Greensboro accepting resumes to fill Wade's vacant council seat

Conservative District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade has been elected to NC Senate District 27, defeating Democrat Myra Slone, and now Greensboro City Council will appoint a replacement for 2013. The details are below, and you can read our suggestions for the seat in the next issue of YES! Weekly.

Press release:

The City of Greensboro is now accepting resumes from candidates who wish to be considered for the soon-to-be vacant District 5 City Council seat. Council is accepting applications through December 10 for the position that will be vacated by Councilmember Trudy Wade, who was elected to the NC Senate on November 6.

Interested candidates should send a resume and letter of interest to City Clerk Betsey Richardson in the City Clerk’s office at Betsey.Richardson@greensboro-nc.gov, or fax it to her at 336-574-4003. All information provided is regarded as public information and is available to the media.

City Council plans to appoint a new member by January 9, 2013. The person selected must be a qualified voter, living in District 5 and willing to serve out the remainder of the term, until December 3, 2013.

For additional information, please contact Richardson at 336-373-2397.

Trudy Wade will pump your gas

Trudy Wade's campaign for NC Senate District 27, has come up with a clever gimmick to get in front of voters. Below is part of the press release detailing their plan:

GREENSBORO, NC - Dr. Trudy Wade, conservative candidate for NC Senate District 27, announces a tax-free gasoline event for her campaign at the Citgo Gas Station at Stoney Creek Village in Guilford County on Saturday, April 14. Starting at 9 AM, Trudy Wade will pump gas for the first one hundred cars. Customers will pay only for the cost of the gas, excluding all taxes. Trudy Wade for Senate will pay approximately sixty cents per gallon for those first one hundred customers, up to a maximum of twenty gallons per vehicle. Citgo Gas Station Stoney Creek Village 6305 Burlington Rd./Hwy 70 Whitsett, NC 27377

Perkins to seek reelection to county commission

Two Republicans, Trudy Wade and Justin Conrad, have indicated plans to run for the new NC Senate District 27 seat. Meanwhile, some speculation has abounded about whether a Democrat will take a crack at the district, although it leans Republican.

Pricey Harrison, who has been "double-bunked" with fellow Democratic NC House member Maggie Jeffus in the same House District, said she has no plans to run for the new Senate seat. Likewise with Kirk Perkins, a Democrat on the Guilford County Commission, whose district has become somewhat less politically friendly following the imposition of a redistricting plan by the Republican-controlled General Assembly.

Perkins says he plans to seek reelection to the District 4 seat for Guilford County Commission.

Meanwhile, the announcement by US Rep. Brad Miller that he will not seek reelection is headline news this morning.

Simkins PAC endorsements: Bellamy-Small in, Wade out

Time was when the endorsements of the George C. Simkins Jr. Memorial Political Action Committee was awaited with anticipation, anxiety and speculation depending on one’s political viewpoint in Greensboro. Named after civil rights pioneer Dr. George C. Simkins Jr., who led successful efforts to desegregate the city’s golf courses and hospitals and the campaign to establish a district representation system, the committee’s recommendations are mailed out to black voters across the city.

I’m not sure now. There is a wide array of civic and media actors with both complex and overlapping ties to various constituencies that are closely vetting the candidates.

This year’s endorsement slate is, not surprisingly, shaped by the White Street Landfill controversy:

Robbie Perkins for mayor: “Robbie has supported our issues across the years, voted and worked to close the White Street Landfill.”

Yvonne Johnson for at large: “Our former mayor who has advanced our issues should be returned to the council.”

Nancy Vaughan for at large: “Voted to close the White Street Landfill and is committed to keeping it closed.”

Marikay Abuzuaiter for at large: “Longtime community activist, against opening White Street Landfill.”

Dianne Bellamy-Small for District 1: “Our senior representative on council who stood against the landfill and continues to represent his district well.”

Jim Kee for District 2: “Has stood against the landfill and continues to represent his district well.”

Zack Matheny for District 3: “We believe we can count on his support in the future.”

Nancy Hoffmann for District 4: “A fresh voice who also opposes opening the landfill.”

The committee did not endorse in the District 5 race between incumbent Trudy Wade and challenger Jorge Cornell.

The endorsement of Bellamy-Small is quite a switch. Two years ago, the PAC endorsed her challenger, Luther T. Falls Jr., reasoning, “He is the change that District 1 needs. He will fight for the people of this district to increase police presence, to stop crime, focus on economic improvements and respond to the wishes of the district.”

Another switch is the withdrawal of support for Wade, whom the PAC endorsed in 2009 without explanation. Wade has voted to reopen the landfill in a series of decisions this past year.

The Simkins PAC’s 2009 endorsement mailer made no mention of the landfill as an issue.

Committee Chairman Steve Bowden acknowledged the omission as a strategic misstep after the election, in which Johnson lost her mayoral reelection bid to conservative upstart Bill Knight.

“The main issue for our community is there’s going to be an effort to open a dump back up in our section of town,” Bowden said at the time. “These new people [who were annexed], I’m sure they wouldn’t want to have dump where the Cardinal golf course is. That’s what the people of east Greensboro are facing. There’s going to be a big push to cut taxes. And [reopening] the landfill is an easy way to make up the revenue if you want to cut taxes.

“The most pressing issue that I see in our community was not put on the forefront,” he continued. “I regret that. I was in a meeting of the Greensboro Men’s Club last night. I made the point to them that I regret that we did not make a concerted effort to let the community know what was at stake.”

This year, Matheny is the only candidate whose endorsement is qualified on an expression of faith rather than a proven record or a stated position. Matheny is considered a swing vote on council, and perhaps it’s not surprising that Wade is courting him, too. A glossy mailer received today by District 5 voters names Matheny as part of a group of “city council members that share her positive vision for the future of Greensboro,” also including landfill proponents Knight, Chris Lawyer, Danny Thompson and Mary Rakestraw.

Other recent endorsements

Mayoral race

Bill Knight: Rhinoceros Times

Robbie Perkins: Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro

At-large race

Marikay Abuzuaiter: Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro

Yvonne Johnson: Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro

Chris Lawyer: Rhinoceros Times

Nancy Vaughan: Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro

District 1

Dianne Bellamy-Small: Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro

Donnell “DJ” Hardy: Rhinoceros Times

District 2

Jim Kee: Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro, Rhinoceros Times

District 3

Zack Matheny: Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro, Rhinoceros Times

District 4

Mary Rakestraw: Rhinoceros Times

District 5

Trudy Wade: Rhinoceros Times

District 5 candidate disputes claims in Halloween-themed mailer

Campaign mailers don't typically make claims to fairness. And a city council candidate who also happens to be the leader of the North Carolina Latin Kings would seem to be a ripe target for a conservative incumbent with strong appeal to her conservative constituents. And there's nothing particularly newsworthy about Jorge Cornell complaining about being misrepresented.

That said, for District 5 voters interested in discerning between facts and campaign rhetoric, it's worth noting that Cornell strongly disputes a number of claims.

The mailer states, "That's right, [Wade's] opponent is the self-proclaimed gang leader of the North Carolina Latin Kings."

Cornell said he has never said he was a gang leader. To the contrary, he has always insisted that his group is not a "gang."

The next sentence reads, "He has even bragged about being arrested 18 times."

Although technically accurate, Cornell contends the statement misleads voters through omission.

"That is true: I have bragged about being arrested 18 times," Cornell said. "But how many times have I been convicted? Zero. I have no felony convictions in the state of North Carolina."

