Groat campaign lends Coad a hand

Wayne Boone, who is coordinating Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat's ground campaign, shared an emotional moment with District 2 candidate Nettie Coad around mid-morning at the Bessemer Elementary polling place in northeast Greensboro.

The Groat campaign is sharing resources with the Coad campaign.

Groat, who placed third in the primary election balloting, is considered vulnerable to challengers: Marikay Abuzuaiter, Danny Thompson and Gary Nixon. Coad finished behind District 2 candidate Jim Kee, who is favored to win today.

The Groat campaign had three students, who were later reinforced by two or three others. The Groat campaign has upwards of 50 students from Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School in Kernersville working the polls in exchange for class credit.

The Groat campaign agreed to have the students hand out Coad's literature, and the candidate showed her gratitude by embracing Sung-Ju Park (above).

"This is a beautiful day that God has made, and I feel very blessed and positive," Coad said.

Bessemer Elementary is the home precinct of Mayor Yvonne Johnson, and enjoyed the highest turnout of any in northeast Greensboro in 2007, the year Johnson made history by becoming the city's first black mayor.

Despite some challenges to the campaign, including not getting the Simkins PAC's endorsement, Boone said Groat was feeling confident.

"She's getting a lot of calls this morning," he said. "She told me if calls are any indication she feels really positive.

"She's always gotten good support from the African-American community," he continued. "We've got campaign workers saturating the city. She expects continued support in the African-American community."

Sandra Anderson Groat needs the black vote

I share an address with my African-American fiancee. Like the vast majority of my neighbors in Westerwood, I am white. For whatever reason, I've received most of the political mailings during this campaign, including pieces from Nancy Vaughan, Robbie Perkins and Zack Matheny.

But it was my fiancee who received a piece from Sandra Anderson Groat yesterday. The smart money says that Groat is targeting black voters with the mailing, especially considering that it recycles material from a half-page ad that ran in The Carolina Peacemaker, a weekly newspaper geared to the African-American community, on Thursday.

The ad and the mail piece carry the slogan "Vote for who you know," and contain testimonials from prominent black pastors, the Revs. George Brooks and Howard Chubbs.

Notably, Brooks and Chubbs are signatories on a slate of endorsements by the Guilford County Community PAC, which did not include Groat. The Simkins PAC also declined to endorse Groat, after supporting her in the last two elections.

Groat's personal appeal reads (sorry, I haven't gotten handy with a scanner yet): "I need your help and your vote to win this election. Even though we are not building houses right now, I am still the same person I have always been. The 25 or so years that I have spent living and working with you were the best. Our bond is strong.

"You know me — and my family, Kristie, Kelly and Nick. You know that I have the best interest in your community in my heart. I will continue to work for you on city council. But you have to send me back.

"Please vote for me and tell your friends. Your vote will make the difference."

I don't think there's anything necessarily nefarious about targeting specific demographics; candidates have limited resources that they must commit strategically to maximize their advantage.

My line is open if any readers want to comment about receiving targeting mailings, robo-calls or other messaging, and also to candidates who are willing to disclose their approaches to reaching voters that they hope will give them the edge to win.

Campaign notes: Greensboro City Council at-large race

With two weeks to go before Election Day, at-large candidates for Greensboro City Council are making their best effort to differentiate themselves from their opponents.

Nixon vs. Perkins and Anderson Groat

“I want to point out the differences between the incumbent councilman at large and myself,” said Gary Nixon, who placed fifth in the Oct. 6 primary, during a candidate forum at the downtown public library last night that was hosted by the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress. “One, I have no conflicts of interest. One council member is perceived to have a conflict of interest, and I’ll let you judge whether there’s a conflict of interest or not. Another one is uninformed and does not know even the basic operations of the city, and numbers that are given to her because she can’t understand it.”

The first shot was intended for Robbie Perkins, who finished second. Nixon has ground to make up in order to win one of the three at-large seats. The two incumbents — also including Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat, who finished third — are appealing targets for a challenger such as Nixon.

After the forum, Nixon elaborated: “He’s in land development. It could be perceived that he has a conflict of interest. I didn’t run for city council before I retired from my engineering firm because it could have been perceived that I had a conflict of interest. I’ll let the voters decide if he has a conflict of interest.”

Perkins seemed unfazed when I followed up with him this morning to ask him to respond to Nixon’s criticism.

“A lot of people can have conflicts of interests; it’s how you handle conflict of interest,” he said. “The state statutes are very clear that if you have a financial stake in a matter you abstain from voting.

