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Last week the N.C. Senate passed a bill that would allow mayors to conduct marriages.

It's still got to make its way through the House, but this made Scoop wonder, could Mayor Yvonne Johnson soon be hitchin' folks?

No way on God's green earth, she says.

It's not that the mayor shuns romance. But her schedule is already tied up with all manner of meetings, events, speeches, ribbon cuttings, baby kissings, etc, etc. She can't imagine adding weddings to that list.

"Go see the preacher," she says.

The North Carolina arm of Common Cause is honoring two Greensboro groups. From their news release:

A group of North Carolina A&T State University students and a group of Greensboro residents are being honored by Common Cause North Carolina on Saturday, December 6th for helping improve democracy in North Carolina.

The NCA&T student chapter of Common Cause is being recognized for their voter engagement work this past fall. Students knocked on more than 2000 doors in four Greensboro precincts providing voter education and registration materials. The targeted precincts traditionally have had a low voter turnout, along with a high number of unregistered citizens. Students conducted 5 canvasses during the month of October, assisting some residents to register and vote for the first time in their lives.

CCNC will also be honoring a group of citizens who came together last year to form the Greensboro Citizens for Clean Elections. These citizens, include African Americans, Democrats, Republicans, young and old and are united in their desire to bring down the costs of running for local office. They would like the North Carolina General Assembly to provide Greensboro the authority to experiment with public financing of local elections, something the town of Chapel Hill is now doing.

Common Cause North Carolina is a non partisan, non profit public interest organization that lobbies for more open, honest and accountable government. The NCA&T Common Cause chapter will be receiving the annual Democracy Youth Award. The Greensboro Citizens for Clean Elections is receiving the annual citizen activism award.

The December 6th event is held at the N.C. State University Club in Raleigh and is open to the public. For more information, go to www.commoncause/nc.org

You can find the Citizens for Clean Elections folks by clicking here.

Not to dump on their parade, but I would observe that they've just started pursuing what may be a very challenging goal, particularly since not everyone agrees that publicly financed elections are a good and noble thing. Still, good on them for getting some recognition.

Click here for today's Scoop column from the print edition, which hashes over a possible (if not likely) flip in the state senate, reading the pumpkin seeds and some candidates who don't want to be rescued.

Jim Rumley’s cell phone was blowing up (that’s what the kids say when it rings a lot, repeatedly) on Tuesday during an editorial board interview for District 59 in the North Carolina General Assembly.

For the record, Scoop doesn’t get involved in that editorial stuff, that’s not our bag. But we like to see candidates under the gun of an hour of questions.

So as Rumley is about to launch into his philosophy on recruiting industry and incentives, his phone rings for the third time in a row.
“It’s my wife,” he said, adding that she doesn’t typically call repeatedly like that, and then he stepped out of the room.

Incumbent Rep. Maggie Jeffus picked up the question and the interview went on, and Rumley eventually came back after a few moments.
Turns out that Rumley’s son has a friend who was using one of Rumley’s trailers to move furniture and got into an accident.

“Well, he lost something off the back of the trailer,” Rumley said.
Nobody was hurt, but we hope that there wasn’t a dinged recliner as a result. The recliner in the Scoop lounge (OK, cave) still has an arm wrapped in duct tape from the last tumble it faced.

Scoop has been writing about the back and forth between the county commissioner and the Guilford County legislative delegation over the sales tax.

Quick summary: The commissioners put a bunch of bonds on the May ballot that would have been paid back with a new 1/4 cent sales tax. That sales tax failed by a wide margin. So the commissioners asked the legislature to let them hold a referendum on a 1 penny sales tax, which is four times as much for those of your reaching for a pencil. The legislators have said "no" - and to be honest, a lot of them sort of giggled when they wondered out loud about the logic of going back to the voters in such a short time. At any rate, the commissioners are now blaming the legislature for the tax hikes that will come as a result of the bonds the commissioners put on the ballot.

Clear as mud? Good.

Well, former Guilford County Republican Party Chairman Marcus Kindley is apparently siding with the commissioners and sent members of the legislative delegation a nasty-gram recently. Kindley gave up his spot as county chairman to run for state chairman, a race he lost. (He also gave up his blog, the address for which was taken over by some non-family friendly folks. It's not safe for work, or really, anywhere.)

Here's Kindley's epistle to the legislative delegation, as provided by Rep. John Blust:

An Open Letter to the Guilford County Legislative Delegation

As a Guilford County taxpayer, Property Owner and Business Owner with over 60 associated persons; I wanted to inform you that I am considering organizing a 527 in order to inform the voters of Guilford County about our current tax situation.