The statement references arrests with felony charges. Cornell has been convicted of at least one misdemeanor in North Carolina.

The mailer characterizes Cornell as being in support of "higher taxes."

"I never said I wanted to see higher taxes," Cornell said. "I'm against higher taxes."

The mailer characterizes Cornell as being in support "increased water and sewer rates."

Cornell said he has never advocated for increased water and sewer rates.

The mailer charges Cornell with having "no plan for positive economic development." That seems like a matter of opinion that could be applied to any given candidate with whom the person making the charge holds a philosophical disagreement.

The mailer contends that Cornell has an "adversarial relationship with our police and community watch groups."

"Yes, I do have my issues with the police department," Cornell said. "And no, I never said I wasn't willing to work with community watch groups."

I have reached out to Wade for comment about the charges in her campaign mailer, but as yet have not heard back from her.

(Click to enlarge image.)

A well-funded incumbent with strong constituent relationships would seem to have little to worry about from a challenger running a shoe-string campaign that leads a group that has been labeled as a street gang by law enforcement and has been subject to widespread and generally unflattering media coverage.

It's more likely that the mailer is geared towards boosting turnout among conservative voters in District 5 to create a coattail effect to enhance the reelection prospects of Mayor Bill Knight and at-large Councilman Danny Thompson, who could have real trouble.

The mailer compares the slate advocated by Cornell with the team favored by Wade. It accurately quotes Cornell as saying in a YES! Weekly blog post: "I feel I have a better chance at winning District 5 then at large. It gives us an opportunity to get five reasonable people on council. With Robbie Perkins as mayor; Yvonne Johnson, Marikay Abuzuaiter and Wayne Abraham, they got the at-large seats; if we could get District 5, we could have a beautiful city."

In contrast, the mailer states that "Trudy wants to work with city council members that share her positive vision for the future of Greensboro," listing Knight for mayor, Thompson and Chris Lawyer for at large, Zack Matheny for District 3 and Mary Rakestraw for District 4.

Taxes and spending: Where Greensboro City Council candidates stand

Assuming a new city council reaches an agreement on what to do about solid waste early in the next term, the budget is likely to be the major challenge in the next two years. Revenues are likely to be lower than hoped for because of the depressed housing market, while services and infrastructure remain in demand. Mayoral challenger Robbie Perkins would like to move forward with the Downtown Greenway. At-large challenger Wayne Abraham wants to repair city roads. District 3 challenger Jay Ovittore wants to hire additional police officers.

No surprise that the four conservative incumbents on council, including Mayor Bill Knight, have pledged to not raise taxes or water rates, as documented in a video clip produced by Conservatives for Guilford County. At-large incumbent Danny Thompson and at-large challenger Chris Lawyer also took the pledge. Mayoral challenger Robbie Perkins has left his options open when asked the question.

“It’s a qualified maybe answer,” said Perkins when asked during a candidate forum hosted by the Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club on Oct. 25 if he would vote to raise taxes. Asked if he would raise water rates and if he would cut spending, he responded, “It depends.”

Abraham may be the only challenger that has campaigned against cutting taxes, calling the council vote in 2010 to cut property taxes by a quarter of cent, “a jobs-killing tax cut.” He argues that the reduction had an insignificant impact on taxpayers, but stripped the city budget with the result that council cut funding to the Greensboro Partnership, which works to recruit new businesses to the city.

Only one candidate has expressed active interest in raising taxes.

“I don’t believe we can move Greensboro forward if we keep our taxes the way they are,” District 2 challenger C. Bradley Hunt II told an audience at the downtown public library for a forum hosted by the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress on Oct. 24. “I am a citizen and I believe that everyone wants to keep taxes low. It makes us all comfortable. But in order for us to spur economic development, in order for us to improve our infrastructure and to improve our services we must look for new ways to generate income for the city. So I believe we have to look at new ways that we may increase our tax rate so we can provide services for our citizens. So I think that in order to improve our services and infrastructure, in order to increase our police department, fire services, and also to give small business owners and minority business owners a chance to compete, we must look at ways to raise taxes.”

Incumbent Jim Kee was happy to take the opposing side on the issue.

“Certainly I would not advocate raising taxes,” he said. “Matter of fact, I voted to lower taxes. In this type of economy, citizens could not afford any increase in taxes. The way we can expand the revenue in Greensboro is to bring more businesses, to create more small businesses right here in our city. And that’s exactly what I have been doing.”

Kee, a developer, said he worked with Kotis Properties to open the H&F cafeteria at the corner of Church Street and Pisgah Church Road, creating 60 jobs. He said he has also worked with Kotis Properties to open Pace Medical at the intersection of East Cone Boulevard and Summit Avenue, which employs 30 people.

“That’s the way we keep taxes low and keep services great in Greensboro,” Kee said.

Zack Matheny, a registered Republican seeking reelection to the District 3 seat, told the audience at the Greater Greensboro Republican Women’s Club Forum that he would not vote to raise taxes. One day earlier he gave a somewhat more qualified answer to the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress.

“I don’t know, quite honestly, what’s going to happen with taxes,” he said. “My goal would be to not increase taxes. I’ve said that and we’ve been able to accomplish that by not increasing and actually have a very small, slight decrease for the city. One of our major issues is going to be real estate valuations in the next couple years.”

Historically, home values have appreciated over all, with the result that local governments can cut the tax rate and maintain neutral revenue. Real estate is revalued every eight years, and Guilford County is due for a revaluation next year. If, as expected, property values have depreciated overall because of the foreclosure and housing crisis, then local governments will have to choose between increasing the rate to maintain neutral revenue or cutting spending to compensate for reduced revenue at the current rate.

After the candidate forum Matheny said in an interview that his ultimate objective is to keep the tax bill flat, whatever that requires.

Jay Ovittore, who is challenging Matheny for the District 3 seat, stressed spending needs.

“I don’t want to make promises that I can’t keep, so I don’t want to say that I’m not going to vote to raise taxes, if necessary,” he said. “We need 200 more police officers on our police force. We need more fire people. We need our roads taken care of. We need to upgrade the Osborne water treatment plan so we can handle a capacity that’s almost near full at this point and continue to bring clean water to our communities. So that money’s going to come from somewhere. We can either get creative and do something about the landfill: Keep it closed, make it a regional solution, maybe own a regional solution, maybe cut off some of that as a portfolio, do some waste to energy. And if we spend the money on waste to energy now, that waste to energy is going to make us back millions more. And if I can keep your tax rate flat, I’ll do that. But I simply don’t know until I have the numbers in front of me.”

Mary Rakestraw, the conservative District 4 incumbent, has consistently pledged that she will not vote to raise taxes.

“With the present economy that we have we’ve got to be good stewards of your money and my money,” she said. “And I pay taxes, too. And this is a situation, y’all, that we cannot go the well but so many times. You have a budget in your own home. And you have to look at how you spend your money. And when you don’t have enough money, what do you do?... And, you know, I bet you even if you go home this coming week and you say, ‘What could I cut out that would not hurt my lifestyle, what would it be?’ Surely there is something. And we’re going to have to look at that as we go into the next two years. We have to be smart. We have to be prudent. And again, y’all, I cannot say this enough: We cannot tax ourselves out of this situation that we’re in at the present.”

Like Ovittore, District 4 challenger Nancy Hoffmann emphasized spending needs, prefacing her remarks by saying she is “committed to sound financial stewardship.”

