Greensboro mayoral candidates meet at League of Women Voters forum

The three Greensboro mayoral candidates squared off in front of a packed house at a discussion hosted by the League of Women Voters today. Mayor Robbie Perkins (at left, standing), Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan and challenger George Hartzman spoke on a wide array of issues, including several outside of council's purview.

Three of the questions for the moderated panel focused on immigration reform, an issue of concern for the League of Women Voters that Greensboro City Council doesn't actually have any direct role in creating. The questions hit on Secure Communities, comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship and in-state tuition for undocumented youth, and the candidates appeared unprepared and puzzled for the line of questioning. No questions directly addressed several of the key issues council has dealt with in the last two years since Perkins was elected mayor — the curfew, performing arts center, noise ordinance, tree ordinance, incentives, etc. — but candidates worked the issues into their responses.

Candidates were also asked about public education and healthcare — two other issues that would be better suited for the Guilford County Commissioners given council's lack of governance on the topics, but the three candidates attempted to answer them anyway, often suggesting more partnership or communication between government bodies. Hartzman went a step further, suggesting the creation of a charter school in east Greensboro specifically for children of single-parent homes.

The candidates responses were in line with their previous positions at city council meetings — Perkins and Vaughan speaking from their council seats and Hartzman as a frequent public speaker at the podium. When asked why residents should vote for them, Hartzman's answer was simple: Standing up, he said, "I'll tell the truth," and sat down. Several of his other comments, as usual, focused on the need for transparency and what he said is a corrupt local government lacking transparency.

Hartzman pacing (barefoot) in front of the panel.

Perkins repeated the same question at the beginning and end of the forum, asking attendees if the city is better off than it was two years ago and stressing the strides the city has made under his big-picture leadership. Vaughan said she had more than just a vision for the city, but a record that showed that she is great at following through on issues and tackling them in detail to make informed decisions.

YES! Weekly will have complete coverage of the forum and the three mayoral candidates in next week's Sept. 25 issue after sitting down with each of the candidates to discuss their platforms and why they're running in greater detail.

Can't wait a week? Read our basic candidate profile information on the trio, or tune in to tonight's city council meeting starting at 5:30 p.m., where it's fair to guess that they may butt heads over the curfew, the performing arts center, the High Point Road Streetscape Project and the noise ordinance.

The three contenders will go head-to-head in the Oct. 8 city council primary election. The candidate who receives the lowest number of votes will be eliminated, and the other two will move on to the general election.

Hartzman questions GPAC funding, research

Hartzman sent us this head shot to use as a joke.
We're still waiting for a real one.

Greensboro mayoral candidate George Hartzman is a man of many questions. To anyone familiar with city politics, especially city council meetings, this comes as no surprise. Hartzman's questions — posed to city staff and council members at meetings and again (with a slew of local media and bloggers copied) in regular emails — usually focus on a lack of government transparency and a perceived absence of necessary research on issues the city is deciding. 

The emails, at times daily, vary between a single issue (often with a link to his blog) and a plethora of questions, like the one that came through around 12:30 a.m. last night entitled "Where is the money to buy the GPAC properties coming from?" A good question, since council was originally considering using land it already owns and previously committed $20 million of public funds to the proposed performing arts center (not including millions more to buy land for the project). 

Hartzman also asked about the expected impact on the Carolina Theatre, which should be a significant consideration and (in this reporter's opinion) has mostly been brushed off by GPAC proponents who make vague statements about the arts organizations working together to avoid hindering each other.

Here's the full body of Hartzman's email, with my emphasis added. 

"Where are candidate info requests?

Why aren't they in the IFYI?

Approximately when will speakers from the floor commence on August 20?

Please provide the parking study that shows how much governmental tax revenue will come in from public parking at the new GPAC spot that will pay for the debt service.

Where is the chamber of commerce/Greensboro Partnership going to move to?

What's it like to sell your soul at the expense of everyone else?

What are the anticipated heavily used avenues for cars coming into and out of downtown for a show?

What is the anticipated traffic congestion for GPAC shows and Ball games on the same night, that will most likely end at the same relative time?

