Jim Kee wants his Greensboro City Council seat back this November.
Kee represented District 2 on the council from 2009 to 2013, when Jamal Fox unseated him by 137 votes. This is the second time he’s tried to reclaim the seat. When he ran against Dr. Goldie Wells in 2017, Kee was a registered Democrat. But after a poor showing in that year’s primary, he changed his voter registration to Republican. Though city council races in Greensboro are technically non-partisan, the move didn’t help him in the heavily Democratic district. Wells took 71 percent in the general election.
After that defeat, Kee shifted his focus to a higher office, mounting a campaign for North Carolina State Auditor last year. Current mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins donated $500 to his campaign, but Kee didn’t make it out of the Republican primary.
A long-time housing developer, Kee says he’s building 144 units of housing for seniors and veterans. The project will have a “commercial urban farm” powered by solar energy, he said. A graduate of N.C. A&T State University, Kee now sits on the university’s board of trustees.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Why are you seeking a seat on the city council again?
Because I think the citizens deserve the best representation available. If I were not the best candidate, I would be voting for the best candidate.
What do you think is being done well by the city, and what do you think they’re not doing well?
I don’t think they’re doing very much well. The budget has doubled since I was on council, and services have decreased. For example, loose leaf collection is no longer part of the budget. Every citizen has been reduced to participating in waste disposal, even though we pay for those services now, we have to take out glass out of the recyclables. So that’s a burden on the citizens. Services have decreased and the budget has increased.
If elected, is loose leaf collection something you’d fight to bring back?
I’d have to look at it and see, look at the budget and see what services are needed and which ones are not.
What changes would you try to bring to District 2 if elected?
We need affordable and obtainable housing, not only in District 2, but in this entire city of Greensboro. That’s the number one change that I would bring, is assisting to build those houses. Crime is a major issue. So I would look at reducing crime. I’m interested in reinstating community policing. What that means is that police officers would go to through various communities throughout the city, get to know the citizens, and also when we when I was in District 2, they would go to places like Walmart, Food Lion in peak times during the day, and they would walk through the parking lots, meet citizens and look in the cars, see if their valuables were exposed and they will put note on the car saying, please put your put your valuables away. Those kinds of things all reduce crime. We’ll do that again. (Editor’s Note: Community policing, which involves allocating officers to particular areas where they develop relationships and partner with residents to recognize and report suspicious activity to law enforcement. The Greensboro Police Department confirmed to The Thread that this is still an active and encouraged practice. The department also works actively with neighborhood Community Watch programs.)
I also want to start a $120 million economic development fund for small businesses, churches, nonprofits, and regular citizens that are expanding the tax base.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How would you go about doing that?
By making amendments to the budget, and also by bringing in companies. There are a number of companies that will loan municipalities money at a low interest rate long-term.
What are your thoughts on the city’s approach to homelessness?
All of our citizens deserve to have a home, and the city has gone about it completely wrong in my opinion. They built these little houses [temporary Pallet shelters] that look like a cancer concentration camp at Pomona Park. All we have to do is find a piece of land that the city or the [Guilford County] owns, put up permanent housing, housing that people can be proud to live in, but there will be tiny homes, and then we would on the same property, we would erect greenhouses so the homeless can grow fish and vegetables and become sustainable, and we will power everything using solar energy.
You’ve had years of experience as a developer, so you’re aware that the cost of contractors and building materials has significantly increased. How would the city deal with that financial obstacle when it comes to building this housing you’re talking about?
Technology is always advancing. There are companies out here that are building panel walls that don’t use any wood at all, and they’re less expensive to make and to construct. So we would look at one of those systems.
You’re running against three Democrats and one unaffiliated voter, making you the only Republican in the race. Why did you change your voter registration in 2017?
I was a Democrat for 30 years. I look at East Greensboro, which is controlled by Democrats, the city itself is controlled by Democrats, and nothing has happened. So I reached out to the Republican Party, and they vowed to help me develop East Greensboro. They kept their promise, because I brought, as a private citizen over the last five years, investors to Greensboro, four different ones that wanted to invest in District 1, 2, and 3. And their total proposed investment together was $640 million, and the council didn’t close one of those deals. The state of North Carolina is controlled by Republicans. We need the General Assembly to accomplish our goals in Greensboro. So you have to be bipartisan.
So what are the values that you value from the Republican Party?
I support the business values, that’s the main value that I support, and that’s pretty much it. I don’t necessarily support all the ideology of the Republican Party, and I certainly don’t support the ideology of the Democratic Party.
Recently, the city of Durham passed a resolution making Durham a “Fourth Amendment Workplace,” increasing protections for city workers against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and arrests. What’s your position on what the council’s role is related to ICE and deportation?
First of all, I support deporting illegal immigrants, but I don’t necessarily support the way it’s being done. I think we need to look at each case, look at their criminal records. If they’re criminals, they need to be deported. If they’re not criminals and they’re productive members of society, we need to find a pathway to citizenship. Understand something: the council, nor the state, can do anything to, pardon my use of words, trump the federal government.