Katie Rossabi has confirmed she is running for an at-large seat on the Greensboro City Council.
Rossabi’s campaign announcement might be compared to a soft opening for a business. She doesn’t hesitate to say that she is running but hasn’t sent out a formal announcement.
This year that puts her in the same league as most of the other candidates running for an at-large seat. At-large Councilmembers Yvonne Johnson, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Michelle Kennedy are all expected to run for reelection but haven’t made formal announcements.
Tracy Furman announced she was running for the District 3 City Council seat and then announced that she would run at large.
Former District 5 City Councilmember Tony Wilkins in 2019 said he was going to run for mayor but has since decided to run for City Council. However, Wilkins has done them all one better. He says he is definitely running for City Council but whether he will run at large or run for the District 5 seat he held from 2012 to 2017 is still up in the air.
It makes sense for Wilkins to wait because 2021 is a redistricting year for the City Council, and how the new district lines are drawn can make a difference. However, it appears more and more likely that there will be no redistricting for the City Council this year. The US Census Bureau has said that the 2020 census figures will be officially released by the end of September, which is long after the July filing period for the City Council election. It’s also possible that there will be no City Council election in 2021. The state legislature could decide to delay municipal elections until 2022 to give municipalities time to redistrict and the current City Council another six months to a year in office.
Redistricting won’t affect the at-large races, and Rossabi says she is definitely running. Rossabi in 2011 founded Kucheza, a company that designed and manufactured tennis wear for women. Kucheza ceased operations in 2019 and Rossabi said that has given her the time to run and hopefully serve on the City Council.
Rossabi says that the current handling of two big issues she is concerned about – the police and economic development – convinced her to run.
Rossabi said, “I’m upset with how the police are being portrayed and the way they are being treated. We have a great police chief and the City Council needs to get out of the way and let him do his job.”
She added, “And we need business development. We’re watching the town kind of wither.”
Rossabi said, “I think Greensboro could be a thriving attractive positive place to live, but we have to do the work to rebuild it.”
With four or possibly five candidates in the race in March, it could be a crowded field by the time the election is held, whenever that might be.
Why have you stopped identifying the political parties of candidates for local office?
City Council races are nonpartisan. If a primary is needed it is held for all the candidates in the race and the top two or in the case of the at large race the top six run in the general election regardless of party affiliation.