Julie Lapham, activist and meditation leader — 1944-2013

Julie Lapham

She managed political campaigns, taught English to refugees, worked to bridge cultural divides, served on boards, consulted with nonprofits, led meditation groups and otherwise touched hundreds of lives, but when her time came, Julie Lapham wanted to go quietly without public recognition or accolades.

The Greensboro community leader, who managed Yvonne Johnson’s successful campaign for mayor in 2007, took her own life on Dec. 11 while visiting in Virginia. She was 69.

“She was so dedicated to a number of causes in the area and basically watching out for those who were downtrodden and didn’t have a voice,” said the Rev. Julie Peeples, the senior pastor at Congregational United Church of Christ in Greensboro. “She was very serious about being a mentor to younger women. She was passionate. She was a fighter. I just always knew that at certain causes and certain efforts I would see Julie there. She had a really deep sense of justice and watching out for the rights of everyone.”

As news of Lapham’s death trickled onto Facebook last week, civic leaders, friends and other acquaintances reacted with stunned disbelief, trying to make sense of her passing and to figure out the best way to honor her legacy.  

“It was an absolute shock to me, and I deal with it the best I can,” Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson said today. “We’re going to bury her on Saturday, and I’m going to go to Virginia to do that.”

Lynne Robinson, the executor of Lapham’s estate, said her friend left a note that said, “I do not want a ceremony whereby I am remembered nor do I want to be pressed into a box with a marker. Let me be free to fly and swim in rivers.”

Lapham was born and raised in England, and emigrated to the United States to work in polymer chemistry, according to a biography posted by the UNCG Center for New North Carolinians, where she was recently employed. But a severe industrial accident halted a promising career in chemistry, and sent Lapham on an altogether different path. The experience led to a lifelong study of consciousness states and a life devoted to social justice causes to empower women, immigrants and other groups.

“She already knew about death and dying, and I think that she had planned to do this for years, and it was time,” Robinson said. “She was determined that she wouldn’t be a burden to anyone and that ‘when the time comes I’m going to know.’ When you listen to that, you slough that off. I will never, ever slough that off again. It’s important that we need to sit down and think about what that means. Not you’re going to change their mind.”

Lapham had been planning to have her hip replaced at the time of her death

Lamar Gibson, a fundraiser for the Renaissance Community Co-op, said when he saw Lapham recently at a community meeting at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church she was experiencing a lot of physical pain, but was in good spirits.

“Julie, she will usually say a joke about something crappy happening and say, ‘I’m all right,’” Gibson recalled. “This was, ‘I’m in a lot of physical pain.’ She did describe the drama and the messiness around waiting for a specialist to do the surgery and there were only two in the state, so there was logistics of whether she would go to Charlotte or some place else.”

Raleigh Bailey, director emeritus at the UNCG Center for New North Carolinians, said Lapham had recently been working in an English-language program for newly arrived refugees as an AmeriCorps member.

“She was very concerned about he refugee population and how they adapted once they got here,” Johnson said.

About two years ago, Bailey said, Lapham served with the UNCG Women’s Health and Wellness Center through her AmeriCorps position. Susan Danielsen, spokesperson for the Greensboro Police Department, said Lapham worked with the department on its child response and violence against women initiatives.

Lapham abandoned her chemistry career in 1979, after her accident, and went to Washington, DC to work on the Equal Rights Amendment campaign. She later served as executive director of Common Cause Virginia, where she advocated for tougher state laws to regulate campaign finance, and earned a doctorate degree from Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Johnson recalled that she met Lapham before running for mayor in 2007.  

“She came to my office and introduced herself, and said she had heard a lot of things about me and wanted to help me,” Johnson said. “She had been involved in campaigns in Richmond, [Va.] and other places. She had worked with the National Organization of Women. She was an organizer.”

Lapham became Johnson’s campaign manager.

“She was very good at that,” Johnson said. “She was able to analyze, for example, where I got the most votes, and where I didn’t get so many votes. And then she would come up with a strategy for improving that.”