“No one can predict the future,” she said. “So we really have to see what the situation is next year or the following year, but we know that we have possibly deferred some very important maintenance in this city. Those things catch up with you sometime down the road, and when they do the cost may be greater. We bear the cost of training the police staff and the fire staff in this city. And if we lose them a year or two years after we train them, then we have lost the cost of that investment in those people, and they’ve gone to High Point, or to Burlington, or Reidsville for another thousand dollars a year.”

Hoffmann said that a city, like any business, must “drill down” to see what spending items are “not absolutely essential” during difficult economic times, and have an honest conversation with citizens about what services they want to maintain, what they’re willing to give up, and what they’re willing to pay for.

Trudy Wade, the conservative incumbent in District 5, said she would not raise taxes.

“There’s two ways not to raise taxes,” she said. “And no, I wouldn’t raise taxes. Two ways to do that. Either you’re going to have to cut things or you’re going to have to bring in more jobs, more people, and increase your base of people paying in. There’s only two ways to do it. I think we’ve tried as a council to bring more jobs here. And I think we’ve done a pretty good job of that. For 12 of 16 years the unemployment rate’s been going up. This last year it’s started to go down again.”

In fact, data for the Greensboro-High Point metropolitan statistical area posted by the NC Employment Security Commission indicates that the unemployment rate increased in eight of the past 16 years. The rate has been declining over all over the past two years, but has remained at above 10 percent since 2009 after bouncing between 3 percent and 7 percent during the period from 1996 to 2008.

Wade credited the city council’s efforts to keep property taxes and water rates low with what progress has been seen in reducing the unemployment rate. During her remarks the councilwoman linked the tax rate to efforts to reopen the White Street Landfill, which she favors.

“If we were using our own landfill, we could save $8 million a year,” she said. “We won’t talk about the $30- or $40 million we’ve lost over the past four or five years.”

The $8 million figure tossed around by Wade, Thompson and The Rhinoceros Times is at odds with the $3.1 million per year in annual cost savings estimated by the city’s solid waste consultant for the plan to reopen the landfill that was adopted by the conservative faction. The difference can be chalked up to closure costs once the currently permitted portions of the landfill are depleted. Those who cite the $8 million figure argue that closure costs should not be included because the landfill would eventually have to be closed anyway. But under the current arrangement, the permitted portion of the landfill accepts a miniscule amount of screening, allowing it to remain open indefinitely.

Wade blamed a group of citizens who filed suit against the city to prevent the landfill from reopening with scuttling the city’s ability to pursue a regional approach, recycling, waste-to-energy technology, investments in infrastructure and cost savings.

“And we tried to take a regional approach,” she said. “And we tried to take the companies on the cutting edge of waste management and bring them into an RFP, and say, ‘What can you do for this community with technology, with recycling, and do a long-range plan for us.’ This is the first council that really stood back and said, ‘Let’s take a look at that.’ What can we do to cut this $8 million-a-year cost? And, of course, we ended up in a lawsuit, so all that technology, infrastructure, all that additional money we were going to have for the city, of course that won’t be the case now.”

Wade, Knight make no apologies for landfill position

C4GC candidates forum, a set on Flickr.

Conservative incumbents Trudy Wade and Bill Knight made their first public appearances in a lively City Council election campaign before a friendly audience at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum during a forum hosted by Conservatives for Guilford County last night.

The host organization asked candidates to address the White Street Landfill, along with the issues of fiscal responsibility and job creation, and the District 5 councilwoman took to the first issue in particular with zeal.

“The problem with the landfill is our trash is costing us millions of dollars,” she said. “There were conservative members of council that decided we needed to look at this issue for the people of Greensboro – all the people of Greensboro. Is there a way we could save money and with that money do things for economic development such as put in infrastructure, do things we really need in this city? Are we getting the best bang for our buck with paying all that money to transport our trash, which is our responsibility, not our responsibility to go stick it in somebody else’s backyard – our responsibility as citizens that we should take care of our own trash.

“So yes, it’s a hot item; it was emotional,” she continued. “But let’s think about it a minute: Four of us – actually five, but one conservative member could no longer vote on the matter and had to recuse himself – took on this challenge: Let’s talk about White Street. Let’s see if there’s something we can do.”

District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny had been recused because of a conflict of interest with Gate City Waste Services, a vendor that was pre-selected to operate the landfill before withdrawing its bid. Matheny has not indicated publicly which way he would have voted on the question of whether to reopen the landfill.

Wade went on to dispute the cost-savings estimated by city staff and an outside consultant for reopening the landfill. Wade contended reopening the landfill would save the city $8 million per year, as opposed to $3.1 million.

“We can play with numbers all we want, but the way you get [the low] number is you add the closure cost in over a period of seven years,” she said. Wade’s math assumes that the city will have to pay closure costs for the White Street Landfill whether it’s reopened or not, but the city has maintained permitting and operational capabilities at the landfill since it stopped accepting municipal solid waste in 2006 and staff has put forth no plans to decommission it.

“It took brave people to bring this issue up,” Wade said, drawing applause. “There’s been people on the council for years. You’ve heard some candidates tonight and city council representatives that said, ‘I’ve been on the council 12 years, 16 years.’ Well, we don’t have a plan for solid waste, and they’ve been there for that amount of time because they didn’t tackle the situation.”

Mayor Bill Knight appeared to be dispirited by a recent reversal that took place when the interim city attorney ruled that Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan could vote on the landfill, but made no apologies for his handling of the matter.

“We’re faced with trying to find a way to stop the hemorrhaging of millions of dollars each year; that was not the case just five years ago,” Knight said. “We did have a solution at hand, but it’s too late now to turn back the clock on that. I’ve seen nearby communities – Winston-Salem and Raleigh, for instance – with landfills very similar to ours that have gone forward to significant economic development without the problems that we have here or have had in Greensboro. Economically, we are behind on this issue.”

The mayor proposed a study committee to take up the issue in the next term.

The program included two follow-up questions for mayoral candidates. The group did not give the incumbent candidate a free pass, despite their shared conservative philosophy. The moderator asked Knight to address criticism that the council has not demonstrated transparency under his leadership.

“I believe this council has been quite open,” Knight said. “We have a number of discussions. We have long agendas. Everything is discussed openly in open council meeting. We do have closed sessions for certain sensitive matters, but we do not engage in what used to be called small-group meetings.”

Chris Phillips, a self-described conservative candidate who has worked with Conservatives for Guilford County in the past, backed away from a previous position of conditional support for reopening the landfill.

“To keep the peace in Greensboro I would say keep it closed for right now,” he said.

“Saving money, if the White Street Landfill is the best option, I’d say, ‘Let’s do that,’” the candidate added. “But what we need to do also is the city of Greensboro needs to prove to the people in the area that it is the best option – that there is no foul odor…. As an African American, I can say that I have struggled with asthma, I have struggled with bronchitis, so any children that live in that area, we need to make sure that they feel safe, that there are no health hazards.”

The moderator noted that Phillips has gone on record as saying that he’s a regular user of Greensboro mass transit. Contending that city buses are underutilized during non-peak hours, the moderator went on to ask the candidate what changes could be made to make the system more efficient.

“In riding the buses every day, as I do, I understand what Greensboro’s residents who ride the buses go through every day,” Phillips said. “I think that we need to make sure there’s a safety net in place for the transit system so the money is used for that purpose. Another solution, I would say, we could have for the low ridership and the cost of diesel fuel, let’s have fuel-efficient cars, or let’s have shuttle vans that can go to these areas and pick up people. One of the things that I face is that if I miss the bus sometimes I have to catch a cab. And catching a taxi has become more and more expensive. So we need to make sure that there’s an effective bus system in Greensboro to pick up the riders who need those bus routes.”

