The Greensboro City Council District 4 Race: Mary Rakestraw

For the Greensboro City Council primary in district 4, I will be voting for Mary Rakestraw.

I had a chance to hear Ms. Rakestraw and one of her opponents, Tony Collins, speak at the C4GC forum last night.

She explained that her philosophy is be careful with governmental spending.  She stated, correctly, that there has been no tax increase during the four years she has served on the Greensboro City Council.  This reversed a longstanding pattern of repeated, predictable tax increases.  In addition, she stated that she had been part of an effort to keep water rates down.  Finally, she indicated she wanted to make Greensboro a place where businesses would want to locate by reducing unnecessary rules and regulations.

With respect to the landfill/waste disposal issue, she stated correctly that the effort by the council included the involvement of attorneys from within city government as well as outside; department heads; and consultants.  She indicated that RFP's had been advanced.  In fact, alternative technology/energy proposals were sought and considered.  (Some parties have spoken as if this was not even entertained.  That is blatantly false.)

One of her opponents, Nancy Hoffmann, did not show for the forum.  But Tony Collins was present.  Although he presents a confident, pleasing demeanor, one must discern the messages he is transmitting.

He emphasizes that we need growth.  I don't disagree with that, but the question is what you perceive you need to do to achieve that growth.  Unfortunately, Mr. Collins is allying himself with folks like Keith Holliday and Robbie Perkins.  The answer we have seen from that crowd in the past is massive public investment on bond projects of questionable value; higher governmental spending; higher taxes; and a crony capitalist/Melderec approach from the standpoint of real estate development. 

He claims that he wants to make government more efficient; but I tend to judge candidates by the nature of their alliances.  He claims that growing the tax base will take the pressure off existing taxpayers.  It does not always work that way, however.  Growing the tax base can merely increase the appetite for spending, as it had with his crowd in the past.

He talks about "laying out a good atmosphere", treating people fairly and hearing everybody.  That all sounds great.  But in essence, it basically means caving to the demands of the east Greensboro political establishment.  Collins is a liberal Republican.  

He said he did not like the process that led to the decision to reopen the White Street Landfill to residential trash.  But as Mary Rakestraw pointed out, it was an entirely legitimate process.  He claims that, by using the landfill, we would consume precious landfill space and lose our opportunities to renegotiate effectively with out-of-town landfills.  But he fails to point out that limiting the landfill to Greensboro-only waste would extend its lifespan to 15 years, leaving ample time to develop a long-term plan.  He also neglects to mention that we pay a premium for those out-of-town landfills.

Notwithstanding Mr. Collins' protestations, the conservative coalition on the city council has had a number of significant achievements.  I will write more about that later.

We had previously posted to some extent regarding Mr. Collins here, here and here.

We had also posted here previously about Ms. Hoffmann.

Mary Rakestraw is the clear conservative choice in my opinion. 

Comments

[Your Christian Brother]

The RFP process may have been a legitimate attempt to attract proposals for the re-opening of the landfill, but the Trudy Wade-led process to award the bid to Gate City was not legitimate. Have we ever found out why Ms. Wade made a motion that the bid be awarded to Gate City for only Greensboro city trash? Of course, Gate City was the "second best" bidder if the bid only included "Greensboro city trash." However, the bids also included a proposal for accepting other trash, and Gate City was fifth in that proposal.
I have yet to hear Ms. Wade justify her motion, but the objective factors leads one to conclude that it was designed to get the contract to Gate City.
Does it surprise anyone that Ms. Wade was trying to assist a local company? Probably not, but the RFP was not set up for the selection to include such a consideration.
I think the gamesmanship that was involved in the attempt to award the contract to Gate City was the illegitimate part that Tony Collins was highlighting.

[wandering i]

Perkins to Collins: "Jump!"

Collins: "How high?"

nuff said!

[Arch Stanton]

"He claims that, by using the landfill, we would consume precious landfill space and lose our opportunities to renegotiate effectively with out-of-town landfills."

Having open landfill space that everyone knows the city will never use again does not help the city's position in bargaining with out-of-town landfills.

[Joe Guarino]

Christian Brother, that is not what Mr. Collins has represented as his stated concerns. He has not said a word about the Gate City issue, as far as I can tell.

Again, we have to consider the scenario of Greensboro-only trash, which is what the conservative coalition was envisioning because of the elimination of phase 4 and 5 from consideration. Gate City was "in the ballpark" from a monetary standpoint with Greensboro-only trash volumes; was the only local vendor; and was deemed responsible and qualified by the consultant hired by the city. Those are considerations the conservative coalition used in selecting Gate City, as best I can understand it. And the RFP process did not prohibit them from these considerations.

