It appears the District 3 Greensboro City Council race is going to be a hot one.
Chip Roth has officially announced he is running for the District 3 City Council race, and the word on the street is that Downtown Greensboro Inc. President and former District 3 City Councilmember Zack Matheny is going to run for his old seat.
It’s more than just a rumor. Although Matheny has made no official announcement, he has sent out a fundraising letter.
You might say Matheny’s in the on-deck circle, but Matheny hasn’t stepped up to the plate. And yet the fundraising letter resulted in a blistering press release from Roth stating that Matheny would have a major conflict of interest if he served on the City Council.
As Roth notes in the press release, Matheny resigned from the City Council in order to accept the position as president of DGI in 2015 to avoid a conflict of interest.
Roth states in the email, “The obvious conflicts of interest with Matheny launching a political campaign to serve on the City Council while running DGI are extensive and alarming.”
However, there are two current city councilmembers with similar situations.
At-large City Councilmember Michelle Kennedy is the executive director of the Interactive Resource Center that, like DGI, is an independent nonprofit that receives funding from the city.
Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson, while a member of the City Council, spoke in favor of One Step Further (where she is the executive director) receiving the contract for the Cure Violence program. In the past year, One Step Further has been awarded nearly $900,000 in funding for the Cure Violence program. Johnson was recused from voting on the contract but not recused from the discussions about it.
Roth said he saw those situations as different from Matheny at DGI because DGI had once been part of the city and would not exist without city funding.
Matheney is all show and no substance. District 3 deserves better. Greensboro deserves better.
There is NOT one person on the City Council NOW that should be reelected. I would vote for anyone running before I would vote for anyone on the Council NOW. These persons on the Council NOW voted themselves in for another term which is NOT legal and should never have been allowed to happen.. Lets hope that the citizens of Greensboro will vote ALL new people to serve out city for a better positive quality of life for us ALL!!!!!!!!!! WE DESERVE BETTER!!!!!
And our Police most certainly should be a priority. They are Citizens protecting Citizens for bird seed and council hassel.
You are living in the past Barbara…The police have become Social Justice Warriors with a badge. Order food delivery and call the fat waddling cops at the same time – see who gets there first. Learn how to protect yourself Barbara.
The ENTIRE GCC, along with the Mayor, the Guilford Sheriff AND the Commissioners ALL need to go – get out you blood sucking human ticks. You can no more balance a budget, meet the needs of the city and county residents and businesses or represent your specific zones, districts etc..than a 3 year old. Go away, ALL of you GRIFTERS.
But that’s DIFFERENT. A sitting female councilwoman of color getting almost a million dollars of taxpayer money over past 2 years to fund a ‘nonprofit cure violence ‘ program (w/NO oversight permitted btw) that has resulted in an INCREASE in violent crimes and has not benefited anyone except her and her ‘staff’, is TOTALLY different than a middle-aged white guy running a TRANSPARENT program that actually HAS produced results and helped Greensboro and downtown grow and attract businesses and investors.
What a joke this city is becoming. We’re on a crash course with disaster.
How can we begrudge Yvonne Johnson’s program almost a million dollars when it has been so effective at reducing violent crime in our city? After all, if it saves just sixty-one lives . . .
What do I have to do to run for City Counsel?
I think that they require you to have a lobotomy.
This City is absolutely stuck in the past. We have seen many other cities our size prosper and grow. This city council including the Mayor and DGI are all just used to the status quo. Inflate budgets, hamstring law officers and continue to put it off to the next term. We need new blood in Greensboro. We need our citizens to feel supported especially in these crazy times. Funding pet projects such as cure violence, taking a salary and paying a staff seems to not pass the smell test. DGI is another example
As a resident of District 3, I can attest that Zack Matheny did nothing for our district other than lobby for the DGI position.
Greensboro government is a joke. Look no further than the voting public, for you are the Merry Pranksters.