News-Record.com

We've gotten quite a bit of buzz on David Noer's analysis of the Guilford commissioners "Seven Deadly Leadership Sins."

Noer, an Elon University professor, offered a leadership expert's take on why the commissioners are so relentlessly dysfunctional.

Noted one reader: "David Noer's comments were brilliantly conceived."

Noted another, in an e-mail to the author:

"We moved here almost twelve years ago from Fairfax County, Virginia,
which was an all-business area. My only embarrassment at that time
was Jesse Helms and his declarations about women and rape. I
honestly wondered for a short time how I could move to a state which
elected and supported a man of such ignorance. Then I began to read
about our county commissioners and Jesse faded in importance.

"Obviously the whole board of commissioners can't be canned on the
spot, so do you have any suggestions about what the citizenry can do
to promote cooperation and a desire to enrich the community at
large? Reading that the race card is once again being played is
discouraging and I believe undermines whatever fellow feeling the
races in Greensboro have for each other. Billy Yow isn't the
smoothest of men, but from time to time he's frighteningly on the
mark as far as what the board needs to accomplish.

"I certainly hope you'll stick with us and make some suggestions which can be implemented to bring the governance of our city into a more cooperative and friendly situation."

Noer will write regularly for the Ideas section on leadership.

Interestingly, we may have company in our misery. During his recent visit to Greensboro, we asked John Hood, president of the conservative, Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation, his perception of our commissioners from the outside looking in.

His response: Although Guilford's board has a less-than-stellar statewide reputation, the Mecklenberg commissioners may be wackier these days.