What will be the ability of those trying to get into downtown to go to a club if a ball game and GPAC show occur on the same night?

What is the anticipated effect on the Carolina Theater, considering the venue that went under when DPAC opened up?

What are the anticipated noise levels from crowds leaving the GPAC?

Are the details of the private donations going to be made public before August 20?"

We won't be posting all of Hartzman's emails to us and the city, of course (he has his own blog for that), but we will be covering the mayoral race more in depth as the primary between Hartzman, Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan and Mayor Robbie Perkins draws closer. Several candidates in other races said Hartzman contacts them regularly, too. John Alexander Underwood in District 4 said Hartzman is assembling a loose coalition of challengers to help each other defeat incumbents, himself included. 

Filing for Greensboro City Council election begins

Filing began today at noon for the upcoming Greensboro City Council election, and already several candidates have filed to run.

Sal Leone, a perennial candidate in past elections who has alternated his party affiliation, and former councilman Mike Barber filed to run at large (meaning citywide, for those of you who don't follow local politics).

District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny filed to run for reelection, the first sitting council member to file this time around. Matheny represents part of downtown and northern Greensboro and is a strong proponent of the teen curfew.

District 2 challenger Jamal Fox and mayoral candidate George Hartzman filed today as well. Both attended the council's emergency meeting about the teen curfew on Wednesday morning and have been at numerous other council meetings, particularly Hartzman who has become a well-known and regular critic of council's decisions and what he says is a lack of transparency.

Other candidates, like Tony Wilkins who was appointed to serve as Trudy Wade's fill in for District 5, have announced their intention to run, but this is the complete list of those who have filed (as of 5 p.m. on Friday). We'll have in depth coverage of the election races coming soon. Until then, you can read more about Mike Barber here and Sal Leone here.

UPDATE (July 9, 5 p.m.): Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson, Chris Lawyer and Jean Brown also filed to run at large. Tigress McDaniel filed in District 1 and Wendell Roth is challenging Matheny in District 3. Nancy Hoffmann, incumbent, and former Mayor Bill Knight are both running for District 4. Nobody has signed up for District 5 yet.

What did they know and when did they know it?

George Hartzman, who lost his bid for the District 3 seat on Greensboro City Council, has a lot of questions for sitting council members. Most recently, he's asking when council members knew that the police department wanted a fifth patrol district. A recent story in the News & Record pegs the cost of an additional patrol district at $18.5 million.

The question of police coverage came up during Hartzman's race. Jay Ovittore, another District 3 candidate, advocated for putting more patrol officers on the street during the campaign.

“We have 639 officers on the street,” he said during a Sept. 28 candidate forum at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in College Hill. “Right now, Chief Bellamy says we need 950 officers. So essentially what the police department is doing is pretty laughable. We’ve got crime in this neighborhood and a lot of people complain; they put resources over here and they take resources from over here. Back and forth and back and forth. We need more officers and we need more coverage.”

Incumbent Zack Matheny downplayed funding as a factor in police coverage in rebuttal to Ovittore.

“You might hear a police officer say, ‘You know what, we could use more police officers’; You might hear the police chief say, ‘You know, we could use more police officers,’” Matheny said. “Have you ever heard a police officer or a chief say, ‘We don’t have enough money’? No, you don’t hear it. Ladies and gentlemen, if there were a hundred people outside on South Mendenhall Street waiting to become police officers for the city of Greensboro, what do you think the city council will do? We’ll find the money.”

Ovittore was knocked out in the primary. Matheny prevailed over Hartzman in the Nov. 3 general election.

During a Dec. 8 briefing for new council members that was attended by Mayor Bill Knight, Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan, at-large Councilman Danny Thompson and District 2 Councilman Jim Kee, police Chief Tim Bellamy said the police department would like to have a fifth district. He noted that the western district is 42 square miles and the patrol officers in the eastern district have to drive through the county to reach annexed areas near McLeansville. He said that adding a fifth patrol district would entail adding 78 new officers, including commanders. The chief, who is retiring next year, added that over the next five years the department will need an additional 250 officers.