But again, that is not Mr. Collins' expressed issue with the process.

I understand if some folks might not be happy that Waste Industries was not selected, given the ties that Don Vaughan (Nancy's husband) and Joe Williams have had to that company.

[Joe Guarino]

Good point, Arch. If city council members (or candidates) play their hand that the landfill is never going to be used, the negotiating advantage is lost.

[Your Christian Brother]

Mr. Guarino, I will admit I'm not sure, but I think the issue of local contractor vs. out of state contractor was raised with the fuel contract. My recollection is that the City Council was not supposed to consider "local" vs. "not local" when awarding the contract, unless that criterion was set out in the RFP. But perhaps you might confirm with an independent source before your claim it was not prohibited by the RFP process. You can probably find out more easily than I can.

[Ron Decline]

I too have wondered where this whole "the landfill re-opening has not been fully vetted" meme came from. Hells bells, it was all the City Council talked about for months.

When the Left says something has not been fully vetted that means they are in danger of their side losing.

[sal leone]

Hi
I agree that we lost some weight in contract talks because we did not open the landfill and that is the fault of the current council. The council needed to mov with caution on the landfill issue but with so many conflicts I am not sure that could of ever been done. I have always said I was for keeping the landfill closed and I am sure I could of gotten a good deal with republic and cut down the 41 dollar rate. They say that the landfill in Randolph will be ready in 2013, but I ask what about opposition growing there in regards to residents not wanting our trash. The current council made this a mess and I understand they made the call to save money and I respect that but more care would of solved a lot of problems. Now we got no landfill, unsure about Randolph County, and the word is out that we will not open teh landfill. I think simply they made a mess.

SAL LEONE

[sal leone]

Hi
My bad, I misspelled a word here and there. I type fast and with passion. I just hope the point was clear, better business could of solved evrything. I think all would agree we have a council split in half. This style will not promote Greensboro in a positive light.

SAL

[Joe Guarino]

Sal, as a police officer, I am sure that you know that it takes at least two parties for conflict to arise. Let's not pin all the blame on the conservative coalition. The members of the other side were gleeful participants in any disagreements that arose. It also should be kept in mind that the conservative coalition was poorly served by the attorneys working on the case. In fact, that is probably an understatement.

Do you think the liberal faction shares any of the blame for what occurred?

[Joe Guarino]

Ron, I agree for the most part. The liberal talking points have been self-serving and disingenuous.

[Joe Guarino]

Christian Brother, here is the point. Tony Collins does not want the landfill reopened; so debating over which contractor should have been selected is moot. He is against reopening the landfill to residential waste, so he would have voted against any contractor who proposed to do that. Right?

Let's not fuss over contractors if Collins' vote would be "no" anyway. Why bother?

[sensei]

I sure wish commenters would stick to the subject at hand, rather than going off into areas that are not relative!
Mary Rakestraw is the condidate that will do the most for ALL the citizens of Greensboro. Her record supports that.

[conservativewatcher]

Hi
My bad, I misspelled a word here and there. I type fast and with passion. I just hope the point was clear, better business could of solved evrything.-Sal

SAl,as a potential politician you will be held to a higher standard than most. I would advise you to use spell check in any future statements. I would also encourage you to stop saying how honest you are, it makes you sound profoundly dishonest. Just a little insight.....

[michele]

Sal, "could HAVE", not "could OF". When it's spoken, it's most often contracted as "could've", which sounds like "could of". Just a friendly FYI, because I've noticed that you value correct grammar and spelling. I appreciate that! :)

[sal leone]

Thanks Michelle I hope to meet some of the bloggers someday because I always enjoy the discourse with others on here. I will agree with you Joe that all are to blame for the landfill issue that divided our city. I have no problem with Mrs. Rakeshaw and from the few chances I had to speak with her she seemed very nice. I have no dog in the fight here in District 4, Hoffman and Collins both have seemed like nice people when I spoke with them. I say let the best person win and if Mrs. Rakeshaw wins then that is the will of the people. I have no problem with that and CW I just used spell check and ok I will not say I am honest anymore, lol.

[sensei]

"Nice people" doesn't mean that they are best for Greensboro.

[Tony Wilkins]

Mary Rakestraw speaks out on economic development and jobs:
http://www.maryrakestraw.com/econdev.html