Author: John Hammer

The City of Greensboro is jumping back on the mask bandwagon. On Thursday, Aug. 5, the city is reinstating its mask mandate in city facilities.

The Greensboro City Council plans to vote to have members of five organizations appointed to a citizens’ redistricting committee at the Tuesday, August 31 City Council meeting.

The moratorium on evictions by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is set to expire on Saturday, July 31. At the Thursday, July 29 virtual work session, the City Council heard a report on what the Neighborhood Development Department was doing to prepare for the expected flood of evictions.

President Pro Tem of the state Senate Sen. Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) has a different take on the latest COVID-19 trends.

Greensboro Police Chief Brian James made it clear at the City Council work session on Thursday, July 29 that he is not a glass half empty kind of guy. James talked in detail about the current staffing problems.  The Police Department is authorized to have 691 sworn officers and it has 601 fully trained sworn officers.  The department also has 45 officers in various stages of training, but 25 of those have been pre-hired for the next Police Academy class that starts Sept. 1, which means they are about 10 months from being fully trained sworn officers.

Greensboro Police Chief Brian James gave the City Council an update on violent crime data covering the first half of 2020 at the virtual work session on Thursday, July 29.

The Greensboro City Council will hold two meetings on Monday, Aug. 2.

Despite the fact that the Greensboro Police Department is down 90 fully trained sworn officers, the number of homicides is down according to the report by Assistant City Manager Trey Davis sent to the council on July 28.

The Greensboro City Council will hold a virtual work session on Thursday, July 29 beginning at 2 p.m. The agenda for the July 29 virtual work session has two items: “2021-102 Violent Crime Update” and “2021-103 Rental Assistance Efforts.”

Like everything else in the COVID-19, era the Wyndham Championship being played at the Sedgefield Country Club Wednesday, Aug. 11 through Sunday, Aug. 15 will be a little different.

Greensboro is facing both a crime wave and a shortage of police officers to respond to those crimes. And the shortage of sworn fully trained police officers is getting worse, not better.

The lack of timely response by the Greensboro Police Department was a continuing theme of speakers at Mayor Nancy Vaughan’s town hall meeting on Monday, July 26 at Barber Park.

The mainstream media has been reporting about the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations rising, largely because of the delta variant. What has not received the same amount of attention are the deaths from this increased number of cases.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan got plenty of stakeholder input at the town hall meeting on the proposed nightclub ordinance on Monday, July 26 at Barber Park, but none of it was complimentary.

First responders, piedmont triad teachers, and members of the military are being offered great deal at the Wyndham Championship being played Wednesday, Aug. 11 through Sunday, Aug. 15 at the Sedgefield Country Club.

The memo sent from Interim City Manager Chris Wilson about action already taken concerning violence at bars and nightclubs appears to indicate that the proposed Greensboro Safety Review Board is not needed.

Although small businesses took a big hit during the pandemic shutdown, state and local governments ended up with piles of unexpected money.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan is holding a town hall meeting on a new proposed nightclub ordinance on Monday, July 26 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Barber Park Event Center.

As it turns out the third time is the charm and the Greensboro City Council by a 5-4 vote at the Tuesday, July 20 meeting approved the transition to a salary step plan for city employees.

Friday Night Live is coming to downtown Greensboro in August. Every Friday night in August there will be a live concert from 5 to 9 p.m. on Lewis Street in the city center’s south end, sponsored by Kontoor Brands in partnership with Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI), Rock 92 and 107.5 KZL.

At the Greensboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, July 15, the City Council unanimously passed an ordinance to put some teeth in the anti-dumping regulations in Greensboro.

Wednesday, July 21, Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan figured prominently in the White House press release headlined, “North Carolina Mayors – Republican and Democrat – Call on Congress to Pass the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework.”

Even with $135 million in bonds and changing the compensation system for city employees on the agenda for the Tuesday, July 20 City Council meeting, the item that was discussed the most by the Greensboro City Council was the Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise percentages for one $625,000 paving contract.

The plan was to use COVID-19 era restrictions to make it more difficult or the public to speak at City Council meetings. But Councilmember Sharon Hightower brought that dark plan into the light and killed it off with a few choice comments.

