Home made signs criticize Abuzuaiter, Holder takes credit

Two home made signs appeared outside the old Guilford County Courthouse — Greensboro's early voting site — this morning with messages criticizing at-large incumbent Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter. Not only are the signs legal, but her opponent Ben Holder is taking credit. 

"Yeah that’s me," he said in a phone interview. "I just made another one — Marikay Obfuscaiter. Get it?"

Holder, one of nine candidates (including Abuzuaiter) running at large, has criticized Abuzuaiter at several council meetings about her transparency about whether she secretly provided information about activists to Greensboro police officers. (Read YES! Weekly's recent editorial on the issue here. Her handling of the issue kept Y!W from endorsing her in the primary).  

Guilford County Elections Director Charlie Collicutt said the signs are legal and don't need to have a disclosure legend saying who paid for it. Collicutt spoke with the state board's general counsel, who said the language is "generally within the realm of acceptable political discourse." Collicutt said Abuzuaiter put her sign right next to it (pictured below) and Holder said that his signs were moved back and hers were placed in front, causing him to make the new sign. 

"I just have a really big problem with someone who refuses to be clear on a story as big as that," Holder said explaining why he did it, adding that it wasn't about her communication with police but that she is lying about her actions. "You never see a homemade sign or people being creative [with signs]. It's easy, it's fun and it may take off."

Greensboro candidates connected to women's college, prominent consultants, finance questions

Our candidate profile for YES! Weekly's online voter guide at www.triadpolitics.info is pretty straight-forward (candidates answer basic questions about who they are and their campaign, and we post it along with a photo) but every so often there's something interesting or unexpected in the response.

Like that at-large candidate Ben Holder graduated from Salem College in Winston-Salem. It came as a surprise to us that the women's college has a co-ed adult education program for students who are 23 or older, and Communications Manager Jennifer Handy confirmed that Holder graduated from the program in 2009 with a degree in communication.

Or that Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan, who is running for mayor, hired well-known political consultant Bill Burckley. We reported that Vaughan worked with him in 2009, when he was also consulting for Bill Knight's successful mayoral bid.

Or that Tanya Wiley is managing Mayor Robbie Perkins' reelection effort. Wiley served as treasurer and consultant for the Winston-Salem Black Political Action Committee, an entity with finance problems. From Jordan Green's May 30, 2012  YES! Weekly article: 

"The committee failed to file second-quarter or third-quarter plus reports, prompting an official notice of noncompliance to Wiley from Kim Westbrook Strach, deputy director for campaign reporting at the state Board of Elections, on Nov. 12, 2008.

"Instead of catching up on its second-quarter and third-quarter plus reports the committee skipped to the 2008 year-end semi-annual report, which the board of elections received in February 2009. The report showed a balance of $164. Cash on hand at the end of the previous report should equal cash on hand at the beginning of the subsequent report. That $4,008 dwindled to $164 indicates that $3,844 remains missing or unaccounted."

Other interesting tidbits from the candidate profiles: At-large candidate Joseph Landis works as a flight attendant, District 2 challenger Jamal Fox is only 25 (Landis is 27), former councilwoman Florence Gatten is working as a paid consultant on Nancy Hoffmann's reelection campaign in District 4, District 5 challenger Alex Seymour co-founded the Beard & Moustache Club of NC and the Piedmont Old-Time Society and former NC House candidate Theresa Yon is District 5 Councilman Tony Wilkins' treasurer. 

Read more about the candidates here.

Greensboro City Council filings: Trouble!

Among the 11th-hour filings for the Greensboro City Council race, some surprises surface.

The marquee story is in the at-large race, where among the usual gang — incumbents Yvonne Johnson and Marikay Abuzuaiter; old hands like Mike Barber, Jean Brown and Chris Lawyer; and "Who Dat?" candidates like Marlando Pridgen and Joseph Landis — are a couple of familiar names. My old friend Ben Holder, AKA the Troublemaker, has thrown his hat into the ring. I hear he's getting an "S" tattooed on his chest to get properly fired up for the race. And young activist/journalist/scenester Katei Cranford has decided to get into the game, too. Just one of the fascinating things about her is that she's the niece of Billy "Crash" Craddock. 

There are no surprises in districts 1 and 2. In D-1, incumbents Dianne Bellamy-Small has jazz singer and activist Tigress McDaniel and city insider Sharon Hightower looking to take the throne. In D-2 no one has challenged Jamal Fox's move for Jim Kee's seat.In District 3, Zack Matheny will defend his seat against Corey Pisher and Wendell Roth. John Underwood has joined the fray between D-4 incumbent Nancy Hoffmann and former mayor Bill Knight.