The 45-year-old candidate noted that he is not married and has no children, adding, “those are some desires that I do have one day.” He told the audience that he graduated from UNCG with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.

“I thought that when I graduated the world was going to be my oyster, so to speak,” he said. “I thought: I’m smart, and I’m going to get a job, and I’m going to live happily ever after. And please don’t get me wrong: I thank God for HH Gregg, and I thank God for my job, but there are other gifts, other dreams that I would like to put in place, and I know a lot of other college students who feel the same way that I do.”

The forum presented a test for mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins, a longtime councilman who is favored to win by many political observers. Although he is a registered Republican, Perkins is distrusted by many conservatives because of his alignment with the council’s progressive faction.

Perkins looked extremely composed, betraying only the slightest hint of nervousness as he answered a question about his vote to close the landfill a decade previously.

“The solution to the issue that we looked at in 2003 was similar to what we looked at today,” he said. “Your worst-case scenario, as a public official, is that you have no solution for your garbage. The assumptions made that you could keep White Street open and expand it were problematic then, as they are today. We’ve all heard about the issues involved in section 4 and section 5 of White Street and how that’s going to require rezoning, that’s going to require additional permitting. Those issues were up in the air in 2003 as well. What we were looking at is retaining our unused capacity, using that as a way to negotiate against the haulers, for them to give us a fair price.”

The candidate also answered a question about public subsidies for the Greensboro Coliseum with ease.

“I look at the billion dollars of tourism business in Guilford County as a huge community asset,” he 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 all 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.”

One of the questions posed to mayoral candidate Tom Phillips, a former councilman who is also a registered Republican, related to the candidate’s long experience as a director of the Piedmont Triad Regional Water Authority, which is responsible for bringing the Randleman Reservoir online to supply the water needs of Greensboro and neighboring municipalities. The moderator asked Phillips if the projected needs for water were inflated and whether citizens could expect a rate cut as a result of the new supply.

Phillips responded that if the city’s projected water needs had been inflated, it was because of the decline of the textile industry – once a major user. If the new water supply lasted for more than 50 years, as projected, Phillips said he doesn’t consider that a problem. He offered no relief on rates.

“You have expenses, and you never know what environmental rules will come along to require us to spend money,” Phillips said. “I really don’t see rates going down from here.”

Bradford Cone, the only Democrat on the mayoral slate, put forward a flat recitation of positions antithetical to conservative agenda. He said the landfill issue should not have been brought up by council and is unnecessarily dividing the city. And he said the city should invest in infrastructure to create jobs, and spend money in the short term to achieve long-term savings.

“I would also reinstate the moment of silence,” he added, “as the prayer, for anyone who’s not Christian would feel they’re less welcome and less a part of the community.”

Mary Rakestraw, a member of the conservative faction who is seeking reelection to her seat as the District 4 representative, pushed back against the notion that the process was rigged to favor Gate City Waste Industries.

“Now, some people have said that the RFPs that were sent out were written specifically for one server,” Rakestraw said, adding that after staff developed the request for proposals, council members made only “four or five minor changes” before the document was posted.

Rakestraw noted that studies about health impact of the landfill have come back inconclusive, and remarked that the landfill was currently “a moot point.”

Only one of two challengers in the District 4 race, Tony Collins, showed up for the forum. Collins said there was a need for new blood, but did not take a stand on either side of the landfill debate.

The three candidates competing to represent District 2, where the landfill is located, waded into hostile territory.

Incumbent Jim Kee geared his remarks somewhat to a conservative perspective on cost savings.

“It’s a bad economic idea because you’re looking at a short-term gain of four and a half years, and once the landfill is filled the profits that we would have earned would have evaporated when we went back to the open market, which we would have to do,” Kee said.

Challenger C. Bradley Hunt II made no apologies for his stance against reopening the landfill.

“We have to come together to understand that the White Street Landfill should not be opened in Greensboro,” he said. “I feel that no amount of savings is worth the quality of life for the residents that live near the landfill. To me, that conversation should not have ever come up, and I will do everything that I can to keep the White Street Landfill closed.”

Dan Fischer challenged audience members to who employ people in Greensboro.

“We need to start paying a living wage to everybody who walks through our doors when we’re hiring,” he said.

Jorge Cornell, who is challenging Wade for the District 5 seat, cut a striking contrast amidst the nattily dressed and politically conservative crowd. Cornell’s introduction did not include any mention of his role as leader of the North Carolina Latin Kings, a group considered to be a street gang by the Greensboro Police Department and other law enforcement agencies. All the same, the candidate and audience appeared to be in separate psychic universes.

Cornell gamely pitched himself on a bootstrapping theme, noting that he plans to launch a temporary labor agency.

“I’m proud to say that our doors will be opened in January, and it’s a joint effort with the Beloved Community Center, which has built in a training center,” the candidate said. “Which is going to help a lot of brothers and sisters that are homeless, brothers and sisters that got felonies, those that are considered marginalized in our community. The reason why I think this is important is that these brothers and sisters need to know that they still are community and we need to let them know by giving them that second chance in life because everybody deserves a second chance in life.”

In his closing remarks, Cornell echoed Frederick Douglass, who was quoted in a mass e-mail sent out by Conservatives for Guilford County to publicize the event: “In a composite nation like ours, as before the law, there should be no rich, no poor, no high, no low, no white, no black, but common country, common citizenship, equal rights and a common destiny.”

Cornell said, “We need to get away from this two-class citizenship, okay? We really do. We’re all one people. And I think that’s really important, because the only way we’re going to make change in this community is if we come together as one. As long as we sit here on this side and we have people sit on this side, we’re never going to make change. It’s been like this for awhile. As long as we stay divided, they shall conquer. And when I say that, I’m talking about us conquering ourselves.”

At-large candidate Chris Lawyer, a self-described conservative offered some general comments about fiscal responsibility, but made no mention of the landfill.

Jean Austin Brown, another conservative in the at-large race, exhibited difficulty articulating a position on the landfill, making equivocating statements about public input process and the merits of recycling.

“Nobody has the answer to the landfill,” she said. “I don’t think so. I’ve listened to everything. I’ve read everything I can about the landfill. I don’t think anybody has the answer yet. But I’m open to suggestions. Even when I’m on city council I would not be against town-hall meetings if all possible participants were there to voice their concerns, whether it’s yes or no. But I’m not for listening to just a bunch of folks who are angry and who are not willing to listen and to try to do something about this.”

Austin said, “When you say recycling, it’s probably like putting a Bandaid on cancer.”

Then she added, “I would be all for more recycling.”

Moderators Algenon Cash and Kevin Daniels gave remarks about the connection between conservativism and civil rights, but the real more resonant statements about the setting came from candidates.

“Earlier this week… the letters ‘KKK’ were spray-painted on one of my yard signs,” said Mayor Bill Knight, who graduated from Greensboro High School in 1957, the year before it accepted its first black student. “And what I took this to mean was hate. I can’t interpret it any other way but hate. Being where we are here I find it rather meaningful where we are. And this center symbolizes injustice and struggle.”

Sal Leone, an at-large candidate who drew a boo from the audience when he mentioned he was a Yankees fan, brought an unpopular message on the landfill.

“The future of Greensboro is in the east; we have no place else to go,” he said. “We need economic development. Landfills do not bring a lot of jobs. We need to develop the east. It will bring economic development, jobs, corporations, which bring money, taxes, revenue. It’s what we need.”

