Council's Conflicted Comedy Of Errors
Take for example the Greensboro City Councilwoman and Greensboro City Manager whose jobs it is to oversee companies that receive funding from the City of Greensboro but who also represent those same companies in contract negotiations with the City of Greensboro. That's right, now you know how it is that the Task Force to fix Downtown Greensboro Incorporated came away from months of secret negotiations with a proposal for tomorrow night's Greensboro City Council meeting to give DGI 27% more funding than DGI was stealing before. Good job, Greensboro City Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan, Ex officio Designee DGI Board Member, you managed to deal yourself two hands while sitting at the same poker table.
And then there's our Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth who negotiated on behalf of the City of Greensboro but is also a member of the Board of Directors of Downtown Greensboro Incorporated. From Greensboro Mayoral Candidate, George Hartzman:
"Denise Turner Roth, a former lobbyist for the Greensboro Partnership, is both on the Operating Group of Action Greensboro and the Board of Directors of DGI while negotiating/designating taxpayer money for both groups, as the Partnership refuses to release a study and it's conflict of interest policy;"
When was the last time you got a 27% raise for screwing up everything you do?
Wow, this bunch is more conflicted than the Cookie Monster in a cookie factory. And not nearly as much fun to watch. Speaking of conflicts, I wonder what DGI paid for this piece of rubbish? It's really a shame the Constitution doesn't allow us to do public information requests of the News & Record as I'm sure lots of dirt would be found in their accounting department.
Of course those in power will try to argue their status as Ex officio isn't the same as a regular board member. That's an outright lie:
"An ex officio member is a member of a body (a board, committee, council, etc.) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term is Latin, meaning literally "from the office", and the sense intended is "by right of office"; its use dates back to the Roman Republic.
A common misconception is that the participatory rights of ex officio members are limited by their status. This is incorrect, although their rights may be indeed limited by the by-laws of a particular body. Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (10th ed.), clarifies that the term denotes only how one becomes a member of a group, not what one's rights are. It is a method of sitting on a committee, not a class of membership (466-67).[1] Frequently, ex officio members will abstain from voting, but unless by-laws constrain their rights, they are afforded the same rights as other members, including debate, making formal motions, and voting (466-67; 480).[2]"
That's right Nancy Vaughan and Denise Turner Roth are negotiating for both sides in a contract settlement involving your tax dollars. Politicians have been impeached and city employees fired for less in cities with open and honest government. Too bad we don't live in one of those cities. Nancy Vaughan, you were set up by Robbie Perkins but if you're not smart enough to see it coming you're not smart enough to be mayor. Drop out now and get behind George Hartzman.
This is the same Nancy Vaughan who was unaware that Action Greensboro, the Greensboro Partnership, the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and others were all merged in 2005 and are in-fact one in the same until I told her over coffee at Bernie's BBQ on East Bessemer Avenue a few months ago. She was surprised to learn of this being that she has a seat on their board of directors. I was surprised a board member wouldn't know something that is on the front page of the Greensboro Partnership website. That was also when I explained to her how pass through billing works and made her aware of the shadow companies she likes to speak of today. Nancy Vaughan seems well intentioned but she just doesn't have what it takes to play the game with the big boys and hold her ground.
Another Nancy In The News
Seems the other Nancy, the little one who conned all the young Occupy Greensboro voters into thinking she was a liberal when she's in-fact one of Greensboro's 1%ers, Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann has been under the covers as well, teaming up with a suspected mobster to buy up even more downtown property than she already owns while using her position on City Council to make her business more profitable. Fec has more as does George.
You can't blame the youth of Occupy Greensboro, she said what they wanted to hear-- the mark of a sociocopathic lying politician, the kind that always preys on our youth.
What's that? You don't think Budd is a mobster? Well, I suspect he might be a mobster and I turned out to be right about Rocco Scarfone who began his early days throwing fights in New Jersey boxing matches. Who knows, I might be right again.
GPAC Is Supported By Dirty Money
Seems the Greensboro Performing Arts Center crowd has been busy the last couple of weeks finally naming names as to where they're getting their money but as their luck would have it, a substantial amount of GPAC funding to date has turned out to be dirty money. I told you it was Hell Day. Now you know the real reason Walker Sanders wanted to keep contributors names secret-- there is no clean money in Greensboro and hasn't been in almost 30 years.
Matt Brown Has Money To Burn
And he's spending $72,000 to find out traffic is heavy when there's events at the Greensboro Coliseum.
By the way, the next time someone tells you of the need for a Greensboro performing arts center, point them to the Greensboro Coliseum About page where the following can be found:
"The Greensboro Coliseum Complex consists of 23,500-seat Greensboro Coliseum (the largest single-seat arena in the nation), 2,400-seat War Memorial Auditorium, 300-seat Odeon Theatre, the 167,000-square foot Special Events Center that includes three exhibition halls, a 4,500-seat mini-arena and eight meeting rooms, and the 30,000- square-foot Pavilion, located adjacent to the Special Events Center.
The Greensboro Coliseum Complex is one of the most actively booked facilities in the country hosting more than 850 events on an annual basis. With its incredible versatility, the Complex has gained worldwide acclaim from promoters, producers, event planners and patrons.
The Complex expanded dynamically in 2011 with the addition of four new, unique venues that attracted thousands of visitors and brought millions of dollars in economic impact to the Greensboro community."
That's right folks, no city in America can match it but the GPAC supports will still try to convince you we're falling behind. I've accused GPACers of being liars lots of times but to date I've never accused them of being intelligent.
Turn It Up!
While the City of Greensboro is suing several downtown clubs over alleged noise violations and lawyers scream racial discrimination allow me to bring you up to speed on the history of how business has been done in Greensboro for as long as I can remember.
Zack On Crack?
No, but Zack Matheny's chances for reelection are cracking as we speak.
How To Fix A Speeding Ticket In Greensboro
GPD Chief Ken Miller brings us up to speed on how to get away with breaking the law-- any law-- in Greensboro. Who knew it was that easy?
Looking East
For my friends on the east side of Greensboro I direct you to the North Carolina School of Government and a post by Adam Lovelady titled, Determining and Distinguishing Land Uses. In case you're wondering, when it comes to legal matters, when the NC School of Government weighs in on an issue, city attorneys in this state stick their tails between their legs and run away as fast as their chubby little legs can carry them. You can always find the NC School of Government in the blogs aggregated to the right of every page here at East Greensboro Performing Arts Center.
Could Hell Day Become Hell Week?
It ain't over folks, I haven't even looked at the BS the local media is spewing today. Tomorrow night promises to draw one of the largest turn outs ever for a Greensboro City Council meeting as some of Greensboro's most corrupted developers and politicians are publicly exposed. Stay tuned to East Greensboro Performing Arts Center, Greensboro101.com and Hartzman's for the latest news the City of Greensboro and their corporate cronies dread your reading There's more we've yet to publish and more we've yet to find out.
