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Long post, but hopefully you'll find it worthwhile:

Councilman Tom Phillips and I talked today about what's usually a dull (but important) part of city council meetings: appointing citizens to various boards and commissions.

On Tuesday night, the council voted not to reappoint Portia Shipman to the Greensboro Zoning Commission, in part because of poor attendance. She was later placed on the Greensboro Redevelopment Commission.

Councilwoman Dianne Bellamy-Small, who appointed her and sought to reappoint her, said it was wrong to say negative things about Shipman's performance in public, given that she's volunteering her time.

Phillips agreed. Here's what he said last night:

"I hate that we have to discuss these things in public. Years ago, we were able to discuss all this in executive session.

"We made an appointment earlier this evening that, frankly, had we been able to discuss it in executive session, I would have been opposed to it because I think it could potentially cause a problem. But we can't do that."

Well, obviously I wanted to know who he was talking about, since council members made several appointments last night. Phillips told me today if he had wanted to clarify his position, he would have done so last night (Trust me: It sounded nicer when he said it than it reads in print). So I can't give you an answer.

But it also raised a larger question about what aspects of government should be public and what should be private. And that's something Phillips and I agreed to disagree on.

No surprise here - I think those discussions should take place in the light of day, whether they're positive or negative. Those boards make many, many decisions that impact this community, and citizens have every right to hear a lively discussion about each candidate's qualifications. What's more, elected leaders should feel obliged to speak out against nominees, or else risk putting someone on a board who isn't qualified and can (theoretically) do harm to the community.

Phillips said he understands why I would say that. But he wishes council members could still hold lively debates about nominees - in private, like they did when he first served on the city council in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In fact, since the open meeting laws have changed, and the discussions have started taking place in public, "the quality of our boards has declined, in my opinion," he said.

Why? Because council members don't want to criticize volunteers in public, he said. So they sit on their hands rather than speak negatively about candidates who are nice, good people, but inappropriate to serve on boards.

An interesting topic, one I hope you will discuss.

David McNeill continues to be cagey about his interest/non-interest in being Guilford County's next manager.

During the application period, which ended Friday, McNeill said he had made a decision about applying but didn't feel it was appropriate to comment further.

"My same comment applies now," he said Tuesday.

As for the commissioners, who will choose the next manager, many say they don't know if McNeill has applied or not. Privately, however, some commissioners say they think McNeill is a candidate, though they're basing that on gut feelings and intuition rather than inside information.

McNeill, a deputy under former manager Willie Best, was named interim manager after commissioners fired Best in June.

As Scoop was scrounging for more information on all of this, we stumbled across this name: Brenda Jones Fox. She's the county's finance director.

Jones, who actually served as manager for 16 months in the early 1990s, wouldn't say whether she was a candidate or not.

"There are lots of rumors around," she said. She later added: "It's so controversial. I just don't want to comment on it."

Commissioners will begin reviewing applications next week.

More manager stuff here.

Proceeds from July's American Idol concert at the Greensboro Coliseum were as plentiful as Simon Cowell's put-downs (snap).

Andrew Brown, the coliseum's spokesman, said the show has been the largest grossing ($773,655) and highest attended (15,000) event on AI's tour to date.

The coliseum made about $79,200.

But ticket sales for the June 28-July 2 show "Disney Live: Mickey's Magic Show" weren't exactly sprinkled with pixie dust.

The coliseum lost nearly $18,485 on the event. Only 4,400 people attended, far fewer than the 12,000 coliseum officials had anticipated.

"This was a new show for us and we also think the dates (weekend right before July 4 holiday) may have had an impact as well," Brown said.

Family shows typically do well, he said.

The Greensboro Transit Authority's task force - the group that recommended raising fares for SCAT riders - will hold a "listening session" Monday about the increase.

Turn out could be high. Riders of the Specialized Community Area Transportation buses have packed Greensboro City Council meetings since earlier this summer. They want the return of their unlimited monthly ride pass, which allowed them to use SCAT buses as many times as they want for a flat fee ($35). Many riders have said they want the unlimited pass returned, but are willing to pay more.

