Saturday, May 23, 2015

Updated, Updated; On Marsh Prause, Nancy Vaughan, Jim Westmoreland, Jeff Phillips, Marty Lawing and DGI's meeting to hire City Councilman Zack Matheny

and after Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan
a Matheny business partner and campaign contributor/crony
to DGI's board before a vote to hire Matheny,
it is my understanding that at the meeting to hire Matheny
attorney Marsh Prouse suggested DGI wait for a commitment
from Greensboro's City Council and Guilford County
that DGI would be funded before announcing Zack's employment, 
making the job dependent upon taxpayer money
for a sitting, elect official who has voted for the funding
of the organization, and serves as City Council's DGI Liaison.

Zack Matheny, Nancy Vaughan and Mike Barber
put their own interests of power, income and reelection 
in front of the best interests of City of Greensboro taxpayers,
and the News and Record and the Rhino Times won't report it.

Matheny should have ended all public comment
and any Council deliberations and votes
on his announcement of going after a position Zack helped create
by getting rid of Jason Cannon
and killing Cyndy Hayworth's chance at the job
by leaking information about her education credentials to the press
and the News and Record and the Rhino Times won't report it.

an acting Greensboro Councilman and DGI's Liaison
doesn't have a conflict of interest in applying for the job,
which includes Vaughan, Phillips, Lawing and Westmoreland.

Nancy Vaughan was supposedly in the room as a DGI board member, 
along with Nick Piornack, who is Nancy Hoffmann's business partner,
Mark Prince of Guilford's Merchants Association,
Brian Wise, General Counsel and VP of Finance
for Roy" Carroll Companies
Guilford County Manager Marty Lawing,
Guilford County Commissioner Jeff Phillips
and City of Greensboro Manager Jim Westmoreland.
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§ 14-234. Public officers or employees benefiting from public contracts; 

(a)       (1)        No public officer or employee who is involved in making or administering a contract on behalf of a public agency may derive a direct benefit from the contract

3)        No public officer or employee may solicit or receive any gift, favor, reward, service, or promise of reward, including a promise of future employment, in exchange for recommending, influencing, or attempting to influence the award of a contract by the public agency he or she serves.

(4)        A public officer or employee derives a direct benefit from a contract if the person ...(ii) derives any income or commission directly from the contract...

(f)        A contract entered into in violation of this section is void.
http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/14-234-public-officers-or-employees.html

Neither Barber or Matheny withdrew 
"from any consideration of the matter"
while currently serving on City Council
and the News and Record and the Rhino Times won't report it.

Greensboro Council member Mike Barber has an indirect financial interest
in Zack's DGI employment,as they are located in the same district 
in Trudy Wade's redistricting plan, 
and that Matheny voted for funding a golf course, 
in which Mike Barber recused himself
which Barber profits from local taxpayers with
with the help of Jim Melvin and the Bryan Foundation
and the News and Record and the Rhino Times won't report it.
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§ 14-118.4. Extortion

Any person who threatens or communicates a threat or threats to another with the intention thereby wrongfully to obtain anything of value or any acquittance, advantage, or immunity is guilty of extortion and such person shall be punished as a Class F felon.


Zack Matheny has a direct financial interest
in applying for a job he voted to fund,
and now DGI's Board wants to wait for guaranteed funding
from Phillips, Vaughan, Westmoreland and Lawing
before hiring Matheny with everyone else's money
a few months before an election?

If political corruption is the use of powers by government officials
for illegitimate private gain,
how is this not political corruption?

If Guilford County is funding DGI, 
and Phillips and Lawing are allowing DGI's board
 to dictate the hiring of a sitting City Councilman
based on a guarantee of funding provided by Guilford County, 
Phillips and Lawing may have a problem,
as they will be directly responsible 
for the hiring of an elected official 
with Guilford County's tax monies
which they will have promised as long as Zack gets the job.

