Activist Fenwick to run for council seat

From the porch of his East Jefferson Street home, community organizer Bob Fenwick announced Friday afternoon that he will run for the City Council as an independent.
“I think there is a place for people to speak up about issues that haven’t been spoken about,” Fenwick said.
Fenwick, 64, is the second person to announce his candidacy for the City Council as an independent. Last week, State Farm Insurance employee Andrew Williams announced that he would run.

Fenwick, who is a member of the McIntire Park Preservation Committee, said his top campaign issue is the park’s future. He said the park should be saved from further development, and that the Dogwood Festival carnival and wading pool should remain there because the park is a social hub for the community.
Fenwick said he was inspired to run a couple of months ago.
“When it dawned on me that [Mayor] Dave Norris was ignoring petitions and meetings we had, I knew we had to do something,” he said.
Norris said Friday that he has been outspoken about the city’s need to better engage the community. Although he admits that the city erred by blindsiding the softball community by bringing in soccer fields, the mayor said local government has made changes to avoid a similar result in the future.
“I have called for a master-plan amendment to preserve the softball fields at McIntire Park,” Norris said. “We have since adopted a better process for park planning that will guarantee that we will have much broader input from all affected parties in the future.”
Fenwick has called a 40-year lease of parkland granted to the Piedmont Family YMCA illegal. The construction contractor has said the land transfer required four votes, not the three it received, under the state Constitution.

Norris said the YMCA has been unfairly blamed for affecting the softball fields, which were going to be repurposed as part of a park overhaul in conjunction with the construction of the YMCA building. The mayor said Friday that the softball fields would be put back into the plan.
Fenwick also has spoken publicly and written on www.demandjobs.net about his belief that the city should hire more workers to maintain infrastructure. The candidate also opposes the Meadowcreek Parkway and said he would not change his mind about that.
Despite his intention to have a “lively public discussion” about city issues, Fenwick said that he is in the race to win and not just to raise awareness. A self-described political novice, Fenwick said this will be his first and last campaign.
According to the city’s Office of Voter Registrations, Fenwick has not yet submitted his candidacy paperwork. The deadline is June 9 to partake in November’s race.
No independent candidate has won a seat on the City Council since 1960, according to records.

On Friday, Fenwick said he had collected 25 of the required 125 signatures for his petition in two days. Fenwick said he plans to walk the nearby Downtown Mall most evenings to gather support.
Fenwick and wife, Victoria, have two sons, Austin and Ross. Fenwick studied physics as an undergraduate at Georgetown University and civil engineering as a graduate student at George Washington University.