The city council has made several concessions to SCAT riders, including lowering the cost of a 10-ride pass from $20 to $15. Some SCAT riders have indicated that even with the concessions, the cost of rides soon will be out of their price range.

The meeting will be held at the Depot in downtown Greensboro. People who need to schedule rides should call 333-6589 by Friday.

Here's a link to a story in today's paper you might find interesting ...

Corporations do it. Charities do it. So why shouldn't a Greensboro city councilwoman?

Dianne Bellamy-Small has issued an annual report. It's only six pages - six 11x14 pages, actually - but it's crammed full of information for her constituants in District 1.

Didn't get a copy? Here are the highlights of her previous year:

* She appointed 29 people to city boards and commissions.
* She ate lunch with all of the principals in her district.
* She attended 19 National Night Out events (people lucky enough to attend the Aug. 15 city council meeting were treated to a slide-show presentation of this)
* She rode in the Christmas and July 4 parades.

One thing not mentioned in the report: Bellamy-Small was the only city council member to refuse to take a lie detector test this spring. The subject? Who leaked a controversial investigative report on former Police Chief David Wray to the News & Record.

That's really all I can tell you. Bellamy-Small won't talk to News & Record reporters over the telephone, saying she will only answer questions faxed to her. The newspaper has declined to do that.

Oh, an aside: I've yet to receive annual reports from the other eight council members - though I'm sure they're en route.

We here at Scoop always are forever trying to marry our two favorite loves – Bob Dylan and municipal government.

It’s taken months of deep reflection, but we finally have done it. So Scoop presents ...

DYLAN SONGS WE’D LIKE TO DEDICATE
Don’t Fall Apart on Me Tonight ... to the Ice House in downtown Greensboro
Time Passes Slowly ... to anyone attending Greensboro City Council meetings
Nothing Was Delivered ... to taxpayers who wanted closure on the Project Homestead criminal investigation
Motorpsycho Nightmare ... to those who brave Wendover Avenue at rush hour
If You See Her, Say Hello ... to Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small, who won’t return telephone calls from the N&R
Let’s Keep It Between Us … to my secret source (you know who you are)
Blowin in the Wind ... to the comprehensive plan
Ballad of a Thin Man ... to, well, none of the council members
Tonight I’ll be Staying Here with You ... to SCAT riders who have pledged to speak at every council meeting until they get back their unlimited monthly ride pass
Tell Me That It Isn’t True ... to the folks administering the polygraph tests earlier this year
All I Really Want to Do ... to Councilman Tom Phillips ("I ain't lookin' to fight with you, frighten you or uptighten you ...")

County commissioners rarely change their votes after casting them. But Democrat John Parks did just that on Thursday night.

Parks initially voted "no" on a plan to seek extra state money for the Academy at Smith project. The vote was 6-5 against. Proposal rejected.

As dismayed school board members left the commissioners' chambers, Democrat Skip Alston poked his head out a side door. Somebody was about to change their vote, he said, so sit tight. Smith High School is in his district.

Thinking hard about the project was Parks, a former school board member. In an interview on Monday, he said he was torn over his vote, and when he realized that he could make or break the project, he switched his vote. The revised tally was also 6-5, but this time the plan passed.

"I didn't want to kill it," Parks said.

The switch brought to light the interesting relationship between Alston and Parks, who rejoined the board just a few months ago after a long absence. Some county officials whisper that Parks does the bidding of Alston, the board's senior Democrat.

An e-mail flashed over the Action Greensboro list-serve told us that the Greensboro Partnership is casting about for a new VP of Governmental Affairs.

What does a VP of Governmental Affairs do? According to the e-mail:

The VP of Governmental Affairs is the liaison between the Partnership and city, county, state and federal government institutions and elected officials. This position is responsible for the identification and investigation of critical legislative issues affecting the Greensboro and Guilford County business community, recommendations regarding these issues and leading partnership response in addressing these issues.

Translation: You’d be a lobbyist, policy wonk and flac for the business community.