Then he drew back to a historical period that Daniels had referenced as the dawn of American civil rights.

“With the city council divided as they are, Abraham Lincoln said it the best: ‘A house divided cannot stand,’” Leone said. “And we all know what happened in 1860. That’s what’s happening here now. We’re in a crisis. We’re in big trouble.”

Crawford officially withdraws from District 5 race

David Crawford has officially withdrawn from the District 5 race for Greensboro City Council, the Guilford County Board of Elections reports. That leaves incumbent Trudy Wade and challenger Jorge Cornell as the two remaining candidates.

"No votes will be tallied," Deputy Director Charlie Collicutt said. "Jorge and Trudy are the nominees. Even though it will be on the ballot, we will not even display the results on election night."

Previously.

Candidate profile: Trudy Wade

District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade, seen with fellow conservative Councilman Danny Thompson, has led efforts to reopen the White Street Landfill.

Trudy Wade, a longtime local politician and veterinarian with a practice in Jamestown, has led the conservative drift of the Greensboro City Council. Her election to the council in 2007, alongside Mary Rakestraw, signaled the beginning of a break with the moderate pro-business consensus era lead by former Mayor Keith Holliday.

Wade and Rakestraw pledged to increase the city manager’s accountability to council amid widespread discontent with then City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s handling of racial discrimination complaints by black police officers. Johnson had brought in an independent agency to investigate the complaints and was awaiting an explanation when then police Chief David Wray abruptly resigned. At the time, in 2006, the council backed Johnson. Following their election in 2007, Wade and Rakestraw made two unsuccessful attempts to oust Johnson, and in 2009 they were able to bring fellow council members Zack Matheny, Sandra Anderson and Mike Barber into a narrow majority to accomplish the goal.

Since 2009, Wade has been a defendant in a federal lawsuit filed by 39 black officers, along with the city of Greensboro, former Chief David Wray, former Deputy Chief Randall Brady and Officer Scott Sanders. Wade was added to the lawsuit in both her individual and official capacities because of her alleged release of confidential information about the officers. A federal judge turned down a motion by outside counsel to dismiss a claim against the city in an order filed last month. The city’s argument had been premised on the notion that Wade exceeded her authority as a council member when she took the action. The Brooks Pierce law firm’s defense of Wade in the lawsuit is among a number of matters in which the firm is billing the city up to $300 per hour, according to a recent letter from law partner George House.

Two years after Wade won her seat, conservatives consolidated control on the council with the election of Bill Knight as mayor and Danny Thompson at large. Wade and her three fellow conservatives have worked in the past two years to overturn another legacy of the Holliday era that took place in 2006.

That year, the council closed the White Street Landfill to household waste. The four conservatives have taken a series of votes this year to reopen the landfill. That effort appears to have put the conservative consensus at risk of unraveling, with a backlash gushing out of predominantly black east Greensboro and washing across the rest of the city.

In the past two elections, Wade has spent thousands of dollars on campaign consulting services from Bill Burckley, a former council member. Wade’s inaugural campaign, in which she unseated former District 5 representative Sandy Carmany, featured a series of cartoon attack ads in the Rhinoceros Times, including one that characterized the incumbent as dithering as problem with gangs mounted.

The year after Wade took office, a street organization known as the Latin Kings that was targeted by the Greensboro Police Department’s gang enforcement unit publicly accused the squad of harassment. Its leader, Jorge Cornell has emerged as a community activist over the past three years and the Latin Kings have filed a Title VI civil rights complaint against the department.

Cornell is now a candidate for city council challenging Wade for representation of District 5, which covers the southwest portion of the city. Another challenger is David Crawford, a perennial candidate for local office with a history of erratic campaigning.

Cornell and Crawford are both challenging Wade on her support for reopening the White Street Landfill, which lies in northeast Greensboro. Yet, Wade’s strong name recognition coupled with her opponents’ baggage and lack of political experience make her a tough candidate to beat. And Sal Leone, an at-large candidate, said he has found that many District 5 residents agree with Wade’s position on the landfill.

Wade rarely makes public comments outside of city council meetings. Even there, some citizens have complained that she didn’t provide an explanation for her support of reopening the landfill or her motion to select a vendor that was not the lowest responsive bidder. Wade has declined to comment on the decision to YES! Weekly and the News & Record, expressing concerns that both newspapers would misrepresent her position. The candidate also declined to be interviewed for this article.

On the dais, Wade is known for tough questions of staff, vigilance against tax or water rate increases, skepticism of government in general and insistence that her district receive equal services. Wade’s advocacy for her district, has led her to challenge on occasion funding received by downtown and east Greensboro, prompting rhetorical skirmishes with both District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny and District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small.

An example of Wade’s skepticism towards active government and public spending cropped up during a discussion about a $5 million weatherization grant from the US Department of Energy preceding her vote in opposition in the fall of 2010.

“The people that really need the help are not going to get it,” she said. “They’re going to be taken advantage of and told to go get a loan to upgrade or retrograde or save energy or whatever and they’re not going to be able to be able to pay their loan back. They’re not going to save enough money to pay the loan back, and the only ones I see benefiting are the ones that are going to get the jobs for three years.”

More recently, in a remark during a briefing session, the councilwoman dismissed a repeated call by her colleagues to allow the city to bid against private industry to operate the White Street Landfill.

“We all know private industry is more efficient and does it better, because the city is going to pay you whether you’re good you’re not good or whatever,” Wade said. “Now, I’m going to say that when you work in private industry, if you’re not producing at a certain amount you’re not going to be there very long.”

Notwithstanding the controversy that sometimes surrounds Wade on citywide issue such as the landfill and the replacement of the city manager, Wade has cultivated a loyal cadre of political supporters and constituents in District 5.

Tony Wilkins, a former executive director of the Guilford County Republican Party and sometime aspirant to city council, is volunteering on his third campaign for Wade.

Asked what attracted him to Wade’s candidacy and what has sustained his support, Wilkins answered succinctly: “Her deep roots of conservatism.”

“Trudy Wade is a true conservative in a truly conservative district,” Wilkins said. “She’s highly thought of by her constituents…. I consider her an excellent representative.”

Wade has pressed the case for keeping water rates law in the past two budget cycles. In 2010, the council voted to cut taxes, but Wade voted against the budget because she didn’t think the decrease went far enough. During the adoption of the current budget, Wade voted with the majority to keep the tax rate even, and cast decisive votes to block an effort by Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan to restore pay for sworn, reserve officers and reinstate funding to the Greensboro Partnership to support economic development.

“I think she is truly a friend to the taxpayer,” Wilkins said.

Wade led an effort to rescind a 2010 water rate increase through funds from a lawsuit settlement with communications giant MCI. The reductions were broadly supported by council, with only political foes Bellamy-Small and Robbie Perkins voting against them.

Wade’s district arcs around the southwestern corner of the city, with the affluent Cardinal and Grandover neighborhoods forming bookends, but also includes low-wealth and racially diverse neighborhoods straddling High Point Road. It’s the only district that doesn’t reach into the core of the city.

Wade has taken a skeptical position on the activities of Downtown Greensboro Inc., casting the only dissenting vote in September 2010 in a motion to approve a budget for downtown services financed by a special tax district. In the midst of discussion on the item, Wade interjected a motion to study the feasibility of placing a police substation on High Point Road. Dianne Bellamy-Small, who represents District 1, asked for her cooperation in studying the feasibility of deploying additional police resources more generally. Wade rebuffed the overture, and the downtown support budget was eventually passed.