In essence our delegation to the State of North Carolina has condemned those individuals in Guilford County who have worked hard, saved money, created jobs by building their businesses and purchased both office spaces and homes to rising property taxes from now as far as the eye can see! It is through their tax dollars that you have the ability to sit in a building in Raleigh, drive there on State and Federal Roads and FAIL the people you represent.

Property owners are asked to bear the burden of the bond issues passed in Guilford mainly for Schools. As a Municipal Bond Principal, licensed by the MSRB(Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board) the SEC and FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Agency formerly the NASD) I DO understand accrual of interest, sinking funds, and paying back the funds borrowed. I also understand that we will be paying back much more than we have issued in bonds. To my knowledge none of you hold such a designation ( I have held mine for 21 years) and being elected to office does not make one intelligent in these various areas.

By not allowing a VOTE ( the very principal of American Democracy) on a 1 cent sales tax on the ballot in November you have CONDEMNED all those voters who work hard, play by the rules to be overwhelmed with an undue part of the burden for a future tax collections to repay the bonds you may have championed. ( We will research this)

You are being unfair. To let those who spend their money in Guilford County share in the funds collected to repay these bonds is only fair. And that will be the theme of our 527 advertisements.

As a business owner, former 3 term Chairman of the Guilford County Republican Party, and civic leader I know how to use PR to make our case.

We’ll ask children if they think it is fair for some to pay while others don’t, We’ll ask older citizens if they think it is fair for them to bear ALL of the cost while they live on Social Security. This will be a campaign rarely seen in Guilford County. Actually I should thank you for providing such a clear cut issue of UNFAIRNESS and UN-AMERICAN representation by our elected officials. It may be the beginning of the Guilford County Voter taking a closer look at how our Government works for them and wake them up to how much representation is lacking in Raleigh.


Sincerely,
Marcus Kindley
CEO
Intercarolina Financial Services
( A Full Service Brokerage Firm)

I was out following State Sen. Kay Hagan on the campaign trail today, as she waged her end of the U.S. Senate Democratic primary. My main purpose was to do the reporting for an upcoming campaign profile, but I did have a chance to ask her take on the protest petition push. (I didn't have a chance to catch up with her when I reported out that blog post and story a week or so ago.)

Hagan will serve in her state senate seat through year, which means she'll have a say over legislation during the short session. That's important because if the city's protest petition exemption is to be repealed, the 10 Guilford County legislators would need to be united.

"I have read about it in the newspaper ... But I haven't studied the issues and don't know how many other cities are like that," Hagan said. "And I don't know the history behind it either. This just came up."

She seemed interested but wanted to know more about it before committing to a position.

Cross-posted from Capital Beat.

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The Guilford County legislative delegation (The House and Senate members that represent some piece of the county) will hold two - count 'em two! - public hearings this Spring before heading back to Raleigh in May.

Hearing number 1 will be in High Point, Monday, April 14, 6 to 8 p.m. at the High Point City Council Chambers: 211 S. Hamilton Street.

Hearing number 2 will be Monday, April 21, 6 to 8 p.m. in Greensboro at the Melvin Municipal Building (what normal people call city hall) on Eugene Street. That meeting will be televised.

From a news release:

Both of the hearings are open to any citizen who would like to address the delegation. The hearing will provide an opportunity for the delegation to receive input from citizens about their concerns and issues, as well as provide opportunities to receive input from local municipalities and other entities representing Guilford County.

[snip]

Citizens are encouraged to come to either location to share their thoughts with their elected members of the North Carolina General Assembly. Speakers will be given limited time (3 minutes) and are asked to come early to sign up or contact Representative Jeffus' office. Please be prepared to give your name, address, telephone number and organization. Organizations and individuals who need additional information are asked to contact Representative Jeffus' office. Email address is maggiej@ncleg.net or telephone is (919) 733-5191.

For those who haven't been to one of these shindigs, it's a chance to lobby the legislative delegation (or as many of them as show up) about stuff you think they should work on in the coming legislative session. Invariably, various government, nonprofit and industry types will line up to speak about their pet projects du jour, but there has been a fair amount of input from regular citizens at past meetings.

Cross-posted from Capital Beat.

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Update: Click here for a short online news story.

Back in 1971 Greensboro lost the protest petition. Now the voices that say residents should get it back are getting the attention of local legislators.

(Don't know what I'm talking about. Read up: here / here / here / here.)

Rep. Pricey Harrison said this morning she has requested a bill be drafted that would repeal Greensboro's exemption from protest petition law. At least four other members of Guilford County's legislative delegation (Reps. Earl Jones and Alma Adams and Sen. Katie Dorsett, all Greensboro Democrats and Greensboro Republican Rep. John Blust) are aware of the issue and disposed to look at it.

If the delegation does decide to move forward, it won't be easy necessarily.

"I've briefly looked at the law," Blust said. "I do want to find out why in the world was Greensboro exempted. It seems like something that should be applied evenly across the state."