Greensboro City Council At Large Forum

The Greensboro Neighborhood Congress hosted a forum for city council candidates tonight for the third time in as many weeks.  All six at-large candidates were present.  As usual, the GNC did a great job of conducting the forum, but the overall ideological cast of the candidates as a group was a bit distressing.

Four of the candidates, in my opinion, are left or center-left.  One of the candidates is moderate and one is center-right. 

I will discuss the statements made by the candidates I found most interesting.

Danny Thompson

Mr. Thompson appears to me the best of the lot by far.  He spoke repeatedly of creating in Greensboro an environment that would attract investment. 

Within city government, he wants to incentivize departments to find spending reductions.  He wants a "lean and mean" city government, and advocates zero-based budgeting.  He advocates outsourcing of certain city jobs to save money, and giving city employees an opportunity to become entrepreneurs.  He wants incentives for electronic bill-paying, and a reduction in the use of outside legal counsel.  

He speaks of concentrating efforts on the aerotropolis as a primary economic development goal.  He talks about developing wi-fi in this region for prospective employers' use; and even promoting the development of refrigerated warehouse space. 

Thompson also speaks of selling corporate naming rights for the Greensboro Coliseum. 

To spur more development downtown, he recommends that government "stay out of the way"; and he wants to minimize regulation.   He criticized the recently released downtown design plan, and said the city failed to involve stakeholders in this process.  He favors public/private partnerships.

He also would like to simplify zoning classifications.  He overall wants to promote entrepreneurialism.  Thompson spoke fairly passionately against the public financing of elections.  And he wants to find ways to increase city revenues without raising taxes. 

Overall, Danny Thompson presented an affable, likable impression, and spoke very well.  He demonstrated humor; but related the need for all council members to maintain decorum during council meetings.  

Nancy Vaughan

Ms Vaughan was also well-spoken. 

She spoke of a desire to consolidate city departments with county departments to save money.  She wants user fees on county residents for use of city facilities.  She would like to see what can be done to contain human resources costs related to employee benefits.  She went out of her way to criticize the plethora of studies the city purchases. 

She spoke of the mess the city has had on its hands, with a record number of EEOC suits, and a police department that is split with serious morale problems.  She said the city ought not settle the EEOC suits; and wants the city to pay the legal fees of David Wray and his men.  She wants the city to be transparent and proactive regarding these issues.

With respect to downtown development, she wants to emphasize the role of private investment.  She said the city government should get out of the way.

She opposes the reopening of the White Street Landfill, a position without which she would not have earned her Simkins endorsement.  And she wants a regional alternative for waste disposal.

It was interesting to hear her admit she had never even heard of the existence of protest petitions back when she had been organizing the efforts around New Garden regarding the Jefferson Pilot property.

She said, correctly, that to get young people to stay here, we need better job prospects locally.

She wants quicker action on an open records policy, and also action on the ethics and financial disclosure policy she has proposed.

Gary Nixon

Nixon spoke of his background, which is fairly impressive.  And he proclaimed he had no conflict of interest, unlike some incumbents.

To save money, he wants to reduce excessive repaving (although steps have already been taken in that direction).  He wants to reduce the number of city employees,  and hold raises for employees in line.

He opposed efforts to grant assistance or incentives for another hotel downtown, and indicated there is little demand.  He would like an arts center downtown.  He also wants more parking in that vicinity.

He also wants improved service at our airport, but does not seem to acknowledge that a critical mass of passengers has not supported additional airline service here.   One cannot create out of thin air a market for air travelers that does not exist.

He would like to spread certain city services to all areas of the city.  Nixon also wants to set a cap or a maximum amount on spending for political campaigns.  Finally, he would like to merge more services with the county.  

Marikay Abuzuaiter

My overall impression is that Ms. Abuzuaiter is running further to the left than she did two years ago. 

She wants sustainability and green buildings and lots of sensitivity training.

She said the city should not enforce design uniformity downtown.  She would like to see more private investment there.  She described the Greenway project as "very important". 

