Good Evening Greensboro!
I'm your host Black Mamba and I welcome you to today's MEME THAT MESS.
This is how you play. you have to come up with a phrase based on the content of the pictures below. Get creative... our councilman does! Post in the comments below. I'll start. Please be sure to put what meme you are commenting on.!
1.
Paint and Politics?? Hmm sounds like a Gay Bar
Silver Level- I wont block you on Twitter
Gold Level- You can get your full two minutes to speak at Council
Platinum Level- Gets you ONE get out of a full and complete police report
I'm running for District 2 but all of my fundraising events are in District 1
How all this got paid for will show up months later on my financials but Mary Kotis donates in CASH
2.
Did someone tell the people in District 2 we were summoned to court?
Lord he wants District 2 to bring chicken... SMDH
None of these questions have to do with him?
Who has the damn gas to drive to Reedy Fork Pkwy?
How can you say everyone is invited and you have blocked half of District 2 on Facebook?
If you have questions call someone else besides me
3.
We all know who "confirmed" her FIRST
4.
Just smile for the camera, in my staged office, and I'll take you to Taco Bell
Is that gold foil sticking out from under the desk??
The police report indicated that Jamal Fox was the victim of domestic violence but did not list a perpetrator. Have you ever heard of a domestic violence incident where the victim didn't know who attacked him or her? Me neither. From Wikipedia:
"Domestic violence (also domestic abuse, spousal abuse, intimate partner violence, battering or family violence) is a pattern of behavior which involves violence or other abuse by one person against another in a domestic setting, such as in marriage or cohabitation. Intimate partner violence
is violence by a spouse or partner in an intimate relationship against
the other spouse or partner. Domestic violence can take place in heterosexual or same-sex
relationships, and sometimes also involves violence against the
children in the family. Domestic violence can take a number of forms
including physical, verbal, emotional, economic and sexual abuse, which can range from subtle, coercive forms to marital rape and to violent physical abuse that results in disfigurement or death. Domestic murders include honor killings and dowry deaths."
Nothing in there about strangers breaking into your home just as there was nothing in the Police Report about any break-in or forced entry.
Jamal had to know who his attacker was. So why was the name kept hidden, why are Greensboro Police participating in a cover-up and what other crimes are GPD officers covering-up on behalf of Councilman Fox and his friends?
You see, when you leave lines blank people are left to form their own opinions and form them they will.
According to Ben Holder, Ms Matthews was involved in other incidents and her name wasn't kept secret. She isn't rich. She lives in my very northeast Greensboro neighborhood. She's never held elected office and in the grand scheme of things is like most of us-- a nobody. Not the kind of person who wields enough power to get police officers to hide her identity.
So who could it be? I can't say for certain but we can make some guesses based on some of the things that took place in Jamal's life.
Ben Holder has long asserted that Jamal Fox was hired by the City of Greensboro via an unfair hiring practice involving then city manager Rashad Young. That could be true but let's assume for just a moment that it wasn't Rashad Young who arranged to hire Jamal Fox but was in-fact then Assistant City Manager Denise Turner Roth. After all, Jamal is known for spending time with older women and let's face it, like it or not Denise is hot.
Again, there's no proof but there is circumstantial evidence.
Who else lived in Kernersville at that time? None other than Ms Denise N Turner. Still not sure? According to former News & Record writer Jeri Rowe Denise's nickname is Neecee.
Nope, still not proof enough. It could still be debunked. But will it?
But one has to wonder what the fight was about? Jamal went to college and got his degree in political science but NC A&T University refuses to hire him back. It might be that Jim Kee's 2013 campaign tactics cost Jim the District 2 seat but there must be something to Jim's claims if 2 years later A&T still won't employ Jamal Fox to do what Jamal Fox was trained to do.
Coincidence? Maybe. I can't prove anything that isn't on the linked police reports.
Or was Jamal angry because he had tried and failed to screw his way to the top? Because Denise was going to Washington without him? Few men ever jigalo their way to the top, was that what Jamal was trying to do?
Yes, before my critics say it, I have stooped to a new low but it was not I who covered-up a police investigation nor did I leave blank the name of the perpetrator on the police report. I am but a taxpayer and citizen yearning to know the truth. Had Jamal Fox, Police Captain James Hinson and others with the City of Greensboro been doing as they should have been doing in the first place none of this would have ever taken place.
By the way, sometimes when lots of people are reading the links to Google Docs show blank pages for some readers. Come back and try again at another time. Thank you.
Note: I might not have it all right but I've done my best to sort out the story while others are doing their best to keep parts of the story hidden. Remember: If those in power were telling the truth there would be nothing for me to do here. Begin original post:
It was just a few weeks ago that we learned that President Obama had appointed
Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth to serve as General
Services Administration deputy administrator but not before leaving
behind scandal in Greensboro.
Earlier this week it was learned by
Greensboro City Councilman, Tony Wilkins that a contract for a $750,000
loan by the Greensboro City Council to the International Civil Rights
Museum and Center in November had gone unsigned even though the $750,000 check had already been cashed.
All of this took place while Denise Turner Roth remained at the helm of the City of Greensboro.
"Sue,
seems this is heading toward being a BFD. And to your comment about the
contract being signed- signature is notarized June 14, 2013- which
can't be."
"Also, if the contract was not signed then obviously the notary did not
actually witness any signing. Therefore, according to section 1.9:
"The following actions by a notary are Class I felonies:
*Taking an acknowledgment or administering an oath or affirmation
without the principal appearing in person before the notary if the
person does so with the intent to commit fraud.
*Taking a verification or proof without the subscribing witness
appearing in person before the notary if the notary does so with the
intent to commit fraud."
But wait, it gets
bigger still. George Hartzman gives us this video from the City Council
meeting where council voted to give the International Civil Rights
Museum and Center not 1 but 2 loans for $750,000.
George Hartzman also writes that according to Mayor Nancy Vaughan, the notary seal was cut-and-pasted and altered. That, my friends, according to North Carolina State law is in itself, a Class G Felony.
