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 hoping third time's the charm with noise ordinance

A flyer by Bennett College this week

Knock knock. It's your old friend, the Greensboro noise ordinance.

When the Greensboro City Council meets on Tuesday, there will be a familiar item on the agenda. Councilwomen Nancy Hoffmann, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Nancy Vaughan are bringing forward two significant revisions to the noise ordinance that are likely to pass, several council members said.

After lowering the nighttime threshold from 75 to 65 decibels and switching from A to C weighting (which is designed to pick up bass frequencies better but essentially drops the reading an additional 10 decibels) in July, the threshold level is back on the agenda for a very good reason: the current level is unenforceable. 

Opponents of the July revisions — the second round of changes since council first tackled the issue in early 2012 — argued that ambient noise would be a problem with C-weighted 65 decibel level, and that's exactly what police and council members found out. Vaughan said that readings taken outside of closed venues were crossing the 65 decibel threshold. (Council initially considered a 60 dB limit in July but Vaughan convinced a majority of members to bump it to 65 dB).

To reach an enforceable level, council will now consider raising the decibel threshold back to 75 but will retain the C-weighting system it put in place in July. But before you rejoice or panic, there's more.

Council will also consider — and likely pass — a ban on outdoor amplified noise after 11 p.m. Greene Street Club and Syn & Sky, two downtown clubs with rooftop venues, are the obvious target of the ban. Greene Street's lawyer Norman Klick and Syn & Sky owner Mike Carter could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reiterating her statements from council's discussion in July, Vaughan said club owners did not protect the initial ordinance changes that turned Greensboro into the loudest city in the state and possibly the Southeast.

"I was pretty frustrated with some of the clubs and the way they were managing noise and it just appears they can’t do it," she said. "It really didn’t seem to matter to them. It’s unfortunate that we have to come back a third time but hopefully the third time’s the charm."

Vaughan and Hoffmann said they were responding to feedback from the Greensboro Police Department about issues with amplified noise, and Mayor Robbie Perkins said this round of changes will make enforcement easier because the 11 p.m. ban will be more clear cut. 

"I think the big thing is, do we want our officers out after noise complaints or do we want them out after more serious crimes?" he said. "I’d have voted for this in the first round, we just didn’t have the majority of the council where we needed to be at that time. We’re at the end of a long road."

Hoffmann said she would be surprised if any revisions were needed after this, but added, "I never say never." 

Hoffmann said that part of the issue was that the C weighting hadn't been adequately tested before council's vote in July, but Vaughan said she and Abuzuaiter went out with police to see the C weighting in action before the last round of revisions. Yet after having the rules on the books for several weeks, Vaughan said it was clear that the ordinance wasn't workable based on more experience with the changes. 

The changes are necessary, Vaughan said, but she's disappointed the noise ordinance needs to be placed on the agenda again. So is Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson.

"I don’t know what I can make of that," Johnson said less than an hour after finding out it would come before council on Tuesday. "I think we ought to do something fair… and we need to stick with it. I just want us to get to a point where it’s a win-win and leave it there. I’m tired of it."

More candidates join Greensboro City Council races

Several candidates filed to run for Greensboro City Council today, and some of them are names you're apt to recognize.

Mayor Robbie Perkins and at-large Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter both filed to run for the same offices again today. Joseph Landis, a newcomer to Greensboro politics, also put his name in for the at-large race today. There are currently seven candidates signed up to run at large.

For now, Tony Wilkins is the only person running for District 5 and Tigress McDaniel is the sole candidate running for District 1. Districts 2, 3 and 4 each have two candidates, though past years the fields have been more crowded. Perkins and challenger George Hartzman are the only people who already filed to run for mayor, though at-large Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan said she will run and stickers and magnets for her mayoral bid have already appeared in a few scattered places across town.

Filing ends this Friday, July 19.

UPDATE July 17 (1:45 p.m.): At-large Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan has filed to run for mayor today. Corey Pysher is running in District 3, along with Councilman Zack Matheny and Wendell Roth.

Yesterday, John Alexander Underwood filed in District 4 (joining former Mayor Bill Knight and Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann).

Occupy Greensboro to discuss police surveillance

Occupy Greensboro is calling for a "general assembly" meeting to discuss "police surveillance and Greensboro official actions against peaceful protest." The meeting will start will public interest lawyer Lewis Pitts' statement at the last Greensboro City Council meeting "about suspected police forgeries of city council emails," according to an announcement sent out over the Peace & Justice Network listserve. The general assembly meeting will be held March 24 from 4 - 6 p.m. at Glenwood Coffee & Books (1310 Glenwood Street). 

It's been a month and a half since my cover story on police surveillance of activists in Greensboro, which led to several follow up articles in subsequent weeks. We don't normally link to other news sources (and we did practically all of the reporting on this issue) but Joe Gamm at the News & Record had an interesting blog post about surveillance soon after.  If anyone is interested in Pitts' comments to council, watch the Feb. 19 video here (during the speakers from the floor portion towards the beginning). 

Documents on police surveillance, Abuzuaiter now public

YES! Weekly is making numerous documents connected to today's article on Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter's correspondence with police available to the public, as well as a few key e-mails about police surveillance. We redacted phone numbers out of respect for privacy.

Read the files on Abuzuaiter here, including the e-mails Abuzuaiter claimed she did not send. The councilwoman denied all correspondence with Detective Rob Finch, and also said she never communicated with Capt. John Wolfe about the Beloved Community Center or Latin Kings. Another e-mail between Wolfe and Abuzuaiter was accidentally left off of the file. The two pages that are blank except for e-mail attachments contain images of planned protest maps in Charlotte, referenced in today's article. 

In a guest piece in Saturday's News & Record, the police chief, city attorney and city manager claimed a restraining order the city filed against YES! Weekly was aimed at preventing the release of intelligence that could expose an informant to serious danger. 

"The city acted appropriately when it learned that criminal intelligence information was inadvertently released to the media," they wrote. "It believed that publishing intelligence information, including informant information, created immediate risk of serious injury or death."

Here are the other files we received that identifies a confidential informant. Due to a technical error, this e-mail was omitted from the file:

Only one person was named (with a full name and e-mail address that we have redacted here) and this is the full extent of the documents involving that individual that we have. In another e-mail, Finch referred to this informant as a "snitch." Is the city's claim referring to this handful of files, or to the more extensive information included in the public-information request on Abuzuaiter? What credible information is the alleged "immediate risk" based on?

Miller also told the News & Record that there wasn't an undercover officer posing as part of Occupy Greensboro. We had technical difficulties with this document too but have included a screen shot below. Click to enlarge and read where Finch wrote (at the bottom) that he was in an Occupy meeting. Miller forwarded the message (at the top) to the Secret Service because President Obama would be in town, and he commented about Finch's role. 

We've also included a few other files of interest from the police surveillance article. 

