Stray information from Greensboro council retreat

Some notes from the new Greensboro City Council's retreat Friday and Saturday, whose purpose was to establish priorities and develop a strategy for moving the people's business forward. I've filed almost 2,000 words, to be published Wednesday on the nine-hour session. What follows is material that didn't fit in the story.

District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small asked, "How do you expect us to understand each other's priorities because we come from different places in life?... We don't live in the same households.... I might be passionate and fight for mass transit. That's a very expensive ticket item."

She added, "If we don't have buses, then the rich side of town ain't gonna have workers."

District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny expressed aggravation about the remark during the break that followed.

At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins early on raised the issue of small-group meetings as a stumbling block for the oouncil.

"There is an extreme lack of trust between council members themselves, and between the council and staff; that goes both ways," Perkins said. "There's an issue with the small group meetings and the council's position on two members can't get together with staff because there's been a fear about what they're cooking up."

District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade characterized the small group meetings between a handful of council members and staff prior to the council's vote to prohibit it as "divide and conquer," adding that she wouldn't go so far as to say "that staff would misinform intentionally."

District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw, who was part of the faction that voted to eliminate the small-group meetings, indirectly referenced The Rhinoceros Times' role in city politics.

"In the last go around, transparency was a big issue on the campaign trail," she said. "The media also held us accountable for transparency. The biggest problem with the small group meetings is, let's say Rashad had three different meetings: It's not the highest and best use of his time."

Others argued that it's more inefficient for City Manager Rashad Young to meet one on one with the nine separate council members, and that the last council ended up canceling full-council briefings because the members couldn't agree on a time to meet.

"I do agreed with Dianne in that it's less efficient to have nine meetings," Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan said. "I do understand the issue of transparency. The last council canceled at least three briefings. If you're not going to do small-group meetings, then you have to have more full briefings.... That's where you get to ask the dumb questions."

Perkins said, "There are three of us on council that have had signnificant experience with small-group meetings. I can tell you that the council I served on without small-group meetings was the most unprepared council that I have ever served on."

Facilitator Carl Stenberg put his finger on the paradox that the council members owe their elections to their constituent base but will be unable to accomplish anything unless they cooperate with each other to a degree.

"You all are great campaigners, because you won," he said. "But you're nine independent agents. You owe nothing to your colleagues. So how do you work with your fellow council members and find trust?"

Noted that Mayor Bill Knight spent most of the retreat listening rather than talking. Is that a sign of leadership, or just the opposite?

Saturday's session began 20 minutes late and soon took on a caustic tone.

Perkins said, "It seems to me that over the past two years council has not given staff the respect they deserve.... I've been extremely disappointed by the way the last council treated the last manager.... Frankly, it was very embarrasing."

Knight pushed back: "I wasn't on the previous council. We're starting with a clean slate right here."

Bellamy-Small said, "The two most egregious offenders aren't here, the elephants in the room." (Rakestraw and Wade would arrive later.)

Knight objected: "That's not fair."

A comic moment transpired when Stenberg presented a hypothetical situation in council-manager relations:

"When Fred Brown ran for city council, he knew big changes were needed in city government. The community needed new leadership -- on the council and in the office of city manager.

"Brown won, but the council majority supports the current manager. Now councilman Brown takes potshots at the manager, hoping to embarrass him and shift the council's majority."

There was a brief silence, and then Vaughan said, "If you didn't see it here, you weren't watching."

Stenberg suggested, "It is important that the presiding officer take members aside and talk to them about the importance of decorum. It is important to show support for the manager."

...

Perkins and Wade debated what kind of oversight of staff constitutes micromanaging.

Knight urged them to exercise restraint.

"I've heard some undercurrent," he said. "It may be going back to the previous council. I would urge that where differences exist we listen to one another and that we try to overcome that. We've got work to do.... In the spirit of trying to work together for the people's business, let's keep it to a dull roar."

Some priorities articulated by individual council members:

District 2 Councilman Jim Kee: "We have to have more green jobs. We have to engage the business community, which I have been doing. I have been talking to businesses about investment in District 2. Infrastructure is a concern, including the urban loop."

Rakestraw expressed interest in privatizing government and merging city and county functions to cut costs. She also coopted one of oppponent Mike Martin's ideas: "I think also we want to make the best use of our colleges and universities. We should be using more of our students in some of our areas of government. Volunteers -- we say we want to use more of our youth, but we need to show them what they can do."

Vaughan offered a wide range of priorities:

"I think we need to find a way to brand ourselves. Charlotte was kind of known as banking and finance. Raleigh is known for RTP. We're the Piedmont Triad. Outside of Greensboro people don't really know who we are....

"We need to make sure the crime lab stays funded so we don't need to send our stuff to Raleigh....

"I think we need the fifth police district....

"McLeansville -- that is really way out in the middle of nowhere. I don't know how we can serve them....

"We have to tackle the landfill issue and kind of put it to bed once and for all. We have to do that for the city and do that for the surrounding neighborhoods so they can have some confidence."

At-large Councilman Danny Thompson indicated he shares some of Vaughan's interests, saying, "You stole some of my thunder, Ms. Mayor Pro Tem." He added, "The brand I'd like to see us rally around is being the premier center for product distribution in the East Coast."

He added another priority: "Reducing the property tax rate. We have the highest property tax rates in North Carolina."

Perkins expressed interest in expediting the completion of the urban loop, and articulated a vision for downtown development.

"We need to look at future ability to put parking in," he said. "There were three big buildings that went up in the early nineties and late eighties. If you really look back at it, it was public investment and parking infrastructure that did it. I think if we're prepared we can catch the next business wave and do that again."

Knight played the role of consensus-builder.

"These are some really great ideas, very creative and very exciting," he said. "It's interesting to note that at the district level there are a number of overlapping issues.... We've got a candy jar full of items to consider, and there's going to be an opportunity to get together and prioritize this."

Later, interim Assistant Manager Andy Scott provided some context for Thompson's remark that Greensboro tops the list for the highest tax rate in the state.

"We have the absolute highest tax rate," he said. "That tax rate includes libraries and landfill that other cities that we compare ourselves to don't pay. When you look at the combined city and county tax rate, we're not at the absolute highest level anymore, and most of that is derivative of those two services that we provide."

(Priorities set out by Bellamy-Small and Matheny will be covered in our print product on Wednesday.)

There was some discussion about the budget process. Vaughan said she would like the council to receive reports from the manager earlier in the year. Wade said she would like the council to be able to give the manager input on whether he should put together a hold-the-line budget or one with tax cuts (tax increases were not among her options). City Manager Rashad Young pushed back, saying he needs time to assemble useful information for the council.

Young said the search for a new police chief is already underway. (Chief Tim Bellamy has announced that he will retire next year.) Young said the human resources department has already talked to one recruitment firm last week, and plans to talk to others this week. He plans to conduct a national search rather than recruiting from inside the department. Once the list is narrowed to a handful of contenders, Young said he would like the candidates to appear publicly before different panels, one comprised of sheriffs, judges and prosecutors, one comprised of citizens, one comprised of business leaders, one comprised of citywide staff, and one comprised of members of pastors from both the minority and majority communities.