Author: Scott D. Yost

If anyone thought things in the Town of Summerfield couldn’t get any crazier – well, they were certainly in for a revelation this week when things hit a whole new level of crazy. And, given what preceded this week, that’s saying a lot. The latest round of action, controversy and drama kicked off just after 3 p.m. on Thursday, May 10 – three-and-a-half hours before Summerfield was scheduled to hold a Town Council meeting. That afternoon, Superior Court Judge Andy Cromer held a teleconference with attorneys to announce his decision on whether former Town Councilmember Todd Rotruck could participate...

and Guilford County government is going to school and getting wonky – not wonky as in “crooked, off-center, askew,” but wonky in this way: The county, in collaboration with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) and MetroLab Network, is taking a very deep academic dive into numbers, stats and other data in an attempt to solve problems facing the county. Homelessness and substance abuse are the first two targets of the new program, but plans are to expand the initiative to address many other county issues in the future. The Guilford County/UNCG partnership is only the fifth...

There are 100 counties in North Carolina but only one of them – Guilford County – has the 2018 Outstanding Tax Collector of the Year. The North Carolina Tax Collectors’ Association (NCTCA), a professional organization constituted of tax department directors and other tax officials representing counties and municipalities across the state, awarded the honor to Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis, who received the accolade during a banquet at the NCTCA’s annual three-day conference held this year at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro. The Outstanding Tax Collector of the Year award is presented annually to the tax official...

Summerfield Mayor Gail Dunham has filed an incident report with the Town of Summerfield stating that she was assaulted by Summerfield Town Councilmember Dena Barnes during a closed session of the council at a contentious Monday, April 23 meeting. The report the mayor filed with the town states that, in that closed session, Dena Barnes gave Dunham a “hard slap on the right arm” and used her hands “aggressively” in other ways as well. “It was assault,” Dunham said, adding that it was painful when Dena Barnes slapped her arm. Dunham said she was extremely disturbed by the incident....

The Summerfield citizen responsible for the residency challenge that removed former Summerfield Town Councilmember Todd Rotruck from his seat on that Town Council is speaking out about what she says are false allegations being leveled against her and is providing new details about the events surrounding the most controversial political battle in the small town’s history. Janelle Robinson, who filed a challenge of Rotruck’s residency with the Guilford County Board of Elections in March, said this week that she was merely a concerned citizen operating alone in her challenge and not part of any pro-land development cabal set on...

On Thursday, May 3, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners heard a very disappointing report from the Guilford County Purchasing Department on the county’s use – or rather its lack of use – of Minority and Women-owned Business Enterprises (MWBE). The report had several commissioners visibly perturbed and now Commissioner Skip Alston is calling for the county to hire a full-time MWBE director who would answer directly to the county manager and focus exclusively on upping Guilford County’s use of MWBE contractors and suppliers. Late in 2017, the county – led by Commissioners Carolyn Coleman, Carlvena Foster and Alston,...

The Guilford County Animal Shelter, under new Animal Services Director Jorge Ortega, has reached a major milestone: It passed a state inspection with flying colors and with the inspectors commenting that “great improvements” are being made. Passing an inspection is a run of the mill occurrence for most cities or counties with animal shelters, but the Guilford County Animal Shelter has been operating under a “disapproved” status for nearly a year after failing several inspections in 2017. That was a black eye on the county given that, of 125 publicly operated shelters in North Carolina, Guilford County was the...

Former Summerfield Town Councilmember Todd Rotruck is taking the battle over his Town Council seat to North Carolina Superior Court. On Thursday, April 26, Rotruck filed an appeal in an attempt to overturn a decision by the Guilford County Board of Elections that ultimately removed him from the Town Council. He simultaneously filed a lawsuit against the Town of Summerfield that claims “illegal” and “vigilante-like actions” by Town Attorney Bill Hill and Town Manager Scott Whitaker prematurely excluded him from the council seat he was elected to and also infringed on his constitutional right to serve as a councilmember....