Danny Thompson's specious landfill numbers

The question of what to do with Greensboro’s solid waste has receded somewhat as a campaign issue since Gate City Waste Services withdrew its proposal to operate the White Street Landfill in September. Yet the issue is far from settled: The city holds a contract with Republic Services to handle the city’s solid waste through the end of the year. And the six candidates vying for the three at-large seats on council hold different positions on the issue.

During a forum hosted by the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress at the downtown library last night, moderator Marsh Prause asked some of the candidates to address a perception that Gate City Waste Services was preordained as the selected vendor to operate the landfill long before the vote was taken.

“The third proposal, the RFP that we went through based on five different companies — there was a myriad of five different rates that they proposed based on the quantity of trash that would go into the landfill,” said incumbent Danny Thompson, who was one of four sitting council members that attempted to reopen the landfill. “When the consultant got up and did his PowerPoint presentation he picked two out of those five to say, ‘Well, here’s some of the lower rates.’ As you probably may have read in the News & Record op-ed piece, what I have always stated is that we should take our own green garbage cans — household residential trash — put it in Phase III of the landfill. That would take up capacity [for] 15 years. And there would be only one fourth of the trucks that are going through neighborhoods. And at that rate, at that volume, DH Griffin was the lowest-cost provider. And you also have a flat rate where it’s not escalating with a percentage of rate increase over time. And so that’s the reason I then and continue to say that that was the best deal for Greensboro.”

Thompson’s statement that DH Griffin — a local demolition company whose executives are majority partners in Gate City Waste Services, a solid waste vendor pre-selected by city council to operate the White Street Landfill — was the lowest cost bidder is at odds with the views of the city’s solid waste consultant and staff, and at odds with the councilman’s own statement from the dais (background) before voting to initiate contract negotiations with the company.

After Councilwoman Trudy Wade made the motion, Thompson clarified, “The company that she mentioned, Gate City Waste Services, down at the bottom — their rank is second.”

Under the scenario referenced in Wade’s motion, as outlined by consultant Joe Readling, the city would accept 140,000 tons per year extending the life of the landfill to seven and a half years. That would equate to 11,167 tons per month. Considering that Gate City Waste Services offered the city fixed rate per ton, it could provide the lowest cost arrangement — but only if the landfill accepted less than 10,000 tons per month; other companies proposed to discount the rate as the volume increased. In other words, the model adopted by council in the motion contemplated a waste volume in excess of the tonnage at which Gate City Waste Services could provide the lowest cost.

While Thompson states that he favors the landfill accepting only household waste, he voted for a model that also includes city-collected commercial waste — totaling 140,000 tons per year. During a break at the forum, Thompson explained that the city could have negotiated with the Gate City to impose a transfer fee for every ton of commercial waste, which then could have been rebated to the city. That in itself would not have necessarily reduced the monthly tonnage of solid waste to make Gate City the most competitive bidder, but it’s conceivable that some commercial customers might have balked at the transfer fee and gone with a private service instead. In any case, Thompson’s assertion that Gate City was the lowest cost bidder is based on conjecture considering that the company withdrew its proposal before council had an opportunity to vote on a final contract.

Nancy Vaughan, who has served as mayor pro tem over the past two years, is effectively running against fellow incumbent Thompson on the issue.

“I think the reason why there is that perception out there is because whenever there was an opportunity to look at something else, such as talking to Republic Services, who, at that point said they could save us $3.5 million as opposed to $3.1 [million] without opening the landfill, it was voted down on a 4-3 vote,” she said. “And something like that is a little hard to defend. If there’s a possibility that you’re going to save more money and not open the landfill, why not have that discussion? I think it was things like that that contributed to the perception that this train was going to DH Griffin whether or not they liked it. I have to say that I think council contributed to that by not listening to staff and not taking their advice and doing things that they suggested that might have put us in another direction.”

Marikay Abuzuaiter, a challenger who has been active in efforts to keep the landfill closed, also criticized the process to select a vendor.

“We know that it’s taken staff time and energy,” she said. “We know that it has brought the community together, but the council didn’t listen. When you have three RFPs going out there, you have all of staff’s time, all of this energy, and our council did not even listen to the recommendations from city manager. So those things adding up, the perception is out there that the RFP was a done deal, but what wasn’t planned on was that several organizations in Greensboro, including the League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad, of which I’m a part, looked and this and said, ‘This is wrong.’ So many organizations in Greensboro pulled together and said, ‘This is wrong. This entire process is flawed.’”

The three other candidates outlined their thoughts about forging a solution to the city’s solid waste challenge going forward.

“The key to this is going to be good communication amongst all the members of the council and then communication with the citizens,” challenger Chris Lawyer said. “So in order to find the best solution we’re going to have to have good communication. I think we’re going to have to look at what’s going to be best for Greensboro…. Recycling has got to be one of our priorities to make our footprint less. If we’re not going to reduce our footprint then our waste problem is not getting better; it’s getting worse. So I think a top-flight recycling program, educating people on composting. I think that would be good. That would help reduce waste in our city. And then I think you have got to look at your plan. What is your short-term plan and your long-term plan? And look at each one of them and look at the cost associated. I think regional solutions are probably our best option. And then we’ve got to look at waste-to-energy plans that are maybe not right now, but they are going to be in the future — they are going to be beneficial for our city. Because those actually reduce your waste even further and it reduces your footprint even further.”

What Lawyer left unsaid is that he is on record in support of reopening the landfill.

Challengers Wayne Abraham and Yvonne Johnson put forward similar proposals for handling the city’s solid waste that emphatically reject reopening the landfill.

“Certainly I don’t think we need to reopen the White Street Landfill,” Abraham said. “I think we should take Republic Waste up on its offer. They offered us a deal where we could save three and a half million and not have to reopen the landfill. I think that’s certainly something we need to do. We could also, by implementing the Sustainability Action Plan, increase our recycling, reduce our own waste, reduce our costs and actually increase some of the income the city receives. And we would look for a regional solution. Randolph County is one possible option with a longer-term solution being possibly technology/waste to energy. But all of this would be done in cooperation with the citizens of Greensboro and listening to the citizens of Greensboro and coming up with a solution that suits all of us. Because there are solutions that do reduce our costs without having to make our neighbors live in trash. Because I personally do not want to force my neighbors to live in trash and have trucks going down the road and rodents running around and the horrible smell that they would have had to endure.”

Johnson said, “I think that we need a regional solution in the short term. I don’t think that the landfill should be reopened for some of the reasons I stated before — economic development. And no major city in North Carolina, no major city has a landfill in their city limits a few miles from your downtown. And so I think waste to energy is something I have proposed for a very long time. And I think it’s very possible to do it at our transfer station when the technology is ready or when we get a “godfather” deal where we don’t have to plunk down anything. But to have a regional plan in the short term is the best plan because even if the landfill’s open you only have about four years. Then where’s our trash going? What do we do? We’ll be in a pickle again.”

