News-Record.com

Cross-posted from Decision 2008.

We have loaded audio for the District 4 races for Guilford County Commissioners on our pages for election coverage.

Check out District 4 Democratic commissioners candidate and current board chairman Kirk Perkins and his statements on sales tax, building schools, connecting with voters and more.

And his Republican challenger, Eddie Souther, spoke about the failed sales tax vote, building schools, his tax philosophy and more.

We'll be adding to this page for all races throughout the election, so be sure to drop in periodically for updates.

We have a copy of the 2008-09 Guilford County budget, line item by line item, in this handy dandy Excel file. (Warning: it's a big file and may take a bit to download.)

For county geeks, it's kind of like the Rosetta Stone that explains what money goes where.

But first, you have to know a little bit about how to navigate pivot tables in Excel. When Michael Halford, the county's budget director gave a little walk-thru to Scoop on navigating the budget, he said pivot tables were "like a cube that you can turn around and look at in different ways."

It's also a handy tool for ranking your selections for your fantasy football draft, if you're into that.

As for using them, here's a primer on pivot tables.

But if you just want to see where the government spent more money in 2008-09, you can open the file, click on "Base/Expansion", drag it down to the right of the "Dept" column. On the "Base/Expansion" column, click on the little arrow that points down, and check Expansion. Then grab "Division/AU" from above and drag that to the right of "Base/Expansion". It should look like this:

Dragging and so on, you can slice it any number of ways. Have fun.

A huge number or respondents to the Mad Libs story that our talented colleague Robert Lopez wrote listed Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow as the local politician choice.

Who knows why.

Scoop isn't in the business of speaking on behalf of someone, especially the elected, but it's a safe bet that few politicians would have a problem with the title of Grand Poo-Bah.

Heck, we wouldn't mind the title for ourselves, even if it meant we had to become a little more genteel. But don't expect a Scoopster to give up beer in a can.

Do you keep up with the news? Can you read and write emails?

If so, you’re the type of person we want for Voterspeak ’08, a weekly online conversation about news and political tidbits on the 2008 election.

How does it work? We pose a question on a topic – examples could range from The New Yorker’s Barack Obama cover to a city parks bond referendum with a new pool. If you can write a couple paragraphs of thoughts in an email, then you’re qualified. Your comments will appear online with other regular people from the group in a roundtable discussion format.

How to get involved? Give us basic information such as your name, age, political leanings, job and other info in this form. We want moms, dads, children, immigrants, minorities, singles, students, retirees, business owners, employees and anyone with even a slight interest in voting. Email the filled-in form to county reporter Gerald Witt or state reporter Mark Binker.

We won’t give your info out to marketing or sales groups. In a few weeks, we’ll gather a group from those who email us, tell you more about how Voterspeak ’08 will work and then start up in September.

Perhaps you have been reading about the David Wray Legal Defense Fund.

It seemed like strange timing to launch a fundraising campaign, since Greensboro's former police chief has employed two attorneys from different firms for years now.

As it turns out, Attorney Locke Clifford set up the trust fund for Wray years ago, when he received an unsolicited check from someone in the community.

"I got a check and there was a note on it saying, 'I would like to defray David Wray's legal expenses.' It was just a friend," Clifford said. "Now it is catching on."

Earlier this year, Wray tried to seek some additional benefits from Greensboro -- most important among them being a fully-funded legal defense. Wray is being sued by officers Julius Fulmore and James Hinson. The city won't agree to pay for the defense, so Wray will be footing his own bill for the time being.

Wray's other attorney, Ken Keller, said the former police chief will likely seek those funds again, through lawsuit if necessary, after those cases are resolved.

As Clifford puts it, the legal fundraising is the community's response to "obvious injustice."

Clifford would not say how much money was in the fund, or who has been contributing to it. But he did say the money can be used for whatever Wray so chooses.

We're doing a story on this in tomorrow's paper.

We'll try to get at what's creating the holdup in the voting machines, and SPOILER ALERT, it appears that the county won't get them in time for November.

At this point, Guilford County would be about 6 percent short on the machines that they wanted in the fall election. That could mean longer waits for people who want to vote in person. Fortunately, there are options to get around Election Day crowds.

Still, it must kind of stink for those who want to be old school about their voting, or get their "I voted" sticker. So do you think that it's going to hurt the election to not be able to have as many machines as possible?

After deciding on how to go with building the $115 million jail in Tuesday's work session (read the sidebar to the story), Commissioner Billy Yow asked how much the two Raleigh attorneys were billing to help with the policy.

They were the experts in the construction manager at-risk method that the county appears ready to use for building the jail. For their services, they were handsomely paid: Bill Gammon charged $350/hr; Robert Meynardie bills $340/hr.

"I would like to remind you that they’re on the clock," Commissioner Paul Gibson said upon hearing that.

After the meeting 'Scoop grabbed one of the attorneys to ask a few details about the building method. And to see how we could pull down $350 an hour oursleves.