A public comment period on the Greensboro’s use of US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding during the 2019-2020 fiscal year begins on Tuesday, July 20 and runs through Tuesday, Aug. 3.

The Greensboro City Council will take the next step in placing $135 million in bonds on the ballot for the 2022 election at the Tuesday, July 20 meeting.

The Greensboro City Council will hold its once a month business meeting on Tuesday, July 20 beginning at 5:30 p.m. This will be the second meeting where a limited number of people are allowed to attend for a limited amount of time.  According to the agenda, people who wish to speak on an agenda item will be ushered into the room to speak and then ushered out again.

The first Wyndham Championship in two years that fans will be able to attend is right around the corner – Aug. 11 through Aug. 15. And Harris Teeter is offering discounted tickets to its loyal customers.

The parking pass vouchers now being offered by downtown businesses actually provide three hours of free parking in the city parking decks. The vouchers, courtesy of the Greensboro Department of Transportation that are available from participating businesses, offer an additional two hours of free parking from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays at all five of the city’s downtown parking decks, including the brand new deck across Bellemeade Street from First National Bank Field.

At the work session on Thursday, July 15, Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that after talking with Greensboro Police Chief Brian James about the amount of manhours the Police Department spends on minor traffic accidents, she had a bill introduced in the legislature to allow non-sworn personnel to respond to fender benders.

The Greensboro City Council spent a good portion of the Thursday, July 15 work session talking about the Greensboro Police Department (GPD).

Whether or not the City of Greensboro will start implementing the “step” plan for employee compensation is still up in the air.

Find Great People of Greenville, SC, will be charged with finding a great city manager for Greensboro following action by the City Council on Thursday, July 15.

For the past several decades, city funding for individual nonprofits has dominated City Council discussions on the budget, but not this year.

The Greensboro City Council virtual work session on Thursday, July 15 at 2 p.m. is going to focus mainly on public safety judging from the agenda attachments.

The Tuesday, July 13 Greensboro City Council meeting was the first since March 2020 that some residents were allowed to attend and speak in person to the City Council.

The first City Council meeting that ordinary residents of Greensboro were allowed to attend was uneventful almost until the end. At the very end of the meeting, during the council comment period where each member of the City Council is afforded the opportunity to talk about anything they want, Councilmember Goldie Wells said, “I would like to see what could be done about renaming this chamber to honor Katie Dorsett.  She passed away about a year ago now, and she served on this council and then she served as a county commissioner and then she went on to serve in the North Carolina Senate.  I would really like for you to look into how we could change the name of just this chamber in her honor.”

Raleigh and Durham were rated as the second best place in the country to live according to a ranking by US News & World Report.

The planned condemnation by Greensboro of property owned by The Carroll Companies on North Eugene Street at the Tuesday, July 13 City Council meeting is about time, not money.

This week is a busy one for the Greensboro City Council, with two scheduled meetings. 

The consent agenda for the Tuesday, July 13 City Council meeting includes some familiar names. The consent agenda includes six resolutions to condemn property, and two of those are condemning property owned by The Carroll Companies, which also owns this publication.

The Greensboro Transit Agency (GTA) is undertaking an in-depth analysis of its paratransit service, Access GSO.

A resolution on the agenda for the Tuesday, July 13 City Council meeting will be the first action in the City Council redistricting process that will take place this fall.

Next week is Shark Week at the Greensboro Science Center (GSC). Shark Week activities will take place at GSC from Monday, July 12 to Saturday, July 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.

At the first Greensboro City Council meeting of the month, the public comment period – also called speakers from the floor on non-agenda items – is the main item on the agenda.

With the 2021 Greensboro City Council primary election delayed until the statewide primary on March 8, 2022, the ballot is likely to be long.

The agenda announcement for the Tuesday, July 13 Greensboro City Council meeting once again states that the meeting will be open to some residents.

In an article about the lack of diversity on a public board, doesn’t it seem a news organization has a responsibility to get the race and gender of the members of that board correct?

A bill to restrict how local elected bodies deal with nonprofit contracts, grants, loans or other appropriations has passed the state Senate by a 42-6 vote and is now before the state House. Senate Bill 473 restricts local public officials from participating in contracts that benefit a nonprofit with which they are associated.