Candidates took different positions on the Sustainability Action Plan. The current council voted unanimously to accept rather than adopt the plan in January, and then promptly shelved it. Prause asked if candidates would implement the plan.

Vaughan said the reason council accepted rather than adopted the plan is because in the past the council had voted to implement neighborhood plans, and residents actually tried to hold the city to them when rezoning decisions came up.

“So we’ve stopped adopting and we’ve started accepting things,” Vaughan said. “But accepting things I think you can take the best parts out of it. I think it does demand that we have a further study of it, that as a council we need to sit down and review it, which we haven’t done. It doesn’t have to require a lot of money. My daughter’s school has won the ‘Green Cup Challenge’ two years in a row. They cut their utility bills by 30 percent, just by doing some basic steps. I think if we could educate our staff on certain sustainability things that they can do every day that we could take strides for it. So I do think it’s a plan that we have to look at and that we have to take it in small bites. I wouldn’t be willing to do the whole plan at this point. I think we need to look at it and prioritize it.”

Lawyer echoed Vaughan’s stance.

“I think we have to break down that plan and see what we can make work in that plan and what may not truly work in the long term,” he said. “I think that plan has some good components. But it’s also got some plans that may not [work] for long-term sustainability. I think that’s where we’ve got to look at this and make sure we’re looking at the pieces of this that are long term for us, not short-term gains. We need to look at long-term gains that we can potentially maximize in this. And that will hopefully save money in the long term for us.”

As mayor, Johnson established the Greensboro Sustainability Council, which drew up the plan.

“I’ve read this plan,” she said. “It is an excellent plan. I spoke in favor of this plan. And I would hope this council would take it and really study it. And we would talk about it. And if we want to begin at a certain point, fine. But if something’s going to save our city $20 million and it’s not going to cost us anywhere near that, it’s something I think we ought to pay attention to. And as much as I want green jobs to be a part of Greensboro’s culture, I think this is definitely a reason that I would definitely promote it.”

Since the campaign has gotten underway the emergency of Occupy Greensboro has highlighted mounting frustration with the failure of government to effectively address economic insecurity. And national media coverage this week singled out Greensboro as emblematic of a national trend of surging poverty in the suburbs.

Abuzuaiter and Abraham fielded a question about how they would address a crisis of “high unemployment, rising poverty and a feeling of despair among many of our citizens.”

“We need to listen to our community,” Abuzuaiter said. “There are brilliant minds in our community. We need to bring everyone to the table. We need to come together to try to solve these issues. We have 20 percent poverty rate in Guilford County. Another item is that 35 percent of the students in our schools are living in poverty. We really need to address these conditions that our people are going through. I would certainly propose and hope that we bring our minds together and come to some solutions in order to create the jobs that will eventually solve all this. Do we need to be promoting our sustainable community? Of course. Do we need to be trying to help our local community? Of course. There are several initiatives going on there. The Greensboro Currency Project. There are so many things that can help sustainability. But we’ve got to address the immediate needs at hand. We have people who are starving. If you haven’t noticed lately, there is an increase in the homeless population. Our homeless shelters do not have beds for women. They are taken up every night. We have nothing there for women to go to, to spend the night in a safe and warm environment. All of these things need to be addressed. Can we solve it with one council? Of course not. But I certainly hope that we can bring our community together, have everyone bring their ideas and suggestions, work with our nonprofits and churches. When we all come to the table there are brilliant things that can happen. And I do believe we are going to need to involve the community to make that happen.”

Abraham said, “I do agree that we’re in a crisis situation when we have rising unemployment and rising poverty, we see median incomes declining in our own area, when an article in The New York Times says, I think it’s an 83 percent increase in what is referred to as ‘suburban poverty.’ And we know that where we live is suffering economically. We have to do something about it. That is why I am focusing my platform on economic development. Because, in my opinion, we have to take whatever resources city government has available to it, and move them into restoring our own economic growth. And that’s why I’ve proposed the buy-local campaign and even redirecting some of the city’s spending. And looking at how we can pull together public and private capital. And looking at how we can restore funding or even increase funding for the economic development partnership. And restoring our infrastructure spending. If we are able to have savings from deals that we make for reducing our waste costs, those savings need to be redirected towards maintaining our roads. That will create jobs. People will get jobs working on our roads. So there are all kinds of things we can begin to do, and we need to do, because we’re in a situation that can’t wait.”

Gut punches at the Greensboro Partnership

Mayoral candidates Robbie Perkins and Bill Knight got rough with each other at an otherwise genteel candidate forum hosted by the Greensboro Partnership and SynerG.

“In terms of why I feel like I’m a better candidate for mayor, I have 16 years of experience in working under other mayors to know how to lead this city,” said Perkins, the challenger. “I think it’s been a problem the last couple of years that the mayor’s office has not had a lot of experience. For example, I never would have said that losing 1,600 jobs at American Express was a ‘blip’ on the radar screen.”

He ended his remarks abruptly to let the impact sink in.

For his part, Knight recycled attack lines from the Monday night mayoral debate at Guilford College.

“There are nine people on the council and they’ve got to work together all the time,” he said. “That means working together, paying attention; not sending out texts, not talking, not exhorting members of the audience to show disrespect. When we go on a retreat, it’s not a matter of getting in the mayor’s face and threatening an override if you don’t get your favorite commission appointment.”

Perhaps the question of most interest to the hosts was how the candidates proposed to support or work with the Greensboro Partnership, the city’s top economic and community development organization. The city council voted in June to cut $14,000 in funding to the partnership, along with other nonprofits. A last-minute effort to restore the funding failed, with council members Perkins and Nancy Vaughan on the losing end. Knight and Councilman Danny Thompson voted to maintain the funding cut.

“I think you’ve got to support the Greensboro Partnership,” Perkins said. “And I don’t think you can have a briefing session and have a 5-4 vote against retaining the full support of the partnership because you’re cutting advertising funding for the program…. So number one, you’ve got to support the partnership. Number two, you’ve got to support an environment in our city that small business thinks is stable, that we are going to support them, we’re going to be there for them. We’re going to give them the confidence to invest both money and time to make their businesses grow in our city.”

Vaughan said, “I currently serve on the board of the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, so I’m very aware of what’s going on in the partnership and the chamber, and I support them 100 percent. This year, our funding was cut by 10 percent during our budget process. I advocated very strongly to restore that 10 percent. Unfortunately, I was not successful. In the city of Greensboro we do not have a large business office where we can be proactive; we’re reactive. We need people who are out there pounding the pavement and helping us find large employers. That’s something the chamber does.”

Knight said the council would continue to work with the partnership, and named a number of initiatives the city was pursuing to help small businesses. He added, “Our responsibility is municipal responsibility. Municipal government: providing for the healthy and safety and infrastructure and the other services that go with it.”

Thompson said he supported the partnership in two undertakings: An allocation of federal funding to create a small business revolving loan fund that will be administered by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, and an initiative to join the partnership in funding a national public relations campaign to attract attention to Greensboro.

