Last night the Greensboro City Council voted 6 to 3 with Trudy Wade, Marikay Abuzuaiter and T Diane Belamy Smalls being the 3 no votes to continue funding Downtown Greensboro Incorporated.
From a law professor at the UNC school of government: "Downtown Greensboro Inc contracts with the city to provide services in the city's downtown area. The way the city funds the services is through a BID tax, but the BID is not a legal entity. It is a taxing district of the city. If you think the city or a city contractor is mismanaging funds, your main recourse is to address this issue with the city's governing board. You can discuss the specifics of your concerns with individual city council members or you can bring it up during one or more public comment periods at the governing board's meetings. If you ultimately feel that the city council members are misappropriating funds you could bring a civil taxpayers suit against the city. You would need to consult with a private attorney to discuss the merits of bringing such a suit."
Will that become the next step in the battle against DGI or will the Greensboro City Council do the right thing and abolish all funding to Downtown Greensboro Incorporated and other members of the Greensboro Partnership? You know, even if the suit were to lose the cost to DGI and the City of Greensboro could run into hundreds of thousands of dollars-- possibly enough to break DGI's back.
Update: The News & Record makes no mention of DGI in their coverage of last night's Council meeting even though myself and other clearly saw N&R reporter