Vaughan expressed support for the chief's request four days later at the council's retreat.

“I think we need the fifth police district," she said. "McLeansville – that is really way out in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know how we can serve them.”

The council voted to approve a $7 million financing plan for the planned aquatic center on Dec. 15, a point of contention for Hartzman.

Matheny was quoted in the News & Record on Dec. 20 saying something that sounded very much like support for the additional patrol district: “If we’ve got a plan to cover more territory, I think city council would support that initiative going forward. If it helps District 3, it’s got to help the other four districts citywide. We’ve got to cover more territory.”

D4 and D3 campaign finance update

Joel Landau, a candidate for Greensboro City Council in District 4, has raised $3,055 since Jan. 1, and holds $3,487 in cash on hand, according to a campaign finance report filed on Sept. 10. Mary Rakestraw, who currently holds an at-large seat and his Landau's most formidable opponent, reports raising $1,665 and has $2,996 in cash on hand for roughly the same period. Mike Martin and Joseph Rahenkamp, who are also candidates in the District 4 race, have filed no campaign finance reports.

District 3 candidate Jay Ovittore reports having raised $1,075, with $824 in cash on hand as of Aug. 24. Ovittore is receiving support from people active across the state in the Democratic Party, including former US Senate candidate Jim Neal and NC Rep. Grier Martin. Ovittore remains significantly behind the other two District 3 candidates, Zack Matheny and George Hartzman, who have respectively raised $7,900 and $2,850.

District 3 candidates tangle in College Hill

Zack Matheny, Jay Ovittore and George Hartzman (l-r) are vying for the District 3 seat on Greensboro City Council. (photo by Jordan Green)

The three candidates for the District 3 seat on Greensboro City Council appeared together tonight for a forum at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant that was hosted by the Fisher Park and College Hill neighborhood associations.

The three had met voters together before, last month at a forum hosted by the Democratic Women of Guilford County, but this was the first time all appeared for a forum solely devoted to the District 3 race. Incumbent Zack Matheny parried with challengers George Hartzman and Jay Ovittore on a range of issues, including public safety, constituent services and ethics.

Hartzman set the tone with his opening statement.

“We are in what I would say is the fourth inning of a pretty ugly scene, the worst that has occurred since the Great Depression," he said. "Crime, as unemployment benefits expire, is going to spike. We are going to have to deal with it together because the government isn’t necessarily going to have enough money to fund everything. On a community basis, we’re going to have to make some changes. We’re going to have to actually participate in these community watch programs.”

Matheny outline his accomplishments in his first term, focusing on keeping taxes flat.

“I’m going to do my best to not raise your taxes or your fees," he said. "We tried to cut $200,000 out of the Greensboro landscaping budget, out of a $600,000 budget. I never knew how important plants were to the city of Greensboro. I can tell you: I know now…. How do you juggle? We did it pretty nicely in this past budget cycle. Again, not raising your taxes. And we actually got it to where – the water rates were going to increase – and we stopped that as well.”

Ovittore outlined one of his signature proposals: hiring additional police officers and increasing patrols.

“We have 639 officers," he said. "Right now, Chief Bellamy says we need 950 officers. So essentially what the police department is doing is pretty laughable. We’ve got crime in this neighborhood and a lot of people complain, they put resources over here and they take resources from over here. Crime goes up over here. They reallocate resources back over here. Back and forth and back and forth. We need more officers and we need more coverage.”

Matheny quickly expressed skepticism.

“The 950 officers is probably a little bit high," he said. "At the last forum that we had my opponent said that we needed to double the police department.”

The candidates were asked to reconcile their professed support for strengthening the police department with promises to not increase taxes. Ovittore was the first to answer.

“I don’t want to raise your property taxes," he said. "In my first two years on council, if that comes up, I will most likely vote no. What I will tell you is the right way to raise money is to have a fund set up for police resources, and go to our state legislators, especially our Guilford County contingent – who I have a very good relationship with – and talk to them about increasing our city sales tax by a cent or two. I think everybody in this room would agree that for paying for more officers, if a soda costs a dollar, then we wouldn’t mind paying a dollar and one cent.”