What
is the involvement of former Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston
who is running for state office and North Carolina Representative Earl
Jones who are both owners of Sit-In-Movement Inc, the museum's landlords
and founders of the museum? And why was the audit twice late and why
did Denise Turner Roth deliberately overstep her authority and extend
the deadline without informing City Council?
If the contract was
not signed then obviously the notary did not actually witness any
signing. I'm no lawyer but I am a notary. Unlike the old days where you
just paid a fee and became a notary, these days you actually undergo
training here in North Carolina. And to me this looks very much like
conspiracy to commit fraud.
Update: I now have a Copy of the Contract. You'll notice the notary is none other than Melvin Alston, aka Skip Alston. North Carolina state law prohibits notaries from notarizing documents in which the notary will receive financial benefit from the contract. On the 14 of June 2013, the date the contract was notarized, Melvin "Skip" Alston was still on the board of directors of the musieum and even today he remains one of the museum landlords.
Update 2: Answer me this: Why is the city legal department cutting and pasting notary seals when lawyers are also notaries with their own seals?
Secondly, I'm being now told by someone who has witnessed Skip Alston's signature, hundreds, perhaps thousands of times that the signature appears to be forged. This person suggested comparing the signature to the hundreds or thousands of copies of Mr Alston's signature on hand in Guilford County offices.
Update 5: More problems as pointed out by Paul Clark:
"The contract given to the councilmembers contained strict conditions. But it was clearly not a contract executed between the city and the civil rights museum. Aside from being unsigned, it had City Manager Jim Westmoreland’s name typed in below where the signature should have been, and referred to Denise Roth as the “former city manager.” Westmoreland became city manager on Feb. 1, so the contract could not have been prepared before them."
Have no doubt, this is fraud. The question remains on who's part.
Update 6: Because Councilman Tony Wilkins or someone has taken to removing comments made by George Hartzman and myself from the Facebook thread I went back and asked my old friend, Attorney Samuel Spagnola a question:
"Cutting and pasting of the notary seal would explain the June 14, 2013 date-- would it not? As a matter of fact, cutting and pasting of the notary seal would be the most logical explanation of the June 14, 2013 date."
And just to be sure I did a screen grab. Click on the image to view full size:
I'm not saying Tony Wilkins is censoring comments though I did accuse him of that in another thread yesterday as I was pretty pissed off at the time but someone is and more and more the case is being made that Facebook is a poor medium for these exchanges.
Update 7: A News & Record online poll shows results overwhelmingly against giving more money to the International Civil Rights Center & Museum as evidence continues to mount in the scandal leaving long time supporters like myself troubled that we put our faith in all the wrong people for all the right reasons. One needs to remember Greensboro is majority Liberal and majority African-American and yet still polls numbers like this. Skip Alston is most hated in the district where he long served as County Commissioner after he attempted to steal a shopping center away from a community owned co-op with a majority of African-American members.
Update 8: I ask yet another question on Councilman Wilkin's Facebook thread:
"As George Hartzman wrote: "Denise didn't remember giving an extension or signing the contract. She doesn't recall signing the contract." I read it in the Rhino as well. So who did grant the extension? Did the media not report a contract extension? Did we all not read of it in the News & Record? All these questions and City Council members still contend it was a simple clerical error? Does City Council still intend to just "fix the contract" or will a state level investigation be called for?"
And another screen grab:
This will not be covered up and simply made to go away.
Update 9: The News & Record is now reporting that museum’s board member, Doug Harris has identified Denise Turner-Roth as having given permission to turn the audit in a month late. No mention of the botched paperwork, incorrect dates or possibility that the notary seal was forged.
WFMY TV is reporting that International Civil Rights Center and Museum board chairman, George Clopton has stepped down because he is too busy with his full time job. Apparently everyone involved with the ICRCM has been too busy with other things for a very long time. Still no mention of the paperwork.
Guilford County School Board member Dena Hayes will replace Mr Clopton.
Why are the media outlets not talking about the problems with the paperwork?
Update 10: More questions. I recently asked the City of Greensboro for a copy of the ICRCM audit and posted it online but in looking at it again, the audit sent to me is for Sit In Movement Inc-- the landlord and not the ICRCM itself. I realize it says Sit In Movement Inc and Affiliated Entities but shouldn't there also be a second and separate audit of the ICRCM as they are separate legal entities?
After all, if management of Sit In Movement Inc and the ICRCM are shuffling money around between the two companies as if the two companies are 1 company then you may have found a very large part of the money problems there.
"Hayes’ election was itself a well-kept secret that followed the resignation of outgoing Chairman George Clopton, who stepped down suddenly after only four months at the post. Or so it seemed.
Longtime museum board member and attorney Doug Harris said Monday that Clopton had intended all along to serve temporarily. But nobody bothered to tell the public.
Further, Harris said Hayes had been elected to succeed Clopton a month ago. The rest of us found out Monday."
They continue:
"As for Hayes new role as the board leader, it will breed more suspicion. Some will see this as a bait-and-switch tactic — that Clopton, a well-respected Ralph Lauren vice president, served only long enough as chairman to secure the loan and now makes way for the outspoken Hayes — who at times can be a lightning rod — to take the helm."
More lies, nothing but more lies. And still no mention of the notary seal, the incorrect date or the fact that Skip Alston committed a felony in notarizing contracts that would benefit him personally. To contact the North Carolina Secretary of State with concerns about notaries... Well, that was the link to their web page. The document in question can be found by clicking here.
Update 13: I e-mail the entire Greensboro City Council demanding answers:
"Members of Greensboro City Council,
Who among you has seen the actual unsigned original contract between the City of Greensboro and the International Civil Rights Center and Museum (ICRCM) upon which a $750,000 check was issued and cashed?
More importantly: Was the notary seal copied and pasted or was it stamped to the original document?
Was former Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston the notary? If not, who?
Greensboro voters are awaiting your individual replies which will also be posted to the same page. Any delay will only look bad on your part.
Thank you -Billy Jones"
It's time the rest of the story was told.
