News-Record.com

...It's budget hunting season . . . he.he.he.he.he.

Yes, like Elmer Fudd tromping off after Buggs Bunny, Scoop has an ongoing obsession with hunting down the details of local government budgets.

That's why for us, this memo from Guilford County Budget Director J.D. Rowland is terribly exciting. It's the start of our rabbit season -- or is it duck season? In it, Rowland gives instructions to department heads on what they should and should not ask for.

Rowland lays out the two thematic problems the county budget will be dealing with this year: school and state budget cuts. Anyone who has followed a county budget in North Carolina recently will recognize those two factors.

The nascent town of Pleasant Garden, which seems to have frequent "special meetings," has scheduled another meet-up next Monday "to discuss implementation of a property tax."

If Pleasant Garden opts for its own tax, it would join Summerfield and Oak Ridge as towns bordering Greensboro that have levied a property tax for the first time in the past year. But given the upheaval that has taken place in the town over former Mayor Ron Surgeon and arguments over a town hall, talk of a tax may stir up a bees nest in the rural berg.

The meeting is set for Monday, March 7 at 4 p.m. To read the full notice, click the link below:

Near the end of Tuesday's City Council meeting (Update:Read the full story here), council member Florence Gatten read a lengthy written statement (read the PDF here) in which she defended the city's handling of the St. James Homes II housing complex and said that to her knowledge, there is no evidence that points to racism on the part of the city's housing staff.

While his name was not spoken during the meeting, Gatten was responding to charges made by County Commissioner Melvin "Skip" Alston that the city refused to work with the managers of St. James because they were black and that the city staff is "racist." (Read the original story here, or a transcript of Alston repeating his comments last week here)

"Generalized, vague, non-specific charges of racism are non-productive, divisive and serve to create a climate of distrust," Gatten said in the statement.

"If there are things that need to be addressed, let us do so in the proper venues rather than broad brush strokes that cast aspersions on the city's award winning staff. Even if a citizen doesn't have specifics but just feels that the staff has a racist attitude, let's talk about it."

Immediately after Gatten read the statement, Council member Claudette Burroughs-White responded that people have a right to their perception that racism is going on. She said that she hopes the city won't "kick this under the rug and not realize that we do have a problem with distrust and racism in this community."

Click here to listen to a short, two-minute dialogue between Burroughs-White and council member Tom Phillips about Alston's charges (.mp3, 628k).

What, you were expecting Dan Aykroyd?

The county commissioners have given up their usual Thursday night time slot this week, but policy wonks and guv-junkies can get their fix over at the Melvin Municipal Building tonight (Thursday, March 3).

Guilford County's legislative delegation will be in town and hold what amounts to a 90-minute public hearing with all comers tonight, starting at 6:30 p.m.

This "Take it to Raleigh" meeting is an annual affair, an opportunity for the home folks to lobby without driving two-hours east and paying for parking.

If the muse hits, line up and say your piece.

For long-time listeners but first time lobbyists, the Melvin Municipal Building address is 300 W. Washington St. For a map, go here: http://www.ci.greensboro.nc.us/newfronts/downtown.htm

With the other fireworks Tuesday night, I nearly forgot about a motion made by council member Tom Phillips that was unanimously passed by the council.

In short, the motion asked that all grants or loans more than $10,000 awarded by groups distributing city money be approved by the city council before any checks are cut. This would cover facade grants given by Downtown Greensboro Inc., grants and loans from the Greensboro Housing Partnership and development projects approved by the East Market Street Development Corp.

"If it's city dollars, the City Council needs to make the final decision on it," Phillips said.

Mayor Keith Holliday immediately cast his support: "If I'm going to be held accountable for it, whether it be through public scrutiny or whatever, I want to have the last word on it also."

Sounding less enthused was Claudette Burroughs-White, who said it appeared that East Market was the real target of the increased scrutiny. Without mentioning any names, she said "there are personalities that I know create a problem for some folks."

One of those personalities that might be affected by this is County Commissioner and developer Melvin "Skip" Alston. He's has recent run-ins with the city over St. James II, but he's also up to get a $200,000 loan from the East Market Street Development Corp to help build, among other things, a barbecue restaurant.

Mac Sims, the EMSDC director, said he talked with Alston and his business partner, attorney Henry Isaacson, about the new requirement and they were willing to provide any information the council wanted to get so they could sign off on the deal.

It's not clear when Alston's loan would come to the council for consideration.

During the General Assembly session, Sen. Kay Hagan regularly sends out a mass e-mail letting folks know what she has been up to and how bills of concern to Greensboro are doing.

In her latest epistle, Hagan summarizes the legislative agenda for the Piedmont Triad Legislative delegation. Hagan chairs the group, which includes all the House and Senate members from the Triad area.

The agenda for this session includes:

We reported in today's paper (unposted) that Sharon Troxler, Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler's wife, had been bitten while trying to rescue her puppy from an animal, possibly a rabid fox. She continues to recuperate but her dog was not so lucky.