Hartzman expressed his aversion to taxation.

“Greensboro has the highest tax rate of any of the cities in this state," he said. "Why is this so? It’s a question of allocation of resources.”

Matheny went on the offensive against Ovittore.

“Let’s focus on reality," he said. "That’s what I chose to focus on the last year and a half when I represented District 3. The reality is this: You might hear a police officer say, ‘You know what, we could use more police officers.’ You might hear the chief say, ‘You know what, we could use more police officers.’ Have you ever heard a police officer or a chief say, ‘We don’t have enough money’? No, you don’t hear it. Ladies and gentlemen, if there were a hundred people outside on South Mendenhall Street waiting to become police officers for the city of Greensboro, what do you think the city council will do? We’ll find the money…. We know our public safety ranks number one, number one. And so in reality, we have to get folks who want to be an officer for the city of Greensboro.”

Matheny also disparaged a pledge by Ovittore to hold constituent hours at Melvin Municipal Office Building.

“One of my opponents said he’s going to hold hours at the downtown MMOB," Matheny said. "I gotta tell you: I don’t know too many people who are my constituents that want to go down to the MMOB. I have worked hard to be accessible…. I will continue to come where neighborhoods want me to be. I will continue to come where individuals in my constituency want me to be.”

Hartzman, in turn, attacked Matheny, pointing to the significant campaign funds raised by the incumbent in his last race and questioning whether Matheny should have recused himself from voting on business brought before council by his contributors.

“I saw when the protest petition was being debated," Hartzman said. "And it came about from a county commissioner, Mike Winstead – his company is Mega Builders – wanted to build this three-story condo development out on Friendly Avenue. Mr. Winstead gave $1,000, his partner gave $1,000, and my understanding is that his attorney also contributed to his campaign. Less than six months later, the zoning commission came before city council. It was a split vote. Mike Barber recused himself from the vote because he had a financial [stake]. A lot of people said that Mr. Matheny should have recused himself from the vote because basically he had a financial interest…. If you consider he’s funding his campaign, it doesn’t fly. It doesn’t make sense. The system is broken here. That is a conflict of interest. It is a serious problem. I’m going to leave it at that.”

Matheny waited until his closing statement to respond, but gave no quarter.

“I will not apologize for volunteering for eight years, meeting people and learning a lot," he said. "And I think, quite honestly, it’s an honor to have had as many people contribute to my campaign. If George or anyone else would like to contribute to my campaign, I’d be happy to accept your check. You know, the thing about people who stand back and say, ‘Zack doesn’t have ethics and integrity,’ but if you look at what I have, it’s a track record. You may not agree with every decision that I make. But I am transparent. I let you know. It is out in the open. My contributions are out in the open. My decisions are out there. So I’m transparent…. I take that with a lot of pride that I feel I’ve served this office with the integrity that it deserves. I base my decisions on facts and reality, and I do my homework.”

Matheny turned the table on Ovittore and Hartzman, both of whom expressed support for the protest petition.

“The problem with that is now you’ve got a situation where if you had developers out there who want to do some infill development in the city of Greensboro… because if I were a developer – which I’m not, and neither is my company – it’s easier to develop in the county than the city," he said. "And that’s a situation that a lot of people didn’t give a lot of credence to.”

Hartzman said he doesn't see a need for city government to intervene to stop urban sprawl.

“From the research I’ve done I feel that inner-city neighborhoods like this and downtowns, and probably the other side of downtown are going to do very well," he said. "If energy prices go up – Are energy prices probably going to go up? Probably. The chances are. We seem to hate all the people that sell it to us. There is a limited supply of energy. And as that becomes more apparent to the economy as a whole the downtown areas will become much more valuable. Much more use of public transportation will occur. And the sprawl problem that we’ve had will be self correcting in a major way.”

Ovittore was allowed to make his closing statement after Matheny. He used it to explain why he got in the race, and to throw another punch at the incumbent.