And in District 5, Tony Wilkins, who was appointed to his seat after Sen. Trudy Wade took statewide office, faces shapeshifter Sal Leone and another  new name, my old friend Alex Seymour.

I worked with Alex at Bert's Seafood Grille years ago, and we remain friends. He's become active in city government on a grassroots level, and is a fixture (or, at least, he was) in the beard and bluegrass scenes.

Consider this a disclosure. Of course, I've known Wilkins (and most of the other people running) for years, as well.

Ben Holder transcript

The following is a transcript of District 1 candidate Ben Holder’s answers at a Guilford County Unity Effort forum on Sept. 8:

Introductory statement
My name is Ben Holder. I was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. What I offer to you is a decade worth of activism that has resulted in improvements in District 1. I was the first one to complain about Southgate Motor Inn and the problems Southgate Motor Inn brought to the community. And Southgate Motor Inn is now demolished. I was the one who stopped the city from tearing Southgate Motor Inn down without removing the asbestos first, making people sick, these poor people that tear these buildings down. There was no special rule for Greensboro to protect. I went to the council and got that done. I have consistently, since 1999, worked with the city of Greensboro without a commission, without any appointment, by myself, with my own convictions, gone before the board and got things done time and time again. I got married in 2000, Sept. 9, 2000. My son was born 10 days later. We had a daughter. We moved to Winston-Salem. I’ve worked for the city of Greensboro, the local ordinance office. My wife died. I’m a single parent of two biracial children. I moved back to Greensboro two months ago to run for District 1. And since I’ve been back I have made public record policy for all of y’all simple, more efficient. I have brought attention to blight to the council. I’m the one that you can bring you complaints to, and I will see that it’s carried through to the proper channels all the way down until it’s done.

Economic growth and development has 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 quadrants of the city?
I believe O’Reilly Auto Parts is the only new thing that we’ve had come in District 1 for quite some time. And all of ’em touched on it, but I will tell you — and I’ve told anyone who will listen to me — that there’s a huge double standard. The things that are not tolerated on the affluent side of town are ignored on the less affluent side of town. And until we get local ordinance — until we get our city getting rid of the blight, cleaning stuff up, as they’re supposed to do. Like the Ross Strange building, is a good example of something that should have been torn down a long time ago and made room for some kind of redevelopment. And it’s dangerous, too. So there’s many things that we could do without having to spend any extra money. We need to just be more efficient on working on in District 1 in addressing the blight problem. Then that will automatically address the criminal problem. And then everything else will take care of itself. It’s like coaching a football team and teaching them all these really complicated plays but you don’t spend any time blocking and tackling. In District 1, we need to learn how to block and we need to learn how to tackle because we don’t know how yet.

Because of drug activity and crime in their neighborhoods many of the city’s elderly in east Greensboro fear for their safety and do not come out in the evening or move around their neighborhoods during the day as freely as they would like to. What would you do to increase the elderly’s sense of public safety?
You used the example of the elderly being afraid. I was on Bilbro Street knocking on doors talking to people about an issue in their neighborhood, and more than one person told me that they would not have answered the door if I did not have those two children with me. I understand their fear, but I also understand that we can do better — every neighborhood that has somebody scared, every neighborhood that has a criminal infestation also has a severe problem with dilapidation and blight. And if we can get serious about picking bad neighborhoods and then zeroing in on one street at a time and going in there and cleaning these areas up, with local ordinance, with the neighborhood — it’s true that you could have more community building with the National Night Out, but we’ve got to get serious about what’s tolerable. There’s plenty of issues in District 1 that would not be tolerable anywhere else that feed the fear, that feed the crime, that promote that atmosphere of stay in your house and lock your doors.

Do you favor maintaining funding for the Greensboro Police Department’s gang enforcement unit? Why or why not?
Yes, I’m for keeping the gang unit. We have gangs, and it’s a problem. It’s a problem that affects District 1 greatly. I see gang signs in District 1. I see kids that wear the gang-style clothing in District 1. I don’t know if I would necessarily want to see the gang unit structured the way it is, but yeah, to fund the gang unit, we need a gang unit. We have gangs. We may need some restructuring on how they operate, but we do have a gang problem. I’ve said that for quite some time.