She wants to keep the White Street Landfill closed.  She would like to see the city council press conferences that were promised a couple of years ago to be reattempted.  And she floated the idea of a 2% funding reduction per department to save expenses.

Robbie Perkins

Mr. Perkins in this type of venue demonstrates his depth of knowledge and experience.  He is an intelligent guy.  It is unfortunate, however, that he has been wrong on so many key issues.

He speaks of planning for the inevitable growth we will be facing.  He does not allow for the possibility, however, that the new economy might dampen those growth projections somewhat.  He wants "investments in regional infrastructure" for transportation and for overall regional cooperation.

Perkins wants to hire a consultant to figure out what to do about trash.  He doesn't want the city council to hear proposals.

For downtown development, he speaks of private-public partnerships, bond funds for businesses, and creative financing.  He sees the aerotropolis as a regional project, and also sees a need to develop infrastructure that will take care of future needs.  He spoke favorably of the proposed land development ordinance because he felt it was easier to understand.

He also spoke favorably of the Greenway.  He said it would define downtown and would become an economic development driver.  He predicted it would be popular because sustainability is becoming a necessity, and people need to be able to bike and walk to work.

He spoke glowingly of the city.  He acknowledged the police department had some problems, but seemed to minimize them in view of all the other assets the city has.  But public safety is the most important thing the city does, so you cannot minimize problems with the police department.

He would like economic development recruiting efforts consolidated with a more regional approach.  But he wants to make sure infrastructure is in place.

Perkins opposes publicly financed elections.  He favors hiring freezes and the elimination of positions to cut municipal expenses.

Sandra Anderson Groat

Ms. Groat indicated she does not want extremists making decisions on the city council.  Instead, she said we should want people who demonstrate reason.  She said she likes infill development, and that it is not always possible for things to always stay the same in neighborhoods.

She wants more transparency, records releases and city council press conferences.  She blamed the recent leadership failures on the city council on "polarized positions", and said we could not do anything about that.

She also wants a regional solution for waste disposal.  (When candidates make this proposal, they are holding out hope that some other jurisdiction will gleefully accept our garbage.  And they are willing to accept the exorbitant transportation costs.)  She also said we don't need a consultant in this area.  She said reopening the White Street Landfill would "start a war", and that it is an emotional trigger that tends not to be discussed in rational terms.  She would like to learn about new technologies for garbage disposal.

She said, with respect to the land development ordinance, that the process needs to be much simpler, and people need to be able to represent themselves instead of having to hire attorneys.  She decried the lack of assistance from the city, and said the process is too difficult.  She said the downtown design guidelines also need to be simple and "loose".

Groat said that the Greenway is very important for our future quality of life.  But she said we had failed to anticipate problems that would occur.  She also advocated regional economic development efforts.

With respect to the police department, she wants an open dialogue about race, and the racial tension that exists.

Comments

[Ryan Shell]

Joe, I'm assuming all candidates were asked about how to spur downtown development?

Ryan

[Joe Guarino]

Ryan, there were two questions asked regarding downtown. Three candidates answered one question, and three answered the other. If Jordan posts the transcript, as he did with the other forums, more details should be forthcoming.

The GNC's practice is not to ask the same question of each candidate. It helps keep the forum moving along in a more lively way.

[Ryan Shell]

Thanks. I addressed downtown Greensboro growth just now in this blog post: http://voteshell.com/downtown-greensboro-growth/.

Ryan

[Fred Gregory]

Joe,

Thank you for taking the time to attend and give us your assessment of the candidates. This is helpful information for many of us who could not be there.

[Jeff]

Joe, if improving service at PTI was based on the expectation that the legacy carriers would add routes matching those they offer at RDU or CLT, I agree that that would fail.

If, however, Allegiant were to expand their service to some of the destinations they serve from some of their other airports, or if an established low-cost niche carrier such as Frontier or Spirit were to serve PTI, I think that would draw travelers from outside the market; maybe not in droves, but an improvement.

