Congratulations to the Remaining Candidates

Well, the City Primary Election has come and gone, and there are 18 of us remaining.  Congratulations to those who survived the Primary.  To those who did not make it to the General Election, thank you for caring enough about the City of Greensboro to take the time, apply the effort, and spend the money necesary to give the voteres of the City a choice about who would govern their city.

To those who remain, I look forward to running with you and against you.  Let's all pledge to make it a civil contest about ideas and issues facing the city, not about personalities and mud-slinging.  Let's provide the voters with factual information about our backgrounds and support and our views about how the city should be governed, as well as honest proposals for how to deal with the city's problems.  Doing that will allow the voters to make informed decisions that fit their interests.

My best to each of you.  May the best candidates for a bright future for Greensboro win.

Please feel free to comment.

TAX INCENTIVES FOR EXPANDING BUSINESSES

The Chair of the Guilford County Commission has announced a desire to give some type of a ‘break’ on property taxes to existing businesses to give them an incentive to make improvements or expand the size of their businesses.   He points out that making such changes usually increases the value of the property and causes property taxes to go up, which serves as a disincentive to business growth.  So, he proposed something like a “rebate” to offset the increase in property tax.  But that word caused the county’s lawyers to cringe, because “rebates” are prohibited by state law.  Still, the idea, by whatever name it is called, has merit.  It makes good sense to encourage existing businesses to grow and expand, because they have already proved their worth to the community and they should be given encouragement to stay in the city.  I hope the County Commission can find a way to implement this idea.

I believe that the City of Greensboro should follow the progress of this proposal very carefully; and if the county can find a way to implement it legally, Greensboro should immediately follow suit with a similar plan for its expanding businesses.  Even if the county cannot implement its plan, the city should continue to find a way to implement the general idea of the proposal.

The real value of the proposal is that it would automatically apply to any existing business that makes legitimate improvements to or expansions of its business property.  It would not take a resolution of the Commission or Council to grant a specific incentive to a specific business, which can take time and involve political issues other than business development.  The business would have only to report the improvement or expansion to the tax office in its regular filing each year.

Business development and growth leads to job creation, which leads to a healthy economic outlook, increased sales of goods and increased property values, which leads to greater tax revenues for the city without raising tax rates.   It is a win, win situation.

I will propose that the City of Greensboro implement some plan that gives an incentive to all existing businesses that legitimately expand their operations or improve their facilities in the city.  This will encourage them to stay in the city and also encourage them to create more jobs for our citizens.

I welcome your comments.

ETHICS RULES FOR CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

As I have stated previously, I believe that a member of City Council has a fiduciary duty to the citizens of the City of Greensboro.  That means that, if a member has a conflict between what is best for the citizens of the city as a whole and what is best for the council member personally, the member should be disqualified from taking action on the matter involved.  Since no one is able to read the mind of another to determine that person's true motives, we must rely on the appearence of propriety (that is, would a reasonable person think that a conflict of interests exists in the circumstances) to determine what types of situations would disqualify a council member.  For instance, a member would obviously be disqualified from voting to approve a contract between the city and a business in which the member owned stock.

An area in which I believe conflict exists is that of council members taking large campaign contributions from PACs established by those who have considerable dealings with the city; from executives and other agents of firms that do business with the city; or from executives or other agents of not-for-profits that receive funding from the city.  At-large City Council candidate George Hartzman has proposed a prohibition on candidates accepting such contributions.  He and I, as well as some of the other candidates for City Council seats, have made it known that we will not accept contributions to our campaigns from PACs or from those doing business with the city.

Voters, the ball is in your court.  How important do you believe it is to have a City Council whose members are independent of the special interest groups who make a great deal of money doing business with the city?  How important is it to you to have City Council members who act in the best interest of the city as a whole and not in the best interests of a few?  How important is it to you to have your voice heard in the City Council Chambers.  How important is it to you to have the city be accountable to you, the citizens of the city?

If you want an independent council member who acts in the best interest of the city as a whole, listens to the voters' desires about the direction the city takes, and reports back to you about how the city is accomplishing its goals, then vote for and support Art BOYETT for City Council, District 5, on November 3, 2009.

Art BOYETT - Your Voice on City Council

• email me at boyett2009@gmail.com to get campign literature
• send donations to Boyett for City Council, P.O. Box 18361, Grensboro, NC (Include name, address, phone number, email, and for amounts over $50 - employer and job title)
• look at my web site at boyettforcitycouncil.com

I would really like to see your comments.

CITY COUNCIL CHOOSES CITY MANAGER

I saw in the Rhino... Times today that the Greensboro City Council had chosen the current City Manager of Dayton, Ohio, and offered him a contract as the Greensboro City Manager.  According to the report they had a boistrous closed door session at the O.Henry Hotel last week before they made the final decision. 

They supposedly considered inviting two or three candidates to be presented to the public before making the final choice, but then decided not to do so, because this candidate was so much more qualified than the others in the pool.  In essence they said "We knew this was the right candidate, and we didn't want to waste your time in confirming our opinion."  Of course, we don't know whether he was much more qualified because we don't get to know even the names of any of the other candidates.