“I got in this race at the last minute," he said. "As a human relations commissioner, I made a very tough decision, a very courageous decision. When this city council tasked the human relations commission to write a statement about the 1979 shootings, not too many commissioners raised their hands to volunteer for that. I raised my hand. Because I want to get our city past this. We need to get our city past this. I sat on that committee for a year. I read the truth and reconciliation report…. We wrote a statement of regret. We gave it to every city council person and the mayor before that council meeting to avoid any kind of surprise. I leaned forward to a reporter, and I said, ‘If my councilman votes against this, I’m in this race.’ And Councilman Matheny voted against it. And the reason he gave? He said, 'Our generation is past race relations.'"



Triad Elections '09

Greensboro election: where the candidates are spending their money

Significant expenditures from recently filed 35-day reports:

At-large:

Nancy Vaughan
• $3,870 to Arrowhead Graphics of Greensboro for yard signs on Aug. 13

Marikay Abuzuaiter
• $1,678 to Triad Sign Guys of Greensboro for yard signs on Aug. 10 and 19
• $300 to Studio B in Greensboro for kickoff party on July 6

DJ Hardy
• $924 to 1721 Media LLC for website development on Aug. 17

Ryan Shell
• $500 to Bill Burckley for consulting on July 29

District 2:

Jim Kee
• $500 to Arrowhead Graphics of Greensboro for yard signs on Aug. 15
• $500 to “Event at Revolution” for campaign kickoff at Revolution Mill in early July

District 3:

George Hartzman
• $678 spent on office supplies and website development throughout July and August

George Hartzman transcript

The following is a transcript of District 3 candidate George Hartzman's answers at a Guilford County Unity Effort candidate forum last night:

Introductory statement
Good evening. My name is George Hartzman. I’m a financial advisor, and I teach financial education and CPA continuing education. In the last few months, after becoming involved in Greensboro’s political system, I have found that our elections process is seriously flawed. Some commonly accepted election campaign practices that are legal in Greensboro, are illegal elsewhere. And I believe some political donations should be illegal here in Greensboro. There seems to be a high correlation between those funding the political process and those receiving taxpayer money. Which is legal here in Greensboro. And which is why we should adopt what is called “pay to play” campaign finance reform, which would outlaw candidates and elected officials from accepting campaign contributions from entities with conflicts of interest, including leading members of organizations receiving taxpayer money and/or developers, contractors or their lawyers or agents for 12 months before and after doing business with our municipal government. Thank you.

How would you deal with the issue of dilapidated, unsafe housing and absentee landlords?
That’s a tough one. The city has borrowed a lot of money. We continue to borrow a lot of money. The Section 8 situation in Greensboro seems to be — it’s ugly. I’ve seen rental properties — my wife works at the YWCA, and she works with teen parents. She goes into the homes of these kids who had babies while they were in high school. And a lot of the properties are where she goes inside the home. And what is there is atrocious. I can’t say I know the answers to that. But it’s a serious problem. The care that some of these places are at is scary. And it needs to be addressed. Thanks.

The city staff came up with a plan to mitigate noise from the Urban Loop. Should the city adopt these rules?
The Urban Loop should be redesigned, relocated or transferred somewhere else in the section from 29 basically to the existing highways where they are now. From what I have seen of the noise assessment, we’re going to have 72,000 cars a day passing through residential neighborhoods. The developers, in my view, got the land relatively inexpensively and were able to increase their profit margins by building new homes on the land, and then selling them at a relatively good price. I have a brick barrier up the street from me. It’s not going to do anything. Anything built after 1996 isn’t going to get a barrier. It used to be a boulevard; now it’s an interstate highway. You’re going to have tractor-trailers coming from 29 on their way to 40 going west. It is not what they advertised in the first place, and it’s going to be at least twice as noisy as DOT says it’s going to be.

