Stephanie Moon Reynolds, Roanoke Mayoral Candidate, on Debt, Amazon Jobs, and Why She Spurns the Gun Violence Panel

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 Councilwoman Stephanie Moon Reynolds, an independent candidate for mayor. Moon Reynolds, 66, was a longtime city clerk who is finishing her first term on Roanoke City Council. She lives in the Preston Park area.

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 be Roanoke’s next mayor?

I want to be Roanoke's next mayor because I look at what's going on in the city. Again, I have been for 46 years, and over those years, you can see the good, and then you can see where it started to trend down. And part of that, I think, has been tenure, the knowledge. Those that came on Council in past years, the first 25 years was probably, I would say, business-minded. Economic development, looking at things that needed to be done, Parks and Rec. And then the next 20 years, you started seeing more personal agendas. 

I primarily started seeing it in 2000 when I became deputy [clerk], and I was able to be in meetings, and you're working more with management, you started to see the shift. You started to see it, even in the mayors as they came on. When I saw Ralph Smith. Ralph was a good mayor — he didn't do much, but he was a quiet mayor. And then and then we had C. Nelson Harris. Mayor Harris was there when I was clerk. I thought he was a good mayor. He cared about the people. He was more of a quiet one, too. He didn't do much outgoing, outreach in the community, but he did meet the people, and he was concerned about the citizenry. 

And then we got David back, and I saw a shift, and then I saw Sherman Lea come on, and I believe Sherman has done the best he can. And I'm not taking anything from him, but I don't think there was strong leadership with him. He started seeing others come in. They had their own ideas, so he wasn't a good guidance in helping to navigate them, and they were all new. And then I looked down at what the administration had. We had two new managers that had come through, and the tenure was leaving from the management office, from [deputy city managers] Sherman Stovall, Brian Townsend was already looking to leave, and then on and on and on. And I got to thinking, what's going to happen to the city when I leave? There's no institutional knowledge. Not on Council. Mayor Lea had tenure, [former councilman] Bill Bestpitch had tenure. But I'll leave that alone. And so I just thought I needed to be part of what was going on in the city. So I ran for the Council office, and two years in, I started to see more work that needed to be done, and there was no knowledge, no history, nothing to help navigate from the Council-appointed offices down into the management. There was no one with knowledge, and they were not listening to the people. There was no voices being heard. It was a one-party thing, and I didn't think that was right. We have to represent all so with that, I said, you know, I think I need to look to run for mayor. Either I get it to help move the city forward. I don't have a hidden agenda. I care. My record speaks for that, my tenure with the city itself. I said, look at that and run on that basis, so I did.

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

Before I even do action, I would like to sit down and talk with the three incoming Council members. And that would be before you take your seat in January, because of what the law says, you can only talk with one, being mayor. And sit down and talk with them and help them to understand policy, understand what the procedures are when you're in a Council meeting, this is what you do, this is what you don't do. And also look at our rules of procedure. This is how we we perform our duties. 

One of the acts I would do is I will sit down with management, because we're going to have a new manager, and I would say, let's get a financial consultant in here, because we as Council need to know where are we in our finances, not what the manager tells us, but really hearing it from a professional, a consultant who does this kind of work. And I don't mean Brown Edwards, I don't mean Devonport, but get an actual consultant, one that can facilitate and say, This is where you all are at. These are what you should be looking to spend. You are really at the top of your debt policy. You know, help cut away some of your fat, I would call it, so that we can take care of the basic needs. Look at programs and look at salaries. Where is it we need to change some things? That's one of the actions I would be willing to take.

The mayor is only one vote of the seven-person City Council. How do you persuade other members to agree to your proposals?

Again, I have to go back to [former mayor] Noel Taylor's time when I first came in and the curiosity was there, and you were fresh, you were young, and you was really interested in what went on in your city. You would look to talk with them. I would like to be with them on a regular basis to kind of navigate the waters. Although you are one vote, you're still the mayor, and you should have some kind of leadership in navigating that. And that's what I would look at. 

