In a special meeting last Friday, the Greensboro City Council voted 8-1 to have Jamilla Pinder fill the unexpired term of the late Yvonne Johnson.
Pinder, 46, is a graduate of N.C. A&T and the director for community engagement and impact for Cone Health Foundation. She’s been heavily involved in the community in various roles, including service on the Greensboro Transit Advisory Council, the Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, and Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro.
In a brief press conference following the 14-minute special meeting, Pinder seemed genuinely surprised to have been chosen and said she was “still processing” the decision.
She acknowledged the long shadow cast by Johnson, her predecessor in the at-large seat, who was a presence on council for more than 30 years and the first Black mayor of Greensboro.
“I’m feeling grateful,” Pinder said. “I’m in a place of gratefulness and honor just going after a trailblazer.”
The council’s choice capped a process in which 44 candidates came forward, narrowed down to 19 for a final decision. It wasn’t easy, council members said.
“Through all our individual conversations, there were probably some favorites we all had,” City Councilmember Zach Matheny (District 3) said. “But coming to a consensus was a challenge.”
With so many candidates, sources close to the process told The Thread, council members listed their top choices and then looked at who among the candidates was high on each person’s list. Pinder ranked highly on the most lists and the council sought a consensus decision around that.
Mayor Pro Tempore Marikay Abuzuaiter, the only vote against the appointment, said she believed there were other candidates who should have risen to the top. Nevertheless, she thanked Mayor Nancy Vaughan for overseeing the selection process.
“Even though I was a vote on the opposite side, I want to thank you for that and let Jamilla know I will work with her on anything she needs me to,” Abuzuaiter said.
Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann (District 4) praised Pinder.
“She’s going to be a strong addition to our group of nine as we move forward, the remainder of this year anyway, to do good things for Greensboro,” said Hoffmann.
Councilmember Goldie Wells (District 2) echoed those sentiments, saying she had worked with Pinder and seen her “work across the city.”
It was a difficult decision, Wells said, but she believes they made the right one.
“We had to make the decision based on the citizens we serve,” Wells said. “We have to be honest, we have to be fair, and we have to make the best decision for the citizens, not our own personal beliefs and our personal likes.”
“Disrespectful”
Abuzuaiter was not the only person pulling for another candidate.
At Friday’s meeting, a group of friends and family of Yvonne Johnson gathered in hopes the council would choose her son, Vernon Johnson, to finish her unexpired term.
Yvonne Johnson’s daughter, Lisa Johnson-Tonkins, was visibly upset when that didn’t happen. She declined to comment on the selection.
Guilford County Commissioners Chair Melvin “Skip” Alston, a longtime friend of the family who called Yvonne Johnson a political mentor, did not hold back his disappointment.
“Yvonne didn’t know she was going to die,” Alston said. “But she had already told all of the leadership in Greensboro she wasn’t going to run anymore and she wanted them to support her son. You would think she would have wanted her son to finish her unexpired term.”
Not honoring her wishes seemed “disrespectful,” Alston said.
Vernon Johnson comes from a family of public service, Alston said, and chose to step up after a career as a public school teacher to continue his mother’s work. Alston said he let council members know they should honor that.
“If you say you love me, then honor me,” Alston said, imagining Yvonne Johnson’s reaction. “Honor me by letting my son who I wanted to take my place, finish that ten months that I had left on the council.”
Council Member Tammi Thurm (District 5), said she and her fellow council members did consider Yvonne Johnson’s wishes.
“I think for everybody it played into it,” Thurm said. “I don’t think anybody took the decision lightly or without thinking about Yvonne.”
Vernon Johnson was a good candidate and may still end up on the council if he chooses to run in November, Thurm said. He previously told The Thread he planned to run whether or not he was appointed to complete his mother’s term.
Pinder’s experience—at Cone and through serving on boards throughout the community—put her over the top, Thurm said.
“We had a candidate who is experienced and known and ready to deal with the budgets coming up and all of that stuff,” Thurm said.
“We were looking for someone to come in and join the family who was familiar with all the issues,” Thurm said. “In the end, I’m proud that we can disagree and debate and all that, but when it’s time we can come together as a group and come to a consensus.”
At-Large Councilmember Hugh Holston agreed, saying the memory of Yvonne Johnson and conjecture about what she would have wanted was likely on everyone’s mind.
“It’s sentiment and that is a factor,” Holston said. “But we’re responsible to everyone, whether we are at-large or from a district. So sentiment is a factor, but it isn’t the overriding factor.”
An Advantage For November?
When a candidate steps into an unexpired council term, it is often seen as an advantage should they choose to run in their own right in the next election. It provides greater name recognition and actual on-the-job experience few other candidates can claim.
November’s council election will be a consequential one, with more than half of the council turning over.
Last May Vaughan, who first served on the council in 1997 and has been mayor since 2013, announced she will not run for re-election next year.
Fellow long-time council members Nancy Hoffman (District 4) and Goldie Wells (District 2) also will not be running again. Before her death, Yvonne Johnson had also said she would retire from elected politics, ensuring four of nine council seats will have no incumbent in November’s election.
Though she has yet to officially announce, Marikay Abuzuaiter has been strongly considering a run for mayor. Should she lose and leave the council, the council would get at least five new faces. That’s a generational shift not seen since the late aughts.
On Friday Pinder said she can’t yet say whether she will run in November. That’s a decision she’ll have to make later, she said, as she has plenty of work ahead getting up to speed with the council’s current work and becoming a part of it.
Holston went through the same process when he joined the council in 2021. He was one of 47 candidates who sought to fill an unexpired term when Michelle Kennedy stepped down.
Holston, who later ran and won an at-large seat in his own right, said running after filling someone else’s term can be “a double-edged sword.”
“If you’re in the office, you’re riding with the decisions that are made in office,” Holston said. “If those decisions are unpopular, it can work against you. If they’re popular, they can work for you. If you’re on the outside looking in, you can say what you would do more aspirationally without having to run on a record.”
Councilmember Zack Matheny (District 3) said the large number and high quality of the candidates who sought to fill the vacant at-large seat bodes well for the coming election.
“There are some extremely talented people who deserve this seat just as much as Jamilla,” Matheny said. “I just hope people will stay as positive as they were [when they made the case for their own candidacies] on Tuesday. And don’t be shy about what happens between now and the first Tuesday in November.”