Once again City Council hides the public's business from the public.  The next question will be what are the terms of the contract.  The Times said they offered him $175,000, but it didn't say anything about the length of the contract or any "golden parachute" provisions.  Are the terms going to be kept secret as well?  Why should we know, it's only our money that's being used.

I welcome your comments.

CITY COUNCIL CALLED MEETING

I attended the 8:00 called meeting of the City Council this morning at the O.Henry Hotel. Before attending, I learned from the News & Record this morning at breakfast that the Council members had already had personal interviews with the top candidates chosen by the consulting firm. The stated purpose of today's meeting was to discuss the results of the interviews and the package of infomation amassed on those top candidates.

When the meeting was called to order, the mayor informed us that non-Council members would not be allowed to speak prior to the closed session. The Council voted unanimously to not audio tape the closed session after consulting with the City Attorney and the consultant. The Council then voted unanimously to go into closed session to discuss the candidates.

A stated reason for having a closed session and for not taping the closed session was that some of the City Manager candidates did not want their current employers to know that they were applying for this position. I can understand why candidates might not want their names divulged in the early phase of the search process, when they might not have a realistic chance of being chosen. But candidates who are far along enough to have personal interviews with Council members should be willing to have their names released and allow contact with their curret supervisors.

Since it is entirely possible that a majority of the current City Council members will be replaced in November, and the City Manager works for City Council, I call on the current City Council to postpone the choosing of a City Manager until the new City Council is sworn in later this year.

If the current City Council is unwilling to do this, I call on them to introduce the final group of candidates for the job to the public in one or more sessions where the candidates make presentations and answer questions posed by citizens. Following those sessions, those participating would present Council with their ratings of the candidates and comments on their qualifications. Then the Council can make a more informed vote on who should be the new City Manager.

I welcome your comments.

See my web site at www.boyettforcitycouncil.com.

CITY MANAGER SEARCH

The Greensboro City Council has called a special meeting for 8:00 A.M., Tuesday, August 18, 2009, at the O. Henry Hotel, “for the purpose of discussing and defining the [city] manager search process, conducting a discussion and vote on audio recording of this meeting[,] and adjourning to closed session to consider the qualifications, competence, character, fitness, and conditions of employment of prospective city manager applicants pursuant to N.C.G.S. … [,] and returning to open session for further discussion and action related to the city manager search.”

In my opinion, since we are only a few months away from an election for Mayor and City Council, at which all seats are heavily contested, the current City Council should defer taking action on the appointment of a new City Manager. The task would be better left to the newly elected Council that takes office late this year.

As a candidate for City Council from District 5, I call on all of the other non-incumbent City Council candidates to be present with me at the special meeting Tuesday and protest the action being taken by the current City Council to select and hire a City Manager at this time.

If the current City Council is unwilling to postpone the selection process, then they should at least open the selection process to the public and give an opportunity for the non-incumbent council candidates to provide input concerning “the qualifications, competence, character, fitness, and conditions of employment of prospective city manager applicants.”

ISSUE - MERGING COUNTY AND CITY SERVICES

ISSUE – MERGING CITY AND COUNTY SERVICES

This is the fourth in the series of answers to the questions raised by News & Record Editor, Allen Johnson.

The easy part of the answer to the question about which city and county services should be merged is that we should merge all services where both the city and county can improve efficiency and save money. This, however, is an answer that may be too simplistic. There are services that might be merged but would require changes in state law, or even constitutional changes. An example of this is any proposed merger of the policing duties of the Greensboro Police Department and the Guilford County Sheriff.

There are other services that could be merged through simple cooperation between the city and county governments. I believe that a good starting point would be making a list of all of the services that both governments provide to residents. Once that list is made, some sub-lists could be made. One sub-list would include all services where there is any overlap in the provision of the service, such as common water sources, shared sewer lines, common solid waste facilities, etc. This sub-list would probably include the services that would produce the largest savings from merger as well as the ones that would take the least effort to accomplish. A second sub-list would include those services where there is no overlap in services but where the services provided are virtually identical. Once again, merging these services could produce sizable savings, but the effort to accomplish the merger could be more difficult. A third sub-list would include services, such as policing, where there are known obstacles, other than the level of inter-government cooperation, that would add difficulty to merging the services listed.

The items on the first and second sub-lists should be scheduled for talks with the county in the immediate future. The items on the third sub-list should be tabled until mergers of some of the other services have been accomplished and proven to be real cost savers and efficiency producers for both the county and city.

I believe that the time is well past for animosity between Guilford County and the City of Greensboro. There are many areas where cooperation between the two produces many benefits to both. Economic development is the most obvious. Fortunately, there are a number of examples where cooperation in this area has been beneficial.

Other services provided by the city and county can enjoy comparable cost savings and efficiencies. One party needs to take the initiative. I propose that the City Manager start preparing lists of services of the types that I outlined above (I’ll bet he already has such lists), discuss these with City Council, and make overtures to the Guilford County Manager about engaging in a formal study of merging some of these services. Once the first service is merged, others will follow in due course. But the key has to be cost savings and efficiency – not just merging for the sake of merging.

I welcome your comments.

Also see my web site at www.boyettforcitycouncil.com.