believe that this community understands that people are the most important thing. We’ve heard it all over. Every person is talking about it’s important for people, well, it’s very important for people to have a way to get a job, a way to get to work and to have an opportunity.

JB: All the candidates have different reasons why they’re running, but I always ask, like, what do they want to improve? And they say, transparency and dysfunction. And when you hear people describe Charlotte City Council as not being transparent or dysfunctional, do you think that their comments are off base?

Vi: When I hear that, I hear campaign leadership and opportunities to say I have something better to do, and I think that we all have to listen to that. You know, when people are talking about transparency, I don’t know that definition quite yet, and I’m looking forward to those that are saying we must have transparency to define it, because there’s a certain amount of transparency that you have to have, but people deserve the opportunity to have a quality of life that’s their private life, and so I’m interested in seeing what that definition will be.

JB: Why did Charlotte City Council settle with CMPD Chief Johnny Jennings?

VL: I believe that we treat people fairly, if you know, in our HR programs, and all of the things that we do, that Johnny isn’t any different than other people that we’ve actually had these kinds of contracts with. And I think it’s unfortunate, because I truly believe the sheriff, Johnny Jennings, is a great chief, and I think that he deserves the right to have some quality and quality or being able to make that decision. I just tell you, by the person that he is, is because he gave the media the story, and it wasn’t something that we would have done.

JB: So the city never would have revealed this. Had Johnny Jennings not?

VL: We’d have to ask a lawyer that, and I’m not a lawyer today.

JB: How safe do you consider Charlotte?

VL: I think it all depends on where you live and what you’re doing and whether or not we have a program for you at the time. You know, I know that Beatties Ford Road is a great place. We have a lot of really great people that live along that corridor, but I don’t think it’s the same thing as some of the other areas of town that we have. So we do have. Work to do, and I think that work is important. We see what’s going on with young people, and we’re talking about that, and we have a group of people that are working on it immediately, right now. I hope by the end of the summer, we will have council committee meetings after the election, or, I guess, the time that we’re going to be elected, and then I’m going to say, what are we going to do? Because it’s something that everybody has to participate in.

JB: Is part of the problem light sentences for repeat offenders?

VL: I bet there are a lot of reasons for these problems, but we have to figure that out and to make sure that people understand that they have the right to be safe, and if we’re going to give them that right, how do we do it best in the context of where people live, where they work? Do we have lighting? Do we have, you know, places walked, or do we have enough police officers to be around to make people feel safe? What’s next? So at some point that will be an important initiative, before the end of the year, I hope.

JB: So the next two years, other than sales tax increase and getting the transit rolling, what else do you want to do?

VL: It’s time for us to really begin to think about how we treat people that are unhoused. Right now, I have said this to a number of people in the community, that taking people off of the streets without having a place for them to go is not what we should be as a city. So my goal would be, there are lots of things that I have ideas about, but I think the housing of the unhoused is one of the things that we have to tackle pretty immediately.

>> The full interview can be seen above.

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