The Tuesday, May 8 primary is almost here and one of the most watched battles is the one to become the Republican contender for the Guilford County Board of Commissioners District 2 seat in November. In that contest, Guilford County Commissioner Alan Perdue is up against challenger Ashley Tillery. Right off the bat, there are a few obvious differences between the two: Perdue is male, Tillery female; Perdue lives in Greensboro, Tillery in High Point; Perdue is the incumbent while Tillery is running for office for the first time. The messages from the two campaigns are distinct as well....

The Summerfield Town Council held one of its most contentious meetings in the 22-year history of that town on Monday, April 23 at 6 p.m. in the Summerfield Community Center – a quickly called special meeting to discuss the matter of Todd Rotruck, who the Guilford County Board of Elections determined last week does not live in Summerfield. That ruling by the Elections Board meant Rotruck could no longer serve as a town councilmember. Rotruck was elected to the position last November but a successful voter registration challenge by Summerfield resident Janelle Robinson knocked him off the board since...

On Thursday, April 19, staff and elected officials from Guilford County, Oak Ridge, Stokesdale and Summerfield met in Oak Ridge to examine and discuss the preliminary results of a new major water study that could have a profound effect on future growth – and the patterns of that growth – in northwest Guilford County. The results of the study are expected to be made public sometime in May; however, local leaders got a private viewing of those findings at the closed meeting at the Oak Ridge Town Hall. According to Guilford County Commissioner Justin Conrad, who attended the briefing,...

Guilford County has sent a letter of intent to the State of North Carolina expressing the county’s willingness to expand the Guilford County Juvenile Detention Center to house delinquents for the state once a new law goes into effect – a law that will dramatically increase the number of 16- and 17-year-olds being held as juveniles in North Carolina. The state is going to have a lot more delinquents on its hands after Dec. 1, 2019, when youths in that age group are no longer tried and incarcerated as adults. It will need to hold them somewhere and, more...

Koury Corp. President Steve Showfety probably has most things he wants, but on Thursday, April 19, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners voted to give him something he really wanted but didn’t yet have – a fourth three-year term on the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. Though Showfety got the reappointment he was seeking, he did so without a vote to spare and just in the nick of time, as his term on the authority was set to expire this month. Most county appointments and reappointments to boards and commissions require a simple majority vote; however, earlier this year, the...

It looks like the Town of Summerfield is out one town councilmember. At a Tuesday, April 17 Guilford County Board of Elections meeting, board members voted unanimously that Summerfield Town Councilmember Todd Rotruck was not a resident at 7437 Strawberry Road in Summerfield, the address Rotruck used to register to vote last fall and the one that qualified him to run for the Town Council seat he’s held since December. At no time during the hearing did members of the Board of Elections so much as mention the fact that a successful challenge against Rotruck’s residency as a voter...

The Guilford County kiddie train that was purchased in 2011 as an attraction for Northeast Park – but only ran for a few weeks of the seven years that followed – is now headed to that giant scrapheap in the sky. Actually, it’s headed for a scrapheap somewhere in California, but, regardless, after years of problems that no one was able to fix, the engine known as the Little Engine That Couldn’t has finally chugged its last chug. Guilford County, which remains determined to get a train ride up and running at Northeast Park, is instead purchasing a “like...

The citizens of Guilford County appear to be very slow learners in at least one regard: Four years after cell phones were banned for visitors to the county’s two courthouses, people entering the buildings are still bringing phones to the security checkpoints in droves. That number doesn’t appear to be decreasing one bit as time passes either. Despite a wealth of citizen notification dating back to 2013, plenty of signage all around and years of time for people to get the message, in 2017, there were 19,103 people who attempted to pass through courthouse security checkpoints with their phones....

