charity
1.generous actions or donations to aid the poor, ill, or helpless: to devote one's life to charity.
2.something given to a person or persons in need; alms: She asked for work, not charity.3.a charitable act or work.4.a charitable fund, foundation, or institution: He left his estate to a charity.5.benevolent feeling, especially toward those in need or in disfavor: She looked so poor that we fed her out of charity.
Perhaps you've already read of how Greensboro City Councilman, Mike Barber is milking more than $86,000 a year as the top dog of a "non profit" golf "charity" while at the same time refusing to vote for more transparency for City funded non profits but what do we know about Mike's "non profit" First Tee and its City Funded sponsor, the Wyndham Golf Tournament?
Well for starters, they might call it a non profit but the Wyndham Tournament is actually really big business. From the Triad Business Journal:
"The golf tournament was a charitable organization masquerading as a golf tournament," said Maginnes, now a golf analyst with SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio. "Now it's a business masquerading as a golf tournament, and a charitable entity."
Folks, that's not some local whack job blogger talking, that's John Maginnes of SiriusXM Satelite Radio, Katrek and Maginnes on Tap, a world wide-- that's right, world wide radio show talking about Greensboro, North Carolina.
Sponsors of First Tee include the Wyndham Championship, BB&T, Forsyth Country Club, the Joseph M Bryan Foundation, Ralph Lauren, TCDI, Sunbrella, New Breed and Golfsmith all writing off their tax deductible contributions so that Mike and his family can vacation in Spain while Greensboro remains the center of the 2nd hungriest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the nation, has the highest unemployment of any comparable city in North Carolina, a poverty rate of over 21% and the second highest tax rate of any North Carolina city.
Guess the City of Greensboro's PR department kinda blew the call on that one.
But what else would you expect from a company that has the audacity to seek to rewrite 75 years of Greensboro history?
"That's just the kind of crock the Wyndham golf tournament is trying to dish up. Coming up on their eighth year of sponsorship of the Wyndham Championship, Wyndham apparently thinks they have purchased the history of what was, for 67 years, Greensboro's golf tournament: originally the Greater Greensboro Open, then the K-mart Greater Greensboro Open, then the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. Greensboro was the rightful and common thread uniting the tournament's storied history. Wyndham deserves no more credit for it than a second husband gets for his wife's first marriage."
And what does Mike Barber's "charity" First Tee, actually do in this down economy?
"What they’re really doing is normalizing in the eyes of the underprivileged the sport regularly practiced by the privileged. They flatter themselves that the outdoor version of a backroom, where deals are made which actively increase the number of underprivileged and keep them that way, is acceptable, even preferable. It is in fact an exercise in brainwashing young people that the scoundrels who are most responsible for ruining their lives are actually nice people. And the patrician overtones in this program are sickening."
And this very damning statement:
"They apparently march these kids around for 90 minutes several times a week for eight weeks. Then they are left to their own devices for the rest of their lives to somehow arrange to play. Of course, thanks to the neoliberal skull-fucking of the university system, their future inability to actually join a country club is a foregone conclusion. As such, this bunch of fucking do-gooders ranks very high for blind hubris."
I must admit, having spent my life here in east Greensboro, of all the toys I've seen children playing with, in 57 years I've never seen a golf club in my neighborhood nor is there a place to play golf.
Greensboro's elites allow all these things to continue and the lies to be told in the name of economic development claiming Wyndham visitors dump Millions of Dollars into the local economy every year. I can deal with that but how many people does the Wyndham Golf Tournament bring to Greensboro each year? I can't answer that question but according to Alyson Johnson, senior vice president for marketing and communications with Wyndham Worldwide:
"We have about 300 guests we bring in."
I wonder how many of those 300 guests have ever ventured to east Greensboro and spent money on the poor side of town? To be fair I think Ms Johnson's estimate is a little low.
But hey, don't put Wyndham down, they donate to local charaties. As a matter of fact: in 2011, Wyndham Worldwide donated the following:
"Wishes by Wyndham donated $50,000 to each of its three signature charities — Starlight Children's Foundation, Christel House and the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps — and the Wyndham Championship donated $100,000 to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina that will be used to provide 700,000 meals to local residents."
Oh, and the same article mentions that Mike Barber's charity, First Tee of the Triad got $100,000.
And for those of you who don't believe the Wyndham Tournament is supported by the City of Greensboro:
And that's just the water bill from 1 year. We don't yet know the overall total of taxpayer funded Wyndham sponsorship. And don't forget, now that the Wyndham Tournament owns the Sedgfield Country Club, as a non profit they no longer have to pay property taxes.
And whatever happened to Mike Barber's campaign promise when asked, "Under what conditions should the council give grants or loans to businesses?"
"When a complete and comprehensive report is provided to Council and the public, and then it is tabled for 2 weeks to further vet, question and discuss the details. All reasonable questions should have an answer, and the final product should be clearly defined. This should be council policy."
What did Mike Barber do when it came to voting on a $1.975 Million Dollar incentive grant for the downtown Wyndham hotel? The feasibility study was fraudulent and wasn't released until after a month after Mike Barber and others on Council voted to give away almost $2 Million Dollars. Mike Barber lied when he promised tabling for 2 weeks, he never even brought it up during the council meetings.
So much for vetting, questioning and discussing the details, when Mike Barber's $86, 250 kickback from Wyndham is at stake all transparency goes out the window.
Some of the high rollers that helped Mike get elected include: Dawn Chaney, John Lomax, Tony Collins, Frank Auman, Joe and Cooper Brantley, a bunch of Issacsons, Thomas White, Richard Beard, Florence Gatton, Mark Reynolds, Tom Phillips, George Carr, Don Vaughan, (Mayor Vaughan's husband) Desmond Sheridan, David Craft of Kraft Insurance, Milton Kern, Cyndy Hayworth and Robert Page. These names come up a lot when dirt is found on politicians locally.
Mike, I think you're a nice guy and I've always enjoyed talking to you but before you and your family become targets, I recommend you resign from City Council. This city, especially east Greensboro with a poverty rate much higher than 21%, is very close to exploding. And if you think this is everything we've dug up...
Full disclosure: I briefly did some freelance journalism for the Greater Greensboro Observer, an alternative weekly newspaper once owned by Mike Barber and Ogi Overman. (Circa 2002, I think.) I know a lot of people who know Mike very well.
Update: A little number crunching shows Mike Barber's non profit to be one of the worst performing non profits in the world spending only $0.066 per dollar of income (Less that 7 cents) on the actual recipients of their charity. Considering they've only 3 employees those are really bad numbers and most people would view it as a scam.
Update 2: Saturday, April 5, 2014 Mike Barber's total executive compensation $242,916 and much higher than many others doing the very same job for First Tee in other parts of the nation.
Update 3: Saturday, April 5, 2014 Councilman Barber's e-mail contradicts his Federal Form 990.
