Yesterday Jeff Martin
published an e-mail from Greensboro City Councilman Mile Barber to George Hartzman. In that letter Councilman Barber accused George Hartzman of being drunk at a Greensboro City Council meeting. In it Mike attacked George Hartzman:
"George, I know why you are doing this. About 4 meetings ago you were drunk and passed out in the council chambers. I had Officer Franks go wake you, walk you out, and tell you that you could not continue to come to meetings drunk, and leave, drink, and come back. But I also ask him to make sure you didn’t drive, offer you a ride home, and try to insure you avoided arrest.
You think I embarrassed you but I think I did you and your family a favor.
I texted you that night after the meeting to make sure you got home and you did respond. It’s unlikely you will share your response, I also said in my text ” You’re hurting your family, others and yourself.”
There are a couple of things everyone needs to know. I started this-- not George. I'm the one who e-mailed Jeffery Sykes of Yes Weekly along with George and others to put them on Mike Barber's trail after I got a package from a reader. To imply that George was doing this as revenge-- as a group Greensboro's bloggers have been going after local politicians for years, my thinking was that if Jeff Sykes, the editor of Yes Weekly were to lead with the story it would get more traction and be less likely to be ignored by Mr Barber as City Council is in the habit of simply ignoring Greensboro's bloggers and trying to pass us all off as a bunch of idiots.
We
ll who is looking like an idiot now Mr 7% of the money your "non profit" takes in actually goes to charity?The other thing Mike probably doesn't want you to know is that e-mail wasn't just sent to George Hartzman. It was in-fact sent to George Hartzman, Roch Smith Jr, Joe Guarino, Eric Robert, Jeff Martin, myself and possibly more in what I perceived to be a
deliberate attempt to smear Mr Hartzman. And I'm willing to testify to that in court.
Mike Barber is a lawyer, good lawyers don't misspeak-- ever.. Like too many on the power trips with the City of Greensboro, Mike tried to scare us away with a bluff. Didn't work. Former Greensboro City attorney S Mujeeb Shah-Khan tried bluffing us. He's a lawyer and he no longer has a job with the City of Greensboro. Not only did Mike lie about being subsidized by the City of Greensboro and failed to address every issue we brought up, Mike opened himself up to a possible lawsuit with that e-mail and with everything else we've already proven, George has a very good chance of winning the suit. You see, even if the officer testifies that George was drunk at a city council meeting Mike made no mention of a breathalyzer test and says the officer took George Hartzman home.
No breathalyzer test? No medical treatment? George could have been having a seizure. Or a stroke. I had a stroke at 46, how old is George? The symptoms of a stroke include impaired motor skills, slurred speech and blurred vision-- sounds like a drunk to me.
George's life could have been at stake. Or he could have simply been so tired he fell asleep. We don't know because Mike Barber, a lawyer and officer of the court, by his own written admission, mishandled the entire situation just like he's mishandled First Tee of the Triad and his position on the Greensboro City Council.
And Mike Barber knows I'm right. So much so that he'll no longer discuss the matter for fear anything he says might be used against him in a court of law. No Mike Barber is hurting his family, his self and others-- thousands upon thousands of others.
Mike Barber put the noose around his own neck and if George wants to tighten it, Mike swings high. Mike had better hope George is bigger on forgiving than I am.
And folks, this is far from over, we've more on Mike Barber we've yet to publish and ropes at the ready for other Greensboro City Council members. The corruption, be it on the left or the right, will end.