When we look at our agenda, you call them up and talk about the items on your agenda, and you help talk about, What is it you would like to see? That's where that time comes in December. You know, what is it you really want to see? And if it's really a hard lift, talk about how hard that lift is really going to be, and are you really going to have that support? I don't have what I call any platform or priorities. I have focus areas. What I'm looking to focus on. These are things that are durable, that need to be done, and I believe that Council as a whole, we can move those things forward, because it's for the betterment of the city and for the citizens. 

What are those focus areas?

Such as safety and security. We look at that. You look at economic growth. Let's look at community outreach, look at education and lifelong learning. Those things, they kind of go hand in hand. So you're working with your departments, and you're working with your citizens. 

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

That's a hard thing to do, because we are segregated pretty much, almost by choice. And then again, I look at income basis. If they don't have the income, how can they move into another neighborhood? So Roanoke's Northwest section has always been, from segregation on, pretty much low-income, except for when you get out toward the north, upper Northwest, then the income levels change. So that's where we're at. 

We've got to do better with workforce development, with our segregated piece, even with Southeast where you have lower, marginalized whites. So it's segregated because of the old housing structure. There are older houses, so there are more rental property. When you look at 47, 48 percent rental, it's in the inner city piece, and they belong to either slum landlords or absentee landlords. So until you're able to build them up, put laws to make them do, then you're going to always continue to be segregated. Because the people can’t afford to move up, unless, really, it's part of economic growth. When I look at that, workforce development, what are we doing to help build them up, better jobs? We talk about better jobs. But in that, what do we mean by better? Even if you look at Amazon coming, nothing precludes them from hiring outside of the city. What incentives are we putting to make sure our citizens get employed, that the money stays inside the city, to grow the revenue, to help grow the people, and until we can align that in a way with business, jobs, economic growth we’re going to continue to stay where we’re at, stagnant.

That was something — the Amazon deal — that came in while you were on Council. Was there ever conversation about conditions, though? 

No, there was nothing ever mentioned. But I have always said, and what you hear is, you know, by law, you can't prevent people from being hired. But if you think about where it's located, it's near the Roanoke County side, it’s near Bonsack. It's down that way, you're probably going to pull more people that way. We need to look at transportation. Even if we are able to hire our citizens, and most of them are going to be the marginalized. How are they going to get there unless we do a better job? 

You have been on Council a full term. Looking back over your time in office, what is your proudest accomplishment and why would that not have happened had you not been on City Council?

Proudest accomplishment? I think one thing I'm proud of, and it took some push, and there may be others — but I don't celebrate, like some would. I just do what I have to do, and I get out of the way. So that's a hard question for me. One thing that I look back on, when I came on Council, I talked about the overgrowth, I talked about the blight, and here we are in my last year, and I don't know if it's because others are running for the seat, that now we want to lift them up to get the seats, per se, that we are looking at safety. Mine was safety. When I came on, I looked at the safety. I looked at the overgrown lots, and I was saying, even then, why aren't we making these lots more presentable? The overgrowth, looking at the blight. Putting lights up. When I was campaigning in 2020, that's what I kept hearing, ‘I don't like living next door, and I feel unsafe in this sense, because people are doing drugs or selling drugs over here in this overgrowth lot.’ 

So I would always push for that, and that's code enforcement, and it got to be a challenge, they would tell me. That we got to cite the owner, we got to go to court, those kinds of things. And I asked the question, Do you have a registry? These same lots you keep cutting you know you're going to have to cut, or these same builders you keep citing the owners on? Why don't you have a registry so that you know this is going to happen? You can stay in front of it. Now we're doing it,. But I'm not out tooting my horn to say, look what I did. Look what I did. I'm not that person, just as long as you doing what you need to do. I don't care about the credit. 

