Vi Lyles aims to fulfill promises

Vi Alexander Lyles wants more action on key city issues.

Action on the city’s ambitious, but unfunded, transit plan. Action on affordable housing. Action on closing gaps in Charlotte’s economic opportunities.

“I know the issues that move a city,” Lyles said. “You have to create a transportation network. You’ve got to create jobs. And you’ve got to have housing.”

Lyles, a Democrat, is running for re-election to keep her at-large seat on City Council, which she won in 2013. She finished first of 12 contenders in the at-large September primary.

She’s no stranger to city government. She worked for the city of Charlotte for nearly 30 years, starting as a budget analyst and then becoming the city budget director. She was an assistant city manager from 1996 to 2004 before leaving to work as a consulting director for the Lee Institute, an organization that helps nonprofits develop leadership and engage in the community.

Today, she sits on a number of boards and advisory committees.

She’s confident her experience will keep her in office.

“I have worked in the city from every level, on so many issues,” she said. “I know people in the neighborhoods; I know people in our business sector...our nonprofit sector.”

She wants to use that expansive network to foster collaboration between public officials and community leaders, and fulfill the plans leaders promised.

“So much of our tenor now is around what we can’t do,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out where we can do things.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Vi Lyles aims to fulfill promises."