Wade has also questioned the expenditure of city funds to maintain the Downtown Greenway, which will eventually pass through every district except District 5. Wade has suggested that the funds would be better spent on improving streets, particularly Merritt Drive, a major traffic artery in her district. The project is sufficiently important to her that she has posted a schedule on her campaign website.

That’s not to say that the council woman is uniformly hostile towards downtown interests.

In 2010, Wade cast the lone dissenting vote against maintaining the municipal service district tax rate for the College Hill neighborhood in District 4, where a high portion of the housing stock is rented to college students and young professionals by landlords. This year, a group of property owners that included landlord Rick Sandler came before the council and requested that the special tax rate be reduced, and Wade voted with the majority to approve the rate cut. At the following meeting, officers of the neighborhood association expressed dismay that the action had been taken without their being consulted.

Sandler also came to council to request that council exempt properties north of Fisher Avenue from the Downtown Design Overlay, a set of guidelines to encourage pedestrian-friendly design. Wade supported the exemption of the properties, which are in an area ripe for redevelopment.

Wade also voted in favor of a teen curfew after 11 p.m. in downtown Greensboro that was proposed by Matheny and supported by developer Roy Carroll, along with leaders of Downtown Greensboro Inc., Action Greensboro and the Cemala Foundation.

Wade receives high marks for constituent services, particularly on public safety and transportation matters.

“It’s probably her response to their concerns, whether they’re big or small,” Wilkins said. “She will respond to everybody who has some inquiry of her, no matter whether the issue is big or small.”

For example, series of serious traffic accidents, including one fatality, took place at the intersection of Pinecroft and Darden roads. Tico Wallace, a local realtor who leads the Lamrocton community watch, and other residents contacted Wade. Within a week, Wallace said, city crews had trimmed back the trees at the intersection and put up signs.

“She has just been unbelievable as an elected representative,” Wallace said. “She actually calls the community watch leaders and asks us if there’s any issues going on, and if there’s anything that she should bring up at the meetings.”

On citywide issues, Wade has not always won.

During the second meeting of the current council, Matheny and Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan broke ranks with the conservative faction to support a plan to use hotel-motel funds to complete the Greensboro Aquatic Center. Wade, Thompson and Knight also failed to block a $5 million federal grant for weatherization activities.

But more often, Wade has been on the winning side of important votes. Detractors of the council’s conservative faction, chief among them at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins, contend that it is Wade rather than Knight that is providing leadership for the group.

Wade has voted with the majority to move speakers from the floor to the end of meetings, to have the city attorney report to council rather than the city manager, to deny a request to hire a federal lobbyist on the city’s behalf.

And, on the landfill Wade has been a part of a slim majority that has pushed through a process to reopen the White Street Landfill through 4-3 votes. Wade and her fellow conservatives were able to prevail because of the recusal of Vaughan, whose husband works for Waste Industries, a company that submitted a proposal to operate the landfill. Now that the company is no longer under consideration, a judge has ruled that Vaughan can vote, and has signaled that she will block any move to reopen the landfill.

The vote to decide whether to award a contract to Gate City Waste Services to operate the landfill comes up on Tuesday. Notwithstanding the challenging turn of events, Wade has shown herself to be someone willing to play hardball.

In August, Wade told Vaughan during a council work session: “If you vote against Gate City, we’re going to have a very serious problem picking anyone but Waste Industries because that would be the only way you couldn’t vote on it.”

Anticlimax after rumored recusal vote

District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny was playing coy tonight, but apparently wasn't playing ball with District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade.

An expected (link) vote to recuse Greensboro Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan from taking part in a decision to approve a solid waste contract did not materialize during a city council meeting tonight.

Typically, motions that are not on the agenda or added as part of an addendum come up for a vote at the end of the meeting during a segment called "matters to be discussed by the mayor and members of city council." Members discussed 9-11 commemoration activities, emergency response planning and the Greensboro Grasshoppers' winning streak, but no motion was made to recuse Vaughan.

At-large Councilman Danny Thompson and District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw — two of the four members who have voted to reopen the landfill in the past — indicated after the meeting that they were unaware of any plans to seek Vaughan's recusal.

Interim City Attorney Tom Pollard declined to comment on whether any of the four pro-landfill council members had approached him to ask whether it was legal to recuse another member against her will, but he said he discussed the matter with Steven J. Levitas, a lawyer who represents Gate City Waste Services. The company has been preselected to operate the White Street Landfill.

Pollard said his research into the legality of what he has described as an extraordinary parliamentary procedure "was derived from that conversation."

Gate City Waste Services filed suit against the city, Vaughan and District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny today seeking an injunction to prevent Vaughan from voting and to force Matheny to vote in the selection of the contractor to reopen the landfill.

Just as the meeting was beginning, Pollard and members of council received an e-mail (link) from Chris Brook, a lawyer for landfill opponents, requesting that the vote be delayed. Brook's argument that requiring Matheny to vote on whether Vaughan should be recused "is the equivalent of giving him a vote on Gate City as a vendor" — a company that he is deemed to have a conflict of interest with — might have been read as a shot across the bow.

After a break earlier in the meeting, six members of council reconvened without Thompson, Rakestraw and District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade. Rhinoceros Times Editor John Hammer was also outside of chambers.

The six council members began rapidly moving through a motion to allocate funding for "downtown support activities" — an item expected to especially run counter to Wade's fiscally conservative, parochial proclivities. At-large Councilman Robbie Perkins, who was smiling mischievously with District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small, made a rolling motion with his arms to urge the mayor to call for a vote. Everyone on the dais understood that as the three absent members were not excused their votes would count as yes.

Just then, Thompson, Rakestraw and Wade rejoined the meeting, looking stone-faced. Wade read the item on the screen and said, "I'm against it."

Matheny said he had been approached by a fellow council member, whom he declined the name.

"I was asked, 'What would I do?'" he said.

Asked how he answered, he said cryptically: "You'd have to ask them."

Presumably the reason the motion was not made was because the four did not feel confident that it would pass.

"I was waiting just like you were waiting," Matheny said.

Law firm's services to city range from landfill to police discrimination

Brooks Pierce law firm and in particular partner George House have their hands in a lot of matters that affect public policy in the city of Greensboro as outside counsel.

From an Aug. 24 letter (link) from George House to interim City Attorney Tom Pollard outlining proposed terms and conditions of the law firm's representation:

We are pleased to provide you with an updated and consolidated engagement letter to continue to serve as legal counsel in assisting the city of Greensboro on various matters. There are four matters on which we are currently representing the city of Greensboro: 1) Assistance in responding to the complaint filed by certain citizens to the proposed reopening of the White Street Landfill and related permitting activities; 2) Assistance in analyzing options to the currently required city wastewater treatment plan and stormwater upgrades; 3) Assistance in defending Councilwoman Trudy Wade in the Alexander litigation; 4) Assistance in addressing miscellaneous environmental matters and questions.

For those who do not follow the minute, blow-by-blow details of who is suing the city of Greensboro day by day, "the Alexander litigation" refers to a pending federal lawsuit by 39 black Greensboro police officers that is currently before US District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder.

On the matter of billing, House explains,

I will be the attorney having primary responsibility for city matters. Our current hourly rates for the attorneys generally assisting me are set forth below, along with the discounted rate we currently offer the city. We rarely discount hourly rates, and these discounts are the largest we give. However, we believe we have a responsibility to assist the community in which we live.

