There's more to leadership than voting the right way. Real leaders lead with ideas. So far in this series I've already given you more ideas than the current Mayor and entire Council have brought us in the last 4 years.
Real leaders lead with guts. Try me. Over the years what I do on this website has brought me death threats, law suits and every kind of intimidation you can imagine and I haven't backed down yet. Nor will I.
I'm a social liberal and a fiscal conservative but just voting in favor of every social program and voting against every expenditure will not solve Greensboro's problems.
And anyone with half a brain knows that to be true.
We can neither spend nor conserve our way to solve Greensboro myriad of ongoing and worsening problems.
Some will tell you Greensboro is the highest taxed city in North Carolina. Greensboro's leaders and their backers will argue otherwise. But none have argued the fact that Greensboro is 2044 of 2570 Cities In Money Management:
"In a recent list of 2570 cities across the nation ranked on how they manage their money, the financial website Wallethub ranked Greensboro, North Carolina a dismal 2044. With the exception of Boone which was dead last, almost every city in the state ranked higher."
No one will argue that because they can't. They cannot manipulate impartial, independent 3rd party judges and the numbers they used. So instead the local media fails to report it and hopes you never find out. Don't believe me? Here's the current Google results:
So what did the Greensboro City Council do after I first reported that? No, they didn't look into their money management practices. Instead they raised your water and sewer bills, raised the taxes on your cars and voted themselves a 60% raise.
If I were Mayor of Greensboro every author of every resolution that comes before Council would be signed by the Council member who brought that resolution to Council. Yes, it is true that Mayor Vaughan was the one council member who voted against giving themselves a raise but how are we to know the resolution wasn't her own?
I mean, if I were someone who was in the habit of lying that would be a very easy way to deflect criticism, wouldn't it?
And even the things we are known for are going to pieces:
"The latest index by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land’s ParkScore awarded Greensboro two out of five “park benches,” tying with Toledo, Ohio, for 69th place out of 100 cities. Charlotte was close to last at 95th."
What is so wrong that we have become bad at the the very things we once prided ourselves in?
The answer: your tax dollars are being diverted from their intended purposes to pad peoples' pockets.
$8,545.80 was recently diverted to pay Mayor Vaughan's personal bills because $4 Million of the $8 Million Dollar South Elm Redevelopment Project budget remains unaccounted for..
If I am elected Mayor of Greensboro I will demand an investigation into the South Elm Street Redevelopment Fund and any Council Member who objects will be suspect in front of the entire City of Greensboro. Council will either be with me or against me and those who oppose me will do so because they have something to hide.
No, Mayor Vaughan wasn't on Council then but her husband Donald Vaughan was.
Yes, I'm angry. You should be too. If my son were still alive today I would be in fear for his future and worried about the lack of opportunity for young people here.
I want this to be the first and last political office I ever hold because I want you and I to prove to the world that we can make Greensboro, North Carolina the city people around the world look up to, not because we are the biggest but because we are the best.
Please come back when I post If I Were Mayor Of Greensboro: Part 19
