If the roof on your house were leaking would you call a plumber? What if the plumber was willing to hire a roofer, get your roof repaired and mark up the bill by 50%-- would you call your plumber then?
If you needed surgery would you ask a first year med school student to cut you open and offer to pay him 50% more than an experienced and successful surgeon was willing to do the job for?
So why is the Greensboro City Council, who budgeted $600,000 for marketing downtown Greensboro, willing to pay Downtown Greensboro Inc. and Zack Matheny $900,000 to do the job?
Eric Robert, who submitted a competing bid, had the following to say. Click on any image to view full size.
So why should the City Council pick Eric Robert over Zack Matheny and Downtown Greensboro Inc? I mean, besides the fact that Eric didn't exceed the budget and Zack exceeded budget by 50%.
Well for starters, Eric is experienced in marketing running his own marketing and design firm called QUB. Zack has zero marketing experience and plans to hire a 3rd party company to do the marketing for him. Besides having previously created DGI's most successful marketing campaign in its history, Eric is also among the creators of the wildly popular Project Runway television show originally on Bravo and now on the Lifetime network. Eric has worked in marketing and design for years. Look at some of the photos of what he has done with the Old Mill.
Zach promoted a DGI online selfie campaign that went nowhere. Eric is still drawing royalty checks from Project Runway, Zack is only drawing taxpayer dollars.
Eric Robert, whose last name is pronounced Row Bear, was born in France, grew up in Africa and educated at UNCG and Elon. He speaks about 6, maybe 9 languages fluently and is very proud of the fact that he is an American Citizen. So much so that one of the rooms at the Old Mill has become his Flag Room. The picture really doesn't do justice to his creative work.
You can check out The Mill's Facebook Page for lots more stunning photos of Eric's creative work there.
Eric managed to bring Duck Head and Prospect Brands to downtown Greensboro, even opening there flagship store there, after Zack Matheny and the Greensboro City Council failed to do so. And while Zack and company were offering taxpayer funded incentive packages, Eric brought them here using nothing more than good old fashioned honest business sense and modern creativity to fill their needs. At no cost to the taxpayers.
So what has Zack done? Well if you ask Zack he'll no doubt name a long list but all of Zack's accomplishments all involveing spending taxpayer dollars in one form or another. And when it comes to creativity the best Zack has done to date is a Twitter selfie promotion and a few months without yet another DWI.
But the Greensboro City Council will vote to renew the contract with Zack Matheny and DGI anyway.
Despite years of complaints from council members including Mayor Vaughan herself that DGI has failed to do its job.
Despite years of overwhelming complaints from downtown business owners that DGI has repeatedly failed to do its job.
Despite the fact that the last time DGI's contract came up for renewal, Mayor Vaughan promised to cut funding to DGI but increased funding instead.
Despite the fact that Zack Matheny illegally funneled the falsified personnel records of previous DGI president Jason Cannon to this writer as part of Zack's efforts to steal Jason's job.
Despite the fact that just a few months ago Zack Matheny was found drunk, passed out in his car, in the early morning hours in the parking lot of a methadone clinic near the corner of North Church St and Cone Blvd.
And to prove the methadone clinic is where I said it is, I give you from Google maps Crossroads Treatment Center, 2706 N Church St, the very parking lot identified in the media reports with the abandoned grocery story right behind. There's no denying this one, People, this is where Zack was found in the parking lot.
And despite all that the Greensboro City Council will again contract with Zack Matheny and Downtown Greensboro Inc paying $300,000 over budget instead of hiring Eric Robert. Why? To finance Zack's drug habits? How are the merchants of downtown Greensboro, taxpayers and even the casual observer to believe this is anything more than payoff for blackmail to Zack Matheny and other connected individuals who know the secrets our leaders most fear the world learn?
