Voters' Guide 2022: Meet Fayetteville City Council District 9 candidates Hondros, Kinston
Yvonne Kinston is the incumbent in District 9. Deno Hondros is challenging her for the seat. Kinston, who is in her first term, is a sales and service agent at AT&T Mobility and the executive vice president of Communications Works of America. She is an executive board member of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO. She wants the city to help create opportunities for affordable housing. She initiated an effort that led to training for all city staff and councils in Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Hondros is a commercial real estate broker and has served on the Fayetteville Storm Water Advisory Board. He wants to put focus on public safety, workforce housing, transparency, and accountability, according to his campaign website.
Here are their answers to a candidate questionnaire from The Fayetteville Observer. Some Voter Guide profiles ran before the primary in May. They have been edited for style and grammar.
PHOTOS: Fayetteville Observer candidate forum on Wednesday
Deno Hondros
Age: Not provided
Immediate family: Liza Hondros, wife; James Hondros, son
Occupation: Commercial Realtor
Elected office held: None
How can the city address the increased number of murders? Is the Police Department doing all it can, in your opinion?
Enforce the law. conversely not enforcing laws such as speeding, littering, etc. tends to snowball into more serious and severe infractions and crimes ultimately leading to personal injury and murder.
Can the city and Cumberland County improve their relationship? What joint projects do you think might be useful to consider going forward?
Absolutely. cooperation should always be a goal and is something that can always be improved. homelessness, new arts facility, 911 call center (and public safety in general), housing for our workforce, and infrastructure: stormwater, water, sanitary sewer, and high-speed internet access.
Downtown has received plenty of attention when it comes to economic development and new initiatives to encourage investments. What is your plan to encourage development and investment in the rest of the city?
First, we must address public safety. if the city is not safe, or the citizens do not feel safe, then all other quality of life and economic development initiatives are negatively impacted.
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Yvonne Y. Kinston
Age: 52
Immediate family: Deja, Noah, and David
Occupation: AT&T sales and service
Elected office held: City Council District 9 representative
How can the city address the increased number of murders? Is the Police Department doing all it can, in your opinion?
There is always opportunities to develop and do different things. We have to be proactive to look at what caused these murders to get to this point. Working with the community to give resources and information to educate. If you know an issue is on the rise. We have to get to the place of “see something say something”. The community is the first level of defense within our own environment. When something does occur then the law needs to be enforced.
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Can the city and Cumberland County improve their relationship? What joint projects do you think might be useful to consider going forward?
Fayetteville City and Cumberland County should always work together for the betterment of the citizens. There should not be them and us mentally. What is good for the residents should be the focus and priority.
Downtown has received plenty of attention when it comes to economic development and new initiatives to encourage investments. What is your plan to encourage development and investment in the rest of the city?
Outside the downtown area are plenty of commercial properties. We have to look and develop a plan to fill these empty locations. District 9 has the heart of traffic coming into service needs. Looking at the economic development opportunities with a workforce paying livable wages could solve two major issues within the city. We need to promote the benefits Fayetteville has to offer. Working with our community partners to help deliver the results.
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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Voter Guide 2022: Fayetteville City Council District 9
