The memo below was sent to the Greensboro City Council in regards to the amount the City of Greensboro paid for outside council from July 1, 2008 to the present.
“The City Attorney’s Office was asked this week to provide amounts spent for outside legal fees for the period beginning July 1, 2008 to the present. The costs incurred by the City for outside legal fees since July 1, 2008 will be explained below excluding payments made that are reimbursed from outside sources, mediation fees which typically were court ordered, and settlement checks made payable to the sellers’ attorneys at time of closing real property acquisitions.
Based upon information provided to us by various Departments, the City of Greensboro as of this writing has paid a total of $911,259.47 during the past year to outside law firms defending the City in various cases. The aforementioned amount includes $368,305.62 paid to Brooks Pierce Mclendon. The majority of payments to Brooks Pierce Mclendon were expended in defending actions brought by MCI against the City. The amount also includes payments made from the City Clerk’s Legislative Account for services provided by Cam Cover in assisting the City with its Legislative Program. Attached for your information is an updated list of payments made to Brooks Pierce Mclendon for legislative assistance.
The second largest amount paid to an outside law firm was made to Smith Moore Leatherwood in the amount of $358,644.16. Smith Moore Leatherwood is defending the City against a number of employment related claims and lawsuits brought in State and Federal Court alleging discrimination. The balance of the costs incurred for outside legal services involve claims brought against public officials and City employees alleging negligence and various civil rights claims, City of Greensboro, North Carolina 27402 Memo to Mayor and City Council Bond counsel fees and patent services incurred to copyright various City logos.”
I just read that George Hartzman is going to run against Zack Matheny for the District 3 seat this year. Hartzman’s site currently focuses on local and national topics, but the post at the top of his site (at the time of this post) has to do with the White Street landfill,
“If a few purchased relatively inexpensive homes near a landfill established more than 60 years ago why should the many unaffected who may have paid more for their residences to avoid potential hazards and easements be taxed to have trash shipped elsewhere during a recession?”
Will anyone else be opposing Matheny this year? Time will tell.
During last night’s “Getting Things Done in Greensboro” forum hosted by Action Greensboro, At-Large Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat had a brief opportunity to speak to the crowd. I’ve transcribed her portion just in case you don’t have time to watch the previously posted video.
“Good evening and I want to thank Action Greensboro for doing this; it’s something that’s really needed.
I would like to say that, I don’t want to be defensive here, but I would like to say when I saw what John Alexander said in the paper about, that we’re really weak in the visionary area, the vision area, I knew that just grabbed at me because I know that, I know that is true. And we have a council that has a lot of differences, but I don’t think there’s a person on council that does not want the very best for Greensboro. And even with the differences we’ve managed to do a few things, and most recently we passed a budget with no tax increase, no water increase, and by a 7 - 2 vote actually. And I think that we are finally getting used to each other when it’s almost time for an election again.
Anyway, I think that if we don’t focus on economic development, and I know all of you people are aware of this, but the most important thing we need in Greensboro right now are jobs. Our unemployment rate is, I think it’s around 11%, maybe even 11.1%, and that is horrible. We’re losing other employees all the time and I think we have just really got to get on the bandwagon for economic development. And I think that it would be a good thing for some of the business people to meet with us. The Partnership is doing that. I’m the liaison to the Partnership and they are doing a wonderful job, but we probably all on council need to know what they’re doing, we need to understand and find out what we can do to help.
But anyway thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. The Mayor is not here, I’m in her place, she’s not here because she’s not feeling very well. Thank you.”
During the question and answer session Councilman Robbie Perkins submitted a question that basically asked how the council could be expected to be more knowledgeable without being able to meet in small groups. His question also had to do with transparency with the media. The fast forward and rewind feature on the video isn’t the greatest, but I’ll try to find, and transcribe the exact question later today.
Update: The News & Record has more on the event here.
Bill Knight, a candidate for Mayor, has sent a follow up response to a question I asked a couple days ago about recycling. The original question asked if he (I asked others as well) would support an ordinance that would require recycling to be offered at all apartment complexes in Greensboro.