Here's the sad update for tomorrow's paper:

BROWNS SUMMIT - While Sharon Troxler continues to recover from an attack by an animal that may have been a rabid fox, Carteret the dog was not so lucky.

"I had to have her put to sleep this morning," said Steve Troxler, Sharon's husband and the state Agriculture Commissioner.

It's a relatively light agenda. Saying that guarantees the meeting will last until midnight.

Anyway, my preview of the meeting should be floating around the Web site Saturday.

The biggest item on the agenda is a budget amendment to spend about $1.7 million for the first phase of an expansion to the downtown transportational terminal for the furniture market. Most of that money - about $1.37 million - is coming from the federal government.

To see Monday's full agenda, click here.

The Vicks Apartments are on the Guilford County Historic Preservation Commission agenda for March 15.

Located at 132 E. Fisher Avenue, the apartments were opened in 1919 by the Vicks Chemical Company, maker of over-the-counter cold remedies. The building has been undergoing extensive restoration work in recent years.

The commission is scheduled to walk through on March 14 from 5p.m. to 7 p.m. Then on March 15 the commission will meet on whether to designated the building as a landmark. That happens at 6 p.m. in the Old County Courthouse, 301 W. Market St.

Our colleague Jim Schlosser wrote a story about the apartments not to long ago. For those who want to know more, I'll paste that below the jump.

There is some apparent confusion over an item in the print Inside Scoop on prospective city council candidate Janet Wallace.

Candidate steps up
After Greensboro City Council member Florence Gatten's decided not to seek a third term in District 4, former child-support enforcement officer and N.C. A&T student Janet Wallace said she plans to seek the seat.
Wallace, 35, has been active in the county's Republican Party, serving recently as its secretary. She said that if elected, she will seek tighter controls on spending in the wake of scandals such as the collapse of Project Homestead.

Apparently the candidate in question is more commonly known by her maiden name, Janet Soyars. And to clarify "recently," Guilford GOP Chairman Marcus Kindley said Ms. Soyars-Wallace was secretary of the party until 1999.

Scoop will keep its ear to the ground for any other prospective candidates.

For any of those armchair politicos out there, Greensboro needs you to step up and agree to serve on any number of boards and commissions.

While they may not get the kind of publicity that the City Council holds, a lot of legwork is done by boards like the Zoning Commission, Planning Board and the Minimum Housing Standards Commission. While none of the commissions pay their members, it is a way for residents to take a bigger role in how the city is run short of seeking a seat on the council. Many of the current council members also served on a board before they were elected to their seats on council.

Right now, there are 19-odd vacancies on the city's boards that need filling (click here to see the city's vacancy list. The county has their list here). Even if there's not a current vacancy, you can put your name in so it's there when a slot does open up. There are a pool of applicants already for some of them, but the council members who have to appoint people to boards never complain that they've got too many willing volunteers. You can also call your council member to let them know that you're interested. They are the ones that will ultimately decide whether they want you reviewing zoning cases or keeping an eye on the Housing Authority.

If you're interested in a board, you can read more about what they do in the city's Boards and Commissions Handbook. Then send in the application form to the city clerk.

Our story on the Guilford County Commissioners meeting in today's paper (more on that in a bit) focused on the vote to make the county's Child Support enforcement office its own department. Currently it is managed as a division of the tax department.

To make room for that action, which happened late in the meeting, we gave short-shrift to some other interesting items. They include:

The biggest discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting may not actually be on the agenda.

According to a press release, local organizers of the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project plan to ask the city council for their imprimatur and cooperation.

On Tuesday, March 15, 2005, the Local Task Force of the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project will ask the Greensboro City Council to endorse its truth-seeking efforts around Nov. 3, 1979...The request comes on the heels of a months-long petition drive. The petition calls on the City Council to "endorse, support and fully embrace the truth and reconciliation process and to encourage all residents of the City, including current and former police, journalists, newspaper executives, city officials, textile workers and managers, business leaders, religious leaders, and others to participate in the process. So far, several thousand signatures have been obtained...

In previous stories, many city council members and the mayor have balked at endorsing the project so not as to dig up old history or because of concerns that the group may be too one-sided. Last week in a Washington Post article (thanks Chewie), Mayor Holliday says he doesn't believe an investigation is warranted.

"They've never convinced me or others that this needed to be examined," Mayor Keith Holliday said. "The TRC project is being used as an alternate way to create what never happened, and that is a major investigation."

The meeting starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday, but the group will probably have to wait until the public comment section at the end of the meeting to make their case.

Hopefully, you read my story about High Point's decision to buy three hybrid SUVs. With gas prices approaching $2 per gallon, this is probably as good a time as any for the city to test these vehicles out. (It's times like these that I'm especially glad for my gas-sipping Honda Civic.)

For more info on the Ford Escapes that the city bought, visit Ford's Web site.

One interesting note about the Ford Escapes: unlike most vehicles, its estimated gas mileage is better in city driving rather than on the highway. I'm guessing this is why - the Escape only uses its electric motor at speeds under 25 mph.