Johnson won the election, and became Greensboro’s first African-American mayor.

Two years later, in 2009, Lapham traded her behind-the-scenes role for the spotlight as an at-large candidate for Greensboro City Council. She said in an e-mail to an anti-racist working group that she perceived a local echo of racially-tinged attacks on President Obama in criticism of Johnson, and said for that reason she had “decided to step up and become a candidate for city council.”

“We have to know where to go to listen to people,” Lapham said in a 2009 candidate forum. “That’s not easy in this town. This town has got a lot of little bubbles all over the place…. Listening is an absolutely crucial piece for what happens on city council. Otherwise we would have done it all by now. Basically, we don’t like change. We like to talk about it, but it’s mighty hard to adapt to. We’re in a world today where we need to adapt to change.”

Both Lapham and Johnson lost their elections that year, but Lapham helped Johnson regain a seat on city council in 2011 and 2013.

Johnson appointed Lapham to serve on the Greensboro Commission on the Status of Women.

Friends remember Lapham as determined, smart and outspoken.

“She had a way of saying the thing that people needed to hear,” Gibson said. “Sometimes it was tough things that needed to be heard. If she disagreed with you and she was your friend, she would let you know. Julie wasn’t born in the South and into our Southern system of manners and politeness and I don’t feel like she ever showed up to anything that I was at that she felt like she had to show this façade.”

Parallel to her involvement in civic affairs, Lapham also emerged as a peer leader in more spiritual pursuits.

“She helped a tremendous amount of people with her meditation workshops,” Robinson said. “It changed me completely.

“What a leader: If I ever had a problem I would call her and she would talk me through it,” Robinson continued. “She was my psychologist, my mother, you know, she was my go-to. She was my voice in my head. But she always kept you at arm’s length. That’s why she was so effective.”

Lapham’s many friends in various arenas are coming to terms with her loss in different ways.

“A lot of people are struggling with — ‘What could I do?’” Gibson said. “From talking with each other and sharing our memories of her together, that will at least help us through it. It’s hard not to do that when someone close to you takes their own life. I’ve dealt with this before when I was much younger. There’s that thing of, ‘Why didn’t they reach out to me?’ I think the only way we can increase the chances of people reaching out to us is reaching out to other people more.

“We internalize a lot of the suffering,” he continued. “We really don’t want to burden people with our pain and suffering. The other side of that is, can I trust you with my pain and suffering? Can I trust the community to help me get through it? So I think every chance we get, we should reach out to each other.”

Robinson said she doubts anyone could have talked Lapham out of her plan.

“She was of sound mind and was a determined person,” she said.

Robinson will remember her friend by a passage for the Tao Te Ching, which Lapham taught: “Thus the master is available to all people and doesn’t reject anyone. He is ready to use all situations and doesn’t waste anything. What is a good man but a bad man’s teacher? What is a bad man but a good man’s job? If you don’t understand this you will get lost, however intelligent you are. It is a great secret.”

Robinson said that one of Lapham’s meditation groups will continue at Presbyterian Church of the Covenant in Greensboro. The group meets every Monday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Bailey said Lapham’s AmeriCorps friends will honor her in a small, private gathering in January. He added that a larger, public event might be organized through UNCG at a later date.

Lapham will be buried in Virginia on Saturday, according to her wishes, wrapped in a shroud and placed in a shallow grave on a hillside so that her remains will go back to the earth. A handful of friends will be there.

Julie Lapham didn’t want a ceremony.

Donations in memoriam to Julie Lapham can be sent by check to the Women to Women endowment, c/o Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, 330 S. Greene St., Greensboro, NC 27401.

PHOTOS: New Greensboro City Council sworn in

Outgoing mayor Robbie Perkins listing the council's accomplishments since 2011

Council and the audience gave him a standing ovation

Outgoing councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small and Perkins hugging

Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson talking with new Councilman Jamal Fox

Left: New Councilman Mike Barber. Background: Fox.

