Parking ticket, ethics and crime control bills requested by Greensboro will not be introduced
Three of 12 local legislative items submitted by the city of Greensboro to the NC General Assembly have run into trouble, Assistant City Attorney Tom Carruthers told City Manager Rashad Young in a May 20 memo. Two of the bills did not survive bill drafting. “The bill to place the city council under the State Ethics Act was not approved by Drafting. It was noted that the State Ethics Act was not intended to extend its jurisdiction over local officials,” Carruthers wrote. “The bill to establish local permits for hotels and motels to ensure they met current housing codes and did not allow undue criminal activity was not approved by Drafting. It was the feeling of the committee that this would require statewide legislation and therefore was not a proper local legislative item.”
Carruthers added that the local delegation also balked at a request to introduce a local bill “to allow past due parking tickets to be collected by the state as unpaid taxes” because two local lawmakers were opposed to it.
NC Rep. Earl Jones, who chairs the Guilford County delegation, said he is one of the lawmakers who opposes the parking ticket collection request.
"It's basically wrong," Jones said yesterday in an interview with YES! Weekly. "It's stepping across the line, if you start talking about parking tickets. The basic principle of the thing is it's not a tax; it's a fee. I'm not willing to manipulate language to define a fee as a tax in order to garnish regular, hard-working citizens' paychecks." — Jordan Green
Cunningham continues to pick up endorsements
US Senate candidate Cal Cunningham picked up a number of solid endorsements in the past week, including one from former US Senate candidate Jim Neal.
“I’ve watched Cal closely as he’s taken his campaign to the people of North Carolina. I want to tell you directly — Cal Cunningham is the real deal,” Neal wrote in a letter to supporters on Monday.
On May 21, a group of nine Forsyth County elected officials, including NC Reps. Larry Womble and Earline Parmon, officially endorsed Cunningham’s candidacy during a press conference at the Forsyth County Board of Elections. Cunningham, a former state senator and Army prosecutor, also won the endorsements of Winston-Salem City Council members James Taylor and Derwin Montgomery, as well as county commissioner Walter Marshall and school board member Vic Johnson. Cunningham has also been endorsed by the NC Association of Educators, Teamsters Local 391, the Sierra Club and General Wesley Clark.
Last week, Ken Lewis, who garnered 17 percent of the vote in the May 4 Democratic primary, endorsed the candidacy of NC Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. Marshall defeated Cunningham by 9 percentage points in the primary for the US Senate seat currently held by Republican Richard Burr. However, Marshall failed to win 40 percent of the vote, thereby forcing a runoff election on June 22.
A May 12 survey by Public Policy Polling revealed that Marshall and Cunningham are in a dead heat with each candidate receiving support from 36 percent of the survey’s respondents. — Keith T. Barber
Reward offered for information about girl’s killer
Gov. Beverly Perdue recently announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest or indictment of the person or persons responsible for the murder of Shalonda Poole. CrimeStoppers is offering an additional $2,000, adding up to a total of $7,000. Shalonda, who was 7 years old at the time of her death, was sexually assaulted and died of strangulation. Her body was located in a wooded area near Randleman Road and South Street in July 1990. — Jordan Green
Billy Kennedy canvasses in Winston-Salem
With the help of roughly 30 supporters, Billy Kennedy, the Democratic nominee for the US House seat currently held by Republican Virginia Foxx, canvassed in Winston-Salem on May 22. Kennedy and two campaign staffers traveled to a neighborhood off Jonestown Road and spoke with registered voters about his campaign. After engaging in a lengthy discussion about immigration, one registered Democrat said: “I’ll support you. There needs to be more plain thinking people in office.”
At each stop, Kennedy introduced himself and asked voters what issues are most important to them. Kennedy, a farmer and a carpenter, said he developed the technique of assessing voter attitudes while working on behalf of the Watauga County Democratic Party in the 1990s. The strategy is to gather information on voters’ concerns, then bring those concerns back to the Democratic Party and serve as a liaison between the voters and elected officials.
“We did it several weekends in a row until we pretty much canvassed the whole county,” Kennedy explained. “It was a good way of getting support. We’ve got a real giving community here. Once people are made aware of their neighbors struggles, they try to help out.”
The added benefit for those doing the canvassing is they get to know their neighbors.
“We all do better when we know our community and we know our neighbors,” Kennedy said. “That’s what folks living in rural communities find appealing — the more you know your neighbors, the less you fear them, and canvassing does that.” — Keith T. Barber
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