News-Record.com

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.