...Perhaps now that a council critter can earn $22,140 a year for their service we might attract better candidates. Or at least some willing to stand up for the little guy.
Greensboro's City Council voted for a pay raise at an afternoon, non televised meeting,
and then voted for it without mention in the budget votes at the next meeting
without public discussion etc...
The spectacle of Mayor Nancy Vaughan threatening to remove activist Lewis Pitts from a meeting recently was one of the most heavy-handed tactics I’ve seen in local government. I mean, it wasn’t as bad as Mike Barber leading the council in a headlong retreat from a public hearing on the DGI contract, but it was pretty lame.
Mike Barber makes money from Greensboro taxpayers
over and above what he receives in income as a City Councilman
and multiple acts of journalistic cowardice
by the News and Record's Margaret Moffett, Joe Killian and Steven Doyle among others
have prevented the information from wide dissemination
Pitts, a long-time civil rights attorney who recently retired from the state bar, stood during a recent council meeting to beg to differ with the council’s intent to pass a police body camera video policy without public review or comment. Jamal Fox even made a motion to pass the policy without some on council having read it. Seriously?
Jamal Fox is owned by his campaign contributors
...Pitts, then, rightly objected when the city council brought the policy up for approval about two weeks prior to the anticipated meeting time. It was similar to the pay raise in that the item wasn’t on the advertised agenda given to the public before hand.
Why the rush, Madame Mayor? I suppose when you win an election with 80 percent of the vote you can consider alienating the affection of those who once thought you’d bring a different leadership style. What do the city or the individuals on council have to fear from transparent and robust debate of the city’s most important issues?
A most disgusting example of the cronyism and insider wheel greasing that limits Greensboro’s growth is the atrocious handling of the competitive Downtown Business Improvement District contract.
"Key downtown property owners
[who have received a great deal of Greensboro taxpayer money]
back DGI for contract" [for their lobbyist, Zack Matheny]
which the cowards at the News and Record didn't report
Yes that's you Margaret Moffett
...here we had an organization, DGI, that has done next to nothing in several years to visibly move Downtown Greensboro forward. Oh sure man, having the president of the group go to a luncheon or speak to another booster group or launch the umpteenth study on what Greensboro really needs is great and all, but beyond the flowers downtown what’s been visible?
Now just imagine if Robert and Evan Morrison of Hudson’s Hill, two of the most celebrated and acknowledge creative individuals in Downtown Greensboro, were set loose to Make Greensboro Cool Again.
That must have scared the living crap out of the oligarchs who run downtown because the next thing you knew there was Mike Barber leading nothing short of a panicked retreat from council chambers after Robert expressed concern about DGI’s insider contacts with city staff. It had come to light that the city’s selection committee asked DGI to alter its proposal the week after the deadline for submissions. Both Morrison and Robert said it seemed unfair. But when Robert began to reach his eloquent best, Barber cut him off midsentence to ask for an immediate recess. Video of the meeting shows Barber aggressively waving his arm for council to follow him out the door.
Barber's First Tee income is dependent on the City of Greensboro
via the Bryan Foundation and the City of Greensboro funded Gillespie Golf Course
and Jim's Bryan Foundation funds the Wyndham Championship via Mark Brazil,
who sits on both the Wyndham and First Tee of the Triad's boards,
both funded by Jim Melvin's Bryan Foundation.
Before Robert could react, there was Nancy Hoffman and Jamal Fox halfway out the door with Barber hot on their heels.
The mayor moved the item to be postponed until June 7 once the council gathered itself and found the intestinal fortitude to return to the arena and face criticism from a taxpaying American.
By the end of the week Mayor Vaughan asked the DGI contract to be quietly added to the agenda of a work session on Monday, May 23 at 1:30 p.m. That way Robert and Morrison and their cadre of rag tag visionaries couldn’t muster their forces to come and speak in opposition to the notion that DGI represents the best of Greensboro. City Attorney Tom Carruthers initially approved the mayor’s request, despite the fact that she made a motion in open session during a public hearing to continue the item to June 7. I knew instinctively that this was impossible, but before I was able to raise the issue, Carruthers realized his error.
“Once continued, it cannot be moved again absent further advertising or by motion heard on June 7th,” Carruthers wrote in an email to council members late on the afternoon of May 20.
Mike Barber didn't disclose his financial interest
in Wyndham subsidized First Tee of the Triad's use of free City funded services
on his Council Economic Interest Disclosure signed on February 24, 2014,
while funding police and emergency services for the Wyndham Championship
while/after recieving monies from the Wyndham Championship to fund his income
via First Tee of the Triad, and then he voted to have Zack Matheny run DGI
with taxpayer monies used to fund Barber's personal income
while he uses City employees for moving golf carts etc... to his personal residence
It’s not like Mayor Vaughan to rush.
After all, she’s the one that lets leftist political activists make a mockery of decorum in council chambers and here she is afraid to let two taxpaying Americans have their say on a matter of public policy and spending."
http://yesweekly.com/article-21431-mediocre-politicians-live-in-fear-of-the-truth.html
.
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Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan; "If I Could Be Just Completely Honest For A Second, I Believe Exactly What You Believe"
http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/greensboro-mayor-nancy-vaughan-if-i.html
"Key downtown property owners [who have received a great deal of Greensboro taxpayer money] back DGI for contract" [for their lobbyist, Zack Matheny]
http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/key-downtown-property-owners-who-have.html
Tony Wilkins is going to have lunch with David Parrish and Zack Matheny before he votes for DGI's contract on the 7th
http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/tony-wilkins-is-going-to-have-lunch_24.html
DGI Contract Scandal Goes Full Retard, Corrupt and Reprehensible
http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2016/05/dgi-contract-scandal-goes-full-retard.html