District 2 Councilman Jamal Fox poses for a picture

NC Rep. Marcus Brandon photo-bombs new Councilwoman Sharon Hightower before she is sworn in

Tony Wilkins takes a picture of Nancy Vaughan in the mayor's seat. Marikay Abuzuaiter did next.

Greensboro's new Mayor Nancy Vaughan being sworn in, surrounded by her family
(Read more about her and her family in this week's cover story, SLAP SHOT).

Greensboro settles several police discrimination lawsuits

Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson and Mayor Robbie Perkins

The City of Greensboro and plaintiffs in three lawsuits alleging racial discrimination within the city's police department announced a $500,000 settlement today after city council voted in favor of the settlement in closed session last night. 

Though confident the city would have prevailed in court in two Alexander vs. City of Greensboro cases and the Fulmore vs. City of Greensboro case, Mayor Robbie Perkins and Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson said they voted in favor of a settlement to save the city money on legal fees, provide a sense of closure, protecting residents from enduring a lengthy trial that would focus on trauma and negativity and allow the city to focus on other important issues like jobs and economic development.

"It's a way to close it with dignity and honor," Johnson said at a press conference this afternoon. City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Khan, Police Chief Ken Miller and City Manager Denise Turner Roth also answered questions. 

Perkins said the cases have "burdened" the city for a long time, adding that "It's time to move on."

L to R: Shah-Khan, Turner Roth and Miller

Councilmembers Nancy Vaughan, Zack Matheny and Tony Wilkins voted against settling the suits, according to city spokesperson Donnie Turlington. 

The city has already spent $2.3 million in legal fees related to the lawsuits, Shah-Khan said, and Johnson said the city previously offered a larger settlement sum for the cases that was turned down by plaintiffs.

A press release today from Higgins Benjamin, one of the law offices representing the plaintiffs, said the officers feel "vindicated." Here's the full statement:

"After suffering years of hostility during the Wray administration due only to their race and then being vilified in certain local media outlets, 38 of the plaintiffs in the Alexander cases have finally gotten justice.  Those plaintiffs who have now settled their claims against the City and other defendants feel that they’ve finally been vindicated.  These current and former Greensboro Police Department officers have done a great service for this City and civil servants everywhere who have endured a racially hostile work environment.  Likewise, settlement – and the closure it brings – is in the City’s best interest as well."

Miller and Shah-Khan talking before the press conference

The city did not admit liability in the case but did point to numerous ways it has improved police practices and procedures in the wake of the discrimination suits. Former officers Charles Cherry and Joseph Pryor did not agree to the settlement and will continue with their cases with the city, and separate but related cases from current Capt. James Hinson, who is black, and former Chief David Wray, who is white, are not resolved. Hinson's case is scheduled to go to court on Oct. 8.

Perkins said the police department has improved significantly and that he's very proud of the department. In a press release, Perkins acknowledged that the lawsuits stem from a time "in the history of the city and police department where some unfortunate actions on the part of the city and plaintiffs occurred," but continued to say that "confidence in the Greensboro police has been restored."

Activists and community members continue to push for greater oversight for the police department around issues of disparate treatment and racial discrimination, focused primarily on interactions between officers and residents rather than within the department. 

The city's press release cited a survey claiming that more than 80 percent of residents are pleased with the police department's work and said the department implemented 200 of 226 recommendations from a 2008 management and staffing study. Chief Miller said at the press conference that his department is still reviewing 15 of the additional recommendations but said some would have a budgetary impact. A recent presentation by the chief included similar numbers about positive community perceptions of the department but noted a disparity in perceptions based on race.

Campaign billboard ads okay if handled right

Marty Kotis III, via http://www.kotis.org/

A few people are raising questions about Marty Kotis’ donations to Greensboro City Council candidates, but according to Guilford County Elections Director Charlie Collicutt, the in-kind contributions don’t run afoul of the law. Kotis, who owns several billboards in town, donated ad space to four candidates.

