From Staff Reports

Following Sandra Kilgore’s election as Asheville’s vice mayor, Rondell Lance, president of the local Fraternal Order of Police lodge, told the Daily Planet in a Dec. 16 telephone interview, “I’m excited about her becoming the vice mayor. 

“I’ve sat down and talked with Ms. Kilgore and expressed to her our (the FOP’s) concerns, as law enforcement officers — and she’s been very receptive. 

“In my opinion, there is no conservative voice anywhere in politics in Buncombe County, but I feel Ms. Kilgore is the closest to being able to sit down and look at a situation in a way that’s fair for both the community and police department. 

“I think that she’s the best one on council with a voice of reason. I think she would reasonably and sincerely try to do what she sees as reasonable.

“We (at the FOP) were all pleased with her answers and felt like she is sincere in wanting to know the concerns of the officers we represented and the concerns of the FOP. 

“We feel like she’s a good candidate and we feel like she’s a voice of reason among a City Council that, many times, is not reasonable.”

(Lance’s FOP Lodge 1 claims about 300 members, according to a review by the Daily Planet of its Facebook page late Dec 18. Further, it notes, “These members are made up of law enforcement officers from the Asheville Police Department, the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office, N.C. Probation and Parole, and many others....”)

At that point in the Daily Planet interview, Lance veered from the subject of Kilgore’s rise to vice mayor ... and praised one other council member — Antanette Mosley.

Indeed, the FOP president noted, “Miss Mosley is also someone we (law enforcement) feel like we can go to and she’ll listen and be reasonable. She’s not following a politically motivated agenda,” as, he contended, the others on council (excepting Kilgore) are doing.

Regarding Kilgore and Mosley, Lance said, “I feel like those two are the most reasonable one’s on council right now, when it comes to law enforcement.”

When pressed by the Daily Planet to compare his view of Kilgore and Mosley versus Councilwoman Kim Roney, who recently was removed from the city Public Safety Committee as to whether Roney constitutes “a thorn in the side” of local law enforcement, Lance asserted, “It’s clear that she’s got a set agenda against law enforcement. 

“It’s not really a ‘thorn,’ because she’s out-voted most of the time. 

“But still to be on the police committee and be openly biased against law enforcement, the committee was hindered as to what it could do. 

“It seemed like she was carrying the banner for the national narrative of the (political) far left to defund law enforcement and make the Asheville police weaker,” Lance said of Roney. 

“If you come to work (as a police officer) in Asheille, and you see a councilperson (like Roney) who is ‘anti-police,’ who votes against replacing ballistic vests to protect their (APD officers) lives… 

“Did you know that, by policy, the (Asheville) police have to wear a (ballistic) vest (while on the job) by law. When you have that type of person (Roney) on council, then nobody wants to come” to Asheville and work for its police department, Lance said.

A separate story that details Lance’s criticisms of Roney — at length — appears on Page A8 of this edition of the Daily Planet.