Author: John Hammer

The Greensboro City Council appears to be an impediment to development in East Greensboro, despite the fact that the same City Council constantly talks about the need to increase development in that area of the city.

Former Greensboro Police Officer Matthew Hamilton was charged with manslaughter on June 6 for fatally shooting Joseph Lopez on Nov. 19, 2022. Hamilton’s attorney, Amiel Rossabi, has now filed a “Motion to Dismiss, Or, In the Alternative, Motion for New Grand Jury Presentment.”

On Tuesday, June 21, the Greensboro City Council voted unanimously to start charging residents $25 for not complying with the ordinance requiring them to remove their garbage and recycling containers from the street, apparently having little idea what that ordinance actually states.

Early voting for the Tuesday, July 26, 2022 City Council election opens Thursday, July 7 at seven early voting locations in Greensboro. 

The Greensboro City Council at the Thursday, June 30 work session discussed taking back control of the City Council work sessions.

The 73rd annual Kirkwood Parade will be held on Monday, July 4, promptly at about 5 p.m. The Kirkwood Fourth of July Parade, aka the grandmother of all neighborhood parades in Greensboro, began in 1949 when a bunch of World War II veterans and their families decided to celebrate Independence Day by marching around the neighborhood banging on pots and pans, and it has been a delightfully disorganized event ever since.

Greensboro has backed off implementing a $25 fine for having garbage cans on the street for more than 24 hours, which is good because there appears to be a lot of misinformation about the ordinance the city plans to enforce.

The Greensboro City Council has been patting itself on the back for giving police officers a 7 percent raise in the 2022-2023 budget. The Police Department is currently short about 100 officers from its authorized force of 689 sworn officers.  The last several Greensboro Police Academy classes have not graduated enough officers to keep pace with the average attrition rate of about 60 officers a year, which means the number of vacancies will continue increase. In a static environment, the 7 percent raise for Greensboro police officers would help with the recruitment issues.  However, the environment is far from static.  Cities across the state and nation are experiencing similar problems with police staffing and taking action.

The budget approved by the Greensboro City Council last week was historic, but the budget process was not.

The reports for the Greensboro City Council work session at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 30 are available on the City of Greensboro website. This is a radical departure from the city’s practice over the past several months.

The North Carolina legislature announced it had reached an agreement on a $27.9 billion budget on Tuesday, June 28. However, it is $15 million of that $27.9 billion that has Greensboro in a tizzy.

Early voting for the July 26 City Council election starts at 8 a.m. on Thursday, July 7 and ends at 3 p.m. on Saturday, July 23.  There will be no early voting on Saturday, July 9 and Sunday, July 10.  The early voting site in the Blue Room at the Old Guilford County Court House at 301 W. Market St. will be open week days from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and closed on Saturday, July 16 and Sunday, July 17. 

July is National Parks and Recreation month and the award-winning Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department has some special events scheduled to celebrate.

The Minority and Women Business Enterprise (MWBE) program is on the agenda for the City Council work session at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 30.

Last week the Greensboro City Council passed the largest tax increase in the history of Greensboro, but the City Council wants more money to spend. Although they have received little attention, the City Council has placed five bonds totaling $135 million on the ballot for the Tuesday, July 26 election.

Along with the largest tax increase in history, water and sewer rate increases and fee increases, the Greensboro City Council also added some new fines for misbehaving residents of the city.

The Dobbs v. Jackson decision by the US Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade is one of the most momentous Supreme Court decisions in 50 years. Dobbs v. Jackson doesn’t outlaw abortion, as many abortion rights supporters have said, but returns the authority to make decisions regarding the legality of abortion to the states. Following the announcement of the decision by the Supreme Court, North Carolina Speaker of the state House Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) issued a press release stating that the North Carolina General Assembly was days away from adjourning and would not take up the abortion issue in this session.

The Fun Fourth Freedom Fest will be held in downtown Greensboro from noon to 6 p.m. on Monday, July 4 along South Elm Street between Market Street and Lewis Street sponsored by Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI).

The COVID-19 pandemic was hard on a lot of North Carolinians, resulting in job loss or reduced income. But for the major hospitals in the state, COVID resulted in billions of dollars of profit, according to a report from North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell.

The Greensboro City Council passed City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba’s recommended 2022-2023 budget of $689 million at the Tuesday, June 21 meeting with few changes and with little discussion of the need for the massive increase in spending. According to the city staff’s report, the average property owner will pay about 30 percent more in city property taxes.

The US Supreme Court ruled 8-1 on Thursday, June 23 that the North Carolina legislature could intervene to defend the state’s voter ID law against legal challenges in federal court.

City councilmembers made some bizarre statements in justifying their votes for the largest tax increase in the history of Greensboro and an enormous 2022-2023 budget that increases city spending by over 10 percent.  

The Greensboro City Council met at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 21 in clear violation of the North Carolina Open Meetings Law because there was no public notification of the meeting.

Tuesday, June 21 the Greensboro City Council on a 7-2 vote  passed the $688 million 2022-2023 fiscal year budget, which includes the highest property tax increase in the history of Greensboro, as well as raising water rates, garbage and hazardous waste collection fees and development fees.

