In order to avoid the likely passage of NC HB 400 (which would remove the city council’s ability to appoint members to the Asheville City Schools Board) Vice Mayor Sheneika Smith proposed at the August 24, 2021 City Council meeting that a vote on George Sieburg’s appointment (timestamp 03:32:00) be added to the meeting’s agenda. Up until then, the plan had been to put Sieburg’s appointment to a vote at the September 28 council meeting. The vacancy will not exist until November 8.
The tradition of pushing this along via non-traditional paths continued on Tuesday evening, October 19. The Asheville City Schools Board of Education called a special working session for that date to conduct a formal swearing-in ceremony for Mr. Sieburg at that meeting. It’s not clear why this swearing-in could not have occurred instead at the regular ASC Board meeting on October 11. ASC Board work sessions do not allow taxpayers to voice comments. Nor do common, tax-paying citizens have an opportunity to vote for ASC School Board members (at this time) – our woke Asheville City Council appoints whoever they choose to those seats.
For this vacancy, they have selected a Black Lives Matter supporter who previously served as Finance Director for Homeward Bound WNC. While by 2024, the politician has modified his Instagram profile page, check out how it looked at the time of his appointment:
If you believe that we should allow a supporter of BLM principles to remain as chair over the Asheville city schools board, we have an opportunity (at last) for the public to cast their votes for him during the current primary election.
Recall that this city council also appointed trans activist Peyton Daisy O’Conner to the school board on March 23, 2021. The vote in favor of Mr. Daisy was unanimous with the following council members present:
- Councilwoman Kim Roney;
- Councilwoman Sage Turner;
- Mayor Esther E. Manheimer;
- Vice-Mayor Sheneika Smith;
- Councilwoman S. Antanette Mosley;
- Councilwoman Sandra Kilgore;
- Councilwoman Gwen C. Wisler.
Roney and Turner are running for re-election. If you approve of their judgement, you should vote for them in the primary election. If you are thinking it might be good to place someone who is not a left-wing liberal on City Council, you should know that candidate CJ Domingo is a registered Republican. However, unless he is one of the five top vote-getters for City Council in the primary election, he will not be on the November ballot.
