news-record.com

This story was originally published in the News & Record on Nov. 6, 2011.

GREENSBORO — Voters in municipal District 4 don’t need to make subtle political distinctions in deciding which candidate to vote for this time around.

Two-term incumbent City Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw and political newcomer Nancy Hoffmann are a study in contrasts.

Rakestraw, 63, is a prominent Republican who has served on both the City Council and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. Hoffmann, 69, is a registered Democrat who hasn’t been politically active and who plays down party loyalty in running for the nonpartisan office.

They face off in a race that could emerge as one of Tuesday’s closer contests; Hoffmann won last month’s three-candidate primary with 2,165 votes, 44 more than Rakestraw for a margin of less than 1 percent.

Hoffmann, managing director for an executive search firm, said the city has stagnated the past two years under the leadership of Mayor Bill Knight and a conservative voting bloc that includes Rakestraw.

“I’ve always embraced change in my life, and I want to be part of a City Council that is strategic, visionary and builds on all the things that have been accomplished in the past,” Hoffmann said in a recent interview. “I think Greensboro is what it is today because it’s had progressive leadership. That’s what I want to build on.”

Rakestraw countered that she is no less passionate about seeing the community prosper but wants to use fiscal restraint and take it easy on taxpayers.

“We are in such a delicate economy for people who are living on fixed incomes and people worrying about whether they’ll have a job and those who, unfortunately, don’t have any job,” said Rakestraw.

City government can do a lot to energize the local economy simply by getting out of the way and removing obstacles to investment, Rakestraw said. She spoke of a company that wanted to bring a project to the city but was driven away recently by the city’s inflexible landscaping requirements.

“We need to use some common sense,” said Rakestraw, who did not want to name the company because its leaders might reconsider the city for another project. “As long as it doesn’t affect public safety, I think we need to look at our rules and regulations.”

Hoffmann cites the council’s December 2009 vote on the aquatics center at the Greensboro Coliseum as a vote she would cast differently than Rakestraw. A 5-4 majority gave the $18.3 million project a go-ahead, with Rakestraw on the losing side.

The issue was whether to send the project back to voters for review in a second referendum because the first time, they approved only $12 million for construction. The prevailing side wanted to speed things up by tapping the city’s hotel-motel tax to cover the added cost.

“There was no reason to incur further delay on this project by scheduling a referendum five months later,” said Hoffmann, who added the swim center is just the kind of innovative project Greensboro needs to set itself apart from other communities competing for new employers.

There’s a company out there right now with a CEO who might be swayed to relocate here by his or her love of competitive swimming or because one of the CEO’s kids has Olympic aspirations in the sport, the challenger said.

Rakestraw said her “no” vote was not against the project but against paying the added cost with hotel-motel taxes.

“The reason I did that was because I talked to a lot of the supporters of the original bond, and they felt like it should all be put on a bond,” Rakestraw said, noting it would require a second referendum to lift the $12 million ceiling. She has enthusiastically supported the project since then, Rakestraw added.

The candidates also differ on reopening the White Street Landfill to local garbage. Rakestraw supported that initiative when it was on the table; Hoffmann opposes it.

The district they want to represent includes some of the city’s more affluent and politically active neighborhoods, so voters are well informed and competing yard signs dot the landscape. This is Rakestraw’s first term as its representative; she served initially in an at-large seat.

Interviews with early voters last week outside the polls at Leonard Recreation Center suggest the audience gets each candidate’s central message.

“I think she’s a better steward of taxpayers’ money. Not a spendthrift,” Rakestraw supporter George Hodgin said after casting his vote Wednesday afternoon. “I think she has a more common-sense approach, and common sense is something we really need.”

But District 4 resident Cindy Barbour said she chose Hoffmann because the city needs new energy in its leadership, a leadership Barbour sees as too stodgy and argumentative.

“It’s unprofessional,” she said of the council’s recent comportment. “I thought we were more evolved.”

Hoffmann’s background includes work in upper management fin the furniture, textile and apparel industries. One of her projects involved successfully turning around a New England furniture maker that fell on hard times in the early 1990s.

She moved to Greensboro 15 years ago. Over the years, she’s lived in New York City, Connecticut, Los Angeles, Raleigh and Charlotte. She is a native of Rock Hill, S.C.

Hoffmann changed her career focus to executive recruiting in 1998, noting that one of the benefits is a flexible schedule that would allow her to stay abreast of the council’s heavy demands. She has served on the city’s Human Relations Commission since 2007.

Rakestraw grew up in Reidsville, battling a serious case of polio as a child but emerging with “a limp when I get tired” as the only lingering effect. She has called Greensboro home since 1969, when her husband, Frank, took a job with what was then the apparel maker Blue Bell.

Later, she pursued a varied career that included stints as a Department of Social Services caseworker, a DSS supervisor and a successful real estate broker.

Her friend and campaign treasurer Phyllis Gibbs said that as a council member, Rakestraw goes out of her way to help city residents regardless of whether they live in her district.

“They call Mary, and they know she will get interested in their problem and discuss it with whoever she needs to and get it resolved if she can,” said Gibbs, a Republican who served with Rakestraw as a county commissioner in the 1990s.

But District 4 and the city in general need someone less politically aligned, said Hoffman supporter Brenda Schleunes.

“I think Greensboro has a reputation for an inordinate amount of bickering,” Schleunes said. “Nancy would be an independent voice, and that’s the most important thing we need.”

Tuesday alone will tell what the majority of District 4 voters believe.

Contact Taft Wireback at 373-7100 or taft.wireback@news-record.com