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Sandra Anderson Groat said she ran for City Council because she wanted to make a difference in the community.

“You find out when you are in there that making a difference is just chipping a way a little bit at a time,” Groat said during lunch downtown.

The city’s two-term mayor pro tem would like two more years to make her mark on the city.

In the last year, Groat dealt with the closing of her long-time affordable housing construction business, which left her facing creditors. She has cleared up those issues, by working out settlements with a building supplier and a bank she owed.

She said in the last term she acted as a neutral voice on a divided council.

“I never got to where I couldn’t talk to anyone,” she said.

Groat tipped the votes against the former city manager, whom the council fired in a 5-4 vote.

“I have gotten better at making hard decisions,” she said.

Groat said she would like to work closer with the city’s economic development agencies to attract more businesses to Greensboro.

She would also like to see the council come up with a vision for the next 10 years, setting major goals, such as what kinds of land should be purchased or building constructed.

Groat campaigned on the issue of transparency in government.

“We are going to have to have a new attitude in the staff. If someone sends you a request, you get it,” she said, referring to requests for public information.

Assistant City Manager Denise Turner drafted a proposed record request policy, which would set timelines for how quickly the staff responds to request – a move that would go above and beyond the current state law. The recommendation was sent to council members in a memo this year. Groat said she had not reviewed it.

Groat said she struggled with the recent decision to keep the council’s city manager search behind closed doors. But she ultimately decided the city would have lost good candidates if the information was public.

Groat, who is currently writing a book about her family, said she plans to spend more time out in the districts in her next term.

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