The current issue of the Rhino is filled with some good commentary regarding the election on Tuesday. I am going to excerpt heavily those portions that resonated with me, or that I found most interesting.
First, regarding the mayoral election:
Greensboro is in desperate need of leadership, and
the person who was elected leader refuses to treat her fellow
councilmembers fairly.
Mayor Johnson does use her power to do
favors for friends. She wanted to get the restaurant/bar Alexander
Devereux reopened despite the fact that the owner who had caused
constant problems and owed the city $29,000 in fines was still
involved. The new club was granted a liquor license by the state
because the mayor intervened by writing a letter asking that it be
granted.
Mayor Johnson also went down to Raleigh to lobby for
the right of government workers to have full-fledged unions that
negotiate contracts. It would cost the taxpayers a fortune to have
government workers under union contracts, but Mayor Johnson felt so
strongly about supporting unions for government employees that she made
a rare trip to the legislature to appear on the podium with the other
supporters. There was only one other mayor in the entire state who
appeared in support of full-fledged government unions, the mayor of
Carrboro, the most liberal city in the state.
Mayor Johnson
said it was unusual for her to go to Raleigh to lobby the legislature,
but she said she felt strongly about the right of workers to be
represented by the union. She evidently didn't feel that strongly about
many of the issues affecting Greensboro, because she didn't go to
Raleigh in support of them...
(Bill) Knight would bring some decorum and sensibility to the City Council. Knight is a retired accountant. He is going to insist on getting some real budget figures from the city staff. The Mickey Mouse budget figures that the City Council accepts are so general that it is impossible to tell where and how money is being spent. In fact, when looking at the budget, Knight said he was surprised to learn that the City Council doesn't get an accounting of how the money was spent, just what was budgeted in the current year...
Mayor Johnson still supports the actions of former
City Manager Mitch Johnson, whose solution to dealing with Wray was to
lock him out of his office while he was still police chief. She defends
what Mitch Johnson did, which has been devastating to the Greensboro
Police Department. This is not surprising, as Mitch Johnson got his
marching orders from the Simkins PAC and Mayor Johnson is a member of
the Simkins PAC.
Other councilmembers have pressed for
information about what really happened. Mayor Johnson was always
content to accept the misinformation that she was being told by Mitch
Johnson.
Mayor Johnson has time after time voted for tax
increases. This year there was no tax increase, but Greensboro
currently has the highest tax rate of any comparable city in North
Carolina, and Yvonne Johnson says that she has voted in favor of the
last 16 budgets that have given us this high tax rate.
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