According to the schedule provided in the letter, House is the highest paid employee of Brooks Pierce, with a usual hourly rate of $415 per hour and discounted rate of $300 per hour.

"If this letter accurately sets forth the understanding between the firm and you concerning the terms and conditions of our firm's representation, please show your acceptance by signing the enclosed copy of this letter and returning it to me," House writes.

A contract based on House's engagement letter comes before the Greensboro City Council for approval on Tuesday.

Fire service and school crossing guards among concerns in District 5 budget meeting

Councilwoman Trudy Wade and City Manager Rashad Young

Greensboro City Manager Rashad Young told about 20 people gathered at the Trotter Recreation Center for a District 5 community budget meeting tonight that he will likely recommend that the council cut $12 million to $13 million.

The range of possible cuts goes from $9 million to $18 million, and the possibility of the NC General Assembly balancing its $2 billion shortfall by cutting funding to cities creates a giant question mark for Greensboro, which, like all municipalities, is statutorily required to pass a balanced budget by July 1.

Young has made presentations in the city’s other four districts already, and tonight’s audience had the benefit of getting the details of his three-tiered budget cuts, which were presented to council on April 19. A second District 5 meeting for the northern portion of Councilwoman Trudy Wade’s district will be held on May 12 at the Oak Ridge Meadows Club House.

Many of the details of tonight’s presentation were familiar: Based on the direction of council, Young will not entertain the possibility of a property tax increase. Property tax revenue for the next budget year is projected to be flat. Keeley Park in northeast Greensboro comes online next year and will require an additional $320,000 to operate. Also, the city estimates that utility rate increases will incur another $267,000.

Many of the first-tier cuts, which would save an estimated $9 million, involve delaying maintenance of vehicles, letting supplies of materials such as asphalt and garbage cans draw down and eliminating positions — some filled, other vacant. And in the case of the parks and recreation department, Young said the city is considering contracting out maintenance and cleaning services to save money.

The proposed cut that raised the most concern in the city manager’s first slice at the budget is an item related to reducing contracted services with outside fire districts. One of those districts if the Pinecroft-Sedgefield Fire Department, whose Mackey Road station is located outside of the city’s corporate limit but is the closest to the Adams Farm neighborhood.

Young said the reduction would eliminate a backup position for a person to cover a regularly scheduled firefighter who is out on sick leave. The city funds three positions for the Pinecroft-Sedgefield Fire Department.

"In structure fire cases, we have to assemble 15 people to fight a fully engaged structure fire,” Young said. “And so the reduction that we make is in that buffer. What that consequence will be is that on some days instead of three, we may have two people there on that engine. However, if there is a fire response, Greensboro’s coming anyway because you can’t fight a fire with three people.”

The Adams Farm area is not the only one affected by the reduction. Young said the city also plans to reduce contracted services with outside fire districts in the Colfax area past the airport and in northeast Greensboro.

More questions came with Young’s presentation on Tier 2 cuts, which result in an additional $4 million in savings.

Under this scenario, the city would close the Folk Teen Center, with savings coming from the elimination of two part-time, three seasonal and six roster positions.

Asked to justify the cut, Parks and Recreation Director Greg Jackson said, “The teens were not coming there.”

Young added that the area is sparsely populated and there is not an adjacent neighborhood with a large population of children, so the location is not convenient. He said the teen programming would continue at other locations.

The city would also defer replacement of firefighters’ uniforms except in critical cases in which they are torn or contaminated. The practice of hiring back retired police to assist in investigations would be scaled back.

District 5 resident Gail Stroud asked Young how public safety might be affected by reducing hirebacks.

“We’re giving them more responsibility and they have more work to do,” the city manager said, indicating full-time sworn officers will have to pick up the slack.

Under Tier 3, Young singled out a measure to take fire Ladder Company 49 on Friendly Avenue out of service and reassign firefighters to a nearby station.

“This is one that’s probably the most difficult here,” Young said.

The city is also considering eliminating half of its school crossing guards. Last year, Young proposed eliminating the program altogether and met with Guilford County Schools Superintendent Mo Green to see if the district would take responsibility for the program. The district didn’t and the city council ended up blinking in the standoff and restoring the cuts. One of the schools affected by the proposed cuts this year is Pilot Elementary in Adams Farm.

Tony Wilkins, a District 5 resident who is running for city council at large this year, asked if there would be a liability problem with using volunteers as crossing guards.

“That might be something we would explore,” Young responded.

At least one resident indicated she concurs with the council’s directive to not balance the budget by raising taxes. She implored Young to tell the council: “There are people who have actually sold their cars to pay their property taxes. And that’s a reality a lot of people don’t understand.”

Councilwoman Wade was sitting directly behind her.

“We understand that,” she said.

Wade asked Young how much the city might save by putting its municipal solid waste in the White Street Landfill instead of shipping it out of the county. The council indicated by a straw poll earlier this week that it favors narrowing its list of contenders for a contract to handle the city’s solid waste to three companies that have proposed to reopen the landfill.

“If White Street receives all our municipal solid waste, [savings] could range anywhere from $4 million to $8 million,” Young said.

Stroud urged city leaders to look for some long-term strategies to save taxpayers money. She was only one of a number of residents who questioned whether the coliseum should be privatized considering that it operates at a loss every year.

Wade said many of her constituents feel the same, and argued that the positive impact the coliseum has as an economic generator could also be realized if it was in public hands.

At-large Councilman Danny Thompson offered a spirited argument in favor of maintaining public ownership of the coliseum.

“The coliseum, I almost see it as a utility,” he said. “It’s an extremely important asset to the city. We don’t have a river. We don’t have a beach. We don’t have a mountain. We do have a coliseum that is a crown jewel, and it’s a PR piece, a marketing piece that the rest of the country sees…. ‘That’s where they have the basketball tournaments.’ 800 events a year.

“We’re going to spend $1.4 million. Let’s say that’s your business. You’re funding this business. It brings in an incredible amount of sales tax revenue. And it does provide that job for the waitress at the Olive Garden. It provides income for the owner of the franchise at the Olive Garden, and all of the cooks and the dishwashers for that restaurant. Also for that hotel that people stay at…. I am a firm believer that the coliseum is a generator of economic activity that the citizens of Greensboro benefit from…. It is critical and it is important that we support it. I don’t know if I’d want to give away that asset.”

Economic development and trash disposal

UPDATE: Councilman Zack Matheny will reportedly not participate in the solid waste vote because of an indirect conflict of interest.

ORIGINAL POST: When I bumped into Greensboro District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade before a community budget meeting tonight, she informed me that I had misquoted her remarks about economic development and the White Street Landfill during Tuesday's work session.

Contrary to what I wrote, she said she had not asked staff to look into extending Cone Boulevard to provide an alternative entrance to the landfill. She pulled out a map that shows the future Cone Boulevard extending eastward through two "future economic development area[s]" skirting the north side of the landfill. The more easterly economic development area would be at the interchange with the future Urban Loop. Under this plan, the entrance to the landfill would be from Ranking Mill Road, in contrast to the current entrance at White Street, which is near the Nealtown Farms area.

Wade added that once the city recovers its share of the money from the dissolved city-county joint water and sewer funds, the city could invest the money into infrastructure in the area.

Later, I asked if this map was provided by Gate City Waste Services, one of three companies proposing to reopen the landfill. She responded that it was drawn by an engineering company, but didn't have any information about who paid for it or what purpose it was created for. She added that District 2 Councilman Jim Kee has a copy and he might be able to provide more information about its origins.