But we couldn't get them for long enough to get that big-money question answered.

"Just invoice the News & Record for this interview," joked County Attorney Sharron Kurtz. Of course, Guilford County is picking up the cost of all actions by both attorneys.

Hey, we pay taxes here, too. So the interview ended shortly after. And we got all the info we needed.

We're trying to find out today about an old underground tank that may or may not be situated along Battleground Avenue.

But maybe you're wondering if there's a tank in Syracuse, where your cousin Sally lives. Here's the full list of sites that we got from FEMA.

Councilwoman Trudy Wade loves animals. She's a vet with a pair of pooches, but she had to give up taking in strays when she got a condo.

When she was a little girl, she even had a pet chicken named Banny.

That means Greensboro's urban chicken farmers will have at least one informed council member before them Tuesday night when they ask that the rules for raising chickens be changed.

Feel free to leave your own chicken stories here. And read more about the chicken issue in Sunsday's newpaper.

THE ISSUE
Should homeowners with small lots be able to raise bees and poultry?
Folks who have chickens and bees say it is a great, local source of food. But neighbors argue that they could be a nuisance tightly-packed, urban neighborhoods.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
City Council will consider amending the requirements for keeping poultry and bees in residential neighborhoods.
The ordinance may be amended to:
-- Ban adult roosters
-- Require a fence to pen chickens
-- Require poultry and bees be kept in backyards
-- Set a maximum number of chickens or bee colonies on a single lot
-- Reduce setback requirements for lots of 7,000 to 12,000 square feet
-- Ban beekeeping and poultry-raising on lots below 7,000 square feet

Check out the Local section in Sunday's paper for a Q&A with Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small.

She discusses some of the issues around last year's recall election, recent legislative changes to the recall procedures and what she has been doing out in her district in the current term. Bellamy-Small also provides some insights into the current and past city councils and City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

It's a long-overdue update on the District 1 representative, and, if we do say so, an interesting read.

We at Scoop know it's tough to keep up with dates. And it must be especially tough on a politician, with all those meetings, functions, hands to shake and ground to break.

Friday's update from the County Manager David McNeill referred to the schedule of meetings for 2008.

This seems to be in reference to a mix-up that Commissioner Carolyn Coleman had with the August commissioners meeting schedule. Typically, the commissioners meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month. Though July and August had only one meeting scheduled in each month -it's kind of a summer break-type thing for the staff and board.

That yearlong calendar of meetings was set in January, and has remained mostly unchanged.

In last week's work session, Coleman asked why nobody told her that there wouldn't be any meeting in early August. Apparently, she showed up on the first Thursday expecting the main event.

The schedule, McNeill noted, was set in January. And there's the calendar that goes out each week in the manager's update (This one's from Aug.1. Scroll down to page 3).

We receive Google alerts on all the Guilford County Commissioners, which means that if something turns up on the web with the name of someone from this bunch, then it appears in the ol' e-mail inbox.

Today, it was Commissioner Bruce Davis' blog that appeared. Blog? We knew he had a MySpace account, on which he said would post updates on his election stops and other information.

That sound of crickets chirping might be from Davis' old blog fired up in 2005 ... and that's about it.

Obviously, we here at Scoop think that blogs are great. They're far from the end-all and be-all of communication (there is a lot of fuzz out there, we know). But a well-maintained blog can be like Internet gold. Or, at the very least, interesting.

The Greensboro Neighborhood Congress had a request for city council Tuesday night.

Make it easier for residents to access public records.

They recommended that council:
-- Establish a public records request ombudsman
-- Create date-driven response deadlines that require the city to provide written status reports to requestors within specified time periods
-- Hold a hearing before Council for any request not fully responded to within 75 days
-- Disclose the procedures through the city’s Web site and in writing to any person submitting a public records request

Their full recommendations can be found
here.

Currently, North Carolina's public records law does not set deadlines for when government entities must respond to a request. Other states and the federal government require that requests be answered within a certain number of days (10 to 20 usually). If Greensboro did adopt timetables, it would be an improvement over what is required by state law.

Donna Newton, Neighborhood Congress liaison, said the recommendations were prompted by residents' complaints about getting information from the city.

As a reporter, I usually do not have trouble accessing documents. But I have the advantage of knowing how the system works and knowing many city employees -- a sure way to get what you need quickly.

I'd be curious to know what regular residents have experienced trying to get documents. Any good stories out there?

Apparently, the recently censured Guilford County Substance Abuse Treatment Center has had some successes, according to Chosen Fast.

For those who want to see it, here's the full audit report for the center, penalized with $1,500 in fines by the state for numerous errors.

A little background: The place only recently opened after years of work to get a long-term rehab center for the county's indigent addicts. We did a story back in June after the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Did Greensboro city planners request a change to a chicken ordinance just to make one citizen group happy? Last Tuesday night Councilman Robbie Perkins wanted to know whether the proposed chicken ordinance amendment was really in the best interest of the entire city.