Remarks from other at-large candidates:

Wayne Abraham: “As a candidate, I have already reached out to the partnership, and so obviously as a city council member I would do the same. I sat down with them to discuss what we can do to provide economic development in Greensboro, and their response to me was, in large part, what I proposed in my platform for economic development in Greensboro. And one of the items I proposed was restoring funding, perhaps even increasing funding for the partnership on specific projects so that we could promote our city and promote our own economic development in this area and in our city: Buy local, implementing our Sustainability Action Plan, restoring funding to our infrastructure, and increasing our funding to the economic development partnership.”

Marikay Abuzuaiter: “We must have those who are able to go out and seek economic development for Greensboro. The city council does not create jobs. It is up to us working with the partnership to make sure that they have the tools available where they can go out and seek these economic development opportunities for us. Now, we need to make sure we have in certain instances the infrastructure, the viability for our city. We need to make sure that we are creating that positive image that will help them help sell Greensboro and in turn bring jobs to Greensboro.”

Yvonne Johnson: “I really think it’s our duty as an elected official to partner and do all we can with the partnership, with the chamber, with all of the groups that are working for economic development. For goodness sake, every candidate at every forum said one of the most pressing needs in Greensboro is jobs, so how can you not do that? And it would also give you an advantage when you are talking to the citizens about what is going on in Greensboro in terms of the effort to recruit jobs so that they become shareholders in that information and proud of what the partnership and the council and all the entities are doing.”

Chris Lawyer: “I think when you have an economic development group you have to bring that group together in order to have sustainable economic development. And as an elected official you certainly are obligated to be part of that discussion because your constituents have brought you to the forefront to be a voice for them in economic development, so we have to work closely together as a city, and as a group with the Greensboro Partnership to find the best solutions. That means bringing businesses to the table, large and small, along with the economic development arms and also the city council and mayor and get the discussion going and talk about real solutions. It’s got to be a very dynamic and very fluid situation in order for this to be a successful process. And if we’re not going to do this, then I don’t think we’re giving our citizens the full economic impact we possibly could.”

An allegation has been circulating in conservative circles that the Greensboro Partnership submitted a question to the Triad Real Estate and Building Industries Coalition, or TREBIC, for a questionnaire on whether candidates would support a prepared food tax. Answers from the questionnaire have been used by an anonymous group claiming to represent the restaurant industry to characterize candidates positions. (See previous posts: 1 and 2.)

Jason Cannon, vice president of government affairs, flatly denied the allegation.

"That is not true," he said. "We did not submit any question to TREBIC about the restaurant tax."

Cannon added that he coordinated with TREBIC on the questionnaire, and he was the only representative of the partnership that did so. He said he saw a copy of the questionnaire just before it was finalized and did not ask to insert any questions.

"There was no formal discussion and no formal activity with us looking at a prepared food tax," he said, adding that he heard some idle talk about it and researched the law to satisfy his own curiosity. Cannon is registered as a lobbyist with the state of North Carolina representing the Greensboro Partnership.

Vaughan said Assistant City Manager Denise Turner Roth told council on Tuesday that a local prepared food tax would require the NC General Assembly to pass enabling legislation. The legislature's Republican leadership has taken a dim view of tax increases and has worked closely with the conservative members of Greensboro City Council on other issues. Mayoral candidate Perkins has called the matter "a made-up issue."

Parsing differences between city council candidates, at large and district

A candidate forum last night at Congregational United Church of Christ drew aspiring public servants seeking to fill the three at-large seats, along with all five districts. In the at-large segment, discussion about sustainability and ties between council members and developers brought out the most interesting responses. The candidates’ answers shed some light on their level of familiarity with the issues and sense of priority about them — or lack of each, as the case may be.

George Hartzman, an unsuccessful candidate for the District 3 seat two years ago asked the candidates to address the possibility that a company called Land Port Investments LLC owned by local developer Roy Carroll might come before the council in the future with a request for incentives, and that Carroll has made substantial contributions to some candidates’ campaigns. Before the request was withdrawn, the city had considered granting $4 million to Carroll’s company.

Candidate Yvonne Johnson, who is among those whose campaigns have benefited from Carroll’s largesse, seemed to fumble in her response.

“When I talk about site-ready, I’m certainly not talking about any particular person’s business, except the city and the economic development council and the partnership needs to do that independently so that when people are interested in coming to Greensboro to build… that we have site-ready land,” she said, “not to benefit any particular person.”

Danny Thompson, who owns a personal care company said, “I’ve never received a dime from Roy Carroll, although I’d like to. I care for his mom.

Thompson told the audience: “The economic development bond project was a project that was brought before council just in the last several months by Andy Scott, our assistant city manager of economic development. It’s not a gift. What it is — it’s that economic bond money, and it will front the money to go ahead and put in the infrastructure – curb and gutter, and water and sewer. And then you, the taxpayers — correct me if I’m wrong — get the money back once a developer comes and buys — or they actually develop the project.”

In fact, Scott said that to date all projects approved by council have involved direct grants to developers for the purpose of improving infrastructure. With the Land Port Investments LLC proposal, which has been withdrawn indefinitely from council’s agenda, Scott said staff had envisioned that the city would make a direct grant to cover the cost of water, sewer and storm sewer, but loan money to the applicant for grading. The loan would be repaid upon sale of the property.

“I would say that the evaluation of whether to approve a project is, is it going to benefit the citizens of Greensboro as a whole,” candidate Wayne Abraham said. “And so that will be how I will make the decision. If it’s going to benefit Greensboro as a whole, and we’re going to come out ahead by putting some money into a project, then yes, it makes sense to do it. If it’s not, then it doesn’t make sense. Mr. Carroll has never donated a dime to me either, so I won’t have any conflict of interest in reviewing his proposals to us.”

One audience member was concerned about a proposal by city staff to dismantle the Greensboro Sustainability Council, which was established by Yvonne Johnson at the time she served as mayor. The current council voted to accept a Sustainability Action Plan earlier this year instead of adopting it. With the exception of Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan, who applauded recycling efforts at her daughter’s private school, no council members asked any questions or made any remarks about the plan.

Vaughan said last night that she would be surprised if the Greensboro Sustainability Council was dismantled, as proposed by staff.

“I hope it doesn’t get demolished,” Johnson said. “I think it’s a very important entity that we have here in Greensboro. I think it could be a catalyst for bringing green jobs and green-job training. I know when I was mayor we got $5 million from the federal government to do retrofitting and weatherization. One of the reasons is because we had a sustainability commission. I would definitely want it to remain. I think it has some great recommendations for Greensboro’s future.”

Marikay Abuzuaiter, an at-large candidate who is politically and personally aligned with Johnson said, “The sustainability action council was set up, and Mr. Joel Landau and Bob Powell are co-chairs of that. They worked very, very hard with the council to bring forward a plan to our city council.” She added that the four candidates who eagerly raised their hands to answer the questions — herself, Johnson, Abraham and Vaughan — would likely vote to bring the plan back and adopt it.