There are certain places such as New Garden Road and Horse Pen Creek Road where sprawl as occurred and not urban infill, which is what many council people and candidates support. How will you address urban infill and limit the continued sprawl of northwest Greensboro?
We are in the worst recession since World War II. We are in the worst recession since the Great Depression. If gas prices go up to five dollars a gallon, urban infill will be an economic reality that will take care of itself. If you make a lot of rules... they don’t get enforced or they get watered down to the point where they don’t work. Where we are now with the availability of credit will dictate how infill occurs in Greensboro. The center city is going to get big. It’s going to get heavily populated because that’s where the transportation infrastructure is. That’s where the jobs are going to be. And we’re going to gravitate to that part of town, not necessarily because we designed it as so, but because it will be a consequence of the economic realities of where we’re going to be in 5 to 10 years.

Name something that would not have happened without you.
Oh, I’m going to think of it first? I’m going to think of it first. You know what? Last year I had the privilege of pitching a girls fast-pitch softball team for the city of Greensboro league by the name of “Killer Tofu.” We had tie-dye shirts. It was great. And I made a difference in the lives of some kids. And it was an amazing experience. And I would encourage anyone who ever gets the shot at coaching some kids at any sport to jump in…. You can actually change the way a kid acts. You can change the future of some kid that doesn’t happen to be yours. It’s an amazing experience.

How would you improve public transportation for areas in the city without bus service?
Actually, that goes back to the economic realities of where we are. The way that I try to figure it out is that as energy prices increase we will see an increased demand for public transportation. At that point you will see more public transportation. But you can’t have a bunch of buses going around with no one in them. But when the economic reality dictates that more buses are going to be out on the streets, you’re going to see them.

What Jay said about the Time-Warner situation is dead-on. It’s dead-on. There were four cities that were picked for cable rates to go up. We were one of them. What I found disturbing when that happened is that Greensboro, North Carolina had a lobbyist. And Time-Warner — really the communications industry and the broadcast industry — has a lobbyist. And it is my understanding that they’re the same person. They’re the same person. It’s the same person. So what was our lobbyist thinking when they basically tried to jack our cable rates, and represent the best interests of the city of Greensboro at the same time?

What is your position on land use, zoning or future land-use planning?
So far, what I have seen of the zoning process is pretty bad. I didn’t know anything about the issue until I got into the race. What I found is that my opponent, Mr. Matheny, who’s not here this evening, was on the zoning commission from 2005 to 2007. When he ran for office, he had raised $46,000. If you look at the campaign finance filing, which is at guilfordelections.com or something, you’ll find an amazing correlation between the people who had been before the zoning commission and where the campaign finance — where the money came from. Our political system is broken. That needs to be fixed. That needs to be fixed. That’s something that’s wrong. I mean, there’s right and there’s wrong. And it needs to be fixed.

What is your vision for Greensboro concerning the following environmental issues: the expansion of the current recycling program with more types of materials and accessibility to recycling centers?
We have a trash problem. We’re shipping it to another county. It costs a lot of money. We could save a lot of money by not doing that. I keep saying gas prices. Gas prices go up, we’re going to be spending an amazing amount of money shipping our trash to Montgomery County. It will become very costly. We need to seriously consider reopening the White Street Landfill. It’s a divisive issue; I understand that. I believe it’s going to come down to reopening the landfill or a hundred city jobs. And that decision is going to be made. It might not be made at the same time. We might decide to completely close it, and as a consequence what may happen after that — in other words, what we may not be prepared for — is that we’re going to lose a bunch of city jobs and city services if the plan doesn’t work. We’re shipping a lot of trash. We’re paying a lot of money to have it shipped to somewhere else. We need to at least hold it in reserve so we don’t get clipped.

Closing statement
Okay. Our political system is broken. I’m not talking about Greensboro either. I’m talking about the country. I’ve been doing this a couple months. I teach CPA continuing education. I started with California’s budget deficit, and it morphed into what’s happening at a different level. It’s the same thing that happened at the national level. If we can get our political ethics fixed, Greensboro could become a magnet for good-paying jobs. Really. Because businesses will know Greensboro provides a level playing field for companies looking to expand or relocate. Let’s not spend more than what we make on what we don’t need. How many people, by a show of hands, knew that Greensboro has the highest tax rate of the 10 biggest cities in North Carolina? Let’s not spend more than we make on what we don’t need. How many people know that Greensboro and Guilford County authorized 77 percent more debt from 2008’s election? If you would like to have one of my broadsides that say, ‘Let’s not spend more than we make on what we don’t need,’ please pick one up on your way out. Thank you very much for having me.