“Anyone who’s in business in this city can have a potential conflict,” he added. “If you want business people to serve on council — and I think that’s a good thing — the question is how you handle conflicts of interest. If you want to exclude city council from people unless you’re retired or unemployed, you can do that, but I don’t think that’s good idea…. Gary is clearly trying to differentiate himself between other candidates, but I think the experience that I bring to the table and ability to continue pushing for jobs instead of learning what a council member does is invaluable.”

Groat showed up to the forum late, and did not hear Nixon’s remark. When I told her that Nixon characterized her as being uninformed, she laughed.

“It just goes to show you how much he knows,” she said. “He took his shot. He was in my group at the News & Record, and he took some shots then. Beating up on someone else might be a way to elevate himself, but I don’t think so. I think it probably comes back to haunt you.”

Hardy endorses Thompson

After the forum, candidate Danny Thompson told me he is receiving DJ Hardy's endorsement. Hardy appeared and shook Thompson's hand. I asked him if it was true, and he nodded and smiled. Thompson said a press release will be distributed today.

As the fourth-place finisher, Thompson is in the best position of any of the second-tier candidates to capture an at-large seat. Thompson performed well with voters in west Greensboro, but placed only sixth in District 1, which covers much of southeast Greensboro. Hardy garnered more votes than Thompson, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Nixon in District 1, and carried G74, a politically active precinct whose polling place is Bluford Elementary.

Thompson and Hardy took differing positions on the Greensboro Police Department gang unit during the campaign. Thompson has said on several occasions that he supports the gang unit, while Hardy said previously that the city should not continue to fund the unit unless the department can make a case for its effectiveness.

As a resident of southeast Greensboro, Hardy made a case for more equitable development across the city during his primary campaign. His choice to endorse Thompson is notable in that Abuzuaiter has the closest ties to east Greensboro of all the successful challengers in the at-large race. Abuzuaiter's husband operates a gas station on East Market Street.

As a resident of the newly-annexed Cardinal neighborhood on the city's northwestern fringe, Thompson has displayed some cognizance of the challenges in east Greensboro.
During a Sept. 22 candidate forum he said, "The city can go a long way in helping in development of under-utilized, under-growth areas by providing incentives to developers, whether it's a major grocery store chain or whatever, by saying, 'Look, we have a group of people in our city that don't have a grocery store on the east side — a large supermarket — so what would it take, Food Lion, Harris Teeter, Lowe's, for us to work with you to get a supermarket there?'"

I left a message this morning for Hardy, asking him to explain his reasons for supporting Thompson. I also left a message for Thompson, noting that I will be looking for the press release in my e-mail inbox. I'll provide updates when I heard from them.

Vaughan and Burckley

Nancy Vaughan, the front-runner in the at-large race, noted in her opening statement that "it appears that over the last few years our city has become more polarized regarding things around the police department and development issues."

I've been meaning to ask her over the course of the campaign why she is paying for the services of Bill Burckley, a Republican consultant who is a bit of a polarizing figure himself. Earlier this year, he showed up drunk at a city council meeting and got arrested for being disruptive. He lobbied council members to vote against a motion to express regret over the 1979 Klan-Nazi shootings and complained to Mayor Yvonne Johnson during a break that she hadn't taken his advice to fire former City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

Vaughan has said that she pinpoints many of the troubles in the police department to the moment Mitchell Johnson locked former police Chief David Wray out of his office, but she doesn't agree with Burckley on everything.

"It doesn't mean that I have to listen to everything he says," Vaughan told me. "He does have a good strategic mind and he's great with numbers. He knows the districts well."

The candidate continued: "I have formed my own opinions and have formed my own issues and certainly if I hired him to tell me what my opinions are I wouldn't be a very good candidate.... The main thing I want to emphasize is he is helping me get my message out — and it's my message. There are some things on which we agree to disagree."

UPDATE: Thompson sent out the press release yesterday formalizing Hardy's endorsement. The press release erroneously states that Hardy resides in District 2; in fact, he lives in District 1.

The press release quotes Hardy as saying his endorsement is premised on "Danny Thompson's ability to bring civility, common sense and a fresh perspective of efficiency and effectively running city government."

Triad Elections '09

Sandra Anderson Groat transcript

The following is a transcript of Greensboro City Council at-large candidate Sandra Anderson Groat’s answers at a Guilford County Unity Effort forum on Sept. 22:

Introductory statement
Good evening. It’s nice to see everybody and to be here. And I’m here because I want you to vote for me. And I want you to ask your friends to vote for me. And I’m going to try to tell you a little bit about why. I still have the same motives for running for city council that I had two terms ago. I really want to make a difference in my community and to serve the citizens. And I’m in much more of a position now to do that than I have been before because I’ve learned — you know, a woman my age doesn’t like to say experience, but sometimes it is that. I’ve learned through my first two terms a lot about the issues facing our city. I feel like that I’m not finished working yet. And I want to be a part of the exciting things that are going to be happening. I want to see the new city manager go through his transition period. And I really think that we’re probably going into a new — I hope we’re going into a new time where we’re going to be getting some energy, getting our feet under the sand, and move forward.