Verification that I did send the e-mail:
"citycouncil.Email@greensboro-nc.gov 9:06 AM (0 minutes ago) to me Thank you for contacting the City of Greensboro City Council. If you are making a comment or suggestion, please be assured your message will be read and referred to the appropriate representative(s) to assist you. Due to the large volume of email we receive, please understand that you may not receive a reply to your message. We appreciate your interest in Greensboro! ======================================================= Please note that email sent to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties. "
We await answers from City Council.
Update 14: So now that it has been established that George Clopton was no longer the Chairman of the Board of Directors, why was he listed as chairman and why did Skip Alston notarize Clopton's signature as chairman?
If the City Council members don't start talking soon, voters are going to see them as being complicit-- perhaps juries will too.
Update 15: In a Facebook thread by Ed Catalano, Mayor Vaughan gives her explanation. Ed copies and pastes the Mayor's explanation further down the thread because Mayor Nancy BaraKat Vaughan has blocked me from viewing ANY AND ALL CONTENT SHE WRITES and has done so for over a month since I started posting screen grabs of what she and I had posted to her Facebook page to my blog before she could delete what she and I had written:
"Ed, the June, 2013 date was an error. The loan wasn't even being talked about in June. It was passed in September. When the contract was prepared, the boilerplate language of a standard Notary statement, (just the language -- NOT notary seals or signatures) appears to have been cut and pasted into the document. I say that because the Notary language was for the "Piedmont Triad Film Commission". The June date refers to that contract. The Museum personnel crossed through the "Piedmont Triad Film Commission" and wrote in the correct name. Unfortunately they overlooked the date. The contract was signed last Friday. You, and others, are right the delay is unacceptable and should not have happened."
Notice Mayor Vaughan used the phrase, "appears to have been cut and pasted into the document." She appears not to want to be pinned down to anything. Gutless, inept or complicit, you make the call?
Update 16: Back to Roch Smith Jr. Roch believes the Greensboro City Council is attempting to divert their own share of the blame in his article entitled It's not about the Civil Rights Museum. In the comments Dang writes,
"Amen!... So, who authorized the check? and, when will Mujeeb be terminated?"
Why give them money if they're going to default anyway?Does anyone have the e-mail address for the District Attorney? I want to send this page to the DA's office. Update 18:More lies of omission from Nancy Barakat Vaughan? The board voted to put Deena Hayes at the top a month ago but the Mayor kept it a secret. Mayor Vaughan and the City Manager both have seats on the board of directors. Roch demands meeting minutes. Update 19: From a public Information request I sent last week, delayed no doubt by the snow that closed city offices, are some e-mails concerning the subject sent to me by Sarah Healy of the city's communications department:
I can't help but think that if Sarah were running the city we'd be a lot better off. Update 20:
"The very idea that a city manager and mayor were both seated on that board and Council didn't know what was going on makes it quite plain that neither were living up to their responsibilities as members of the museum board or as civil servants and elected representatives.
Update 21: Proving their own lack of common sense, the City Council passes a resolution banning the cutting of checks without signed contracts in an effort to absolve Shah-Khan of responsibility for having lost $750,000. Councilman Tony Wilkins was quoted as saying:
"I think this is the first time on City Council that I have voted to legislated common sense."
Get used to it Tony, you're working with morons and thieves.
Well, at least no one will be allowed that loop hole again. In the real world there are jobs where a $100 mistake will get you unemployed but when you're at the top you simply can't screw up badly enough. Blackmail perhaps? What does Mujeeb know about our Greensboro City Council members that I have yet to find out?
RecycleBill@gmail.com
Update 22: Wednesday morning the Lies from City Council continue with the following reply to yesterday's e-mail to City Council"
"Justice, Cathy - Public Affairs 10:14 AM (7 minutes ago) to Thank you for your recent e-mail expressing concerns or requesting information about the status of the ICRM. The City of Greensboro has established a web page, www.greensboro-nc.gov/CivilRightsMuseum, that lists the public records regarding the City’s agreement with the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. Among the records are Museum audits from 2010-2012, the City’s audit reviews, the contractual agreement, the Museum’s sustainability plan, and emails between staff and Museum officials.
Cathy Justice, Community Relations Specialist Human Relations Department City of Greensboro Phone: 336-373-2723; Fax: 336-373-4656 PO Box 3136, Greensboro, NC 27402-3136 www.greensboro-nc.gov ======================================================= Please note that email sent to and from this address is subject to the North Carolina Public Records Law and may be disclosed to third parties. "
I fired back in response to the obvious evasion of the truth:
"Ms Justice, Perhaps you didn't understand my questions. They certainly were not answered in your response or on the web page you sent me. I will be adding your reply along with this e-mail to what has now become one of the most popular web pages on my blog: http://greensboroperformingarts.blogspot.com/2014/02/obamas-new-greensboro-girl-in-trouble.html I expect actual answers to THE QUESTIONS I ASKED, not the questions Council wants to answer.
Thank you -Billy Jones"
Mayor Nancy Barakat Vaughan continues her reign of lies.
"Skip Alston can step down as chairman, but since he and Earl Jones own Sit-In Movement and the subsidiary LLCs, it continues to be their retirement fund."
And:
"According to the article, councilwoman Yvonne Johnson is a manager of ICRCM, LLC. Is that not a conflict of interest?"
And no one from the Greensboro City Council has answered these simple questions:
"Who among you has seen the actual unsigned original contract between the City of Greensboro and the International Civil Rights Center and Museum (ICRCM) upon which a $750,000 check was issued and cashed?
More importantly: Was the notary seal copied and pasted or was it stamped to the original document?
Was former Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston the notary? If not, who?"
"I would argue that a couple of groups merit nearly all the blame for what has happened. First, look at all the local media that, in continuous denial, reliably prop up this squalid political status quo. And second, look at those past and current mayors and city council members who have been machine participants.
By the way, we are supposed to be reassured that Deena Hayes is now chairman of the museum board. No kidding."
“This council has approached this much differently than I think other councils would have in the past,” said Mayor Nancy Vaughn at last night’s City Council meeting. “We have opted toward transparency and looking at this issue head-on. We didn’t do it in small group meetings, we gave out the public documents and we’re not hiding from this.”
But the "transparent" Mayor and City Council have yet to answer my simple questions.