The e-mail went on to list a number of job responsibilities for the position. Two of them caught Scoop’s eye:

• Attend meetings of the City Council and County Commission to include the City Council’s daytime briefing sessions and the County Commission’s agenda-setting meetings.
• Attend the NC Metro Alliance meetings; the Triad Legislative Caucus meetings; and visit the state legislators on a regular basis.

Take it from Scoop, we do meetings. Scoop is all about the meetings. Scoop hangs at the legislature while it’s meeting. Morning noon and night Scoop writes about the meetings. Scoop attends meetings in our dreams. It's not healthy.

If you really think you’re up for the job, then take this test. Set the alarm on your watch for 10:07 p.m. Go home. Do what ever it is you’d be doing normally.

When the alarm rings, think to yourself, “Would I really want to be watching the second hour of a City Council zoning hearing or county commissioners Billy Yow and Bruce Davis argue about some bit of personnel policy rather than be doing whatever it is I’m doing right now.”

If you’re answer is yes, either apply for the partnership job or seek professional help.

Ever wonder what the folks who work for your elected officials make? Check out LegiStorm for the answer.

For example, you can see that Howard Coble’s chief of staff pulled down $39,053.63 between 1/3/06 and 3/31/06.

From a Washington Post Story on the new site:

A Web site documenting the salaries of the roughly 20,000 Capitol Hill employees went live last week -- and almost as soon came crashing down.

No, it didn't get shut down by a judge's order claiming that private information had been leaked. By law, the salaries of Hill staffers have long been available in thick books in the offices of the House and Senate clerks. The site came down because of the rush of traffic from computers housed in Congress -- and elsewhere.

It seems to be up and running fine right now.

I’ve been doing campaign interviews with state legislative candidates for a few weeks now. The latest one was with Rep. Earl Jones, who has been around the city for a while.

The following has little to do with the campaign itself, but I found it interesting and wanted to share. We ended up talking about what was reported to be a boycott against the News & Record. (My boss took notice here.)

Well, during the 13 minutes on the following audio clip, Earl Jones says:

• He did not call for a boycott. Yes, they group he’s part of talked about a boycott, but only if things didn’t change, he said.
  
• Project Homestead was a story the paper manufactured and over-blew.
  
• The Rev. Michael King, Project Homestead’s founder, did not commit suicide as reported, but accidentally overdosed.

Click here for the audio.

The conversation, by the way, stemmed from me asking what he was doing talking to me (and our editorial board for that matter) if he was boycotting the News & Record.

Guilford County commissioners made a big to-do over the hiring freeze they passed in February.

At the time, commissioners figured the freeze could save them money, which they said was important given all the school-construction debt that's piled up over the past few years.

But a memo issued Thursday from chairwoman Carolyn Coleman indicates that the freeze might end soon. Commissioners have been releasing positions from the freeze, which doesn't apply to the public safety agencies, at pretty much every meeting, and some have openly wondered whether the freeze was actually working.

According to Coleman, it's not.

After accounting for the typical amounts of lapsed salaries, she wrote in the memo, the freeze has only saved about $113,000 in eight months (the county's annual budget is about $525 million). Lapsed salaries are funds that go unspent while positions are vacant.

Department heads, meanwhile, have said the freeze is creating customer-service problems because it of the time and effort it takes to fill positions, Coleman wrote.

Coleman said she'll ask commissioners to consider lifting the freeze at Saturday's board retreat, "and look to other avenues for cost savings."

Look for more on this in Sunday's paper.

Been to the Greensboro social services office recently? If you have, you were probably there awhile.

The waiting time at the Greensboro office jumped from 47 minutes in February to nearly 102 minutes in July, reports DSS director John Shore. There's more waiting around at the High Point office, too. The wait times there jumped from 15 minutes in March to 54 minutes in July.

The numbers reflect the time from which someone sees the receptionist until the time a worker takes that person back for an interview, Shore said in a memo to the DSS board.

"We view the times in Greensboro as unacceptable," he wrote.

The department is working on the problem, he wrote, but the memo does not offer a reason as to why the wait times have increased. People visit the offices for issues related to Medicaid, Food Stamps, and other social programs.