One of the questions in a candidate survey sent out by the Triad Real Estate & Building Industries Coalition is, Do you think that sprawl is a problem in Greensboro? How did you answer this question, and what are your reasons for your answer?
I didn’t answer the TREBIC survey. Nothing against TREBIC; I’m just kind of busy, and we get a lot of surveys. Like Mr. Sellars, I’m pro-residents, too. I am absolutely for small businesses, but I don’t really see sprawl as a problem in Greensboro. No, I do not.

What is your vision for a strategic, sustainable solid waste management system for Greensboro?
You would start with me on that one. I certainly do appreciate that. You know, that’s a really hard question. I think that the White Street Landfill is — I mean, I’m not going to sit here and say, “9 million this, $9 million that,” because you can’t put a price on sickness, you can’t put a price on quality of life, you can’t put a price on things like that. So, while I think we can find better ways to deal with our trash and deal with this problem in the long term, I don’t see reopening the White Street Landfill as an option. I also didn’t really see the purchasing of the land on Burnt Poplar Road for the transfer station — the city council bought that un-appraised. There are better ways that we could deal with this, but I don’t see opening the White Street Landfill as an option. The other thing is, where’s this trash going that we take away. I mean, it’s going to the Uwharrie landfill in Mt. Gilead. They have people that live close to there. We’re just dumping our trash on somebody else, so we have to sustain our problem, yes. We have to get on with the times and be green and be smart and be efficient and be honest and be transparent when we deal with our trash. But you’re not going to ever see me vote to reopen the White Street Landfill.

If elected, what project would you like to have completed by the end of your first term?
Whether I’m elected or not, I’m always going to fight against the blight and the crime. But if I were to get elected, one thing from experience that I can tell everyone is that we don’t have the best, most freest, transparent public record system in the city of Greensboro. And when I ask for a public record and I don’t get it, it just kind of makes you wonder, you know, why, what’s really going on, why are you hiding this? And many times I’ve found out that, yeah, they hide certain things. So what my main focus would be? Let’s be a big city, let’s be a smart city, let’s stop wasting time answering all these massive public records requests and put ’em accessible online. There’s no reason why everybody’s business license cannot be online. There’s no reason why the local ordinance, for instance — there’s no reason for you to ride down the street, see an abandoned house with the door open, be able to go online, check it and see what’s going on. Has it been inspected? Is it supposed to be boarded up? Who owns it? All that kind of stuff the city inspectors have. And nothing a city inspector does is not the public’s record. All of it is. There’s very little that isn’t public record. So if I were lucky enough to be elected, I would make sure that what is the public’s record would be made accessible to the public.

Would you support giving subpoena power to the Greensboro Police Department citizen review board? Why or why not?
A citizen review board is a panel that handles complaints about the police department. Sometimes the citizen review board can’t even get basic documentation from our police department. So until I completely trust the guys with the guns and the badges I would like for our citizen review board to be able to subpoena anything that they need to get to the bottom of the issue. So, yes, we need it badly.

Triad Elections '09

Community watch event scheduled for Hickory Trails apartments

Greensboro City Council at-large candidate Ryan Shell tells me a community watch awareness event has been scheduled for 6 p.m. tomorrow at the Hickory Trails apartment complex. Shell, who is organizing the event with District 1 candidate Ben Holder, said he is contributing $50 for food. The Greensboro Police Department has promised to send representatives.

The News & Record reports that 16-year-old Breyon Shon Deese was killed between two sections the apartment complex on Tuesday. Candidate Holder noted that, unlike other residents, Hickory Trails residents did not have the opportunity to attend a National Night Out event last night. Hickory Trails is located at 4214 Bernau Ave.

UPDATE, Aug. 6, 6:28 p.m.: I went looking for the community watch awareness event at Hickory Trails apartment complex and bumped into Officer A. Moos of the GPD. Moos told me the event fell through the cracks because there wasn't adequate time to plan for it.

Who will hold the championship belt?

The election has hardly begun and in Greensboro's District 1 the six candidates represent a variety of interests and approaches, but this juxtaposition alone makes it an exciting race.

Incumbent Dianne Bellamy-Small lists among her accomplishments: "Intervened in attacks on city manager."

Challenger Ben Holder helped lead the charge to remove City Manager Mitchell Johnson. He celebrated in March with a blog post excusing himself "to go polish my championship belt."

A lot of elected officials and candidates dance around the issue of race, particularly when it comes to the crucial question of whether black officers were subjected to racial discrimination within the GPD. Not Bellamy-Small. She candidly writes on her campaign blog that she "advocated for fairness in treatment of black police officers involved in the police scandal."

Holder running in District 1

Ben Holder tells blogger Ed Cone that he's running for the District 1 Greensboro City Council seat currently held by Dianne Bellamy-Small. Press conference tomorrow.