Do you support continued funding for the Greensboro Police Department gang enforcement unit. If so, do you think it should possibly be restructured?
Yes, I do. I support continued support for the gang unit. Number one is because we have heard a whole lot less about gangs in our city since that unit started up. Now, as to whether it needs restructuring I don’t know. I really — I’ve read a little bit here and there — but it seems to be working efficiently to me.

Do you think that sprawl is a problem in Greensboro?
I do think that sprawl is a problem. Hindsight’s always great. You look back and see things that you could have done differently but you didn’t plan to do it. However, I think a lot of the sprawl we have in Greensboro and all over the country [inaudible] running away with real estate. I think it has to do with greed and “more is better.” And I think that we’re going to have to infill, and we’re going to have to live with that. But we don’t have to promote it. We need to backtrack and do better from now on in our planning.

The complaint review committee investigates complaints against police officers. Would you be in favor of giving this citizen panel subpoena authority to interview witnesses? Why or why not?
I like the review committee that we have right now and I think we need something, but I’m opposed to subpoena power simply because I think that is something for the courts; that is reserved for the court system. We have to have something that is set aside, and just don’t think that citizens should have subpoena power on a review board, any review board. I do think that we could probably use some more tweaking of this whole committee, and I don’t know that council has been as involved as it should be. We’ve pretty much left it to human relations commission, and you know they come down and tell us what they’re thinking. And I don’t think we’ve gotten as involved in that situation as we should be. But my answer is I really think we need a review board; I do not think it should have subpoena power.

Some residents have expressed concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest when individuals who have contributed to candidates' campaigns bring business such as rezoning requests before city council. Would you be in favor of imposing a 12-month cooling-off period on campaign contributions before and after individuals bring business before city council?
Well, that would be terribly hard to monitor. I don’t know exactly how you could gather all that information. You know, I guess, somehow, there has to be some kind of trust of integrity of the council members… because I don’t think that you can take away certain rights that people have, is to have money donated for something someone believes and what they’re working toward. I just really don’t know how it would work. I can’t imagine working out something that complicated. It might be that something simpler would work and, you know, Ms. Vaughan’s been talking about the disclosure statement. That may be, when it’s law here – and I think it will be – that may be the way that this will work out. But then I also think that places a burden on some people whose spouse will not disclose – I just think there’s a whole lot of maybe work to be done in here. I hope we haven’t gotten so corrupt that we need to have somebody following us around all the time.

Closing statement
Thank you, very much. I would like to tell you about the city manager, and what happened. I met with the city manager on a regular basis every Friday morning for a year and publicly supported him. I was not coerced by anybody. But over a period of that year I really just had questions. I just couldn’t get a hundred percent behind him, not because of anything directly to do with the police department. But our city council was divided and a lot of that division was to do with him. And he was just a lightning rod there. And I really felt that there’s no way we’re going to get out of the mud and move forward if we don’t do something different. And I really think that after that occurred our council is doing better. I think they would agree that we’re doing better. And I’m really proud that I’ve been able to have a neutral position on council, and not being on a side.

Triad Elections '09

Gay rights PAC makes endorsements for Greensboro council

The Replacements Limited PAC, whose purpose is described as "to influence the election of local, state and national candidates who will best support and promote the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens," has made its endorsements for the Greensboro municipal election.

The Replacements Limited PAC endorses Yvonne Johnson for mayor.

The rest of the PAC's endorsements for Greensboro City Council follow:

At-large (three seats to fill): Marikay Abuzuaiter, Sandra Anderson Groat, Robbie Perkins and Nancy Vaughan
District 1: Dianne Bellamy-Small
District 2: Jim Kee
District 3: Zack Matheny
District 4: Joel Landau
District 5: Art Boyett

Groat's game plan

Greensboro Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat plans to meet with her committee to plan her reelection campaign, the candidate told me earlier today.

She said that her homebuilding company has been dissolved, but she was able to avoid filing for personal bankruptcy. She will need to raise some money to campaign.

"I'm trying to do three billboards, some handout materials and signs," Groat said. "I'm anxious to get started."

The candidate also hopes to assemble a team of young volunteers. Her son is a freshman at Bishop McGuiness Catholic High School in Kernersville this year, and Groat said she hopes to recruit students from the school's senior government class to work on her campaign.

