Public safety group hosts Asheville City Council candidate forum ahead of primary

A public-safety coalition in Asheville convened City Council candidates Feb. 3, 2026, giving particularly first-time and newer hopefuls a concentrated platform to discuss community safety and neighborhood quality-of-life ahead of the March 3 primary. The forum framed public safety as a top ballot issue and put candidates on record on emergency response, policing, and how city policy shapes day-to-day livability.

Organizers framed the event as an opportunity for voters to compare candidates on operational and policy responses to public-safety pressures that residents cite frequently. The WLOS summary of the forum highlighted the emphasis on newer candidates, underscoring how coalitions outside government are shaping the early contours of debate as the primary approaches. The session joins a string of February forums that have pushed safety into direct conversation with housing, infrastructure and transparency.

That pattern echoes earlier campaign-cycle events. In 2024, MountainTrue and Asheville on Bikes co-hosted a Feb. 4, 2024 Get There AVL forum at the Grey Eagle that tied housing density and transit to emissions and resilience; MountainTrue’s housing and transportation director Susan Bean said, "More housing choices in the city helps people access more opportunities while minimizing long commutes that have negative consequences for our air, water and soil." Asheville on Bikes forums in February 2024 also drew candidates into exchanges about core services and municipal process, with debate around council "check-ins" and virtual agenda briefings. At the Feb. 8, 2024 Asheville on Bikes forum, CJ Domingo said, "I think that every project is benefited by being open. I don't like private, hidden discussions," and warned that "Homelessness is not a situation that you can just spend your way out of" while expressing concern a larger program could attract people to "take advantage" of services. Candidate Bo Hess tied on-the-ground experience to public-safety proposals, saying, "This is something that I work in every single day," as he advocated wages, training and tools for first responders and broader housing solutions. Incumbent Sage Turner defended current practice around agenda briefings, saying, "I'm not aware of a request or a plan to change agenda briefings, to cancel them or to replace them with a new process," and noted the value of informal consultation among council members.

The proliferation of forums - from coalition-sponsored safety events to the Asheville Downtown Association Candidate Café at Battery Park Hall, which was slated to host many of the declared candidates in prior cycles - shows organized civic groups are filling informational gaps for voters and channeling issue-specific scrutiny. Those forums have varied formats: large public panels, small rotating conversations, and streamed agenda briefings, each producing different levels of candidate accountability and voter access.

For Buncombe County voters, the practical implications are clear. Forum-driven scrutiny raises expectations that elected council members will align staffing, budgeting and interagency coordination with the public-safety priorities aired publicly. How candidates translate forum positions into concrete budget and policy proposals will determine whether community concerns about response times, mental-health crisis intervention, homelessness and neighborhood safety produce measurable changes in services.

Early voting and election logistics are now part of the calendar: early voting begins Feb. 12 and Election Day is March 3, with primary results narrowing the field for the November general. As the primary approaches, voters will have multiple chances to test candidates on the specifics behind their public-safety proposals; tracking those policy commitments from forum statements to adopted budgets will be the next step in holding city leaders accountable.