Elections law dictates that companies aren’t allowed to donate directly to political campaigns, but Collicutt said that as long as Kotis paid for the ads himself (essentially reimbursing his company for the actual rate of the advertisements). 

District 5 Councilman Tony Wilkins reported an in-kind contribution of $400 for the ads, and Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson amended her report to include the contribution because her campaign didn’t know the amount until after the filing period. Collicutt said Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan and another candidate (whose name escaped him) would also be working to amend their finance reports to reflect the in-kind billboard donation from Kotis.

“As far as the billboard that you’re referencing, the process that we’re working with the candidates that have been advertised on the billboard, we have to make sure it was an in kind contribution to the campaign for the actual cost of the billboard,” Collicutt said.

Elections law states that media outlets can’t provide free or in-kind advertising to political candidates, but as long as the donation is from Kotis and not his company, the contributions are fine, Collicutt said.

Vaughan already filed an amended report that does not list the contribution. Johnson’s amended report listed “Outdoor Signage/Mr. Kotis” while Wilkins’ first report listed Kotis and not the company. Collicutt couldn't immediately recall the name of the fourth candidate who received advertising.

Johnson's amended report lists "Outdoor Signage" along with Kotis

Collicutt said candidates are cooperating and shouldn’t necessarily be faulted because the specifics can be confusing, adding that if the county board or an individual feels election law has been broken, the violation can be reported to the state board of elections. The county board does not have any enforcement capabilities.

UPDATE: Nancy Vaughan called to say she didn't realize that she needed to change anything until after reading this post. She called the county elections board twice, and staff checked with the state board, about how she should file the information about the billboard donations that she wouldn't have until after the initial report, she said. Vaughan was repeatedly told to simply include it on her next campaign finance report, she said, and that she filed an amended report because she forgot to list the candidate filing fee. 

"I tried to cover my bases," Vaughan said, adding that if she needs to amend her report again, she'll try to do so quickly. 

Greensboro hoping third time's the charm with noise ordinance

A flyer by Bennett College this week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greensboro City Council filings: Trouble!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beloved Community Center Meeting calls for action

Fired police officers Charles Cherry, Joseph Pryor and A.J. Blake

Amidst prayers and passionate speeches, a plan of action came to the forefront of the Beloved Community Center meeting on police misconduct.

Beloved Community Center board chair Pat Priest and community organizer Joseph Frierson asked for participation the entire night of April 4, and they got more than they might have expected when Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson said she believed the Greensboro City Council could muster five votes to create a police citizens review board.

After an audience member asked how to go about getting a review board, Johnson replied, “All you have to do is bring a request to city council, and we’ll vote on it…. I think you probably have five people who will vote for it.”
 
The night centered on Our Democratic Mission, a Beloved report released in January detailing 14 separate cases of alleged police misconduct. The document was referenced throughout the night as a way to mobilize the community to address concerns raised in the report. The first speaker of the night, the Rt. Rev. Alfred C. Marble, assisting bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina and board member at Beloved, commented on the necessity of community involvement.

“Greensboro is predominately a black and white community, but it is an international community,” Marble said. “We need everyone to get involved.”

After speeches from Marble, and the Rev. Nelson Johnson, executive director of the Beloved Community Center, and case reviews from Bennett College student Imani Wilburg-Folds and Brian C. Sims of NC A&T University, Beloved conveners opened the floor to questions. The first inquiry stirred the crowd as A&T student Alicia Funderburke asked how she could get involved. A series of answers led to the greater idea, brought forward by lawyer and civil rights activist Lewis Pitts.

“The most patriotic thing we can do is stand up and fight,” Pitts said.

Later, Pitts hit at the heart of the issue: “Who do we allow to wear guns and lock up citizens?” he asked. “We must be able to hold them accountable.”

Guilford College associate professor Sherry Giles agreed. She stated more than once a need for a citizens review board to hold the police accountable. Working with her students, she said they most often came to a recurring question: “How do we give power back to the citizens?”
The question rang true throughout the meeting. Before a video showing some of the more harrowing cases in Greensboro’s troubled past with police brutality, Vice-Chairperson Dale Tonkins introduced three former Greensboro police officers, Joseph Pryor, Charles Cherry and A.J. Blake, who are characterized in the report as having been wrongfully terminated.

