This is the first of two profiles of Asheville’s mayoral candidates. The second will feature incumbent Esther Manheimer.
Before Kim Roney won a seat on Asheville City Council, she attended meetings as a member of the press. Roney is a founding member of the community radio station Asheville FM, and during her time as volunteer station manager, she ran a news show that reported on local government.
Now, the two-term council member is facing off against incumbent Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer for the second time in a row.
“It's time for change,” Roney told BPR in an Oct. 7 interview, when asked about her decision to run for mayor again. “And I feel honored to hold the container for hope.”
Roney, 44, jumped into politics a decade ago after coming to the realization that she wanted to make headlines, not just report on them. In 2016, she joined the city’s Multimodal Transportation Commission and Transit Committee. She first ran for Council in 2017, and eventually won a seat in 2020.
In 2022, she ran for mayor the first time and lost by roughly 3,000 votes.
In her rematch against Manheimer, Roney said door knocking is a key part of her strategy. Last election, she knocked on about 6,000 doors. This time around, she said she has surpassed 10,000, with the help of campaign volunteers.
“At minimum, we're having conversations with our neighbors, deepening relationships, changing hearts and minds and knowing each other better. And so that's already a win,” she said.
Her grassroots approach to campaigning reflects the way Roney would like to lead Asheville – by bringing as many residents into the decision-making process as possible.
“When we don’t include the public, when we do the work behind the scenes, we end up with a lot of really expensive damage control instead,” she told BPR. “So, we can either do the people’s work in public and spend time in front and throughout and get better wins or we can do the public outrage at the end.”
A more affordable Asheville
Asheville’s affordability crisis has long been a core issue for Roney, who says she was “raised in deep poverty in the rural south.” She is a self-employed music teacher. Before entering politics, she also worked as a bartender at the now-shuttered Mothlight music venue and for the local dive bar Desoto Lounge, at one point winning a Best Of WNC award for “Best Bartender.”
“When we ensure that Asheville is a safe, affordable, sustainable home for the people who live and work here, we can protect the very soul of our city,” Roney said at a Leadership Asheville candidate forum in May.
Public transit is a crucial piece of the puzzle when it comes to solving Asheville’s affordability crisis, Roney said. In 2008, she famously donated her car to charity and has relied on public transit, her bicycle and rides from neighbors ever since.
“Transit is at the intersection of economic mobility, equitable access and environmental stewardship. And it is really kind of absurd that we don't do it better,” Roney said.
In a 2020 candidate questionnaire with Mountain Xpress, she identified “moving toward a fare-free, regional transit system” among the goals she would champion over the next two years. That hasn’t transpired yet, as the bus system has battled funding shortages, declining ridership and urban sprawl that makes it difficult for bus routes to reach everyone.
During this election cycle, fare-free transit is no longer listed as part of her campaign platform; however, she has continued to advocate for a more affordable transit system, pushing for the city and county to form a regional transit system.
“What we can do to make our transit service better is partner with the county. I think we should have a regional transit system,” Roney said at the Oct. 14 “Get There” forum hosted by Asheville on Bikes.
She also wants the city to take a more deliberate approach to creating affordable housing near transit corridors, as well as “sector-based housing” for people who otherwise can’t afford to live in the city.
“What would it look like for us to build housing on purpose for downtown workers?” she said in her interview with BPR. “People who work in restaurants, people who are in the arts industry, someone who works at a bank. To be able to live close to where they work means reducing their transportation time and costs as well.”
A different outlook on policing
Roney — known for her tendency to ask the question "What does it look like?" — has plenty of ideas for how the city could approach its problems differently. Many center around policing. She has long been critical about policies and funding that expand the power of the Asheville Police Department.
In 2025, Roney was the sole council member to vote against an ordinance that restricted verbal panhandling in certain parts of the city. Multiple times, she has opposed federal matching grants for police bulletproof vests, although she supported a similar grant this July. And she has consistently voted against surveillance technology, including the controversial Flock cameras and real-time intelligence center.
As part of her goal to reimagine public safety, she has repeatedly called for Asheville to adopt a program modeled on Durham’s HEART, or Holistic Empathetic Assistance Response Teams. That initiative incorporates more than 50 mental health clinicians into Durham’s police response to calls. These clinicians sometimes respond to incidents alone, and in more high-risk scenarios, they respond alongside police.
Asheville has begun some of that work, but on a more limited basis. This summer, the Asheville Police Department launched a co-responder unit, which is staffed with one full-time mental health professional, according to APD spokesperson Rick Rice. In 2023, the Asheville Fire Department also launched a Resource and Engagement Support Team, or REST, a program to handle calls related to homelessness. That program is now staffed with five firefighters, two peer support specialists and one program manager.
Roney would like to see the city double down on these efforts by directing more funds towards staffing both programs – and to follow Durham’s lead by creating an Office of Community Safety that reports to the city manager.
“What does it look like for us to get serious about investment? That means moving real dollars,” Roney told BPR, calling it a “budget priority.”
Doing the “people’s work in public”
“Doing the people’s work in public” is another key tenet of Roney’s campaign. She argues that getting the public involved earlier in the decision-making process would help the city avoid costly mistakes, pointing to the Weaver Park renovation as a recent example. The $800,000 project drew complaints from North Asheville Little League families, who said new dugouts were placed in the wrong place, among other deficiencies.
“It’s just another example of how we didn’t communicate with the public as decisions were being made and changed,” she said.
One specific change Roney wants is to eliminate three-by-three check-ins, private conversations held among three or fewer council members. City officials say the check-ins don’t violate the state’s open meeting laws, because they don’t constitute a quorum of four or more council members, but Roney has been outspoken against them.
“If we're ending the private, behind-the-scenes, borderline illegal meetings of Council right now that are fully staffed with no minutes and do the people's work in public, I think we'll get better outcomes,” she told BPR.
Manheimer has pushed back on this assertion, calling it “misdirected.”
“I can't emphasize enough how infrequently they're used,” Manheimer said in an Oct. 9 interview with BPR, adding that the city “has worked so hard over the last several years to create so many more opportunities for transparency,” including providing livestream agenda briefings and committee meetings, along with online access to minutes, presentations and other documents.
“I am not alone in community”
One of the core critiques Roney has seen from her opponent, Manheimer, is whether she can build a large enough coalition to enact her policies. At a Oct. 6 debate held by WLOS, Manheimer questioned her ability to do so.
“You’ve got to have four votes to support any one funding opportunity. And so, if you can't build that collaboration, if you can't convince your partners to join you in your effort, then you're just going to be a lone vote shouting in the wind, and that is not an effective way to govern,” Manheimer said.
During her interview with BPR, Roney disputed the characterization that she stands alone.
“Council votes together often and it doesn’t get a lot of attention. But if I am appearing alone on City Council, I am not alone in community,” she told BPR. “And I’m rarely alone on Council.”
She pointed to the city’s decision to end its Flock license plate camera contract as an example of coalition building. In August, Roney made the motion to terminate the contract, and it passed 5-2, with Manheimer among those voting yes.
“People across Western North Carolina, it’s non-partisan, are pushing back against Flock and surveillance cameras,” Roney said. “So what it took is educating the public and showing a path to how we unplug from Flock.”
That agreement had limits. At the same meeting, Roney made a motion to add a moratorium to the council agenda that would prevent the Asheville Police Department from buying new Axon license plate readers. The motion died without a second vote.
Still, Roney remains encouraged that the more the public is directly involved with government, the better.
“So the mayor's one vote on council. What I can do is set the table for success,” she said. “I just think that by setting the table of the meetings differently, we’ll get better outcomes.”