Zack and Mike Barber lobbying for Matheny's DGI job
while involved in deliberations concerning the organization's funding, 
is an abuse of their positions
and the News and Record and the Rhino Times won't report it.

As public officials,
Westmoreland, Vaughan, Phillips and Lawing
are responsible, if not accessories at this point
in one of our community's biggest episodes of political corruption
ignored by the News and Record and the Rhino Times,
who's Brian Wise should have been in the room
if John Hammer had anything to do with it.

to advocate via extortion for taxpayer monies to be allocated 
to a fellow council member
positioned to compete for the same council spot
under Trudy Wade's redistricting plan.

The selection process has been compromised
by the selection committee and DGI's board
which includes Lawing, Phillips, Westmoreland and Vaughan.

for trying to extort the DGI job for Zack Matheny
out of Cyndi Hayworth,
after Zack leaked Hayworth's lack of education credentials,
leaving her ineligible for the job
after Zack helped get Jason Cannon fired to get the same job
and the News and Record and the Rhino Times won't report it.

Marsh Prause is connected to Greensboro's elite
who run Downtown Greensboro
and is in the business of extracting taxpayer dollars for clients
like DGI;

"Marsh is active in the civic affairs in the City of Greensboro, including appointments by elected representatives and foundations to boards, commissions, and task forces involved with major projects and initiatives such as the Downtown Greenway, the Greensboro Performing Arts Center (Tanger Center), the proposed merger of the City and County planning boards, the City’s bicentennial celebration, and the revision of land development, zoning, and other ordinances.  He is a board member for several local non-profits.


If Guilford County funds DGI at this point, 
commissioners will be approving the actions of Greensboro's City Council, 

which includes extortion, cronyism, nepotism and abuse of office.

...since 2007, he has chaired the board of an active historic preservation revolving fund that promotes preservation as a form of economic development by facilitating transactions that leverage state and federal preservation tax credits to enable the restoration and adaptive reuse of historically and architecturally significant properties. In January of 2015, Marsh was appointed to the Board of Directors of Downtown Greensboro Incorporated, the primary economic development organization for Greensboro’s center city area."


http://allmanspry.com/attorney-profiles/d-marsh-prause/
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Zack Matheny should resign

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/zack-matheny-should-resign.html

Zack Matheny violates the City Charter and his oath of office etc..., again, by discussing "Economic Development" in Greensboro's budget, while a candidate for DGI's top job

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/zack-matheny-violates-city-charter-and.html

In blow to Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Zack Matheny, John Lomax found to be ineligable to join board

http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2015/05/dgi-update-in-blow-to-mayor-nancy.html
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A few supporters for Robbie Perkins for Mayor

...Nancy and Trip Brown, Chester Brown, III, Roy Carroll, Shirley Frye, Ross Harris, Kathy Manning and Randall Kaplan, Marsh Prause, Sara Lee and Paul Saperstein - The parents of Greensboro's lobbyist and Mac Sims.
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Greensboro Downtown Economic Development Strategy Project Committee, Community Stakeholders and Adisory Group;

Roy Carroll, Aprill Harris, Ed Kitchen, Mac Sims, Dawn Chaney, Willie Hammer, Robin Saul, Susan Schwartz, Frank Auman Jr., Chester Brown, Seth Coker, Betty Cone, Milton Kern, Jim Melvin, Skip Moore, Jeff Nimmer, Marsh Prause, Dabny Sanders, Walker Sanders, Rich Wittington
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"The new board includes Mark Gibb of Gibb’s Hundred Brewing, downtown resident Paula Pierce, small-property owner Marsh Prause, small-property owner James “Smitty” Smith, Lotus club owner Paul Talley and Brian Wise of the Carroll Companies."

http://triad-city-beat.com/downtown-greensboro-inc-board-disposes-of-critics/

It is difficult to get a man to understand something
when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair

It appears some closet fascists seek to organize Greensboro's economic control according to Roy Carroll's corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including Greensboro's political system.