“In my role as City Attorney, I provided counsel regarding the legal aspects of the issuance of the first payment to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum. I advised the former City Manager that the Museum had met the terms approved by City Council during its September 3, 2013, meeting and that the City was legally permitted to provide the payment. In this capacity, I was fulfilling my role of providing legal guidance to the former City Manager.”
I ask you, would you trust any attorney whose advice it is to give away $750,000 without a signed contract? Mujeeb must think a law degree from Duke makes him smarter than everyone else in Greensboro. Mujeeb, I know a con man when I see one and if I were dying of thirst in the middle of a desert I wouldn't buy the drink you're selling.
"The exact subject of the meeting is unclear. However council members have been dealing with the outcry over how the city staff handled a loan to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum."
It's been in the news for 7 days but still Mayor Vaughan and Council are unwilling to discuss the notary seal. If the seal is copied and pasted then someone committed a felony, if the seal is stamped the Skip Alston notarized documents upon which he could potentially draw financial benefit. Both are crimes.
"The Greensboro city attorney Mujeeb Shah-Khan resigned today, ending a tumultuous week in which his decision making was called into question.
The Greensboro City Council met in closed session at 4pm on Friday. After emerging from closed session without taking any action, a statement announcing Shah-Khan's resignation was released about 6:30 pm."
It's certainly good to see Mr Sykes working as a journalist again. I hear McDonalds still hires clean cut types like Mujeeb.
"Mujeeb Shah-Khan fell on his sword when he agreed to accept the risks of approving a $750K check to the ICRCM without a signed contract, which they desperately needed by 11-1-13. With this act, Mujeeb trusted that council would want the ICRCM funded, even if their Byzantine demands had yet to be codified and signified.
So, here we stand: with a city manager who broke the rules before leaving to give the ICRCM a chance to carry on. And now we have a city attorney leaving in disgrace because he acceded to the same greater good. Wherever Roth or Shah-Khan go from here, some of us will remember the price they paid to keep this particular dream alive."
"We learn over at Billy Jones' site that the city council had ample reason to know months ago that the check was being sent to the museum without a contract. There were at least a couple of representatives of the city who were supposed to be serving on the museum board. It is also doubtful that Turner-Roth and Shah-Kahn would have proceeded unless that were the clear intent of the mayor and city council. Finally, Roch Smith revealed an e-mail from the city manager addressed to the city council that revealed the check was being cut even though the agreement had not been finalized.
Mujeeb Shah-Khan did the wrong thing; but he now serves as the fall guy or scapegoat on behalf of city council members who bear much greater responsibility. He is the sacrificial lamb whose blood atones the sins of past and current city council members who have spent all or part of their respective political careers representing the Simkins PAC. This includes Robbie Perkins, Nancy Vaughan, Zack Matheny, Yvonne Johnson, Jim Kee, Nancy Hoffman and Marikay Abuzuaiter.
We are witnessing quite a charade. Are these politicians going to accept responsibility publicly for what they have done, and for what they failed to do?"
"Being a good human being and being a good city attorney should not be mutually exclusive.
While exotic and somewhat rare, I believe that such individual is already working for the city, its leadership and its citizens."
It's long past time honesty was again considered a virtue in government employees. For too long now those at the top have only been there because they were willing to lie to protect those in power. S. Mujeeb Shah Khan just learned where it got him-- ruined in the prime of his life with a very expensive house and a wife and family used to lots of expensive things.
And the Mayor and City Council still ignore my questions days later-- why?
Update 29: It's not often Greensboro's most prominent bloggers from the left and right all agree. The last time this happened Greensboro City Manager Mitch Johnson was fired. This time we're gunning for Council members.
"I’m told the vote yesterday in secret Greensboro city council to fire the city attorney broke down among racial lines with Vaughan, Barber, Matheny, Wilkins and Hoffman voting yes. That left Hightower, Johnson and Fox voting no. Abuzuaiter claims she isn’t white and probably voted no."
Is our City Council deliberately dividing our city along racial lines or simply trying to cover their asses? Remember: Mayor Vaughan was/is on the of directors of the civil rights museum, Fox and Hightower are new to Council and had no prior knowledge and Wilkins and Abuzuaiter remain the eternal outsiders of the council clicks.
Roch Smith Jr points out that the decision to dismiss the city attorney was in fact, illegal:
"That makes sense, especially in this case. Working at the discretion of City Council, the city attorney essentially works for us, the public. We should, therefore, have every expectation that we know how our representatives voted in acting to keep or remove that employee. Whether or not the city attorney ultimately decided to resign, as he did, it seems to me the statute requires that the votes to remove him prior should be made public."
Looks like we'll be seeing yet another law suit against the City of Greensboro. Turns out Mujeeb was smarter than anyone gave him credit for being. Mujeeb gets the last laugh.
"I suspect that each councilperson had their say, and it was apparent to Mujeeb that a white majority of council had lost confidence in his ability. "
Mayor Vaughan's credibility and thus, her popularity, sinks with every passing minute. Mujeeb knows that while the City of Greensboro will continue to keep the proceeding secret, he can always get the records for trial.
"Elected City Council members, along with city staff, should be held accountable for their actions. Why does the council not pass an ordinance requiring staff to submit all contracts in writing and requiring council members to sign off before one red cent is paid out? There have been too many giveaway programs passed by this and past councils. It is very easy for someone to give something away that is not theirs.
To sum it up, the staff well as council must be held accountable for their actions."
"The forced resignation of Mujeeb Shah-Khan was not warranted by his actions regarding the ICRCM. Rather, it was a politically-motivated stunt by a bunch of clowns who know not what they do. T-Dub can hang the city attorney’s scalp on his lodge pole, but it was a dirty deed abetted by council members drunk with power."
"Does the Museum’s Landlord stand to earn income from the property under any scenario?
"Possibly, if their museum tour/ticket sales increase."
Just so you know, Skip Alston is one of the museum landlords. Therefore it was illegal for Mr Alston to notarize the contract under North Carolina General Statute G.S. 10B-31. So did Skip Alston really notarize the contract? Councilman Tony Wilkins gives us his answer to the questions I've been asking for 7 days.
