We learned yesterday that Downtown Greensboro Incorporated gave long time DGI board member, Milton Kern, $5000.Was that legal? Did it meet the rules under which DGI is bound to operate? Were other downtown businesses better candidates for that same money? Is this in-fact payola? Graft? An attempt to get what they can before the Greensboro City Council ends public funding once and for all?
The truth is: We don't know the answer to any of those questions but because to date, Downtown Greensboro Incorporated has never complied with open meetings laws as is required by law according to Frayda Bluestein, Professor of Public Law and Government at the U.N.C. School of Government:
"Courts around the country have applied transparency requirements to private entities under several theories. Some jurisdictions focus on the fact that the private entity is carrying out a governmental function. Others base decisions on whether the government exercises such control over the private entity that it is should be treated as an agency of the government, rather than as an independent contractor…. The case law in North Carolina focuses on factors demonstrating extensive control, rather than on the exercise of a governmental function."
*DGI carries out several governmental functions from picking up trash to maintaining Downtown.
*Because 90% of DGI's funding is public funding, DGI is defiantly under the control of government even if government has thus far done a poor job of controlling DGI. Councilwoman Nancy Vaughn recently demonstrated how much control City Council is actually capable of exercising over DGI when she forced them to the table.
And might I remind you this is also going to fall hard on several more of Greensboro's most well known "non profits".
You see, had DGI been complying with open meetings laws all along there would be no question as to Milton Kern's honesty but as it stands, an organization filled with the richest people in Greensboro who keep getting richer while the rest of us keep getting poorer and collecting our tax dollars... Well, how can we not be suspicious? Any honest man or woman would want all of these transactions to be public record even if public records were not required simply to remain above suspicion. Would they not?
I mean, seriously folks, we're talking about a $Million Dollars a year of the public's money. And that's not counting the private donations that could have been going into the tax pools to reduce taxes for the rest of us. You see, that's the "private money" they like to talk about. Money that has been sheltered from taxes thus increasing the tax burden on the rest of us. Yes, some of that money is used for good but without open meetings it's really hard to track.
That's why complying with open records laws is one of the things I will work towards if I am appointed a seat on the DGI Board of Directors.
The truth is: We don't know the answer to any of those questions but because to date, Downtown Greensboro Incorporated has never complied with open meetings laws as is required by law according to Frayda Bluestein, Professor of Public Law and Government at the U.N.C. School of Government:
"Courts around the country have applied transparency requirements to private entities under several theories. Some jurisdictions focus on the fact that the private entity is carrying out a governmental function. Others base decisions on whether the government exercises such control over the private entity that it is should be treated as an agency of the government, rather than as an independent contractor…. The case law in North Carolina focuses on factors demonstrating extensive control, rather than on the exercise of a governmental function."
*DGI carries out several governmental functions from picking up trash to maintaining Downtown.
*Because 90% of DGI's funding is public funding, DGI is defiantly under the control of government even if government has thus far done a poor job of controlling DGI. Councilwoman Nancy Vaughn recently demonstrated how much control City Council is actually capable of exercising over DGI when she forced them to the table.
And might I remind you this is also going to fall hard on several more of Greensboro's most well known "non profits".
You see, had DGI been complying with open meetings laws all along there would be no question as to Milton Kern's honesty but as it stands, an organization filled with the richest people in Greensboro who keep getting richer while the rest of us keep getting poorer and collecting our tax dollars... Well, how can we not be suspicious? Any honest man or woman would want all of these transactions to be public record even if public records were not required simply to remain above suspicion. Would they not?
I mean, seriously folks, we're talking about a $Million Dollars a year of the public's money. And that's not counting the private donations that could have been going into the tax pools to reduce taxes for the rest of us. You see, that's the "private money" they like to talk about. Money that has been sheltered from taxes thus increasing the tax burden on the rest of us. Yes, some of that money is used for good but without open meetings it's really hard to track.
That's why complying with open records laws is one of the things I will work towards if I am appointed a seat on the DGI Board of Directors.