“I have not only been interested in keeping the sustainability committee alive; I’ve advocated from the very beginning that we have to implement the plan, look at all of its aspects and figure out how we can immediately start using some of the benefits that it provided for our city so that even the city government itself has means that it can use to save energy and reinvest our own money in ourselves,” Abraham said. “The plan itself says that if we could spend $9.3 million of our own dollars and then save $29 million of our own dollars. So to me, it makes perfect sense to use this revolving account that it talks about in order to do that because, in my opinion, we’re reinvesting our own money in ourselves.”

Thompson noted that he was among the council members who voted to accept the plan.

“The one little problem we had is we didn’t have $9.3 million to spend this past year,” he said. “That’s why the majority of council accepted it, gave it back to staff to break it down piecemeal to see what we can afford each and every year.”

Abraham challenged Thompson's statement today in a Facebook post: "If he had bothered to actually read the plan he would know that it does not call for an immediate expenditure of that amount. The city would start by refitting some buildings, bank the saved energy dollars, and then use those savings to do the next project, and then bank those savings and do the next project. The point was to create a fund that would cover these costs and in the end save us $29 million tax dollars."

One woman asked candidates what council could do to incentivize business investment in core areas of the city that suffer from high vacancy rates. The question seemed to be lost on many of the candidates, who instead discussed wage requirements in the city’s incentives policy. An exception was Johnson, who noted that many of the companies that bring large numbers of jobs to Greensboro prefer to invest in outlying areas.

“Part of implementing the Sustainability Action Plan will be to do exactly what you called for — looking at our land development ordinances, figure out ways to incentivize businesses to come and infill areas that we already have so that we’re not constantly expanding and then trying to send water and sewer yet further and incorporate more land,” Abraham said. “So obviously I would be in favor of that and I think it would be a wise investment of our own capital and our own resources.”

Thompson added, “When you’re referring to trying to incentivize a business to locate in a geographic area, typically that’s like an enterprise zone. In fact, last night, I was happy we unanimously voted for a small business loan for a specific area for businesses that are only in a blighted area where we need economic development, we need businesses to grow — along High Point Road, in the southeast Greensboro corridor area…. It is important because it’s less drain and drag on our services — police, fire et cetera when we have infill in a dense area.”

The $80,000 approved by council on Tuesday to help establish a small business loan pool will be drawn from federal Community Development Block Grant funds.

I'll have coverage of candidate statements in the district 1, 3 and 4 races in this space when time allows.

State considering investigation of 'no restaurant tax' campaign

UPDATE: Marty Kotis, a self-described supporter of the No Restaurant Tax campaign, said that the group's website "does not endorse any candidate; it just informs of candidates' positions on an important issue. Therefore it is not electioneering advocacy."

Kotis said in a Facebook message that mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins "addressed a group that included numerous elected officials at the Grandover and discussed the prepared foods tax" in June 2010. Kotis said he confronted Perkins on the issue, and Perkins responded, "Well, how else would you suggest we pay for it?"

Related: The No Restaurant Tax Facebook page indicates that at-large candidate Marikay Abuzuaiter is now formally opposed to the prepared foods tax.

ORIGINAL POST: Guilford County Deputy Elections Director Charlie Collicutt said he has referred the No Restaurant Tax campaign to the NC Board of Elections for possible investigation.

The campaign website, whose organizers are unidentified, features a color-coded chart that identifies candidates for Greensboro City Council as “good for restaurants (against the tax),” "wants to tax restaurants," “undecided” or “unknown,” based on their responses to a candidate questionnaire sent out by the Triad Real Estate and Building Industries Coalition, or TREBIC. Candidates listed as wanting to tax restaurants include mayoral challenger Robbie Perkins, at-large challenger Marikay Abuzuaiter, District 1 incumbent Dianne Bellamy-Small and District 2 challenger C. Bradley Hunt. Mayoral incumbent Bill Knight; at-large candidates Wayne Abraham, Yvonne Johnson, Chris Lawyer and Danny Thompson, District 1 challenger Donnell “DJ” Hardy; and District 2 incumbent Jim Kee are listed as “good for restaurants.”

The online materials have been amplified by Facebook and Twitter, and campaign signs have popped up on commercial properties that lease to restaurants, including in front of Mahi’s Seafood Restaurant, a business owned and operated by Abuzuaiter. She does not own the real property.

Marty Kotis -- who owns a Darryl’s Wood Fire Grill franchise on High Point Road and who is the president of Kotis Properties, a commercial real estate firm with a focus on developing and leasing to restaurants -- has identified himself as a supporter of the campaign, while declining to elaborate on whether he has played a more significant role. Kotis Properties ranked number one as an employer of contributors to city council candidates in the last election cycle, according to a study conducted by YES! Weekly.

Collicutt said he called the NC Board of Elections after the matter was brought to his attention by District 3 city council candidate Jay Ovittore. The county board of election does not have the authority or capacity to investigate on its own. Ovittore declined to complete the TREBIC questionnaire and is listed as “unknown” on the campaign website.

“I told [the state] about it with the full intention that they were going to look into it,” Collicutt said. "I gave them the background that Jay gave me and referred them to the website. They pulled it up on the phone with me. They expressed interest and said they were going to take that to their superiors and determine what they were going to do.”

Kotis could not be reached for comment for this story.

Collicutt said a possible outcome of a board of elections investigation is that the people behind the No Restaurant Tax campaign would be required to register as a political action committee and file periodic disclosure statements about contributions and expenditures, just as a candidate does.

Collicutt cited NC General Statute 163-278.6-14(d), which holds that

The term “political committee” means a combination of two or more individuals, such as any person, committee, association, organization, or other entity that makes or accepts anything of value to make, contributions or expenditures and has one or more of the following characteristics… has the major purpose to support or oppose the nomination or election of one or more clearly identified candidates.

Guidance on the law can also be found in the 2010 Campaign Finance Manual, a copy of which is available on the NC Board of Elections website. The relevant passage is on page 71.

Collicutt said the state law is somewhat open to interpretation considering that the language on purpose is fairly specific. The guidelines would apply to a group of two or more people that endorsed candidates, but Collicutt said it’s possible that the language on the chart would not meet that criteria. The determination likely hinges on whether the phrases “good for restaurants” and “wants to tax restaurants” meet the definition of having the purpose of supporting or opposing the nomination or election of candidates.

"Just to be on the safe side, I would encourage anyone putting out any kind of election material to form a PAC," Collicutt said, adding that the nuance of election law makes it easy for people to unknowingly cross the line, and that registering would allow a group to make endorsements without fear of violating the law.

Campaign website exaggerates discussion of restaurant tax

UPDATE: Marikay Abuzuaiter, an at-large candidate for Greensboro City Council who has been targeted by the No Restaurant Tax campaign, told me on primary election night at the Old County Courthouse that she discovered a No Restaurant Tax sign in front of Mahi's Seafood Restaurant, which she owns. It turns out that Marty Kotis, the developer and property manager behind the campaign, is her landlord.