Councilman Wilkins is also calling for a criminal investigation but Mayor Vaughan seems intent on blocking any investigation saying,
“was just stupid. I don’t think it was criminal.”
It's not the job of any may to determine if actions were stupid or criminal-- that is the job of law enforcement. Of course, anyone who was complicit would say the same, would they not? Wilkins said,
“I’ve heard some things now that I couldn’t discuss in case there is an investigation."
I think Mayor Vaughan has heard some things as well.
"I chased Robbie Perkins around for a few years, but ended up mistaking him for a great pol. Of course, I was wrong.
However, I still reserve the opp to be right. T-Dub is our man on city council. The mayor knows it and has been allowing him to take the lead. Read it again, because T-Dub’s comment is a manifesto for voices of reason and a warning from those of us who stand against this mad exercise in Reagonomics, trickle down theory and neoliberalism.
Nancy Vaughan may turn out to be as articulate in the moment as Wilkins, but for now, the blogger we have known is becoming the pol we love. "
Indeed, Tony has proven himself worthy of a leadership position.
"Greensboro’s City Council owes our community an apology."
Greensboro's City Council, including Mayor Nancy Barakat Vaughan, owes us several resignations.
Update 36: Tuesday, March 12, 2014 A month later and still questions are yet to be answered. From Amanda Lehmert:
"The information, including employee salary data and the status of the museum’s tax credits, was requested by council members in light of the discovery that the city staff gave the nonprofit $750,000 without a signed loan agreement.
"Supplying this information should not be taken as an agreement to amend the already negotiated and final contract," Hayes wrote to Westmoreland.
In response, Westmoreland sent the museum a round of follow up questions. He reminded Hayes that the council instructed him not to sign the loan agreement until all of its questions were answered."
"my my my, once bitten twice shy babe..." --White Shark
"Here's the employment contract he signed when he was hired, It indicates he began the job with a guarantee of 6 months severance pay in contrast to what the News & Record reported:"
"Send lawyers, guns and money, the shit has hit the fan" --Warren Zevon
Last Tuesday night, Roch Smith Jr addressed the Greensboro City Council on the sad state of public records requests in Greensboro.
Nothing stands out more than this admission from Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth on the PIRT (Public Records) system as operated by the City of Greensboro staff:
"It has also turned into a system which records frequent requesters who try to use our words or processes against us…"
As to " bullying and McCarthyism coming from some bloggers toward city staff." They bring it on themselves. An honest man sees a question as an opportunity to better make his point, a liar sees a question as a threat to his thinly veiled lies. Every PIRT (Public Information Request) should be seen as an opportunity to enhance communications with the public and yet here in Greensboro PIRTs are seen as threats by staff and City Council alike. There can only be one reason to view opportunities as threats and I think you, dear readers, know exactly what I mean.
I suggested almost a year ago and again in a meeting between local bloggers and City Staff including Denise Turner Roth, City Attorney S. Mujeeb Shah-Khan, the City Internet Technologies staff, Nancy Baracat Vaughan, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Tony Wilkins and editors and reporters from the News & Record, Yes Weekly and the Rhino that all this information be made available online for all the world to see.
The Internet Technologies staff said it was very much doable. Greensboro City Attourney S. Mujeeb Shah-Khan inferred that someone might try to dig up the City's water lines and poison the water supply. The moron is too dumb to know you could do the same thing from inside your house without digging any holes simply by feeding the poison back through the water lines under pressure. And no one would see you working. Even easier, climb a water tower and pour it in the top. Nobody guards the damned things.
Had the City Staff made the records public months ago the problem would long be solved. Instead, S. Mujeeb Shah-Khan dicked around with nonsense about terrorist threats and covering his own ass. Just like all the rest of them. You see, the records already exist on Internet servers they just remain password protected so that only a few can access them.
And as Mr Smith has pointed out time and time again, whatever happened to timely? Is over 6 months and still no records considered a timely response?
It has since been learned that the North Carolina Attorney General’s office is investigating the City of Greensboro for systemic violation of public record laws and has ordered the City to cease and desist:
"The result of the investigation is a cease and desist ordered generated by the attorney general’s office to the city of Greensboro giving them thirty days to provide affidavit of compliance. Failure to comply could result in prosecution."
Yet to this day City staff continues to withhold dozens of embarrassing and potentially criminal pieces of public information.
And finally, this is nothing new. Greensboro has a very long history of corruption and suppression of public records as pointed out by retired News & Record Assistant Editor Lex Alexander:
"In my experience, one and only one thing will get the bureaucracy to start coughing up records as they should: the credible threat of a lawsuit. And for that threat to be credible, you really do need to sue occasionally.
For most of my time at the N&R, the paper kept a high-dollar, white-shoe firm on retainer for stuff like this. We seldom had to go so far as to actually sue, but we did a few times, and it put the fear of God into people for a while (except for some sympathetic bureaucrats who actually sympathized with us against their superiors). But you have to be prepared and funded to do it several times a year, every year, because 1) it takes a while for the message to sink in, 2) staff turnover means some agencies have to re-learn the lesson, and 3) if they’re treating a large corporation with expensive legal representation this way, how badly are they treating average citizens?"
On this, myself and the rest of Greensboro's bloggers will not back down. Only through timely, honest and complete public records releases can government be held accountable and history has long shown the City of Greensboro to be corrupt. Either Nancy Baracat Vaughan gets it right or we take her down the very same way the local blogosphere destroyed her predicessor. On that you have my word.
And Miss Roth, what happened in Greensboro won't just stay in Greensboro. The Internet has a way of getting around. If I were you I'd start talking.
By now of course you've probably heard that Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth is leaving Greensboro to take a job in Washington. I wonder what her husband the union organizer will do for work? Stay behind in Greensboro? Become a house husband and look after the kids? Anyway, it appears there might be more to the story than we've been told:
"A few days ago, a New Jersey senate investigative committee subpoenaed the emails of the governor’s staff regarding the closure of lanes on the George Washington bridge in August. It is no coincidence that the Greensboro city manager resigned at about the same time. Roth, the city attorney, the police chief and city council all realize that the policy filtering public information requests violates the public records statute. They also realize that should an agency with jurisdictional authority subpoena records related to public information requests that they would be liable for prosecution."
