Vintage Florence
This week's column:
Once considered a safe bet to run for mayor, at-large City Councilwoman Florence Gatten made it official last week. She's not running for anything.
In a news conference at city hall, Gatten formally declared her noncandidacy. Someone else deserved the chance to serve, she said.
Before making her announcement, the 60-year-old Gatten smiled and chatted with reporters and confided that she would like to have been more prepared, even as she handed out crisp copies of a two-page, typewritten, single-spaced statement — half of which, it turns out, she had memorized.
Vintage Florence.
She's nothing if not a stickler, who religiously states her points in sets of threes, works out with a personal trainer and sends interviewers handwritten thank-you cards.
Gatten also has been an enigma during her three-terms on City Council — at one turn a breath of honest, principled fresh air. At another, Hurricane Florence. A fierce idealist, a hard worker, a fastidious student of the issues — and a schoolmarm from hell who will cut you to shreds with blistering lectures that conjure the image of a wagging finger, even if there isn't one.
Even as she voices admiration for Gatten's smarts and tenacity, council colleague Sandy Carmany does allow that she can be, well, "a little preachy at times."
Says Gatten: "If you worry about what people think, you'll never cross the street."
Many of us had such high hopes when Gatten, a coach of candidates who runs her own political consulting firm, decided to practice what she teaches and run for office herself.
And a lot of those hopes were fulfilled. She is bright and energetic, an elected official who seems to genuinely relish and respect the job.
She speaks and writes in lyrical phrases about duty and democracy. Still, she occasionally wanders off into the Twilight Zone: the public dressing-down she gave to a college student at a council meeting; her call for the resignation of fellow council member Dianne Bellamy-Small; her snippy, dismissive remarks at times to citizens at council meetings.
She once told a group of voters they didn't always know what was best for them.
Well, sometimes they don't, she says, and they didn't in that particular case.
Gatten admitted during an interview last week that she does not "suffer fools gladly."
"But I have never knowingly been condescending to anyone. It's just not my nature."
Her campaign manager, Reid Phillips, says Gatten simply speaks her mind. "When she sees opportunity, she wants us to grab it."
In an age of spin and doublespeak, Gatten does makes herself perfectly clear. Consider this sampling of her observations about people and issues:
Former police Chief David Wray: " My support for him was so deep and so wide. I feel so betrayed."
New police Chief Tim Bellamy: "He's tough. He's capable. But he's very hard to read. I think what I like best about him is that his armor is so strong against politicizing his position."
Truth and Reconciliation Commission: "Even God can't change the past."
Council member Yvonne Johnson: "Moderate. Inclusive. A uniter who is experienced and willing."
Council member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small: "She is capable and she is smart and she is hardworking. That's the good part. The bad part is her integrity— and her manner."
What Gatten really meant was Small's lack of integrity, which Gatten said moved her to call for Bellamy-Small's resignation in a Feb. 28 news conference.
But despite an ongoing recall campaign to unseat her, a number of people have rallied to Bellamy-Small's side. Not so much out of devotion to Bellamy-Small, but out of anger at Gatten, who they saw as poking her nose in the affairs of their district — a predominantly black district — that does not need her to tell them how to handle their affairs.
Never mind that Gatten was right in her criticisms. Being right does not excuse disregarding the impact of your remarks, or how they might be misinterpreted.
As for reports of Gatten's mayoral aspirations, she said she never wanted or intended to run. "But a lot of people did want me to. ... It's very flattering in one way. In another way, it alarms me. I think it speaks to some divisions in our city that I wish weren't there.
"I think ..." she says, then sighs deeply. "I think some people want to have leadership that just reflects their own views."
In other words, a white person.
Gatten speaks of what she sees as racial disconnects in Greensboro and she says she worries that, with Johnson's bid to become the city's first black mayor, the at-large seat she is vacating may not go to an African American.
"My fear is that there won't be any viable (black) candidates or that there won't be any at all."
That, she said, wouldn't be good for Greensboro.
So, as early as two years ago, she presented a list of possible black candidates to County Commissioner Skip Alston, and asked him who he had been mentoring to run.
He did care for any of her suggestions, Gatten said.
Alston said he does not remember that session, but she's probably right, he added. He likely wouldn't have agreed with any of her choices.
"Who am I, as a white person, to suggest minority candidates?" Gatten conceded. But she had to do something.
Vintage Florence.
From all indications, Gatten means what she says when she speaks in reverent tones about an elected official's obligation to the people. And she has taken that obligation seriously. She'll definitely be missed.
But her attention is so focused and her tongue so sharp she doesn't always realize the damage the wrong words at the wrong time can do, despite even the very best of intentions.
I recall seeing Gatten sprint one night to a candidates' forum in high heels. That was vintage Florence, too
.
She limps a little today and will need a hip replacement.
But she still works hard and moves fast. Sometimes, unfortunately, without first looking where she's headed.
Comments (3)
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Hi Allen,
I enjoyed your column on Sunday as I usually do but I have a question on one statement you made.
"But despite an ongoing recall campaign to unseat her, a number of people have rallied to Bellamy-Small's side."
Hardly anyone showed up for the first rally called for by Brown and Johnson as you stated in your column...
http://blog.news-record.com/staff/outloud/archives/2007/03/tuesdays_counci.html#comments
A second rally called for had the same results and the media was asked to leave that rally.
Just curious...who is this "number of people" you are speaking of?
Thanks Allen.
Posted on May 7, 2007 12:22 AM
Thanks, Tony. It's hard to gauge what the numbers actually are. But you're right; there haven't been any big crowds to gather on Bellamy-Small's behalf, even at a City Council meeting in which the public was invited to rally on her behalf.
On the other hand, there have been declarations of support for Dianne by influential ministers.
My point is that I believe Bellamy-Small would have lost to Luther Falls in this November's election.
Now, some people have come to her aid who otherwise wouldn't have bothered -- out of opposition to Gatten more than support for Bellamy-Small.
Posted on May 7, 2007 10:50 AM
"Now, some people have come to her aid who otherwise wouldn't have bothered -- out of opposition to Gatten more than support for Bellamy-Small."
That statement tells us as much about Bellamy-Smal as it does aobut Gatten.
If B-S had continuing support from The PAC, this wouldn't be an issue to be discussed.
Posted on May 7, 2007 1:08 PM