ORIGINAL POST: Visitors to the No Restaurant Tax website will find a list of Greensboro City Council candidates color coded to indicate which ones are “good for restaurants” or alternately, “want[s] to tax restaurants” or “undecided.”

The website announces, “We are committed to protecting the restaurant industry and its patrons by fighting the proposed discriminatory Prepared Foods Tax / Restaurant Tax. This latest assault on your wallet comes from an attempt by certain Greensboro City Council Candidates to find money for a wish list of projects too expensive to be funded from the taxes they already collect.”

Hold the presses: A prepared foods tax/restaurant tax has been proposed for the city of Greensboro? City council candidates have proposed it? For anyone who has spent much time at city council meetings and work sessions or at candidate forums, this news may come as a surprise.

At the top of a sample ballot posted on the website, mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins is coded red. Candidates Bill Knight, Chris Phillips and Tom Phillips are coded green. Candidate Bradford Cone is not listed. Marty Kotis, a Greensboro developer who identifies himself as a supporter of the No Restaurant Tax campaign, declined to reveal the source of information relied upon to make the determinations, but several candidates confirmed that they answered a question on the Triad Real Estate and Building Industries Coalition’s questionnaire.

Kotis is a member of the NC Restaurant and Lodging Association. His company develops and manages a number of properties across Greensboro that lease to restaurants. Kotis is backing Knight's mayoral reelection bid.

The question reads, “Would you support a 1 cent prepared foods tax for economic development/quality of life initiatives?”

Many of the candidates recommended by the No Restaurant Tax website, including Knight for mayor; Danny Thompson and Chris Lawyer in the at-large race; Mary Rakestraw in District 4; and Trudy Wade in District 5 are self-identified conservatives. But others favored by the group are in the opposing camp, by virtue of their opposition to reopening the White Street Landfill, including Yvonne Johnson and Wayne Abraham in the at-large race. Conservative Jean Austin Brown, an at-large candidate, is listed as being in favor of the restaurant tax.

Perkins called the campaign a “made-up issue” and accused those behind it of attempting to “mislead the voting public.”

“I think I wrote on my questionnaire that this is something that could be considered if you were going to create a coliseum authority,” Perkins told YES! Weekly. “The only way not to have taxpayers subsidize the coliseum is to create an authority and put in an alternative revenue stream.”

The No Restaurant Tax Facebook page links to a January 2010 article by Fox 8 TV indicating that Perkins proposed an authority to oversee the coliseum. But Perkins has not advocated the creation of a coliseum authority since that time. Last month, he addressed Conservatives for Guilford County and defended the current arrangement in which the coliseum is subsidized by the city of Greensboro’s general fund.

“I look at the billion dollars of tourism business in Guilford County as a huge community asset,” Perkins said. “And the centerpiece of that business is the Greensboro Coliseum. So the million and a half dollars that we are giving the coliseum out of the general fund each year is a small part of the many millions that we bring in through that facility to the benefit of our citizens. I contend that the tourism business, the hotel business and the restaurant business would not be close to the same in our city without the coliseum driving that business.”

Today, Perkins said, “Is it on the table? No. Should it be on the table? Unless we decided to move forward with some kind of authority for the coliseum, there’s no reason for it to be on the table.”

Abuzuaiter, who owns Mahi’s Seafood Restaurant, checked off the box on the questionnaire for “yes.” And on a follow-up question asking, “Would you require a referendum?” Abuzuaiter also checked off “yes.” The questionnaire requires either a yes or no answer, and does not allow candidates to indicate they might consider the idea. The questionnaire provides only a small box for candidates to explain their position.

“My reasoning was the North Carolina sales tax was reduced by one penny on July 1,” Abuzuaiter said. “If we could take that one cent and put it back on for economic development and quality-of-life initiatives in Greensboro, which we so desperately need, I would certainly put it on a referendum before the people.”

Considering that the candidates on the other side of the issue are deemed “good for restaurants” — implying that those who support a restaurant tax in some fashion are not — Abuzuaiter and Hayworth said they view the website as misleading.

“I know that if we can create jobs and improve quality of life, my business will get better,” Abuzuaiter said. “We were paying 1 cent for how many years? That was on a dollar. I will gladly give up one penny if it gives us a chance to create jobs.”

Abuzuaiter said a typical bill at her restaurant is $40. That means that a 1-cent tax would translate into an additional cost to customers of 40 cents per meal.

In District 1, challenger Donnell “DJ” Hardy is highlighted in green while incumbent Dianne Bellamy-Small is coded red.

The campaign’s Facebook page links to a blog post by War Memorial Commission member Tony Wilkins, also dating back to January 2010. Wilkins reports that Coliseum Director Matt Brown presented a chart of organizations that would benefit from $9 million raised from levying a 1 percent prepared food tax in Guilford County during a meeting of the commission.

Wilkins wrote, “As I was shaking my head no, a current council member sitting behind me asked, ‘Why don’t we do 2 cent?” In a comment on the No Restaurant Tax Facebook page, Wilkins identified Bellamy-Small as the council member who made the remark.

Kotis said even though the idea has not been discussed by city council in open meetings or work sessions since January 2010, if the council decided to pursue it after the election it wouldn’t be the first time an issue was discussed behind the scenes before council took action on it.

“What we’re doing is getting the public discussing it now and getting the topic discussed with their council member or with their candidates for council,” he said. “If people don’t agree with it, they should give candidates a call and say, ‘I don’t agree with that.’”

A&T vote inspires fiery city council campaigning

Sal Leone, an at-large candidate for Greensboro City Council, speaks from the well.

About a hundred conservatively dressed, most female students filed into a NC A&T University auditorium to address questions to candidates for Greensboro City Council last night during a forum hosted by the Alpha Mu Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. on Wednesday evening.

At the end of the program Cherrell Brown, chair of the sorority’s political awareness and involvement committee, asked how many of the college students were registered to vote. Virtually every hand went up, prompting applause from council members.

“Myth debunked,” Brown said. “Students are registered to vote.”

The university is located in District 2, and the three candidates for the seat – taking nothing for granted in the run-up to what is traditionally a low-turnout primary – engaged in a spirited debate to try to win the students’ vote. Challenger C. Bradley Hunt II, himself a student at A&T, and incumbent Jim Kee, an alum who serves on the university’s board of visitors, delivered particularly contentious challenges to one another’s character and record of leadership.

Kee discusses his ability to work with conservative council members on matters of common interest such as bringing a grocery store to east Greensboro. Hunt took advantage of the opening to attack.

“There are certain issues in the city that are not worth a compromise,” Hunt said. “When you talk about a landfill that’s going in your backyard, in a backyard where there’s 85 percent African Americans – environmental racism – when you have to deal with the stench and the rodents, the trucks going back and forth in your neighborhoods, we don’t need to compromise on those situations.