Attorneys representing the News & Record and other newspapers in Guilford County have informed Guilford County’s legal department that they are suing the county as well as the State of North Carolina over the county’s new practice of posting legally required public notices on the county’s website rather than in paid subscription newspapers, as was required by law in the past. Newspapers such as the News & Record – which for years and years have enjoyed a very lucrative revenue stream from publishing those notices – fought very hard last year, and earlier this year, after the North Carolina...

The four-member Guilford County Board of Elections had a split decision along party lines at their Tuesday, April 10 meeting on the question of whether Steve Buccini – the only Democratic candidate in the North Carolina House of Representatives District 59 race – would be allowed to remain on the ballot. Buccini’s claim to residency in that district had been challenged, and, due to the 2-2 deadlock, the case will now move to the Bipartisan State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement, which presumably will decide it. Buccini was one of three candidates in Guilford County who had their...

The good news keeps coming for Guilford County. Amada America, a sheet metal fabrication company, is asking the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to approve an incentives package for a new $82 million project at 2545 and 2565 Penny Road in High Point. On the heels of a Publix Super Markets deal that could bring 1,000 jobs to the county, the Board of Commissioners is being asked to approve the incentives package for the Amada plant, expected to bring over 200 new jobs to the county. The commissioners will hold a public hearing on the incentives package at the...

The Guilford County commissioners were almost giddy with excitement – no, they were giddy with excitement – at their Thursday, April 5 meeting over the prospects of Publix Super Markets opening a distribution center in the county and bringing 1,000 jobs and $400 million in capital investment. The commissioners let it be known in no uncertain terms that Publix, its jobs and its money are extremely welcome here and the board backed up those words with action by unanimously approving an incentives package that saves Publix 80 percent on its county property taxes for 10 years. Commissioner Carolyn Coleman...

On Thursday, April 5, Republican 13th District Congressman Ted Budd led a meeting of elected leaders, school officials and law enforcement officers to stop school shootings – like the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida – from happening here. Three weeks ago, an impressive array of law enforcement officials met to address that threat and the April 5 meeting expanded that discussion. One thing is becoming crystal clear from these talks in Guilford County: At all levels of government, elected leaders, along with school administrators and law enforcement officials, are now tightly focused on addressing the national problem of...

In a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, April 3, the Guilford County Board of Elections voted unanimously that there is probable cause to hold a residency hearing for Steve Buccini, the only Democratic candidate in the North Carolina House of Representatives District 59 race. If the Elections Board determines in the upcoming hearing that Buccini in fact did not reside at 7100 Gusenbury Road in Whitsett prior to Wednesday, Feb. 28, then he would not be eligible to run for the District 59 seat in the 2018 election. Buccini is one of three candidates in Guilford County whose residency has...

If the Guilford County Board of Elections members want to play golf together, they finally have a full foursome after two new members were sworn in at a quickly called “emergency” meeting on Thursday, March 29 – but it’s unlikely they’ll be playing golf anytime soon because they now have a ton of work to do. At the meeting, in addition to getting two new members – Republican Eugene Lester and Democrat T. Anthony Spearman – the board also got a new chairman. Jim Kimel, a Democrat, took over that role from former Chairman Kathryn Lindley, a Republican. It...

Ever since the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority put the brakes on a planned airport name change, the future of that process has been – well, up in the air. And while airport officials have been vague about its airport name plans going forward, a new request for help that the Airport Authority has put out to advertising, marketing and consulting firms sheds some light on the major rebranding and renaming effort that’s in store for the airport. Over two months ago, airport officials at Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) hit the reset button on a proposal to change the...

If the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority (PTAA) wants to change the name of the airport – and it really, really does – it now has plenty of suggestions to choose from thanks to area residents. Ever since airport officials let it be known that a name change was in the works, people have been sending their suggestions to the Airport Authority. The list of names, which includes responses from over 200 people, runs the gamut from names that honor prominent people of the past to names that highlight the airport’s location. The suggestions were made to PTAA through phone...