While those cases dominated the night, the meeting’s framework built around a cry for citizen involvement. Marble called for Greensboro leadership to sit with Beloved staff and board members to discuss the past and the future.

“List every error in our publication so we can talk about this,” Marble said. “The council wants to blame it all on Nov. 3, 1979 and though no justice was found for that day, the problem continues.”

Marble referred to a case detailed in Our Democratic Mission involving Greensboro police. According to the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report on the incident, “the majority of commissioners find the single most important element that contributed to the violent outcome of the confrontation was the absence of the police.”

Rev. Johnson echoed Marble’s sentiments during the question-and-answer period. He called for a meeting about Our Democratic Mission before saying, “I know there is corruption because I have seen it. The internal police mechanism is flawed.”
 
He called for organization at every level, “every campus, every neighborhood and every church,” to bring forth the change Beloved eagerly desires.

Candidate decries 'write in' sign as racially divisive

Yvonne Johnson, an at-large candidate for Greensboro City Council, said she considers a sign urging voters write in their choice rather than vote for one of the candidates for mayor to be a tactic to divide the black electorate for the political benefit of incumbent Bill Knight.

Johnson noted the similarity between the "write-in" sign and her own campaign sign. Johnson served as mayor from 2007 to 2009, and is extraordinarily popular on the east side of the city. Robbie Perkins, Knight's challenger, is expected carry east Greensboro precincts by significant margins and benefit from Johnson's coattails.

"The signs are purple; I have the same font," Johnson said. "I just think it's lowdown and it is a racially divisive tactic. The signs are purple. I have the same font. I ain't happy about it. It's interesting how they're disappearing from the polling places now."

Johnson and Perkins have made no secret of their longstanding political alliance, and Johnson said she supports Perkins' bid for mayor "absolutely," notwithstanding what the mysterious "write-in" signs might suggest to voters.

"If I wanted to run for mayor, I would have," Johnson said. "It's not my time. I support Robbie 100 percent. He's always supported me. That is a tactic to divide the black community and get Bill Knight elected. There's no mystery to that."

Johnson said she doesn't think the tactic will be successful.

"I hope somebody spent a million on them, and it all goes down the toilet," she quipped.

Sharon Hightower, a politically active east Greensboro resident, concurred.

"The average voter who votes on a regular basis is stronger than that," she said. "It really strikes to the heart of somebody desperate, a group of people who are desperate and scared. It's not working."

Danny Thompson's specious landfill numbers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lawyer echoed Vaughan’s stance.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gut punches at the Greensboro Partnership

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Remarks from other at-large candidates:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parsing differences between city council candidates, at large and district

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greensboro primary: at-large analysis

Color code:

Yvonne Johnson — blue
Nancy Vaughan — purple
Chris Lawyer — orange
Danny Thompson — red
Wayne Abraham — aqua
Jean Brown — yellow
Tie — gray

Former mayor Yvonne Johnson dominated the electoral landscape in the at-large race in Greensboro's primary election on Oct. 11, carrying all precincts in east and south Greensboro except for two, along with the downtown area.

Nancy Vaughan, who currently serves as mayor pro tem carried a block of established neighborhoods stretching from Irving Park to Starmount.

Challenger Chris Lawyer and incumbent Danny Thompson, both conservatives, carved up the Cardinal, and Thompson carried the Grandover.

Marikay Abuzuaiter, who placed third overall in the primary, evidently rode Johnson's coattails, pulling most of her votes out of precincts carried by the former mayor.

Wayne Abraham carried one precinct by virtue of earning eight votes in G45, which covers UNCG.

A&T vote inspires fiery city council campaigning

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kee struck back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hardy championed a more entrepreneurial approach.

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

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

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

Hunt hit back.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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