[Joe Guarino]

Jeff, that would be a big help if Allegiant saw that was in their interests to do that. It seems increasingly unlikely, as you suggest, that we will land a hub for a major airline-- but I suppose one never knows.

[Joe Guarino]

Ryan, there was some discussion of the police department's internal problems last night, and some oblique references to the gang problem. But the one major shortcoming of the forum last night was that there was insufficient Q & A on public safety issues.

[Brandon Burgess]

"...some oblique references to the gang problem."

--I found it interesting that Ms. Abuzuaiter spoke so highly of one of the head guys with the gang unit. At the Unity forum, if I recall correctly, she favored ending the gang unit.

Also, when Ms. Groat was asked if she felt that the current council had generally failed Greensboro, she said no. Comments she made during the council session when Mitch Johnson was fired are what prompted the question. Ms. Abuzuaiter dodged the yes or no question. Ms. Vaughan answered it head on.

[Joe Guarino]

Thanks, Brandon, for picking up on those comments and sharing them. And it was very nice to meet you last night at the forum for the first time.

[Roger Greene]

I should have told you after the '07 election that Marikay was closely aligned with Ms. Johnson. I worked 12 hours beside the Mayor's campaign worker(s) at the BurMil polling place, a nice group of ladies by the way. They campaigned for both Ms. Abuzuaiter and Ms. Johnson. Her husband even brought food for Ms. Johnson's people. We froze, got rained on and scorned a few times. Typical election day stuff.

I've eaten at Marikay's and like the way she runs her business. I know some of her relatives. I'm not going to support her. I think she'll be too much a yes person for Yvonne Johnson and not her own person.

I think it's interesting that downtown development is the focus of our jobs creation needs from a lot of these people. I wonder if their campaign contributor lists have any influence on their comments. We need jobs all over town and other parts of town certainly need more attention than they're currently getting, IMO.

I would hope that if a feasible way to reopen White Street is found that eliminates some odors and inconvenience of the neighbors that open minds might prevail. Given the expense we're taking right now shipping out of county, one wonders if we could just buy out all the affected neighbors and still come out ahead.

[Ryan Shell]

I am very concerned that so little discussion has been had, by the candidates, about public safety.

Ryan

[Brandon Burgess]

I searched the Yes Weekly transcripts and could not find any record of Ms. Abuzuaiter speaking about the gang unit at the Unity forum. Maybe they didn't print it or maybe I am wrong about her position regarding the Gang unit.

One thing about Ms. Abuzuaiter; she seems to know just what to say to dodge controversial questions. Looking over the transcripts from the Unity forum, I noticed that while she gave a detailed summary of the nature of the discussion about subpoena power for the citizen review board, she never stated a position. She is well informed and very well spoken; so much so that one may not notice that she is not actually answering the question.

Regarding White Street, it seems that most of the candidates feel that a regional solution is the only answer to our trash problem.

Yes it was a great forum and a pleasure to meet you Joe. I wish I could have mingled for a while.

[Joe Guarino]

Roger and Brandon, I appreciate what you are both saying about Marikay Abuzuaiter. She is a very cordial, nice person I have had the pleasure to meet at a number of forums and council meetings. And certainly she has acquired a certain depth of knowledge about a variety of issues.

I am concerned, however, about the fact that she has been endorsed in two consecutive council elections by the Simkins PAC; and I disagree with a number of her stated positions. She seems decidely left-of-center.

Ryan, the candidates still have an opportunity to speak out about crime and public safety in the remaining two weeks.

And Roger, as I look over the field of candidates, and those most likely to win, I think it is very unlikely the White Street Landfill will open again to residential trash. The only way I could see it happen is if a Simkins compatriot somehow figures out a way to make a lot of money reopening it to residential trash, and gets the others to go along with it. BTW, I think the downtown-centric nature of the discussion last night was partially a function of the questions that were submitted and asked.