You have been critical of the city's Gun Violence Prevention Commission, at one point, suggesting it should be abolished. Now you serve on the commission. Do you believe any of your past criticism was misplaced? 

No, I'm on it for that reason. When we got to looking at what the gun violence commission — and again, I had to look back, and I think the purpose was not the purpose. Like, it came up to be an initiative, but then you didn't sit down, you didn't talk it through. The right people were not at the table. It was kind of like, ‘This is what we want to do.’ No real research in it until later on. 

Now I'm on it, and Joe [Cobb], the vice mayor, and I are just liaisons, no voting. I attend because I do want to hear what you’ve got to say. I still sit there and I still shake my head. The meetings I have gone to — now the last two months, for transparency, I have not attended. It's not that I don’t think it's important. I've had other things on the plate that have kept me from coming. But I do like what Chief [Scott] Booth has brought to the table. That has helped elevate the gun violence commission, because now with him, unlike the former city manager, he is more or less bringing things in. Under the attorney general, you have another person who's also working as the gun violence intervention coordinator. So people are coming in place. It has nothing to do with the commission. It's just that now you're finding ways to combat gun violence.

And you need to stop calling it gun violence. There's all kinds of violence. If we really look at what the chief of police puts on the table when he comes to Council. You look at rape, you look at assault, you look at domestic violence. All of that still plays into violence, but we want to elevate gun violence. And even in the title of gun violence intervention, prevention. I just think we need to even look at that and take the gun out of it. 

As you know, gun violence has gone down considerably over the past year. Do you think the commission bears any credit for that, the work that they've done, or grants that they've brought?

The grants that they have brought, primarily came through, and they have to come through the city. So I'm not going to give credit there. I'm going to put the credit where the credit is due. It belongs under the administration. Yes, it has helped, but the money really funnels through the city. I know they are trying to get money out and out, and that's okay, but at the end of the day, the money still has to come through this city, and the city really should be the ones who have an oversight of the funds, because I was the one that called out Better Agreements, who the gun violence commission gave money to, who had not completed their purpose, their mission, and they had to pay back $22,000 when they were given a $32,000 grant. So to me, you don't have the oversight or the wherewithal. It still comes under the city.

You can often be the lone dissenting vote on City Council. If elected mayor, do you think that will change?

I think it will, because you’re getting a different caliber of people. Some of them that do have a heart of this city. And I can name all the way down. If Evelyn Powers makes it, she's coming with 43 years, and she's got tenure, and 20 of that as treasurer. So she's going to help balance that budget piece. When we talk about money, where the money's coming from, how do we see that? If I look at Terry McGuire, he talks more about the heat resiliency. He talks about recreation. So when you get that too, which I am for youth, building up our youth. What do we do with our youth? I think it also would give [Councilwoman] Vivian Sanchez Jones a little bit more of a voice, because she'll have some support there for the youth, looking at the schools. What do we want to do about the schools? I think that's going to play a role in where we are at. And if you get Jim Garrett. Jim, some may think, you know, he's up there and he's way out there, he's conservative, but to me, Jim Garrett makes sense. He makes a lot of sense, and that's what I love about being nonpartisan, is I listen to what people are saying. Now, some things he may say don't, but for me overall, but I do think again coming in and talking with the three and we all looking at, what are we really here for? Are we here for our own selves, to get our name put on something? Are we really here to work hard for the people? And I think it's going to come out. Even the people are going to cry out if it's not.

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

Downtown? I go to Billy's. I like to eat at Billy's. I love their lamb, rack of lamb.

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

What do I read? It’s hard for me to really read, because my eyes get tired. But I have so many books I'm reading. I've got two books that were written by the gun violence intervention coordinator in Danville. He wrote two books. One is “[Gangs Vs. Kingdom].”

The best book I read, I have to be honest, is I read the Bible. But I listen to the Bible on my phone, so I don't read a lot. Most of my reading is things that deal with Council. If there's no books, I'm always reading reports. I'm always researching, because I'm looking for what you haven't told me.