“Councilman Kee was willing to negotiate a landfill for economic development,” the challenger continued. “That’s not right. Not in District 2. If you elect me, I’ll give you a voice. I will tell them, ‘No, that’s wrong,’ and I will say it to the top of the Melvin Municipal Building. And let everyone in Greensboro know that it’s wrong. So no, my style of leadership is a fighter, and not a compromiser.”

Kee struck back.

“This young man here is distorting the facts,” he said. “And if you’ve got people that are running for city council that are going to lie to you before they get on council, imagine what they are going to do after they get on city council.”

The incumbent pulled out a June 2001 copy of the News & Record showing him addressing city council on the White Street Landfill.

“I was a community activist fighting to close the landfill,” Kee said. “You know, I was pretty angry then. As a matter of fact, a group that I helped form called Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro is the organization that [got the landfill closed in 2006].”

Kee went on to say that he believed when he got elected and still believes that waste-to-energy technology is a viable alternative to landfilling.

“You call it a compromise,” Kee said. “But let me tell you about waste to energy. Waste to energy is a new technology that [converts trash] to electricity or diesel fuel. And it creates green jobs for Aggies, jobs that pay $50,000 or more. Now, my suggestion was that we form a public-private partnership with a company, the city of Greensboro and North Carolina A&T because A&T can acquire those $30- and $50 million energy grants that President Obama has put out so we can research alternative energy.”

Yvonne Johnson, an at-large candidate, reminded the audience that she had served on the council that made the decision to close the landfill in 2001. Mayoral candidates Robbie Perkins and Tom Phillips, and at-large candidate Nancy Vaughan were also part of that vote. Johnson said the Golden Leaf Foundation, on whose board she serves, gave A&T upwards of a million to research waste-to-energy technology.

“We need to go to waste to energy, but we don’t need to open the landfill to do that,” Johnson said. “We can do that someplace else. We can do it at the transfer station. And so the only thing I am hoping will happen with that landfill one day is that we will have the technology from North Carolina A&T State University to mine that landfill, environmentally safely mine it, and take all that crap out of it.”

Dianne Bellamy-Small, the incumbent in the District 1 race, was in rare form and good spirits. Challenger Donnell “DJ” Hardy, in contrast, took a subdued, low-key approach.

“There’s an African proverb that says, ‘The lion’s story will never be told as long as the hunter is telling it,’” Bellamy-Small said. “My leadership style is one of get it done. You’ve got to have someone on the council who is a grassroots-er, who gets out here in the community and who can very articulately talk about what’s happening. That’s me.”

The incumbent representative used an anecdote about her negotiations with Honda Aircraft Co. to illustrate her commitment to ensuring that people of color and women receive equal access to jobs.

“Every time a new business comes to us and wants an incentive, I ask, particularly when they talk about engineering jobs and that kind of stuff, I say, ‘Have you been over to A&T?’” Bellamy-Small recounted. “They’ll kind of fumble around…. ‘Well-uh-well-uh.’ ‘Have you been over to A&T? We’ve got engineering graduates over there.’ You saw on the paper how HondaJet – we’re waiting on them. When HondaJet came before us, I always ask, ‘How many minorities? How many women? And will you hire ex-offenders?’ The last time, HondaJet said, ‘Yes, we’ll hire them.’ You know how many they hired? Forty out of 550. You do the math. When they came this time, I said, ‘Something’s wrong with this picture.’ They said, ‘We’ll deal with it.’ So they thought behind closed doors they tried to answer my question. I asked in public, and the man said, ‘Oh, we talked about that in private.’ ‘Yeah, and I brought it up in public.’”

One of the students asked candidates how they planned to work with universities to bring jobs to Greensboro.

Robbie Perkins, one of two mayoral candidates who showed up at the forum, leaped form his seat.

“This is one of the great opportunities that we have in our city,” he said. “We’ve got 35,000 college students in our city and we need to keep more of them here, and the only way we’re going to keep them is create jobs. Now, one of the four critical clusters that has been identified by the business community is the nanotech-engineering cluster with the joint venture between A&T and UNCG over on East Lee Street. You’ve got a $21 million building that’s open, and we’ve got a $58.8 million building that should open in the next few weeks. And that’s going to be one of the leading sources of tech jobs in this region.”

Perkins went on to outline his vision for expanding the roadway network to create opportunities for economic growth in the area of the nanoscience campus.

“Now, I don’t think that that’s a big enough area over there to accommodate what I see as a large-growth industry,” Perkins said. “Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small and I have been working for the last several years on the TAC, which is the Transportation Advisory Committee, that basically works on roads in this area. And we think it’s imperative that there’s a new road that’s going to run from that nanotech center north where that stop light hits Lee Street. And if you run it right, you can run it all the way to Penry Road where GTCC has their campus. And if you really want to expand the vision, you expand the vision from a 75-acre park that the university owns and that the nanotech buildings are being built on, you take everything from the east of that road out to our belt loop around the city, and you make that the research park of the future.”

Kee said he supports Perkins’ road proposal, but he would go a step further and extend the road to Cone Boulevard. That has been a politically sensitive initiative, considering that the proposed road would go past the White Street Landfill, and make reopening the landfill more politically palatable by relieving heavy truck traffic from residential neighborhoods. Greensboro voters supported a bond for the project, but the city has yet to issue the debt to finance the Cone Boulevard extension.

Bellamy-Small said she supports the strategy of creating jobs through nanoscience research, but argued the city needs to take a broad-based approach.

“There is no other kind of economic generator in Greensboro at this time that provides the kind of jobs, whether it’s part time,” she said. “I’m over at the coliseum. I was over at the aquatic center today swimming with the little children. We hire A&T students. We hire UNCG students. Yeah, the nanotechnology center is very important, but if you can get a part-time job or a full-time job, or if you can work the ACC, those are the kind of things that do put some money in your pocket.”

Hardy championed a more entrepreneurial approach.

“Portland, Oregon is what I would to model Greensboro after if I have the chance,” he said. “They go and find companies that are two and three big – two and three people in garage – who have a business plan and have something that can work and hire thousands. Out of 20 that they might fund, 15 of them might crash and burn. It’s those five that make it through that will make thousands of jobs.”

Kee went on the offensive against both of his challengers in the District 2 race on the topic of job creation. Kee criticized opponent Dan Fischer for his reservations about the Greensboro Coliseum’s operating deficit, arguing that the coliseum’s economic impact translates to a 100 to one return on the investment. Kee also ridiculed a statement by Hunt at a previous candidate forum acknowledging acknowledging that, in contrast to Kee, Hunt is not a business person.

“You don’t want a council person who’s not business astute,” Kee said.

Hunt hit back.

“You also don’t want a developer as a council member because this creates a conflict of interest,” he said. “Any time that you put development and business over people, it’s when you’re willing to compromise the White Street Landfill. No, I’m not a developer; I don’t think Councilman Kee is either.