Request for delay on new city manager hire

District 5 candidate Art Boyett, who is challenging incumbent Trudy Wade, asked the city council to delay its decision to hire a new city manager last night. Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat indicated she's not interested in changing the time table.

Boyett: "With 30 people running for mayor and city council, there’s a good chance that there may be a change in makeup of the city council by the end of the year. The city manager and the city council have to work together…. I’m requesting that what you do is postpone the decision on the city manager until a new city council is elected. That way the new city council will make the decision about who the new city manager is.”

Groat: "In my opinion, this city council was elected to do the city’s business. We have four more months left on this particular term. We’ve been working on this situation for a few months already. It doesn’t make sense to me — I see no reason to delay that because it’s timely in our term."

Greensboro council supports ethics legislation

The Greensboro City Council voted 7 to 1 on March 17 to support ethics legislation filed by Rep. Bill McGee (R-Forsyth) and Rep. Cary Allred (R-Alamance). District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small cast the lone dissenting vote. The legislation would extend an ethics law passed by the NC General Assembly in 2006 to cover members of city councils and county commissions, along with other local officials. Local elected officials to file statements of financial interest, including real estate and business holdings and stock options, membership in organizations or advocacy groups, assets, felony convictions expunged by the state and associations with nonprofit organizations. The state ethics law also prevents covered officials from knowingly using their public position in an official action or legislative action that will result in financial benefit to themselves, their businesses or members of their extended family. At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins, who is the president of commercial real estate company NAI Piedmont Triad, said, “These days it’s hard to vote against an ethics law…. I think we should support it and move on.” Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat added, “I can understand why you have the spouse disclosure because I assume you could hide assets through your spouse, but that’s really not going to suit every spouse. I can’t vote against an ethics motion of any kind, but at the same time I think that makes it really difficult to ask your spouse, especially if it’s a second or older marriage, I think it’s really difficult to ask your spouse to do all that so you can run for office.” Bellamy-Small explained her vote: “I already know that my spouse is not going to want his assets revealed…. I’m not trying to hide anything, but I don’t feel I need that kind of oversight.”

GPD: Scarfone warned of arrest for violating sidewalk cafe ordinance

Greensboro city administration responds to complaints by city councilmembers Zack Matheny (District 3) and Mike Barber (District 4) about police enforcement of the sidewalk cafe ordinance this afternoon with an 18-page set of memos and other documents.

At the top of the stack is a memo dated July 31 from Cpl. KB Johnson to Assistant Chief Harold Scott that, according to Matheny, innacurately describes him as being "inside the bar" on the night when Lee Meekins, general manager at Much/Carmine's, was arrested. Matheny did acknowledge that he dined at Carmine's and witnessed the arrest.

The Johnson memo, entitled "Encounters With Much Management Due to Sidewalk Cafe Violations," indicates that Much/Carmine's owner Rocco Scarfone has been disregarding police efforts to bring his restaurant into compliance since late April, and that Scarfone was repeatedly warned that his employees would face arrest if his business continued to violate the ordinance.

Here's an entry for Thursday, April 24:

"Officer TJ Tepedino and I approached Winifred [Lee] Meekins (manager) and Rocky Scarfone (owner) to request that they begin complying with the city ordinance. This was in response to crowd management issues we had experienced on the previous evening. Mr. Scarfone and Mr. Meekins were both present and Mr. Scarfone stated he wasn't aware that there was a timeframe attached to his sidewalk cafe. We showed him the ordinance and told him that we would give him two weeks to adjust to the change and also to give him an opportunity to request a change of the ordinance. I told Mr. Scarfone that evening that in two weeks we would enforce the ordinance by citing them if they continued to violate it."

Scarfone turned up in Greensboro city council chambers on July 15 with lawyer Derek Allen of the Brooks Pierce law firm. Allen requested an amendment to the sidewalk cafe ordinance to allow businesses like the one owned by Scarfone to keep tables and chairs out on the sidewalk until closing time at around 3 a.m. Councilman Barber was ready to move an amendment but his colleagues prevailed upon him to allow the matter to be tabled for further study. District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade joined Barber in arguing for relaxing regulations to help downtown business owners.

Cpl. Johnson's memo suggests that Scarfone both openly defied the ordinance and did not understand it, indicating that his business has had a string of run-ins this year with the Greensboro police. The memo itemizes

• A police citation for operating the cafe outside of prescribed hours on May 9;
• An enforcement action by state Alcohol Law Enforcement to shut down the cafe after midnight on May 10;
• A voided police citation for operating the cafe after midnight on May 24; and
• A police citation for operating the cafe after midnight on May 31.