Could it be that rather than stick around and risk going to jail to protect the Greensboro City Council, Roth has decided to make a run for the free border while her bosses weren't looking?
With the help of Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth and then Assistant City Manager Andy Scott, Koury Corporation ripped-off Greensboro taxpayers for a total of $215,116.36 despite the fact that documents provided by the City of Greensboro indicate the problem was not the responsibility of the City of Greensboro.
The City of Greensboro has 4 licensed real estate brokers on staff drawing monthly pay checks, employee benefits, vacation pay and accruing retirement at the expense of Greensboro taxpayers but when it came time for the City of Greensboro to buy $Millions of Dollars worth of downtown properties to secure a location to build the Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center... Well apparently Greensboro's 4 licensed real estate brokers were not on the job.
Were they partying, living it up, traveling the world, asleep in their offices? Or simply taking 18 months of personal days? No one seems to know.
What we do know is that for whatever reason the City of Greensboro found it necessary to find an outside real estate broker, David Hagan, who is U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan’s brother-in-law, and pay him over $586,000 in commissions on the properties bought by the City of Greensboro and designated to be used as the site for the new performing arts center.
And while we're at it, let's find out who those brokers work for and fire her too.
Allow me to begin by stating I am not a trained journalist. A trained journalist would patiently wait until he or she got all the facts before running with a story. But it wasn't for lack of trying that I don't have all the facts. I ask the questions. The people in charge simply won't give me the answers. So unlike a trained journalist I write my stories based on what I've got.
As you may be aware, Greensboro voters approved a $7.5 Million Dollar bond project in 2008 to provide streetscaping improvements to the Lee Street-High Point Rd corridor-- the stated goal to provide improved economic development to the area. That same year the City of Greensboro completed a streetscaping project on East Market St with the same goal of improved economic development to that area.
In 2009, Senator Christopher Dodd introduced the Livable Communities Act. As part of the effort to push the bill through the United States Senate, Bruce Knight, Planning Director for the City of Champaign, Illinois, and president of the American Planning Association, spoke on behalf of the Livable Communities Act before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee On Financial Services on September 23, 2010.
Mr Knight cited the lack of "shovel ready" projects as being a major challenge to cities everywhere. He spoke of the importance of regional cooperation. He spoke of creating jobs, eliminating waste and promoting greater government efficiency while also allowing people to craft a vision for new development and growth based on local values. Mr Knight spoke of opportunities to build a more sustainable, livable future.
Mr Knight cited Greensboro, North Carolina, the streetscaping of East Market St, the very first project undertaken by the APA, the East Market Street Development Corporation, as an example of the success of the efforts of the American Planning Association.
The Livable Communities Act failed to pass Congress. Did Greensboro and the streetscaping of East Market St reflect so poorly on the United States government that Washington found it impossible to believe Bruce Knight and the experts at the American Planning Association?
I contacted the APA in July of this year. I asked them if they ever revisited their projects to determine the long term results of their efforts? I offered to show them around the East Market Street corridor in a way East Market Street Development Corporation Director Mac Sims would never do if they were so inclined to revisit Greensboro. Like I said, that was July. It's the end of September, the APA never replied to my e-mail.
On September 4, 2013 I sent the following public information request to the City of Greensboro:
"The City of Greensboro completed a streetscaping project on East Market St in 2008. It was said such a project would improve the economy of East Greensboro and East Market Street in particular. Please provide to myself and my publisher, Rick Baker, whose e-mail address is above, any and all data indicating what positive economic benefit East Greensboro, East Market Street and Greensboro as a whole has received from the East Market St streetscaping project to date.
I'm sure more questions will follow.
Please keep Mr Baker informed.
Thank you -Billy Jones
Greensboro Free Press"
As you may or may not be aware, Mr Baker has since decided not to launch a Greensboro Free Press. So I'm back to the blog.
It was my assumption that with a new streetscaping project in the works the City would already be chomping at the bit to brag about the economic development successes of having streetscaped East Market Street 5 years ago. I was absolutely certain I would soon find myself overloaded with more facts and figures than I could wade through in the next 6 months. I just knew the City of Greensboro was going to bury me in positive economic benefits brought about by the streetscaping of East Market St over the course of the last 5 years. I just knew they were planning some kind of PR campaign in anticipation of spending $7.5 Million of your tax dollars and would already have this information ready to go. What did they send me?
To date: Well, I'm still waiting to hear back from the City of Greensboro but according to the IFYI (Items For Your Information) published by Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth on September 20th, 2013,
"Staff is determining if this information exists and is available."
You mean to tell me the City of Greensboro is prepared to spend $Millions upon $Millions of Dollars of your tax dollars on streetscaping a new project when they've no idea if the last time they did it worked or not? Look here, I'm all about science and experiments and stuff but wasn't somebody supposed to be keeping some records?
The City of Greensboro website claims there has been "more than $150 million in new private and public investment." along the East Market Street corridor but nowhere on their website do they list positive economic benefits. Not one thin dime. Investment is when you buy something. Positive economic benefits are when that investment pays off. Where's the pay off on that $150 million in public and private investment?
Wait a minute! Did I read that right? I had to go back to the City of Greensboro website and take a second look. That's what it said, $150 million was spent on East Market St. The streetscaping project on East Market was 1.5 miles long. One and 1/2 miles. The planned streetscaping project on Lee and High Point Road is what eight, ten miles maybe? Yes, I realize some of that $150 Million went to other things but that's the subject of another story. One hell of another story!
Yes, the voters approved the $7.5 Million Dollar bond package for Lee Street and High Point Road. I think the voters got duped.
Who was on City Council in 2008 and is still seated today? Robbie Perkins, Yvonne Johnson, Nancy Vaughan, T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, Jim Kee and Zack Matheny. That's who. And they're all running for reelection.
Update: Friday, September 27, 2013 Today, I got the following reply from the City of Greensboro confirming everything I have previously written:
"Hello Mr. Jones,
We apologize that your request has taken so long to complete. We have requested several departments to review your request to see if they had any information pertaining to your request. Unfortunately, the City has not measured the economic impact directly attributable to the East Market Street streetscape project.