“A&T has been around since 1891 and I haven’t seen too much or any economic development for students,” Hunt added. “If you elect me, one of your own, I will see to it that we get jobs.”

Several candidates responded to a question about how they see council working with college students.

“I just created the first ever internship program, where interns from A&T and Bennett College will intern for the city council, get paid for it, get experience, and have something to put on their resume,” Kee said. “That program just started – wasn’t it October 1st, Robbie? Robbie Perkins and I are funding the program.”

Jim Lewis, an activist with Conservatives for Guilford County had questioned whether the program was appropriate at a city council meeting the previous evening. Discussion about the program revealed that, in fact, the funding is coming out of council members’ travel budgets. District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade, part of the council’s conservative coalition, said that she, Mayor Bill Knight, at-large Councilman Danny Thompson, District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny and District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw, returned their share of the travel budget to the general fund, and that the money was reallocated to purchase reflective vests for community watch volunteers.

Tom Phillips, who is also running for mayor, went on the attack against Perkins, who is considered likely to make it through the primary with incumbent Bill Knight. Knight and two other mayoral candidates, Bradford Cone and Chris Phillips, did not attend the forum.

“I believe it’s going to require leadership coming in from outside the current council, because it’s become so divisive,” Tom Phillips said. “But unless you have a massive change on the council – and historically that has not happened; it may happen this time, but historically it hasn’t – unless we have a massive change, we’re going to have several people on the council who will not work with Robbie. So we’re going to have two more years of bickering.

“I also am retiring December 31st,” Phillips continued. “I can’t have any conflicts of interest on zoning cases, things of that nature. Mr. Perkins, being in the development industry, can’t help but have conflicts of interest, whether they’re real or perceived. Those are two the main differences between myself and my good friend, Robbie.”

After declaring his intention to withdraw from the race earlier in the day, at-large candidate Sal Leone resurfaced at the forum. The candidate went on the attack against conservative incumbents and their political philosophy, holding the floor for almost six minutes.

Leone charged that at-large Councilman Danny Thompson broke a promise to residents of east Greensboro when he said during the 2009 campaign that he was not in favor of reopening the White Street Landfill. The line of attack echoed a spirited statement by another at-large candidate, Marikay Abuzuaiter, a week earlier.

“He said he implemented a curfew, which is anti-conservative,” Thompson said. “But he took credit for it because it looked good. More lies. He’s not here because he can’t defend lies. What’s he going to say to you? He didn’t go to the Interactive Resource Center. Know why? There are poor people there. They don’t care. He’s not here because the conservatives think you won’t vote. That’s what they’re counting on. Bennett College, UNCG, A&T, GTCC – you guys have the power, and they know it.”

Candidates take message to east Greensboro voters

UPDATE: Photos courtesy of Quentin L. Richardson

L's Restaurant and Lounge candidate event, a set on Flickr.

ORIGINAL POST:

District 2 candidate Jim Kee addresses voters at L's Restaurant and Lounge, as mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins and at-large candidate Marikay Abuzuaiter converse.

Marikay Abuzuaiter, an at-large candidate for Greensboro City Council, was right at home among the after-work crowd at L’s Restaurant and Lounge on Randleman Road. For four years, her family property management business maintained an office nearby before they had to downsize.

She told the crowd about her two previous attempts to win a seat on city council.

“In 2007, I ran in the at-large race; I lost by 110 votes to Mary Rakestraw,” Abuzuaiter said. “In 2009, I ran in the at-large race. I lost by 300 votes to Danny Thompson. So I’m not going to come in fourth again. I’m going to come in for one of those three at-large seats. Let me explain something to you: I was brand new in 2007, so that was pretty good. 2009 Danny Thompson went to east Greensboro and told 5-, 6-, 700 people that he would never vote to open the landfill. Well, what happened when he got on council? He was the main one wanting to get the landfill open.

“So, I am calling him out. Because if he had not been at east Greensboro and made that promise, I would have been on your city council and we would have never gotten the votes that they wanted to open the landfill.”

Saundra Adams and Gail Foy put together the candidate forum for Abuzuaiter and four other candidates at L’s. Adams is a regular at the restaurant, whose menu boasts, “Food so good you’ll slap your mama,” and thought the $2 fish special on Tuesday nights would provide a good forum for people to get acquainted with the candidates, and that the politics, in turn, might bring some new business to the restaurant.

Foy, who works with the East Market Street Merchants Association, said Dianne Bellamy-Small was invited because she represents District 1, where the restaurant is located, and Jim Kee was invited because he represents District 2, where many of the restaurant’s customers live. Mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins and at-large candidates Abuzuaiter and Yvonne Johnson were invited because they are “well known in the community.”

“In my opinion, the council is not working well right now,” Foy said, while preparing to introduce the candidates. “I believe in sustainable economic development. I believe if the landfill opens, it will impede that.”

Perkins received a warm welcome.

“We want to try to create the kind of jobs that are going to be a living wage for people because it’s awfully hard to live off of minimum wage,” he said. “You can’t work enough hours in the day to get by off of that. So we’ve got to create the kind of jobs that are going to pay reasonable money so that you can support your families and keep a little bit for retirement. Folks, it’s a hard environment. By pulling together and working together as a team, we can win this game.”

Kee spoke about his efforts, alongside Perkins, to keep the White Street Landfill closed and to bring economic development to east Greensboro.

“We need to interact more with North Carolina A&T to create more jobs,” he said. “You’ve probably heard about the nano-science and engineering building over there. We need to expand upon that park. Robbie and I have talked about that: We need to create a road from Lee Street all the way over to Wendover Avenue and up to Cone Boulevard. It will be like a Holden Road for east Greensboro. The connectivity and mobility of east Greensboro is very, very difficult. We have to have free-flowing access to the major highways and the airport.”

Other candidates were also drawn to the event. Jorge Cornell, leader of the North Carolina Latin Kings and a candidate in District 5, greeted Kee. On the campaign trail, Kee has expressed support for the gang unit and made a point to note that an opponent’s supporters have called for the unit’s disbandment. This evening, Cornell was intent on making it clear there was no ill will between the two, and Kee suggested he concurred, stating that he considers Cornell a businessman rather than a gang leader.

C. Bradley Hunt II, one of Kee’s opponents, showed up at the event and spoke to customers.

The candidates fielded a few questions from the audience. One man, who identified himself as an ex-offender, asked them what they would do open up job opportunities to people whose employment options are hindered by their criminal histories.

“It is a tough, uphill struggle, number one,” Perkins said. “Number two, we’ve got to encourage people to be open-minded, and say, ‘You’ve got to give somebody a second chance. This person’s going to work hard. Take a chance and let them move through.’ That’s something that we’ve got to facilitate…. By the same token, when you get that job, you’ve got to perform as well.”

Kee said, “We may need to look at giving tax breaks to companies that hire ex-offenders.”