Three men and an island
Through the miracle of transpacific cellular communication, I interviewed Guilford County commissioners Bruce Davis and Paul Gibson Tuesday for today's story on the commissioners' raises. Davis and Gibson were attending a conference in Hawaii that's been discussed at length in the local and national media. The conference was winding down, and the commissioners will return home soon.
Both men have come under fire for attending the conference on taxpayer money, but both pledged to work hard and bring back plenty of ideas for improving the county. Gibson, who wanted to learn better ways to form the county's annual budget, called the experience "invaluable." Davis, who along with other Democrats has defended the commissioners raises, said he'd met elected officials who earn more than twice as much as the Guilford board members.
"If you want the absolute best, you have to put up the money for it," he said, adding that he was about to duck into another workshop.
During my chat with Gibson, the conversation turned to Scott Yost, the Rhino Times writer who's covering the conference for the Greensboro weekly. Gibson said he's seen quite a bit of Yost, one of the few reporters who flew to Hawaii to monitor the comings and goings of his local officials. The traveling scribe has been attending the work sessions and chatting up the commissioners, and I'm sure we'll get a full report in this week's edition.
I bring up Mr. Yost because ever since we learned that Gibson and Davis were going to Hawaii, I've been asked if I was going to tag along. After all, I cover the commissioners, and it would be perfectly appropriate for me to report on their sun-splashed adventures. I got more questions when the Rhino ran Yost's preview column on its cover last week.
I'll leave it up to my boss to tell you why I didn't go. But hey, I've enjoyed sweating in Greensboro for the past week. I even got to spend 3 1/2 hours in a near-empty government building Monday night waiting for the county's health board to choose a new director. You can't find that kind of excitement in Honolulu.
Comments (5)
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Paul Gibson & Bruce Davis,have stolen a vacation from the Guilford county taxpayers.They have a good teacher Skip Alston who lost a million dollars that was to repair St. James app. Mr Skip now has 200.000 given to him because he called the city planners racist where will it stop.
Posted on July 20, 2005 2:29 PM
"If you want the absolute best, you have to put up the money for it," he said, adding that he was about to duck into another workshop.
NOW I see why we are "blessed" with the kind of Commissioners we have.
As the old saying goes "We got what we paid for."
Maybe with the pay raise these commissioners voted themselves, we can truly attract some of the "absolute best" to run for a commissioner seat, and say adios to the less than mediocre ones we have now.
Some that really care about this county and what goes on in it.
Not holding my breath though.
Posted on July 20, 2005 7:05 PM
I'll bet you the next trip to Hawaii that these commissioners getting twice what Bruce Davis is making are either in Orange County, CA or a county that is footing the bill for 1/2 the number of commissioners.
Posted on July 20, 2005 9:56 PM
Nate,
Your boss has spoken:
"Frankly, it never occurred to me to send a reporter to watch two commissioners in Honolulu. When they said they were going to attend the National Association of Counties annual conference I assumed it would be part-business and part-vacation at taxpayer expense. I don't know anyone other than the participants who suggested otherwise. (If the conference was intended to be county business morning to night, why schedule it in a beautiful resort spot hard to reach for everyone east of the Rockies?)
So, it's a perfect "fake news" assignment for Yost to follow two commissioners around and record how they spend their time."
Mr. Robinson calls it fake news and he never saw it as anything other than part business, part vacation at taxpayers expense. He goes on to say why would they schedule it at a beautiful resort if it was anything but a junket. Um, that doesn't seem to jibe too well with Bruce and Paul's comments about how hard they are working, does it? I don't know, but with all of the interest being shown in this junket, it doesn't seem like fake news to me. Out-hustled once again by a little local partisan weekly.
Posted on July 21, 2005 11:26 AM
I honestly feel that one day the "too busy to vote,but not too busy to gripe" taxpayers of this county will actually wake up and suddenly realize that they brought this mess upon themselves by being so complacent so as to allow the control of the county purse-strings to fall into the irresponsible hands of Alston and Davis.......who am I kidding ???!!!
Posted on July 21, 2005 12:37 PM