Where will the influence-peddling chicken lobby stop?

“If, for example…someone wants to encourage an ordinance that goats be allowed in the backyard,” he asked, in response to a text message he received from a constituent during the council meeting, “where would you take that?”

City Planner Dick Hails assured Perkins that the city staff believed the ordinance needed to be changed. But what he didn’t tell Perkins was the city already allows people to keep goats in backyards.

Urban farmers take note: the city municipal code allows homeowners to keep goats on lots as small as 10,000 square feet (less than a quarter of an acre of land) so long as they meet the 50-foot setback requirements and they have no more than one goat per 5,000 square feet of open land.

Same goes for sheep. Horses and cows are OK, too, although they require a bit more property.

So farm on, Greensboro. But do invite Councilman Perkins to visit your petting zoo.

Have any of you been stuck with late fees after paying your taxes to Guilford County this year? We're looking at the issue in the next few days and would like to hear your war stories (if you have them).

This question pertains mostly to just the most recent county tax bills, but if you have any other concerns, drop me an email.

For those who can't get enough of City Council, you're in luck. It now meets four times a month.

The council already holds twice-monthly night meetings. It also holds an early-morning briefing on the third Tuesday of every month.

Now, the council will hold a second briefing session - a more relaxed meeting at which the council will have a chance to talk openly with staff. This will happen on the second Tuesday afternoon.

The council has had more issues than time to resolve them as a group, some council members say.

Councilwoman Trudy Wade asked for the second briefing session so they could get caught up on things they missed because of meetings canceled earlier this year or agendas too packed too complete.

What : Guilford County commissioners meeting
When : Thursday 5:30 p.m.
Where : Old County Courthouse, 301 W. Market St., Greensboro
On TV: Cable channel 13 in Greensboro and other areas of Guilford County outside High Point; cable channel 8 in High Point.

What’s going on? In the only meeting commissioners have this month, the board will handle housekeeping-type business by choosing whether to accept a grant for hand-held translators for the sheriff’s office, allowing an architect to design the new social services building for High Point, approving money for a new mobile command center for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office and deciding whether to match Forsyth County’s funding level to give $400,000 to Triad Park, among other issues.
There could be some discussion on the construction method the board chose to build the $115 million county jail, which occurred during a work session in which Democrats outnumbered Republicans that were present by a margin of 6 to 1. Though it’s an 11-member board, not all members show up at work sessions.

Want to be heard? Speakers can address the board on nonagenda items regarding county business for three minutes at the start of the meeting. A sign up sheet will be available near the lectern. Full agenda and live video.
What’s next? The board is likely to only have one more meeting in September, and will also set a work session date.

Greensboro City Council and the Guilford County Commissioners met this week to hammer out some of the plans they want to pursue with one-another over a nice roast at the O.Henry. Most notably, they sought to find places that they could combine departments and go after projects together.

The county and city have been talking about combining the planning departments for years. And Guilford County is looking for ways to streamline things lately. But what else is there?

County commissioners chairman Kirk Perkins and Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson asked members from both groups what they would like to do, if money was no object. A few projects surfaced, and here are the ones that got the most attention:

County commissioners last night gave Olympian Caroline Lind a hearty pat on the back with a proclamation before the meeting.

"May this gift be used to hold down all the letters of congratulations," said Commissioner John Parks, handing Lind what Scoop thinks was a fancy paperweight from Guilford County.

The commissioners did their congratulaton thing for Lind's gold medal from the Beijing Olympics, and told her that she set a fine example for kids, especially as they return to school this year.

And the county can claim a couple Olympians for the kids to look up to.

"We’ve been spoiled in Guilford County with Joey Cheek and Caroline Lind," Chairman Kirk Perkins said about our gold medal winning speed skater and rower.

Lind was all smiles on Thursday as she received her framed copy of the county's proclamation, along with her paperweight. You can even hear her smile though this short audio clip.

Parks, who knows Lind's family, said that earlier he asked her father, Fred, about the pressure her parents faced at the games.

It's nothing compared to the city swim meet, he told Parks.

During the recent Greensboro-Guilford County elected official dinner at the swanky O.Henry, the gathered did their usual self-introductions.

They even had the reporters 'fess up. 'Scoop reluctantly agreed, even though it totally blew our cover. We stopped wearing the fedora with the "Press" card years ago.

Well, toward the end of the 20-or-so politicos and county staffers' introductions, Greensboro Councilman Mike Barber made a funny.

"I'm Mike Barber, at large county commissioner," said the commissioner-turned-councilman.

To that, Mayor Yvonne Johnson jabber her thumb at the door.

"Get out," she joked.

"Sorry," Barber chuckled, "had a little flashback there."

They were serving wine at the event, and while nobody got out of hand, we'd like to know of any special spices they used on the roast. Or maybe it was the mushrooms on the salad?