Zack Matheny has presented himself as a solution to the perceived benefits of his favor, to the cronies who control downtown Greensboro, by advocating and taking advantage of government controlled taxpayer capital allocations to himself, and through himself enabled by at least Nancy Vaughan and Mike Barber, to DGI's board members, who will return the favors with continued financial and political support for at least Zack, Nancy and Mike.

Fascism is a form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with collaboration with traditional elites, which abandons democratic/capitalistic liberties, with the help of corporate media, which in this case is the News and Record and the Rhino Times.

If you choose not to know something,
especially if that something is something you should know,
you are morally blameworthy.

Robert P. Lawry
Director of the Center for Professional Ethics


"...Built in 1895, the Cascade Saloon at 408 and 410 S. Elm Street is one of the oldest buildings in the city. 

The City of Greensboro used eminent domain to take over the Cascade Saloon earlier this year and has since debated what to do with the building.

...Preservation Greensboro offered to take ownership of the building in order to stabilize and restore it, but asked the city for $175,000 to help subsidize the costs associated with renovating the nearly 4,000 square foot, two-story structure.

Marsh Prause represented Preservation Greensboro for the agreement, and made the case for the transfer of ownership.

“We’re offering to take this problem on for you,” said Prause.

“It has negative value. We’re asking you to offset some of the liability and risk we are willing to take on for you.”

Even though the city would have to use taxpayer funds to hand over the building, the simple math of the cost difference made the choice clear for councilman Zack Matheny.

“We were going to spend the money no matter what,” said Matheny.

...“Once it is fixed up it has the potential to be an icon,” said Prause. “It could stand out more than any building downtown.”

...In a situation with only three options – tear down the historic building for $600,000, let someone else restore it into a operating business for $175,000, or do nothing and risk the liability of the nearly 120-year-old structure caving in on itself – the choice was clear to Vaughan.

“To me it is just a no brainer,” said Vaughan. The council will pass the ownership of Cascade Saloon, but will not pay out the $175,000 to Preservation Greensboro until the organization provides more transparency as to who the donors are, and what they plan on doing with the structure..."

http://yesweekly.com/article-18607-saloon-saved.html
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"Downtown Greensboro Inc. got two new board members this week

The Greensboro City Council’s appointment of high-profile downtown developers John Lomax and Andy Zimmerman could mean the embattled nonprofit agency may escape the cut in city funding that it has been threatened with this budget season.

“You could assume that,” said Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who appointed the two men at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Meaning Nancy Vaughan appears to have made a deal,
to garner political support for her reelection from DGI's Board, 
in exchange for funding the organization
and getting Zack Matheny, Roy Carroll's pick,
hired as the new president while Roy's attorney serves and votes on the Board,
which helps Nancy Hoffmann, Mike Barber, Nancy Vaughan
Marikay Abuzuaiter and Zack Matheny
by eliminating one contender
from Trudy Wade's fourth district. 

As mayor, Vaughan is a member of the board of DGI, which promotes downtown Greensboro using money from a special business improvement district tax on downtown property owners.

If John Lomax attended the closed session, 
even though he was not allowed to join the board,
and the meeting concerned a personnel decision,
how is it not a violation of employment confidentiality statutes? 

City Council members have been discussing taking away DGI’s funding altogether in the past few weeks, even as Councilman Zack Matheny applied to be the group’s next chief executive officer.

Nancy Vaughan openly tried to appoint John Lomax,
a Matheny business partner and financial contributor
to DGI's Board without the News and Record or the Rhino Times
reporting the information to the public.

Cyndy Hayworth, the group’s interim CEO, charged last month that she was threatened with a budget cut if Matheny wasn’t chosen as DGI’s next leader. Matheny and Councilman Mike Barber, whom Hayworth accused of making the threat, both deny giving any ultimatums."

http://www.news-record.com/news/dgi-brings-in-two-new-experienced-board-members/article_596344f8-ff39-11e4-a0b5-a7efea234b4e.html