The map looks strikingly similar to a glossy card-stock map distributed by Gate City Waste Services during their presentation to council in March. Part of the company's pitch is to "minimize impact on adjacent neighbors" through "relocation of landfill entrance."

After the community budget meeting, Wade summoned at-large Councilman Danny Thompson to talk about "economic development" and spread out the map on a table in the back of the room.

Gate City Waste Services is the only local company among the three proposers. Two of its partners, DH Griffin Sr. and David Griffin Jr., are contributors to Mayor Bill Knight's 2009 election campaign. The city attorney is currently researching to determine whether at-large Councilman Robbie Perkins and District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny have a conflict of interest and should be recused from voting on solid waste because of business involvement with DH Griffin, the demolition company owned by the father and son.

Bellamy-Small responds to Rhino portrayal of GSO district funding

Greensboro District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small responds to a story in last week's issue of the Rhinoceros Times that was prompted by a request by her colleague, District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade, for a breakdown of city spending on capital investment project spending by district.

Bellamy-Small has never enjoyed a comfortable relationship with the press, and her response was given in the form of a written statement handed out at the end of tonight's council meeting:

It is irresponsible to attempt to pit one district against the other because, in fact, our true role as representatives of the people of Greensboro is to foster a city of common ground, common need and common well-being. We will only achieve this by working together instead of being at odds with each other.

John Hammer's story in the Rhino is explicitly framed as a retort to Bellamy-Small:

"East Greensboro doesn't get anything" is a mantra that is repeated at City Council meeting after City Council meeting.

District 1 Councilmember Dianne Bellamy-Small brings it up all the time. And District 2 Councilmember Jim Kee joins in the chorus, but not as often or as loudly as former District 2 City Councilmember Goldie Wells did when she was on the council. Representatives of the Concerned Citizens of Northeast Greensboro often repeat the same theme during speakers from the floor.

Wade has not responded to requests from YES! Weekly for comment on her request for data, but the Rhino's John Hammer characterizes her motives without quoting her directly:

District 5 City Councilmember Trudy Wade finally got tired of all the rhetoric and asked the city staff for some facts on how much money the city spends on each council district and how much the city receives in property taxes from each district.

Based on his analysis of data provided by city staff, Hammer concludes that the city has spent three times as much on infrastructure in District 1 over the past 10 years as in District 5. An analysis by YES! Weekly in tomorrow's paper arrives at quite a different conclusion.

Bellamy-Small proposes in a white paper distributed to the press that the city implement a "community indicators system" to gauge equity in development, taking a page out of the Connections 2025 Comprehensive Plan, which calls for the creation of "an ongoing housing and neighborhood condition monitoring strategy."

From Bellamy-Small's "Greensboro Indicators White Paper":

A community indicators system would have numerous benefits for Greensboro, including:

* Help identify neighborhoods or areas that are most in need of enhanced city services, additional or upgraded city facilities, neighborhood or area planning assistance:
* Provide city staff with required data for grant applications;
* Help city council members better understand conditions affecting their constituents;
* Provide data for the next update to Connections 2025 and other long-range plans;
* Help guide development of the city's budget and capital improvement program; and
* Monitor progress in implementing goals and policies of adopted plans.

A personal note: Speaking as both a citizen and a journalist -- and as someone who lives in District 3, works in District 5 and whose wife has family in District 1 -- I can think of no more vital question than the one that is implicit in Wade's request: How is taxpayer money spent and to whose benefit? I hope an open and constructive conversation can take place around this question -- one that includes Wade's full participation.

Loan program at heart of weatherization controversy

The Greensboro City Council voted 6-3 on Tuesday to accept $5 million in federal stimulus funds for weatherizing buildings reflected. Some members such as District Councilman Zack Matheny and District 4 Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw signed on with strong reservations that the money wouldn’t reach its target demographic of the poor and old.

“I don’t fundamentally agree with this,” Matheny said before reluctantly agreeing to vote to accept the funding. “I don’t fundamentally agree with the money not going directly to the poor, the needy and the elderly.”

At-large Councilman Danny Thompson, who voted against the funding, expressed even graver reservations.

“If even a dollar of the ten dollars would actually go to service and labor to the people who need it, I would support it wholeheartedly. It’s like bailing out our financial institutions. It’s not like Washington, DC had $5 million that they found under the seat cushion.”

Most of the debate centered on $2.3 million — not quite half of the allocation — designated for “contracted construction,” or “actual building retrofit work,” estimated to range from $2,000 to $10,000 for single family homes or upwards of $50,000 for multi-family residential, commercial and institutional buildings.

A Sept. 28 memo drafted by community sustainability manager Dan Curry states that “because of the 5 to 1 leverage requirement imposed by the Dept. of Energy, a large portion of the $2,291,963 of BetterBuildings grant funds allocated for construction are likely to be used as a loan loss reserve fund with a lender or pool of lenders. In this way the grant funds will leverage a much larger pool of below-market funding available to property owners who choose to undertake energy efficient upgrades.”

Some council members questioned whether poor people who wanted their houses weatherized would end up trapped in loans they couldn’t afford to pay.

Assistant City Manager Denise Turner acknowledged, “The loan portion of the program is not for poor people.” Turner added, “The great thing about this is its one of the few programs that actually benefits businesses.”

District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade, who also voted against the funding, said, “There seems to be a misconception that this is going to help poor people. It’s going to help businesses, landlords and consultants.”

The program offers modest services free of charge to low-income homeowners. According to a recent memo drafted by Turner, a number of items would be installed at no cost during an initial outreach visit, including CFL light bulbs, water-saving faucet aerators, programmable thermostats and HVAC filters.

Turner told council members that the program would not work directly with homeowners, but rather would engage a number of partner organizations to undertake the work. Among the organizations that have expressed interest in collaborating with the city to implement the program are Habitat for Humanity, Housing Greensboro and Affordable Housing Management. According to the Turner memo, Habitat for Humanity “is interested in working with their roughly 200 homes built pre-2003 to determine potential utility cost savings for their property owners,” Housing Greensboro “has set a goal of repairing 100 homes in 2011,” and Affordable Housing Management “has indicated they have 81 rental units undergoing rehabilitation where they would like to partner with the city in making them more energy efficient.”

The memo also indicates that households under 200 percent of the area poverty level already have the opportunity to have homes weatherized at no cost through the State Weatherization Assistance Program, which plans to retrofit 600 homes in the Greensboro area.

A parade of speakers urged council to approve the funding, and representatives of the Greensboro Community Sustainability Council and the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress said their respective organizations had passed resolutions of support.

Former Mayor Yvonne Johnson told the council: “I ask you to consider keeping this money so that many of our low-income residents can have some cost savings and comfort.”

Katie Scherzer, who spoke to council, elaborated on that theme.

“I’d like to ask each council member to raise their hand if they turned up their heat on one of these cold nights recently without giving it a second thought,” she said. “The majority of our elderly and poor can’t have that luxury of turning on their energy and heat. I know the majority of them are sitting in their homes in jackets and sitting on their hands. When we’re giving this money, we’re giving it back to them in savings on their heating bills. We’re not likely to get another chance to do this.”

District 1 Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small drew from Holy Scripture in an attempt to win over her skeptical colleagues.

“This is akin to two fish and five loaves — what we call leveraging,” she said. “If a long time ago a dude cold take two fish and five loaves and leverage it to feed all those people, we ought to be able to take $5 million and make it $25 million.”