This week's column:
Mike Barber shuffled cliches like a Vegas dealer.
"Making sausage."
"Winning ugly."
And so on.
The city councilman was describing the new council's approach to doing business. And even if the analogies weren't fresh, the council's style and tenor definitely are.
It began in late December, with an emergency meeting to deal with a yuletide flourish of crime in the city. The council asked hard questions. And it acted almost immediately, directing City Manager Mitchell Johnson to find $500,000 in his budget to fund additional police hours.
That wasn't all. Barber pushed through a proposal for 49 job cuts in the city work force, also in December. The plan calls for 49 city jobs to be eliminated by July 1, through retirements or attrition.
Two weeks ago the council finally saw the much-discussed "black book" that figures so prominently in the still-festering controversy surrounding the forced resignation of former police Chief David Wray.
And just last week, the council agreed that simply looking at the photos wasn't enough. It would hear from the attorney of one of the former officers connected to the book for a fuller explanation on why the book was created and how it was used.
Depending on whom you believe, the book, which contains photographs of 19 African American officers, was used legitimately to conduct an investigation of a citizen's complaint against an officer. Or it was used maliciously and irresponsibly to target black officers.
The council will meet privately with the attorney, Seth Cohen, to hear his account on how the book was used and to see additional material that Cohen contends is pertinent to the case.
Also changing is the council's relationship with Johnson.
This council is likely to ask a lot more questions of the city manager, and to do a lot more homework on its own.
This hardly means the council should give in to calls in some quarters for Johnson's head. It should give Johnson clear parameters and performance goals, and evaluate him fairly.
That said, the council's new sense of urgency is encouraging. The old council could hem and haw an issue to the point of torture.
Or it could attempt to avoid an issue altogether, as it did with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's report on the violent clash between communist protesters and Nazis and Klansmen in Greensboro on Nov. 3, 1979. But the new directness still needs to be tempered by a sense of judgment and careful reflection. There's a fine line between healthy skepticism and cynical grandstanding. In other words, it's only a short distance from City Hall to the Old Guilford County Courthouse, where the commissioners meet.
For instance, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat obviously has taken to heart her pledge for being tougher and more responsive to her constituents. But the audio of her well-publicized berating of a city police dispatcher last fall for failing to connect her to an officer depicts her as over-the-top and not entirely fair to the dispatcher.
Groat made it clear in the beginning of the call that it didn't involve an emergency. The dispatcher responded that she would have the officer in the appropriate district get back in touch with her. The officer was on another call at the time. In a huff, Groat eventually hung up.
Her point about the level of police staffing was valid and reasonable. Her treatment of the dispatcher was not.
The council also needs to carefully balance what needs to be public versus what needs to stay private, a sticky legal wicket that isn't as clear-cut as it always seems. So far, so good.
Another helpful step for the council would be to revive the idea of regular news conferences to address issues and concerns in the news. The last council agreed to the idea, then let it die a slow death from a lack of follow-through.
As for Barber's references to sausage and sports, he's on to something.
Constituents are probably willing to sacrifice a few style points for meatier results.
Comments (5)
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Allen, we didn't avoid T&R, we gave it all the attention it deserved. It's interesting that no councilmember, that supported T&R, has ever brought up any of the specific issues in the report for discussion.
Posted on January 27, 2008 5:35 PM
Finally the N&R calls the Sandra Anderson Groat situation the rest of the way Greensboro heard it. Previous articles of inside scoop, Ahearn and even the Rhino have attempted to portray her as the victim of bad service. Hogwash. She attempted to abuse her position and everyone knows it. The interesting part is that I called asking to speak with an officer and received the same answer. However, I waited for the district officer to call me about an ongoing problem in my neighborhood and was very satisfied. I think the key words are "speak with an officer" versus "see and officer" which to a dispatcher has totally different meanings. If you want to "speak" to one you might have to wait since they are typically responding to calls....and with their reported staffing shortage it might take awhile to "see" one as well. Either way that's not a dispatcher problem.
Posted on January 28, 2008 12:49 AM
As a former Communications Specialist with Greensboro Police and Fire/Guilford Metro 911 Communications, I can recall dozens of times a phone call began "this is ________, I am a council member (department manager, neighborhood watch captain, pastor) and I have a problem that I need handled right now.
The implication is that the political/social/religious standing s/he has in the community deserves more immediate attention than the rest of the great unwashd masses.
Usually, what they condsider an "unresponsive" reply is escalated until someone in charge who bends to the pressure undercuts the Telecommunicator's correct, and fair response. The citizens of Guilford County and Greensboro deserve better than this.
Posted on January 28, 2008 7:13 AM
Isn't the city council the head of the city government? Don't all city employees ultimately work for the city council? As long as your boss isn't asking you or ordering you to do something that is immoral or illegal, shouldn't you be willing to listen to them?
Of course, my original premise may be flawed. Perhaps, the buck stops at the city manager, and we know that he doesn't work for the city council.
Posted on January 28, 2008 5:39 PM
Allen,
The city council has talked about a lot and seemingly had a new urgency, but isn't it a little early to say that thngs are changing? We really haven't seen any significant results yet. As you said, all we are seeing so far is a different style. That is hopeful, but just that at this point. I want to see that they really are Mitch Johnson's boss. They haven't had that confrontation yet.
Posted on January 28, 2008 5:51 PM