The following is a transcript of Greensboro City Council at-large candidate Danny Thompson’s answers at a Guilford County Unity Effort forum on Sept. 22:
Introductory statement
Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to come tonight. Appreciate you hosting this. My name is Danny Thompson, and I am proud to say that I was born and raised in Greensboro. I have lived here most of my life. And seven years ago I had a vision of starting a business to provide care to seniors in order that they could remain in their home. Today, we’ve helped over thousands of families and we employ over a hundred people. We care for veterans, for the poor and for the elderly, and the sick. During that time, I’m proud to say that we’ve never borrowed a penny; we do not owe a dime. We meet payroll and exceed seven figures on an annual basis. I’m running for city council because as a businessman who understands business sense and common sense I want to bring that to the city council. We have an opportunity to move forward with a clear vision of a sound economic prosperity, but only if we get past the status quo and only if we get past the bickering and divisiveness we see on Channel 13. It’s more than just about Irving Park and Gillespie Park; it’s about industrial parks, business parks, medical parks and biotech parks. The job of city council is to cast a vision and take responsibility, and I believe I can do that. I would appreciate your support.
Do you support continued funding for the Greensboro Police Department gang enforcement unit. If so, do you think it should possibly be restructured?
Thank you. I do support continued funding of the gang unit in the police department. Many people in this room know that many candidates run for city council do not run because they have all the answers, but they should be running because they can ask the tough questions. And that’s what I will do on the city council: Ask the tough questions of the police department and finding out, do we need to restructure the gang unit, whether it’s resources and manpower, where they need to be and how they’re allocating their financial resources.
Would you be in favor of reopening the White Street Landfill to household waste? Why or why not?
I would not be in favor of opening the White Street Landfill to household waste. You know, several years ago some of you may remember that New Jersey was the laughingstock of the nation when it could not deal with its trash, and it put it on barges and floated it up and down the east coast looking for a state to take their trash. Well, it made the cover of a lot of news – that’s going to be us in a few years if we continue just to say, “Not in my backyard,” and trucking our trash down to some other county. First of all, it’s not a good environmental solution, I think we could all agree. Now, I think what we can do is, as has been stated before, technology has advanced to where we can turn our trash into treasure, be it an incinerator, be it covering it and tapping the methane gas, or be it contracting out and allowing miners to go in to be able to dig through the trash and do whatever miners do with trash. We need to start that discussion now on a regional basis instead of just trucking our trash down the highway because we’re going to be – when our contract comes up for renewal, it’s going to be a matter of if it’s going to be double, triple or quadruple the price. And so just wiping our hands from it and charging the taxpayers $2 million a year to truck it down the highway – it’s not an easy solution, but I don’t believe the solution is opening the landfill.
Economic growth and development have not occurred in east Greensboro to the same extent as in other areas of the city. If elected, what would you do to ensure that there is balanced economic growth and development across the various parts of the city?
Economic growth, to the greatest extent, is at the whim of a developer or a business owner that wants to build or to transfer or to develop. The city council can go a long way in helping in development of under-utilized, under-growth areas by providing incentives to developers, whether it’s a major grocery store chain or whatever, by saying, “Look, we have a group of people in our city that don’t have a grocery store on the east side – a large supermarket – so what would it take, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lowe’s, for us to work with you to get a supermarket in there? That takes someone who is a business owner, that understands business owners. Business owners want to know how they can get the best value for the least amount of cost. So that’s what we need to do. I’m very much in favor of incentives for growing in areas where we can balance out the city, and that’s what I mean in my campaign on my website at votefordanny.com, where I talk about responsible growth in all areas of the city.
Candidates say they will represent their constituents. This means they need to know their constituents’ wishes and perspectives. What, in your experience prior to running for office, can you point to that tells us you are person who is in touch with your constituents?
As I stated in my opening statement, my vocation is geriatric care. That means that I work with families, helping them with their elderly parents navigate through the long-term care process, which is oftentimes not very easy. Throughout the business I’ve been able to interview, employ and create jobs — hundreds of people, both people making high salaries, marketing, sales people, administrative people and frontline CNA, certified nurse assistant caregivers…. It keeps me humble and keeps me in touch with those that maybe need an advance on their paycheck, maybe need a loan, maybe need a ride to work, maybe need a little bit of gas money. My wife is sitting in the audience. She and I, we’ve done this for eight years. It also puts us in touch with those who are grieving or those who have burdensome situations that are just beyond their control. I hope that answers that question.
How do you plan to include immigrants and refugee communities in the city council?
Great question. In our discussion, Jordan, in our interview, we talked about race relations and the diversity within Greensboro. It seems that we’re stuck in the 1980s when we talk about race relations; we still talk about black and white. Our Greensboro city schools superintendent [SIC] recently said that we have 100 ethnicities and nationalities and 88 dialects in our city schools. It’s unfortunate that on our boards and our commissions we do not have a more diverse face in leadership positions. We do not have the deaf or the blind, the gay or the lesbian, the brown or the Asian, or the Persian-American or the Indian-American or the Native American. They’re all in our community, but we are not bringing them forward with appointed positions, whether it’s boards or commissions, or even, unfortunately, sadly, they don’t want to — and maybe they can’t — to run for office. But as a city councilman, I will look aggressively to try to find those other people, groups to try to encourage them to step up. And I will ask the city council and those who are appointing people to boards and commissions to, let’s look at something more than just black and white.
Closing statement
One hundred and fifty years ago, John Motley Morehead, a great Greensboro resident, a North Carolina governor who is known as “the father of modern North Carolina,” he saw to it that railroad tracks came through Greensboro, as opposed to Asheboro, on the way from Raleigh to Charlotte. An advocate of sustained growth and bringing in business. A few years later Moses and Caesar Cone, helped by rail, set up business here so they could distribute those goods and products. And I think that we can do that again 150 years later. If we have leadership and vision we can lay the groundwork and get on the track for economic development with the Piedmont “aerotropolis.” As your city councilman, I will look for ways to reduce the tax burden. Right now if you move to Summerfield you can pay property taxes of zero. If you move to Oak Ridge, you pay a property tax of eight cents. If you move to Greensboro, one of the highest municipalities in North Carolina, you pay 63 cents for $100 of property tax. I will combine the Guilford County and Greensboro planning departments. I will ask that the sports authority commission… naming rights for the coliseum… And I want to be your city councilman. Thank you.
Triad Elections ’09
No comments:
Post a Comment