The Guilford County Board of Elections is back in business and has two new members, giving it a total of four. The board members intend to hit the ground running because they have a lot of running to do – running the local 2018 election, that is. On Tuesday, March 27, the brand new Bipartisan State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement appointed two new members to Guilford County’s election board: Republican Eugene Lester, an attorney who sits on the Greensboro Zoning Commission, and Rev. T. Anthony Spearman, a Democrat who currently serves as president of the North Carolina...

On Wednesday, March 21, by far the safest place in North Carolina to be was in the locked conference room inside the Guilford County Sheriff’s Special Operations Division building at 508 Industrial Ave. in Greensboro. Packed tight into one small room were the sheriffs from central North Carolina counties, police chiefs from cities and towns in Guilford County, heads of security from local colleges, top brass from the North Carolina Highway Patrol and the SBI, and North Carolina Secretary of Public Safety Erik Hooks. There was one reason and one reason only for the meeting in Guilford County’s most...

Koury Corp. President Steve Showfety is going to get a fourth three-year term on the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority – the seven-member authority that calls all the shots for the airport. According to sources on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, there are now more than enough votes to allow Showfety to continue serving on the authority that he’s been on for nine years and has chaired since April 2014. Behind the scenes, the Guilford County commissioners have been debating the question for months – one they were originally scheduled to address at their Thursday, March 15 meeting and...

The Guilford County Board of Elections has received challenges of residency for three candidates running in the 2018 election. However, there is no functioning county elections board to hear those challenges so the claims are in limbo for now. Since there is now a state elections board, that problem could be solved soon. Two candidates in the North Carolina House of Representatives District 59 race – state Rep. Jon Hardister and Democratic candidate Steve Buccini – have had their residency challenged, as has Michael Garrett, the Democratic Senate District 27 candidate running against Republican District 27 state Sen. Trudy...

After getting approval from the county commissioners in early March, Guilford County staff is now making the transition from publishing public notices in newspapers to posting them online on the county’s website, and there are two big questions remaining: How much money will the county save by the move and how much money will the county make by offering the service to others? Guilford County plans to flip the switch on Monday, March 26 and go live with county notices. From that point on, citizens will be seeing all Guilford County notices for free at the county’s web page...

The most interesting two things that happened at the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Thursday, March 15 meeting were ones that no one in the audience heard or saw. One thing no one there was able to see was a two-hour-and-eight-minute closed session the commissioners held with representatives of a mystery company “for the purpose of considering a business location or expansion.” The other thing at the meeting no one saw at the March 15 meeting – because it didn’t take place – was a discussion and vote on whether to reappoint Koury Corp. President Steve Showfety to a...

The Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 dead and many others injured, has some Guilford County officials strongly advocating for arming teachers in Guilford County schools. The Guilford County Board of Education handles school matters; however, the county helps fund the schools and currently the Board of Commissioners and the school board are working together to enhance school safety as one part of a major joint facilities study now underway. In the wake of the horrific Parkland school shooting, some county commissioners and Sheriff BJ Barnes are asking the school...

Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes is proposing deployment of a new $1.1 million “Mutualink” video system for Guilford County Schools that would allow law enforcement to view every hallway, cafeteria and common area at every county school. The move is part of an “Emergency Interoperable Communications Project Plan” the Sheriff’s Department and other emergency responders want to see in place for county schools. It would allow law enforcement agencies to view a real-time video feed from any school in the event of an active shooter or other threat. Mutualink would also enhance interagency communication between various first responder units,...

Several Guilford County commissioners – along with other commissioners across North Carolina – got an audience with the Trump administration in Washington on Wednesday, March 14. The White House is attempting to strengthen its relationships with counties across the country, and as part of that effort, county commissioners from North Carolina were invited to meet with Trump administration officials. Commissioners from some other states have already had similar meetings and more states are expected to get their turn in the future. Three Guilford County commissioners – Jeff Phillips, Kay Cashion and Chairman Alan Branson – attended the Wednesday afternoon...