The Rhino doesn't know the back story and odds are the City Manager and City Council will never admit it but in Alex Jakubsen's, City Is Reverse Robin Hood you will find the most recent results of my efforts through e-mails and direct conversations with City Government. Don't be surprised if the Walker-Lomax Scandal pops back up as well as Dabney Sanders still hasn't responded to Roch's request for Action Greensboro meeting minutes.
It was Billy's angry e-mails that made City Manager Denise Turner Roth aware of the audit problems and my discussion with Councilmember Nancy Vaughan that turned on the light concerning pass-through companies like the example cited in the Rhino:
"A prime example of this is the path money takes from the City of Greensboro to maintain Center City Park. Center City Park is managed by Action Greensboro but maintained by Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI). However, the $350,000 the city gives annually for the maintenance of Center City Park is given to Center City Park, LLC, of which Action Greensboro is the sole member.
Of that money $150,000 is appropriated from the Downtown Business Improvement District tax fund, which is administrated by DGI. DGI also maintains Center City Park for Action Greensboro. The $150,000 is allocated for "extraordinary expenses," like repair of the fountains. But it is yearly funding, and any funds left over from such expenses each year are used for normal park expenses.
Councilmember Trudy Wade pointed out that most of Center City Park is owned by the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation. When that claim was disputed by several councilmembers, Wade pointed out that the Bryan Foundation lists Center City Park as an asset on its federal income tax returns.
While Center City Park is managed by Action Greensboro, it is owned by Greensboro Renaissance LLC and CFREMR Real Estate Holding I LLC. Greensboro Renaissance is wholly owned by the Bryan Foundation, and CFREMR Real Estate Holding I is wholly owned by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro.
The Bryan Foundation has about $100 million in assets, and the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro has $110 million in assets. So taxpayers of Greensboro are paying to maintain the property of two foundations whose combined wealth is over $200 million."
No, I'm not running for office, I'm fighting for the city where I was born and raised, a city that has been robbed of vast fortunes by a few puppet masters at the top who lack real vision and think only of fattening their own wallets. It's the work of private citizens, members of Real Progress For Greensboro, a citizens group open to every Greensboro resident with no fees, that is and will return Greensboro to the hands of the working class and away from those who would build monuments to themselves at our expense. Join us for our first public meeting, The Gathering of the Trolls on October 29th where the Mayor, City Council and Media will be in attendance and we unveil a real Greensboro Economic Development Plan that will help the poor, stimulate the economy and save the taxpayers money.
