Editor's Note: Joyce Brown was elected in 1989 to the Chapel Hill Town Council and reelected in 1993 and 1997. In 1995, Alex Zaffron was elected to the Carrboro Board of Alderman in Orange County. Gray Newman was elected in 2002 to the Soil & Water Board of Mecklenburg County.

On Tuesday, Dee Williams placed fourth in the Asheville, North Carolina City Council Primary out of a field of twelve at-large candidates. Williams, a member of the Western North Carolina Green Party, is the first Green candidate to break through a city council primary, and is now one step closer to becoming in the first Green Party member elected in the state of North Carolina. This historic grassroots campaign has been powered by a diverse cast of passionate volunteers. Williams, who received 1179 votes in the 2015 primary, nearly tripled her votes this year, with 3408 votes.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

October 15, 2017

Western Carolina Green Party

www.facebook.com/wncgp

Contact:

Camille McCarthy, camillm@g.clemson.edu, (864) 202 9672

Dee's platform issues include: living wage jobs and the investment into and purchasing from local businesses, permanently affordable housing with Community Land Trusts, and development of effective regional land use planning to develop a multi-modal transportation system with a dedicated source of revenue which will reduce car use and reduce our carbon footprint in Western North Carolina.

Dee owns Dee Williams and Company, Inc., a professional services firm which provides business and non-profit community economic development, commercial loan packaging to businesses, construction training/bid preparation and certifications to minority contractors, non-profit technical assistance, and training. She holds degrees in Accounting, Business Administration, and Political Economics, respectively. The professional certifications she holds include: LEED, Advanced manufacturing, Supply Chain Management, Green Infrastructure Construction, Sediment and Erosion Control Best Practices, and a N.C. Real estate Brokerage license.

In community activism, Dee organized and successfully negotiated with the largest employer in Western North Carolina, Mission Health, to remove the " box" from its job applications which mandated that applicants with an arrest record and/or felonies indicate such by "checking the box", and also, to pay a living wage. These successful negotiations affected over 10,000 jobs at Missions and potentially billions of dollars in hiring new employees at a living wage. Dee also negotiated the first contract ever extended to a black-owned firm by the City of Asheville, and while contracted and deployed as a subcontractor with the Atlanta National Office of the U.S. Department of Commerce, authored the City of Asheville/Buncombe County Minority/Women's Business Plan.

Dee Williams herself won an award for her highway construction company in 2006 as the Minority Construction of the Year for the Southeastern USA & Puerto Rico from the Commerce Department, The N.C. Department of Transportation the City of Asheville, and Buncombe County.

Dee looks forward to the November 7, 2017 election and continuing to spread the message of putting the needs of Asheville residents first. Williams has been endorsed by the Western North Carolina Green Party, the Asheville branch of the Democratic Socialists of America, the WNC Central Labor Union (AFL-CIO), and the Asheville branch of the International Socialist Organization. Her website can be found at www.dee4avl.com.