“Ryan, the question you emailed me last week was received while I was out of state and not in a position to respond. As I said in my reply to you, I thought each candidate would respond to all campaign issues at a time and in a manner when they deemed it appropriate. Now that I am back in town I’ll attempt a reply.
The matter of recycling apartment waste seemingly would require a considerable amount of study before a city ordinance could be considered. I can’t say if I favor or disagree with an apartment recycling program until I have more information. After you read my questions you should be able to provide some answerss
An overriding question is how much will it cost and who will pay for it? Initiating a new recycling program is probably an expensive proposition, for both the city and affected property owners.
Would an apartment recycling ordinance apply to apartments and town home developments alike?
Would apartments and town homes have adequate space to accommodate new pads if they were required? Would apartment owners receive some form of incentive if compelled to make extensive property modifications, or would they be expected to absorb the costs?
Would additional city manpower and equipment be required to process recycled waste products
Would the city have to rethink its automated routes program for waste collection that was instituted a couple of decades ago?
Do established markets exist for recycled products?
Does an alternative to recycling exist? For instance, are reusable canvas bags for grocery shopping preferable to plastic (or even paper) bags? Are there ways to reduce the purchase of materials that require recycling? Disposal should be the last option.
Ryan, if you have answers to my questions about recycling you will help me know a lot more than I did when this began. I am inclined to withhold judgment until I know a great deal more and can fully appreciate the degree of public sentiment to push this idea forward. I have to confess that it’s not among my list of priorities for Greensboro at this time.
The 2009 National Night Out (NNO) city-wide kick-off will be held at 6 pm on Tuesday, June 30, at the First Baptist Church, 1000 W. Friendly Ave. Residents interested in participating should contact their Greensboro Police Department’s (GPD) Community Resource Officers:
Eastern Division: Sgt. Allen 373-2135
Central Division: Sgt. Blaylock 373-2570
Southern Division: Sgt. Pell 373-7945
Western Division: Sgt. Uehlein 412-3910
NNO, a crime and drug prevention event sponsored locally by GPD, takes place on August 4. NNO promotes neighborhood spirit and police/community partnerships in the quest for safer communities.
Along with the traditional display of outdoor lights and front porch vigils, neighborhoods in Greensboro celebrate NNO with block parties, cookouts, visits from local police and fire departments, parades, flashlight walks, contests and youth programs.
On Monday, June 29, the City of Greensboro will be presented a community-based public art project designed to celebrate its unique history and role in advancing the American civil rights movement.
The bronze artwork, called Coffee Cup Collaborative, will be presented to Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson and the City by the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro (UAC) at 4 pm at the Carolina Theatre, 310 S. Greene St. The event is open to the public.
Following the presentation at the Caroline Theatre, Johnson, who declared June as Greensboro’s Public Art Month, will receive the gift on behalf of the City at the location of one of the sculptures in front of the Governmental Plaza on South Greene Street in downtown Greensboro.
The Coffee Cup Collaborative project is unique because each of its eight bronze cups was crafted by a different artist and will be located in eight different locations throughout the city in honor of Greensboro’s 1960 lunch counter sit-ins. Guided walking tours will be offered following the presentation of the sculpture at Governmental Plaza.
Nancy Vaughan, a Greensboro City Council At-Large candidate has stated that she would be in favor of an ordinance that would require recycling to be offered at apartment complexes in Greensboro.
“Yes I would be in favor of an ordinance that would require apartment complexes to offer recycling. - Nancy Vaughan”
I sent a handful of candidates (one of which being Bill Knight) an email yesterday asking if they would be in favor of supporting an ordinance that would require recycling to be available at all apartment complexes in Greensboro. Bill Knight, a candidate for Mayor, has always answered questions for this site… until now. He responded just now by saying,
“Ryan I’m sure each candidate will address campaign issues at times and in ways deemed appropriate.”
![[Post to Twitter]](http://greensboropolitics.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