The $688 million City of Greensboro 2022-2023 budget is expected to pass by a split vote at the Tuesday, June 21 City Council meeting.

The 2022-2023 fiscal year budget ordinance, which was finally posted to the website and is scheduled to be voted on by the Greensboro City Council at the 5:30 p.m. meeting on Tuesday, June 21, has some surprises.
The manager’s recommended 2022-2023 budget has increased to $688 million.

City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba sent a memo to city councilmembers on Tuesday, June 21 stating that the number of new employees in the budget was 37, not 61 as had been reported. The total of 69.25 on page 7 of the manager’s recommended budget, reduced by the eight positions in the Police Department in the revised budget, leaves a total of 61.25.

Although he’s no longer a mayoral candidate, the public records lawsuit filed by Eric Robert during his mayoral campaign continues on its course. Greensboro Senior Assistant City Attorney Tony Baker filed an answer on behalf of the City of Greensboro to Robert’s lawsuit in North Carolina Superior Court last week, asking that the case be dismissed.

The City of Greensboro 2022-2023 fiscal year budget is on the agenda for approval at the Tuesday, June 21 City Council meeting. The amount of the budget, the tax rate and any details about how the city revenue will be spent beginning July 1, 2022 is unknown. The agenda for the June 21 meeting published on the City of Greensboro website has this note about the proposed budget, “This item is still under construction.  The ordinance is forthcoming.”

The mainstream media is reporting that a bill allowing Guilford County to specify that a 0.25 cent increase in sales tax would be used to pay for school capital expenses, as if it is news. The bill sponsored by Guilford County Democrat state Senators Michael Garrett and Gladys Robinson is likely to pass when pigs are flying over the ice skaters in hell.

The City Council next week is expected to pass the 2022-2023 budget of about $680 million, which will include the largest tax increase in the history of Greensboro.

The Environmental Protection Agency updated drinking water health advisories for PFOA and PFOS were released on June 15. The Greensboro Water Resources Department responded with a press release, including a video presentation by Water Resources Director Mike Borchers answering common questions asked about the new guidelines.

The Greensboro Police Department was the only department in the City of Greensboro that actually had its budget reduced when City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba presented his revised budget at the City Council work session on Tuesday, June 14.

Juneteenth, which is June 19, is a new federal holiday celebrated on the Monday or Friday closest to June 19 when it falls on a weekend. So this year, with June 19 on Sunday, the holiday is Monday, June 20.

The split on the straw vote to support the slightly revised budget proposed by City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba is revealing.

It appears a 2022-2023 fiscal year budget with a tax rate of 63.25 cents has the five votes needed to be approved by the Greensboro City Council at the Tuesday, June 21 meeting.

The GSO2040 Comprehensive Plan update for the second quarter of 2022 includes a major change in Greensboro’s vision for the future. The original GSO2040 Comprehensive Plan included the vision statement, “Greensboro: Best Mid-size City in America.” City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba’s message in the GSO2040 Implementation Update states, “In a recent huddle with our executive team, we tweaked that vision to say, “Greensboro: America’s Most Desirable Mid-Sized City.  It is a bold and ambitious vision which we can realize sooner than 2040.”

The Greensboro City Council is deep into the budget process, with a work session on Thursday, June 9 and one on Tuesday, June 14. Mayor Nancy Vaughan sent an email to the senior city staff and city councilmembers on Tuesday, June 14 outlining some of the concerns and questions she has about the proposed budget.

At the Guilford County Republican Party membership meeting on Monday, June 13, Chris Meadows announced that he was running a write-in campaign for mayor.

Along with the 30 percent property tax increase in the city manager’s proposed 2022-2023 budget is a 4.5 percent increase in water and sewer rates.

The No. 74 Bee Safe Racing/Riley Motorsports Ferrari finished fifth in the GTE Pro Division at the 90th running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The American Hebrew Academy, which has been vacant since it suddenly closed in June 2019, has a new tenant. On Friday, June 10, the board of directors of the American Hebrew Academy announced that the campus at 4334 Hobbs Road would be leased to the Department of Housing and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families Office of Refugee Resettlement.

The Bee Safe Racing/Riley Motor Sports Ferrari is ready to go in the 24 Hours of Le Mans Race on Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12.

The Greensboro City Council is holding a work session on “Compensation Matters” on Thursday, June 9. City councilmembers have repeatedly said that their priority in the 2022-2023 budget is to ensure that city employees are adequately compensated.

The full police body worn camera videos of the incident that resulted in the fatal shooting of Joseph Lopez on Nov. 19, 2021 were released by the Greensboro Police Department (GPD) on Wednesday, June 8.

The Greensboro Police Department has received court approval to release the full body worn camera footage from the 10 Greensboro Police Officers who were present when Officer M.E. Hamilton fatally shot Joseph Lopez.

The Tuesday, June 7 Greensboro City Council meeting was not long, but it had its moments.

The public hearing on the proposed Greensboro 2022-2023 fiscal year budget at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, June 7 lasted a little over three minutes.

A Guilford County grand jury returned a manslaughter indictment for Greensboro Police Officer M.E. Hamilton on Monday, June 6.