Cpl. Johnson said he spoke personally with Scarfone on May 24 when a subordinate was writing a citation to Meekins for operating the cafe after midnight.

"Mr. Scarfone stated that he intended to pay the citations off and continue to keep his cafe open beyond hours," Johnson writes. "I advised Mr. Scarfone that the law he was breaking was not a civil violation but a criminal misdemeanor. I told him that evening that I would arrest him if he did not comply with the ordinance."

Cpl. Johnson says police met with Assistant City Manager Jim Westmoreland and Downtown Greensboro Inc. President Ed Wolverton on June 4.

"By that time Mr. Scarfone had retained an attorney and was alleging that we were bullying him because his establishments were patronized by African-Americans," Cpl. Johnson writes. "I outlined at that meeting everything that had transpired up until that point. The consensus at that meeting was that we had been more than accommodating to the management of the restaurant and any further violations would result in arrest. Afterwards Sgt. Hunter instructed Cpl. Hollis to go by and speak again with the management of Much. Cpl. Hollis spoke to them that evening and relayed that further violations would be dealt with by a physical arrest of whoever was in charge of the business at the time."

In July, various city council members got involved in the conflict, and police contend that Scarfone's business continued to defy the ordinance.

Cpl. Johnson writes that on July 16, the night after Scarfone appeared with his lawyer in city council chambers, Sgt. Steve Hunter escorted District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small downtown and "both observed that the Much Cafe was open beyond 11 p.m. and that there were people drinking wine in the cafe. No enforcement action was taken."

And on July 26, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat and at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins "were touring the downtown area.... I was escorting Councilwoman Groat. At 10 minutes after midnight I drove by the Much cafe and it was still open and operating. I took no enforcement action and the cafe was later closed." YES! Weekly Editor Brian Clarey, who also accompanied Groat, confirms that the cafe was operating beyond the cutoff time.

On July 30, Cpl Johnson writes that Sgt. Steve Hunter cited Meekins for operating the cafe beyond hours, and told him any further violations would result in his arrest.

Which brings the story up to last Thursday, as told by Sgt. Hunter in an e-mail to Assistant Chief Scott the following morning.

"I was traveling north on Elm Street from Washington Street," Hunter writes. "As I passed through the 100 block of South Elm Street I observed that the sidewalk cafe at Much Restaurant [was] still in operation. The area was still roped off and all chairs and tables were occupying a large portion of the sidewalk. I checked the time on my cellular telephone and the time displayed was 10:07 p.m. I parked in the right turn lane just north of the restaurant and activated the flashers on the police vehicle."

Hunter said he asked someone at the podium in front of the building for the person "in charge of the restaurant."

"Moments later Winifred [Lee] Meekins appeared and said something to the effect of what is the problem," Hunter writes. "Meekins was accompanied by two or three other acquaintances, I am not certain if they were employees or not. I then told Mr. Meekins that his cafe was still open after the mandated closing time. Meekins then began to argue that the cafe was not open and I responded by telling him that he was under arrest. Meekins turned his back to me and began started [SIC] to use his cell phone stating that he was going to call his lawyer. I told Meekins that I did not care who he called but he needed to place his hands on the wall so that I could begin arrest procedures. Meekins turned to face the north wall of the restaurant and told someone to go and get 'Rocky.' I then told Meekins to place his hands on the wall and performed a quick search of his person. On the [community resource team] channel I radioed Cpl. Hollis and advised him that I needed a car with a shield to transport a prisoner. I asked Meekins to place his left hand behind his back and he complied. After getting one cuff on Rocky Scarfone appeared and asked Meekins what was going on. Meekins then told Scarfone that he was being arrested for not closing the cafe. Mr. Scarfone then remarked that we have until 11 o'clock. Meekins then stated, 'No, it's 10 o'clock.'"

Matheny said on Monday that he requested a list of violations of the sidewalk cafe ordinance.

"I do agree that this establishment has been treated unfairly," he said. "I was there and I witnessed [Meekins' arrest]. There area a couple of other establishments that I frequent in the morning, and they're technically in violation, but they're treated differently." The ordinance stipulates that businesses may not operate before 11 a.m.

Matheny went on to characterize the arrest as "excessive."

Cpl. Johnson's memo lists a dozen businesses with sidewalk cafe permits, and notes only three incidents: once when Rim operated its sidewalk cafe beyond the cutoff time, and twice when the Green Bean neglected to put a rope around its sidewalk tables. In all three incidents, Cpl. Johnson said, the problems were corrected immediately after an officer spoke to a business manager.