Sincerely,
Public Information Desk
City of Greensboro"
Like everything else I've written, I can provide this e-mail at anyone's request.
Last winter the City of Greensboro and NC A&T University began circulating e-mails asking for suitable locations for a community garden on City Owned property on Phillips Avenue. I e-mailed Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth using my e-mail address recyclebill@gmail.com and suggested the unused and unpaved portion of the Bessemer Shopping Center. I even told her where I could get chain link fencing and many supplies for free.
I never got a reply from the City Manager. Rude bitch! If I offered to get you a free chain link fence wouldn't you at least say thank you? If memory serves me right I might have also suggested low cost water storage tanks like the ones I use in my garden.
Shortly thereafter, a professor from NC A&T University came to speak at one the early Renaissance Community Co-op meetings to tell us of his plans to bring community gardens to Phillips Avenue.
It's June now and I'm harvesting sweet red tomatoes from my own garden but when I ride my own 150 mile per gallon prototype Wackemall moped up and down Phillips Avenue from one end to the other I can find nothing that looks like a community garden.
Last Thursday, June 13th, I sent what I thought was a simple public information request to the City asking for the location of the Phillips Avenue community garden. Honestly, at that point, as one who grows vegetables and herbs in surplus US Army rocket launchers in my front yard, has backyard chickens and has devoted half my backyard to a vegetable garden since before I was old enough to pull the starter cord on the garden tiller, I honestly wanted to see a community garden, perhaps even help.
But a week later and still no reply from the City of Greensboro-- why?
Then a few minutes ago after making a joke with someone over at NC A&T about my making the City Staff paranoid it hit me: What if the only available site for a community garden on all of Phillips Avenue was in fact the very site I had suggested?
I started doing some online searches and came up with 4 NC A&T community garden projects. Problem is: None of them are in Greensboro. As a matter of fact, the closest to Greensboro is an hour away in Durham. And the closest community garden in the state directory is Kernersville.
So did the illegal Greensboro Inn, Bessemer Shopping Center swap kill the Phillips Avenue Community Garden? I don't know but one would have thought the City would have replied by now if there really is a Phillips Avenue Community Garden? And if there isn't a Phillips Avenue Community Garden then we've just one more example of how Downtown and filling the pockets of Greensboro's elites take president in the minds of Greensboro's "leaders" over the needs of Greensboro's poor and working class. The very food from our children's mouths! Is there nothing they won't steal from us? Nothing?
Update: It just doesn't add up. I got a reply today (below) after posting above but if the City already had all of those properties then why did they send out e-mails last winter asking the community where available properties might be located?
Here's a little info on Mr Gayland A Oliver you might find interesting.
Update 2
According to this 2012 page on Minister Gayland Oliver he "co-opened Triad Centers for Youth, Inc in 2009 and continues to manage the daily operations of the home" but according to the NC Secretary of State, the Triad Centers for Youth, Inc operated by "Minister Gayland Oliver" was suspended by the State of North Carolina in 2007, five years before the "minister's" web page was last copyrighted.
I'm wondering what was known about Mr Oliver before the City of Greensboro gave him $41,000 Dollars and how it was that he happened to leave the "non profit" school he co-founded in Little Rock, Arkansas? And I'm wondering if the good minister is still running the Triad Centers For Youth, Inc out of his home? Must be tough with all those kids in the house.
Back in February when the City of Greensboro released records to Yes! Weekly that indicated that City Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter might be a confidential informant I asked the Greensboro Police Department to send me their GPD Confidential Informant Policies and Procedures. On Friday, after having claimed on numerous occasions that they had complied with my public information requests when in fact they had not, I was finally sent part of what I asked for? You may view links to what they sent me at the bottom of this post below the e-mail exchange that took place between myself, GPD Chief Ken Miller and others who were observing. I had to snip it in 4 parts so you'll have to view it one part at a time.
Here are the documents they sent me all these months later:
Even with my tin foil hat and My Favorite Martian antenna at full mast I can't imagine what the next document might be that it's so sensitive that GPD fears its release. Can you? The Federal Government publishes their confidential informant policies and procedures-- has the Greensboro Police Department become a higher security risk than the Federal government? I mean, I asked for policies and procedures, not names. My goal was to prove that Marikay Abuzuaiter was in-fact a Citizen Source of Information and not a Confidential Informant.
And how can the city of Greensboro and the Greensboro Police Department continue to make the claim there was no intention to break the law when there has never been an investigation?
As Chief of Police Ken Miller works directly for Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth and has his hands tied, unable to give me the information I've requested, it can only be assumed the answer to that question lies with the City Manager-- the one person in Greensboro government who cannot be investigated without a direct order from the Greensboro City Council.
So in closing, think about this the next time a Greensboro Police Officer writes you a speeding ticket when it wasn't your intent to exceed the speed limit or when you must pay a parking ticket because the line inside the court house was longer than you expected and you intended to get back to your car before the parking meter ran out. Could this be just another case of selective enforcement on behalf of the Greensboro Police Department or is GPD Chief Ken Miller failing to act under direct order of Greensboro City Manager, Denise Turner Roth?
I know, it's easy to point fingers and make wild accusations but when government officials keep everything secret they only invite folks like myself to do what we do. Truth in government could have cleared this whole thing up months ago and given me nothing to write about. Instead: the City of Greensboro has chosen to grow my audience by thousands.
For well over a month now there's been a question as to how Downtown Greensboro Inc managed to come up with $184,000 more than they are supposed to have on their books. People find money all the time but people don't find $184,000 very often. Government funded non profits are required by State and Federal laws to disclose records to anyone who asks and yet DGI executives and board members refuse to disclose where the extra money came from to all who ask.
Finally, after much prodding from citizens, Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth demanded DGI tell her today. The response from DGI: They refused to tell the Greensboro City Manager the source of $184,000 of somebody's funds.