Surveillance of black leaders

I rarely make common cause with the Rhino and the Troublemaker. But in at least this instance, they're right to demand an accounting from Greensboro City Manager Mitchell Johnson and police Chief Tim Bellamy.

Ben Holder has been showing up at council meetings and making a scene about this lately. And Rhino Editor John Hammer picks up the story this week, writing:

"On Tuesday, Holder brought up the "police surveillance" matter the council should have dealt with a long, long time ago, but instead the council handled the issue as it has so many and just hoped it would go away. The council does have a problem because in dealing with this issue, councilmembers will have to confront the fact that City Manager Mitchell Johnson and police Chief Tim Bellamy mislead the council. The question the council will have to answer is, was the misrepresentation deliberate or not."

What's surreal is that the facts of this case have been in the public realm for sometime. Mitchell Johnson admitted in a press conference in November 2006 that the reason black community leaders were recorded by a nonsworn police employee was because a fellow task force member was, as he put it, "doing something inappropriate."

The background of the story has been amply reported in YES! Weekly, the Troublemaker blog and the Rhino. The trouble is, not everyone in the community faithfully reads, YES! Weekly, the Troublemaker or the Rhino. Several prominent citizens remain persuaded that the Greensboro Police Department under former Chief David Wray deliberately targeted black leaders for surveillance, based on a press release put out by the department in April 2006. I know because I had to explain what really happened to the Rev. Nelson Johnson, one of the black leaders who was recorded, last spring. If all you know is that black leaders were recorded, but you don't know that the reason for the recording was to gather information about a task force member who led a wired nonsworn police employee around to the offices of various black leaders, it looks sinister.

When I interviewed Chief Bellamy in December 2006, he said the recordings could not be released to those who were recorded because they were part of an administrative investigation. It sounded ridiculous to me then — eight months after the disclosure that the recordings had been made. So it's aggravating to read today in the Rhino that Bellamy wrote in a Jan. 29 memo to City Attorney Terry Wood that "this matter is included in an administrative investigation which is being completed at this time," and that "this information is protected."

It's time for all involved — Mitchell Johnson, Tim Bellamy — to come clean, and Mayor Yvonne Johnson should insist on a full airing of the facts.

Troublemaker meets Nature Boy

Propagandist, police informant, journalist-cum-self-promoter Ben Holder appeared before Greensboro City Council last night, keeping a promise. Over the past two years, Holder has agitated for City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s removal over the controversial resignation of former police Chief David Wray, tangled with Chief Tim Bellamy and antagonized several council members.

Last night, the man known as the Troublemaker found a way to way to unite the council.

“Sometimes things are so important that we have to put all of our differences aside. Tonight’s one of those nights,” said Holder, holding his daughter at his hip. “This Friday, Dec. 5, at Proehlific Park, I want the city of Greensboro to honor the Nature Boy Ric Flair. Ric Flair’s professional wrestling career lasted for over 36 years. During his career, the Nature Boy Ric Flair, entertained millions of people around the world. He will forever be known as one of the greatest to ever work in the industry of professional wrestling. Ric Flair is known throughout the nation, but calls North Carolina his home. Ric Flair was named champion six times during his career. Many of Ric Flair’s greatest matches took place at the Greensboro Coliseum.

“On Nov. 24, 1983 in the Greensboro Coliseum, Ric Flair won the World Heavyweight Championship by defeating the legendary Harley Race. The significance of that match is it was the first-ever pay-per-view wrestling event in the history of our country. Greensboro, North Carolina was an important location in the history of professional wrestling. People from all over the Carolinas came to Greensboro from the seventies through the eighties to watch Ric Flair. So what I’m asking the city of Greensboro to do is to give the key on the Dec. 5, 2008 to the stylin’ and profilin’, wheelin’ and dealin’, kiss-stealin’ Nature Boy Ric Flair.”

At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins said, “I think it’s a really good idea. If none of us can do it, I think we might appoint an emissary. Mr. Holder might serve as an emissary….”

To which Holder responded in true Nature Boy-fashion: “Woooooo!”

Council voted unanimously to present the key to Flair. Mayor Yvonne Johnson asked District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny if he would be willing to do the honors.

Sensing perhaps that he might steal some of Holder’s thunder, Matheny averred.

“Course, I was at that wrestlin’ match in 1983,” he said.

“That’s awesome, Zack,” Holder enthused. “That’s awesome.”

Indeed, the Troublemaker had himself in mind for the job.

“I think Mr. Holder would be an excellent choice,” he said.