Vaughan leads money race for Greensboro council

Greensboro City Council at-large candidate Nancy Vaughan leads the money race with $9,710 in cash on hand, according to 2009 mid-year campaign finance reports filed with the Guilford County Board of Elections. Vaughan, who previously served on the council between 1997 and 2001, has so far raised 10 times more than any other candidate.

Since opening her campaign committee in late April, Vaughan has raised $10,971 from an array of contributors, including former mayors Jim Melvin and Carolyn Allen, protest petition activist Keith Brown, former Councilman Tom Phillips, civic volunteer Betty Cone and Cemala Foundation Executive Director Susan Schwartz.

Other at-large candidates with campaign cash going into the primary election include, in order of their balance, Marikay Abuzuaiter ($1,738), incumbent Robbie Perkins ($1,419), Ryan Shell ($928), Julie Lapham ($695) and DJ Hardy ($45).

Only one District 1 candidate reports cash on hand: Daron R. Sellars, with $8.

District 3 candidates with cash on hand are incumbent Zack Matheny, with $385, and challenger George Hartzman, with $100.

District 4 candidate Mary Rakestraw reports $1,331 in cash on hand.

District 5 incumbent Trudy Wade reports $4,555 in cash on hand, compared to challenger Art Boyett, with $432.

After Vaughan, Shell has raised the most money, with $1,015 garnered from an array of sources. Other at-large candidates, listed in order of their receipt totals include Lapham ($695) and Hardy ($180).

In the district races, Boyett has contributed $552 to his campaign. Rakestraw has raised $100. Hartzman has contributed $100 to his campaign.
Sellars has loaned his campaign $38.

Vaughan also leads campaign spending, having plunked down almost two grand to cover the cost of invitations, food, music and bartending for her campaign kickoff. Rakestraw has spent $313, mainly on printing letterhead and buying stamps. Hardy has spent $135 on paper, envelopes and photography. Shell has spent $110 on online media services. Boyett has spent $52 on a post office box and stamps. Sellars has spent $30 on his filing fee and a checking account. And Abuzuaiter has spent $25 on a domain registration fee.

Hartzman opposed to completion of Urban Loop

George Hartzman, Greensboro City Council candidate for District 3, says he is opposed to the completion of the northern Urban Loop. "They want to build this huge monstrosity through a chunk of District 3 neighborhoods," he told me, "and I would just as soon they built further north."

In other news related to the District 3 race, Hartzman tipped me off to a blog post by News & Record reporter Amanda Lehmert reporting that incumbent Zack Matheny has rejected Hartzman's call for a debate.

I'll have profiles of both Matheny and Hartzman in the Aug. 12 print edition of YES! Weekly.

Greensboro campaign finance

Some early campaign finance information from organizational reports received by the Guilford County Board of Elections from April through July:

In the at-large race, DJ Hardy has received $180 in contributions from unidentified individuals, Julie Lapham has raised $695 from contributors hailing from locales ranging from Loughton, England to Apex, NC, and Nancy Vaughan has contributed $500 to her campaign. Ryan Shell's most recent campaign report, filed in January, reflects that the candidate had $20 in cash on hand. Incumbent Robbie Perkins reported $1,419 in cash on hand in his most recent report, filed in January.

District 1 candidate Daron R. Sellars has contributed $38 to his campaign.

District 3 candidate George Hartzman has contributed $100 to his campaign. Incumbent Zack Matheny reported $385 in cash on hand in his most recent report, filed in January. Matheny topped district candidates in the last election with total receipts for the election cycle of $46,358.

District 5 candidate Art Boyett has contributed $552 to his campaign. Incumbent Trudy Wade reported $4,555 in cash on hand in her most recent report, filed in January.

Meanwhile, a new industry political action committee has organized. The Greensboro Landlords Association Political Action Committee reports a $100 contribution from Sandy Sandler of Sandler Properties.