Evelyn Powers, Roanoke City Council Candidate, Answers Our 9 Burning Questions for 2024

Ahead of Roanoke’s municipal elections on Nov. 5, The Rambler once again sits down with each of the candidates — this time with a twist.

Three candidates for mayor and seven City Council candidates agreed to videotaped chats as we probed them on Roanoke’s past, present and future. To distinguish our questions from those frequently asked of the candidates, we focused on budgets, segregation, climate, housing and more. (Of course, we also had to touch on where they like to dine out.)

For mayor, Vice Mayor Joe Cobb is running as a Democrat, Councilwoman Stephanie Moon Reynolds as an independent and former mayor David Bowers as a Republican. For City Council, the candidates are Democrats Terry McGuire, Phazhon Nash and Benjamin Woods; independents Evelyn Powers and Cathy Reynolds; and Republicans Jim Garrett and Nick Hagen. Voters can choose up to three Council candidates.

This interview features Powers, a 66 -year-old Catawba native who lives in the South Roanoke area. Powers served as the city’s elected treasurer from 2003 until her retirement in September. She worked at city hall for 43 years, previously in the municipal auditing department. This is her first campaign for Council.

Candidates did not receive copies of the questions beforehand. Transcripts of the interviews have been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

View the candidate's full video interview here:

Why do you want to serve Roanoke as a City Council member?

Well, as you know, it's been some tough issues at the city here recently. We've had a lot of people leave. And of course, you know, our city manager left, and then, of course, our mayor decided he was going to retire, and Trish [White-Boyd] is retiring. So we're losing a lot of people on Council that have a lot of the government experience. And again, I got a lot of calls from people that said, ‘Why don't you consider doing this? You've got 43 years of, you know, the financial background, experience with the city, why don't you think about it?’ And, you know, I kept telling them no, but then I decided, why not? So I jumped in and I'm running on the independent ticket.

Let’s talk policy priorities. If you’re elected, what’s one of the first actions you would push for City Council to take?

Well, as you know, a lot our citizens are very upset with the rezoning issue. And I think that's very important, that we need to revisit that and try to figure out, you know, exactly what it is that the city wants to do, and exactly what do our citizens want, and help them figure out exactly where we need to go with that. Because there's just too many unhappy people. But I also realize that there are people on the other side that like it. And I'm just concerned that it just has not been developed in a way that everybody really understands what it really means. So I think it's just got to be revisited.

A main priority of Council is overseeing a roughly $380 million annual budget. What do you want to see happen with the city’s budget over your four-year term?

Well, I think what we really need to do is we need to make sure that all of our city government departments really truly understand how we put that budget together. Because when we get the budget from the budget people now, they'll tell you, ‘Don't ask for anything.’ Just, you know, it's like status quo from last year. Well, we all know that that's not always possible, and it's back to the drawing board. So I would really like to see that we are better educating our city departments, our leaders there to really understand how that budget is put together. 

And we really need to look at what do we really don't need? I mean, we know what the essential services are that we have to have. But I'd like to see what we don't have. For example, in the treasurer's office, the majority of every single year, 20 years, I gave money back to the city from my budget. I put together a spreadsheet that's like your checkbook register, and Finance handles all of the expenses. So every time we spent money in our department, it went on those budget spreadsheets, and then at the end of the month, when Finance closed out the books, we reconciled that spreadsheet with Finance. So I always knew how much money I had. I always knew what percentage of my budget that I had spent. 

And I'd like to see that, you know, are we teaching that to the rest of the city departments so that they understand, you know, what you can look for? But I always taught my employees that we spend that money like we spend our home money. So we were fortunate this last June 30 budget, out of $2.4 million budget, I gave back $222,000. I was very proud of that.

Roanoke’s residential neighborhoods remain highly racially segregated. What role should city government play in dismantling that legacy?

Well, yes, I do think we need to look at that, and we need to make sure that we don't encourage that and we don't have that anymore. We should make sure that we give everybody in our city the opportunity to live wherever they can financially afford to live. But I think we have a lot of areas in the city that we need to really look at that have boarded up houses. So we need to look at those houses, and why are the owners keeping them boarded up? What kind of incentives can we give to people to help them either sell it, figure out what to do with it. The city can help them be able to put those houses back in the market, so that people can afford to buy them, so that they can live in areas. We need to look at each one of the areas. I think right now, if you look over in Southeast, that's probably one of the areas that I think we really need to work on and help them deal with a lot of those properties over there that need some help.