I'd say it's time to end all taxpayer funding including the BID taxes paid to Downtown Greensboro Incorporated. Starve the bastards out and see how long they can survive on just $184,000. If their money laundering business is doing okay then I guess we'll still be stuck with them but if not I expect to see a few elites jumping from rooftops soon.
So why, after having failed to produce results, did George Carr and Skip Alston suddenly come back 2 years later begging to get back into the game of redeveloping the Bessemer Shopping Center after the City of Greensboro had just finished redeveloping the north end of the shopping center just 3 years ago?
What? No one told you about that? The north end of the shopping center where the Family Dollar store is located and one empty space next door to the Family Dollar look brand new. And it was done at taxpayer expense. So why are we now seeing pictures at the City Council meeting of a completely different shopping center facade?
Could it be because everything about this entire process has been a facade? As in false front?
"The developers came back in when another mill was thrown into the mix.
Bessemer wants 10-15% commissions on leasing the rest of the commercial spaces at regular lease pricing, to benefit from the gov $ injected into the project.
They will not have "built" that.
They are just taking advantage of a rigged bidding and political system."
At this point it's really hard to believe anything else. So now the question becomes why did the City of Greensboro at another $Million Dollars to the incentives and whose decision was it to do so? Denise? Robbie? Andy Scott? Anyone care to answer or do I just keep digging until you are in so deep you never see the light of day again?
Let's not forget, both Carr and Alston already have schemes in the making to boot the co-op out of the shopping center and replace them with higher paying tenants.
And who are Skip Alston's foreign investors in the Renaissance Center of Greensboro, LLC? You know, the company with the name designed to confuse you into thinking it is somehow one in the same with the Renaissance Community Co-op. The company is not registered with the State of North Carolina as a legal entity and none of the documents made available to the public have any names on them. Accuse me of hyperboil but for all we know the City of Greensboro could be preparing to funnel money to foreign terrorists.
Okay, I don't really believe these guys are terrorists. I sat beside them at the City Council meeting and they seemed okay but seriously, what kind of city does business with mystery men and thinks it's an acceptable way of doing business? Denise, did the thought ever cross your mind that there might be neighborhood concerns about where local dollars are spent? Are you so unfamiliar with the million year old history of cooperatives that it just flew over your head? Have you not been paying attention to our buy local campaign funded in-part by the City of Greensboro? Is it true that women lose brain cells when they have babies? Cause if it is you had better not have no more babies, Girl, you hear me?
What, would you rather I accuse you of being a crook? Coming right up!
What else are the City of Greensboro and the media not telling you about the Renaissance Center redevelopment proposals? Everything that was said by Renaissance Community Co-op members and organizers, Tavish Warren, Louis Beveridge, Casey Thomas and so much more. has been left in the dark hoping we would never hear their voices, never hear the truth. And why would our "leaders" want you to hear what Casey, Tavish and Louis have to say when the very idea of working class poor people forming cooperatives threatens the very developer driven "economic development" model that allows men like George Carr and Skip Alston to rob the taxpayers in the first place?
And while it appears I might have been off on the actual numbers working mostly from my head, the truth remains: Skip Alston, George Carr, Jim Key, Denise Turner Roth, Mayor Robbie Perkins, Andy Scott and others have corrupted the process to the point that none of them can be trusted to govern over the process.
Want the entire RCC story going back months? That was the link.
Shall I add a Part 6 or are Greensboro Government officials ready to make clear what has actually been going on? Yes, as a matter of fact there is more, it's just a matter of who tells it as to how the voters perceive it.
Apparently George Carr and Skip Alston had both lost interest in the Bessemer Shopping Center until the Fund 4 Democratic Communities paid for a 3rd party study that found that the Renaissance Community Co-op only needed 1% of the business within 1 mile of the center to turn a $2 Million Dollar profit in year 1 and pay off all loans in 10 years. And that was a conservative estimate.
At that point George Carr and Skip Alston both came running back with outstretched palms begging the City take them back. Now why would developers rush headlong into offering to build such a center without having done such a study from the beginning?
I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. Of course there's no need to order as it's out of print.
But
seriously, the Bessemer Shopping Center sat empty for 14 years because
Greensboro's elitist, racist, classist developers and leaders assumed a shopping
center and grocery store in a predominately minority neighborhood would
never turn a profit when in-fact, none of them ever bothered to take the
time to do a market study. Responsible, smart, market savvy developers
do their research but not Skip Alston and not George Carr. But then why
should they when their business models are both built around taking
government handouts and living on entitlements to businesses.
Speaking of George Carr and Beacon Management Corporation,
here's George's shining star in the commercial property business, the
Westgate Shopping Center. I guess you can call George Carr the slumlord
of Greensboro commercial property development. I wonder how long that bright and shiny shopping center Mr Carr promised will stay that way?
And then there's Skip Alston still. Are you aware that the City of Greensboro bought the Bessemer Shopping Center as a corporate bail-out from Katheryn Weaver who owns Weaver Reality and is the CEO of the Weaver Foundation. And that one of Skip Alston's business partners in the privately owned for profit, International Civil Rights Museum, just happens to be Skip Moore, President of the Weaver Foundation? And are you aware that Skip and Skip are also begging the City of Greensboro for money to fund their privately owned International Civil Rights Museum which they claim isn't going broke.
And these people think they deserve our money?
Of course, there is a bigger question that I have yet to ask in Part 1, Part 2 or Part 3. And that is: Why would Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth and the rest of the senior city staff even allow George Carr and Skip Alston to be involved in this process? As was clearly pointed out, both parties failed to meet their obligations and contracts to the City of Greensboro. Their previous contracts were null and void. And yet without even bringing the Renaissance Community Co-op proposal to City Council for a vote, Denise Turner Roth and her staff made the arbitrary and groundless decision to cut the citizens of Northeast Greensboro-- the very citizens the grocery store will serve-- out of the process altogether.
What would make Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth sell out her own kind? And for how much?
Well Denise, I bet you're wishing you'd answered my questions now.
Hard to believe we're talking about the same sweet young woman who contacted me a few years back to arrange a meeting between Congressman Brad Miller and Greensboro bloggers. I guess it's true what they say about being corrupted by power. Let's just hope she never gets the chance to run anything bigger than Greensboro...