For more about what people outside the Triad are hearing about Greensboro and the 1979 Morningside Homes shootings, check out this radio story broadcast nationally by the Canadian Broadcasting Company. In it, host Anna Maria Tremonti talks with attorney Harold Greeson, Rev. Nelson Johnson and city council member Florence Gatten. You can hear the audio of the story here (It starts a minute or two into the recording).

The Washington Post also had a story about the Greensboro Truth and Community Reconciliation Project a week ago.

What do these three items have in common? They're all scheduled for discussion at Monday's High Point City Council meeting.

Council will consider three items - an annexation, a rezoning and a conditional-use permit - that will have the net effect of allowing the Premier Center to expand from 89 to 156 acres.

They'll also consider paying a lobbying firm, The Ferguson Group, $10,000 a month to seek federal dollars for the city. You can learn more about the lobbying plan here. For more info on The Ferguson Group, visit their Web site.

Then there's the continued battle over the largely ceremonial post of mayor pro tem. At the council's March 10 meeting, Bernita Sims said the job traditionally rotated in the past between the two at-large members and moved that John Faircloth replace Latimer Alexander. The motion came as a total surprise to Alexander, and it was quickly tabled until March 21.

You can find the agenda for the council meeting here.

Scoop got an e-mail from Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Marcus Kindley announcing he has started his own blog. Bookmark and blogroll accordingly.

(From our soon-to-be county government reporter, Nate DeGraff)

Guilford County's health board has had some wacky meetings of late, what with all the commotion surrounding former health director Ramesh Krishnaraj. Monday's meeting was more run-of-the-mill, though the board discussed the vacant health director post and laid out its 2005-06 budget proposal.

Interested in being health director? You'll be responsible for a 500-employee department with a $30-plus million budget. You'll also follow in the footsteps of Dr. K, who started his tumultuous tenure with a drunken driving charge and weathered a series of closed-door meetings about his performance before finally resigning last fall. Even his resignation was muddied by unclear procedures and possible breaches of North Carolina's laws with regard to contracts and open meetings.

This new job posting lays out the requirements for his replacement. The last two permanent directors have been doctors, but that prerequisite has been dropped this time around. Non-doctors still need a master's in public health administration and five years administrative management experience in health programs or services.

The board hopes to find a new director by July.

The board also laid out its budget request for the 2005-06 fiscal year. The proposal calls for a budget increase of about 4 percent, from $33.8 million to $35.3 million. Pay raises and other wage-related expenses account for most of the jump.

The proposal must be submitted to the county by the end of next week, and board members and staff promised to keep working on it until then. The board of commissioners will probably vote on the budget in June.

From the Associated Press:
Agriculture commissioner holds quail hunt to help with debt

ADVANCE (AP) - Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler invited elected officials and businessmen to a quail hunt to help him retire about $10,000 in debt acquired during his extended campaign.

Troxler was proud of one shot where he used a 20-gauge shotgun to drop a bird about 25 yards away in a grassy field as U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Dr. Charlie Branch, the owner of River Ranch Hunting Club, watched.

"Somebody knows I can hit one, anyway," Troxler said Tuesday. "This is a country man's golf game, is about what this amounts to. This is fun."

Burr and businessmen - including pork magnate Wendell Murphy and Tom Smith, the former chief executive of the Food Lion supermarket chain — gathered to help Troxler pay off legal and other expenses from court and administrative battles that followed confusion over lost ballots in Carteret County.

On Feb. 4, more than three months after the November election, Democrat Britt Cobb conceded the race to Troxler.

Troxler said the fund-raiser, where 17 hunters paid at least $500 each and some paid $1,000, should just about retire his campaign debt and legal expenses.

This morning, we wrote about the admission by a group of Greensboro hockey boosters that they did indeed owe the city $200,000. That was the fee promised to the Greensboro Coliseum to manage the day-to-day operations of the Greensboro Generals hockey team.

The admission comes in a court filing called a "confession of judgment" (read it in its entirety here). It basically says don't bother suing us, we admit we owe you money.

But that doesn't mean the Generals Brigade (the LLC set up by the five owners) will actually pay back the city. In a letter written in January, the team's attorney said the ownership group had no assets.

"I believe that the persuit of a claim against the Generals Brigade, LLC will yield no money for the City of Greensboro."

City officials doubt they will ever collect, either, but the court order ensures that if the Generals Brigade ever came upon any money, the city would have first dibs.

Scoop figures its readers want to know how much their elected officials earn compared to politicos in other parts of the state.

Enter the UNC School of Government, which has published salaries and travel expenses for county employees throughout North Carolina, including county commissioners.

View the full report here.

According to the report, Guilford commissioners make $14,700 plus a $1,500 travel allowance (chairman Bruce Davis earns $18,300 plus travel).

That's less than what officials take home in other large counties like Mecklenburg, Forsyth and Cumberland, and close to commissioners' compensation in Wake County.

Note the salaries in some of the smaller counties. Commissioners in Gates County (pop. 10,708) make $300 annually, plus $25 for each meeting.