How would you work to implement the city’s climate action plan? Or do you disagree with its recommendations?

I am a little bit familiar with it, but I do agree that we need to work on that. I think our stormwater division has done a great job trying to figure out which properties were in the flood zone, and the city has actually bought up some of those properties and been able to manage that. If you look at what they've done along Roanoke River for the flood reduction plan, it's worked. And so we need to continue on looking at, you know, that. I know they look at, you know, making sure that we continue to plant the trees for the shading and, you know, and the area so that downtown, things aren't getting so hot. And you know, from making sure we keep on putting down trees and planting them. But yes, I think that's important for us to do. I'm not real familiar with a lot of it, but I do understand what it is and what the city's trying to do.

You’re on record opposing current policies that ended exclusively single-family zoning. What’s your solution to encouraging the development of more affordable housing?

Well, that's a very good question that I'm not quite sure we really have the whole answer of what to do. Because when you say affordable, look at what it costs to go buy materials to build a house. So I'm a bit confused about, you know, what you say. How do you make it affordable when things cost so high right now? I think what we should be really looking at — and I keep saying this — is that there's a lot of housing that is boarded up. No one lives in it. There are some property around where there's a lot of vacant lots. So you know, again, I think the city needs to look at what type of incentives can we offer people to encourage them to sell that property, to offer it to the builders that can fix it up. Because I think, you know, if you've got a house that's got good bones, then you could probably make it more affordable because you're not building the whole house. That's what I hear from a few builders that I know.

But again, the zoning thing, I think, is just so confusing to people. And one of the things is, I personally went out to the GIS system to try to find my own property’s zone, what zone I'm in, and I couldn't do it. I mean, it was very difficult. You have to go through all these layers. Well, I know if I can't do it, I understand why taxpayers will call in my office when they got their tax bills saying, ‘What zone am I in? I can't find it.’

I think they should have done a better job putting out information. Like, if my zone is zone R-12, then what does that mean? What can I do? And I think the unknown is what's gotten everybody so upset. Because, you know, we are very unique here in the city, and we do have unique neighborhoods, like in Raleigh Court, where you live, it's wonderful, and that's what a lot of people like. But then there are a lot of people that want to live in an area like, you know, another area where there's a lot of property around, wooded areas that their kids could play in. And I think people felt like, ‘Oh my goodness, every neighborhood is going to look alike, and there will never be another single home built.’ And I think we just need to go back to the drawing board, and let's sit down with our neighborhoods, and let's collectively, together, try to understand what the goal is and how we get there. And we should bring in developers and bring in the builders and let them tell us what they can do, where people need to hear it from the builder. Because honestly, being in city government for 43 years, being in the treasurer's office for the last 20 years, our taxpayers really have lost trust in our government.

You are running as an independent in this election. You won several elections running as a Democrat. Can you tell me why you're running as an independent in this election and what differences that has brought about in this campaign for you?

Well, as you know, I didn't decide to do this until late, so the Democratic process had already ended. So if I really, truly wanted to do this, my only option was to run as an independent. But I think on the Council side, I want to represent everybody. I don't really care what your political politics are. We need to be respectful of each other, we need to be transparent, and we need to sit down and collectively, together, try to work out these issues that we have and figure out how we can do them without people not thinking that there's no trust. 

So one thing I'd like to see is, I would like to see if we can have a Citizens Council. So if every neighborhood could pick a couple of people so that we can maybe have a council, a Citizens Council of maybe eight people, that can work with City Council, especially on these kind of issues, these bigger issues that end up being so sensitive, so that we can actually have time to get information out there to people and not rush something through. I feel like this got rushed through a little bit fast.

You’re going out to dinner in Roanoke. Name just one place — where do you go?

Montano’s. It's close to my house. I like the food, I like the atmosphere, I like the prices, I like the people there. I've gone there a lot, so I know them.

What books are on your night stand? What are you reading currently?

I'm reading a book right now called “Imagine Heaven.” I've had a few close friends pass away this year, and my very favorite brother-in-law just passed away last Thursday, very unexpectedly. And a friend offered this book up to me a long time ago when my mother passed away, and I keep it there, and I read it when these things happen to remind me that they're in a better place. And if you've not read it, it's a wonderful book. It's about people who have experienced near-death experiences, and it's very calming. It's very enlightening to know that our loved ones have passed on to a brighter, beautiful place.