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GREENSBORO — The city's first black mayor-elect pledged Tuesday to unite the city and "deal with these issues that we keep hearing over and over again."

Among those issues: keeping residents safe, bringing closure to the lingering police department controversy, creating a business-friendly atmosphere and protecting the environment.

Yvonne Johnson steamrolled building contractor Milton Kern to become the city's first mayor not named Keith Holliday since 1999. She garnered 57 percent of the vote to Kern's 43 percent, according to complete but unofficial results.

"I think I have a vision that people embrace, which is to bring this community together," Johnson said. She will be sworn in Dec. 4.

Debatables: How do you like the new council?

Tuesday's victory marked the high point of a political career for Johnson, an at-large council member for the past 14 years. The woman who marched down city streets during the civil rights movement of the 1960s will now lead the city.

But the City Council she will lead will be much different from the one she sits on now. Three council members — Holliday, Florence Gatten and Tom Phillips — did not seek re-election, and incumbent Sandy Carmany was defeated Tuesday. The new members are zoning commission member Zack Matheny, former Councilman Robbie Perkins and ex-Guilford County commissioners Mary Rakestraw and Trudy Wade.

Asked if Tuesday's votes for new members meant that some people wanted change in city government, Johnson said, "Well, maybe so." "I'm a change agent," she added. "So maybe enough people knew that I was a change agent."

Kern played the nice guy for much of the campaign, at one point saying that if he weren't running, he'd vote for Johnson.

His campaign hardened as the election drew closer, when he accused Johnson of wasting taxpayers' money and tied her to land developers who contributed to her campaign. In an Oct. 29 press release, his campaign declared him the front-runner.

"Obviously, people were more satisfied with their government than we thought they were," Kern said Tuesday.

Asked if he would have done anything differently, Kern said, "I don't know. I tried to do it my way. The nice way. And it's hard to run against the machine."

In the end, it wasn't enough. "She's been in there 14 years," he said. "She has 10 workers for every one of mine."

Kern said he'll go back to work developing downtown, something he's been doing for the past 10 years.

And Johnson will become mayor. In her first months in office, she wants to hold a City Council work session to set out goals and objectives for the next two years. And she spoke about scheduling a town meeting where people could speak out on the police controversy that led to the resignation of former Chief David Wray.

Some residents think Wray was treated unfairly by his boss, City Manager Mitchell Johnson, but the current council has remained steadfastly behind Johnson.

The meeting could bring closure to the police issue even "if it means simply that we agree to disagree," Johnson said. "But we have to focus on many other things, and we as a community have to do it together."

Contact Nate DeGraff at 373-7024 or ndegraff@news-record.com

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