This week's column: The gospel according to Paul
When Democrat Paul Gibson surged to victory in 2004 as the leading vote-getter among Guilford commissioner candidates, he promised a fresh voice and a new day.
"We've got to go to work now," Gibson said then after a tenacious, door-to-door campaign that vaulted him past favored at-large incumbent Trudy Wade, among others. "I really do want to put an end to these old politics of division."
After 18 months on the job, Gibson, 60, certainly hasn't been bashful about making bold moves. He is a fervent supporter of a new jail and has butted heads with other commissioners on his eagerness to get on with the project. "I think we are making a terrible, terrible mistake if we don't move forward with a new jail as soon as possible," he says.
He was one of the commissioners who pushed for the ouster of County Tax Director Jenks Crayton, whom he still insists is a poor manager.
He brought to the commissioners the politically risky idea of paying for capital needs such as school construction through a county investment fund.
He and fellow Commissioner Bruce Davis took a trip to Hawaii for a national conference that some considered extravagant during a time of tight budgets.
And Gibson teamed with Democrats Kay Cashion and Kirk Perkins and the board's four Republicans to fire County Manager Willie Best three weeks ago. "I'm certainly not a stupid person and I realize the ramifications of firing Mr. Best," Gibson says.
"I felt it was absolutely the right thing to do for Guilford County government."
He acknowledges being often at the center of the storm among the traditionally volatile commissioners. And he plans to stay there.
"I like to drive," he says. "I have some strong ideas about where I think the county should go."
As for being a uniter versus a divider, Gibson appears so impassioned and impatient that he doesn't have much time for diplomacy.
"I'm a loner," he says of his management style, "and that probably doesn't work very well on an 11-member board of county commissioners. I enjoy being by myself."
He also is stunningly blunt. Consider responses to a brief game of word association:
On fellow Democratic Commissioner John Parks: "Kay (Cashion's) got bigger ones than he does."
On Republican Steve Arnold: "Very, very polite and very, very scary right of center."
On Democrat Bruce Davis: "I've been a little disappointed in Bruce. I think he's very articulate but he needs to learn to be his own man."
On Republican Linda Shaw: "Weak."
On Republican Billy Yow: "When the camera's off he's not a bad guy."
On commissioners Chairwoman Carolyn Coleman: "A good lady. Very capable. Very intelligent."
On his Hawaii trip: "It felt like I was back in college. It opened my eyes to some things. It resonated with me. It spoke to me."
On Interim County Manager David McNeill: "A very capable, very knowledgeable man about county government. He would be a great manager in Guilford and anywhere he ends up."
On Tax Director Crayton: "A terrible, terrible manager. I don't think he has any people skills. I'm still getting calls from employees over there."
On Democrat Skip Alston, with whom he has frequently clashed: "I find Skip to be a very, very charming person but I absolutely loathe his style of politics. It's slash-and-burn politics."
Gibson added: "I knew the day I was elected that Skip Alston and I would cross swords."
Gibson's penchant for bright ideas and brusque execution may be rooted in his background. He served on the board before in the 1980s, when there were only five at-large members. He is, in a sense, an old-school commissioner on a new-school board.
Too bad. Like his nemesis, Alston, Gibson is a smart man. He also possesses a rare quality among local elected officials: vision.
He believes county government can be better than it is.
He is an ardent advocate of public education whose eyes moisten when he discusses the children he believes are being left behind.
But if impatience were a disease, he'd be in intensive care now, if not the morgue.
He still wants to be chairman even if it means competing for the job against the current chairwoman, Carolyn Coleman, whom he likes "a lot" and who he says has "done a good job."
He still wants Crayton gone. Yesterday. "When his reappointment comes up, I will not vote to reappoint him," Gibson says.
He says he values the broader representation of an 11-member board but he still thinks it's too many.
"Eleven is an unruly number," he says. "It really is. I think the perfect sceanrio would be just me."
He laughs.
Gibson even acknowledges the painful irony of his clashes with Alston.
"I once told Skip he was a schoolyard bully," Gibson says, and Bruce (Davis) turned to me and said, 'He's just like you, Paul.'
"He may be right."