Rumor #1. There is a plan being bandied about to help pay for the construction of the Steven Tanger Center for the Performing Arts with a new Greensboro restaurant tax. That could mean the end of the currently cozy relationship between Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan and Marty Kotis who sometimes uses the e-mail address info@norestauranttax.com
Rumor #2. As you may be aware the Greensboro City Council recently voted to increase wages across the board for rank and file City workers but in an effort to reduce operating costs and thereby more quickly pay down the debt of the performing arts center it is being said that the Performing Arts Center and Greensboro Coliseum will be joined together under a separate legal entity such as a Coliseum Authority or Performance Authority that will operate separately from the City of Greensboro and not be subject to the same rules as other City departments.
Again, these are rumors and as yet I have no proof. I did do a public information request # 5376 in which I asked for the following:
" Please send me any and all communications, studies and documents containing the phrases "Coliseum Authority" and/or "coliseum authority" since July 1 2015 until January 7, 2016."
Their reply:
"Hello Mr. Jones,
We are currently working on the email search for PIRT 5376, where you asked for “any and all communications, studies and documents containing the phrases "Coliseum Authority" and/or "coliseum authority" since July 1 2015 until January 7, 2016.”
Based on your request, I will ask that the search include all City issued email addresses, however if there are any additional addresses that you would also like included in the search, please send me a list of this information. If there are no additional addresses please let me know, and we will continue processing your request in accordance with our normal protocol.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Katherine Carter, Public Records Administrator"
State law required that any personal e-mail addresses used for City business also be searched.The following is the reply I sent to Ms Carter: (If you click on the images they get bigger.)
Ms Carter never replied so eleven days later I followed up with this e-mail:
My PIRT request was run without searching personal e-mail addresses and of course no results were found.
I think it's pretty safe to assume that since the City of Greensboro is covering up e-mails sent via the personal e-mail addresses of Mayor Nancy Barakat "Grasshopper" Vaughan and other members of City Council in clear violation of North Carolina public records laws which require that all communications concerning City business be made public that Rumor #2 is in fact true until proven otherwise.
But like I said, I can't verify it to be true.
