The Greensboro City Council is scheduled to hand over another $400,000 to a fellow councilmember at the Tuesday, Jan. 18 meeting.
This $400,000 will be in addition to the nearly $900,000 the City Council has already paid for the Cure Violence program run by City Councilmember Yvonne Johnson in her role as executive director of One Step Further.
The North Carolina legislature passed a bill in 2021 that in the future will make Johnson’s actions in acquiring this lucrative contract illegal. However, at the time there was no law in North Carolina that prevented elected officials from lobbying the elected body where they served to hand over a contract to the nonprofit where they worked.
Johnson was recused from the vote on the Cure Violence contract. Other councilmembers who are recused from an item because of a conflict of interest don’t participate in the discussion. Sometimes the recused councilmember will leave the dais during the discussion. Johnson, however, fully participated in the discussions and was only recused from the final vote to award the contract.
For some reason the Cure Violence program is not in the budget with the other allocations to nonprofits but is handled separately midway through the city’s fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
In December, the City Council heard a lengthy report on the Cure Violence program done by a group from UNCG. According to that report this $400,000 a year program had 31 participants and, of those, 16 filled out surveys with enough information to be used in the report. The report uses percentages to indicate the success of the program, such as 87 percent strongly agree with the statement that Cure Violence has had a positive impact on their lives, which sounds much better than 14 people strongly agreed with that statement.
At that meeting it was also reported by a Cure Violence employee that there were three vacancies in the seven-member Cure Violence staff.
Since a large percentage of the $400,000 allocation from the city is for staff salaries, it would be interesting to know how the money that was budgeted for those salaries was being spent.
But after that report the Greensboro City Council had no substantive questions about the lack of success of the Cure Violence program that was noted in the presentation.
LOLOLOLOL, Idiots!
Another 400k wasted without any concrete results or accountability to the taxpayers Just ask Detroit or Chicago how this program works johnson should be ashamed for taking the taxpayers money. Don’t worry karma is a beast
More wasted money. That’s why everyone needs to get out and vote conservative Republicans in November 2022. If not then the Democrats will continue to take money for useless programs, continue to raise our gas prices, food prices, vehicles, etc…
We sure didn’t have all these problems when Donald Trump was President.
The young men and women that gets into this program, usually comes out worse than before. Johnson is not doing a &$%# thing to help these young men and women. She’s only using the money to line her own pockets. She could care less about the welfare of these teens.
I would like it better if the city would just hand Johnson the money to spend as she see fit instead of hiding behind the cover of a name or program that Johnson has no intentions of achieving positive results.
The sad thing about this is if you call out the truth to Ms. Johnson, she will call you ‘Racist’. That ship won’t sale this time Ms. Johnson because I’m black. Actually, you will be amazed at how many black folks are disgusted at your theft of taxpayers money!
And this is a surprise to no one
Just another Democrat sucking public money to profit from. Does she also get a salary from her non- profit?
We really are stupid! 400k on top of 900k. Laughing all the way to the bank.
I have a clue for our City Council. Fund the Police so they can do their job and arrest those breaking the law. This will help stop violence!
Now that Johnson has her Grifter skills in place, time for a congressional run.
Democratic party will love her ability to waste money earned by the ever shrinking
producer class.
$400,000 can buy 20 of these fully functional tiny houses assembled onsite with volunteer labor if the city has 2 acres of land to spare. That’s 20 homeless individuals or families who won’t be hitting citizens over the head to get enough for a motel on cold snowy night. It could also buy a LOT of ammo. I can guess which option most of your readers would prefer:
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Imagine-Kit-Homes-Seaspray-Standard-1-Bedroom-270-sq-ft-cat3-Tiny-Home-DIY-Steel-Frame-Building-Kit-For-Concrete-Foundation-Seaspray/312703055?MERCH=REC-_-pipsem-_-315195896-_-312703055-_-N&
I like the way you think Tuna
I like the ammo idea. Give out enough ammo and guns soon we will have less of a problem
God d@#n, not this touchy feely stuff again.
Anything given and not earned won’t be appreciated and will be destroyed in months. Would you like a tour of countless examples all over town? We can start at Smith Homes and go downhill from there.
Next stop on your tour would be all the junk that the “pastor micheal king “ built through project homestead in the Old Asheboro District millions of taxpayer dollars wasted and stolen by him and his organization. Those so called homes have been rehabbed multiple times since then mostly because of poor design, cheap materials, lousy labor practices and most of all poor ownership
I don’t live in Greensboro but if I did I would be screaming to Raleigh and back to pass a law that people that are head of a non profit and have convinced our stupid city to give them this much money,someone shouwind up in jail .Mid terms are coming up ,to be sue there are at least 7/8 republicans in Greensboro that has the intestinal fortitude to pass a bush that is not covered over with PORK.Vote these Dems out.and began passing budgets that are reasonable.Or As you have done for the last 15-20 years vote these Turkeys in so they can raise taxes and water rates.You people in Greensboro are short of full deck,!!!! Are any of the people who live in Greensboro that would dare vote to get these Freeloaders off the city council!!!!!!
Most of your violent crime is not committed by the unsheltered. Your idea is not bad at all, it just won’t affect violent crime rate, which is committed mostly by housed teenagers and young adult males. The majority of homicides are over drugs, gangs, money, or girls. Some people just don’t know how to resolve their disputes peacefully anymore.
“Some people just don’t know how to resolve their disputes peacefully anymore.”
Goes back to how they were raised, mostly by one parent who was not married to the father of the child. Sad, really sad, the minority community won’t tackle the big issue which is lack of fathers. You hear it all the time about “baby daddy” or “baby momma” but never hear about the father and mother as married parents of a wayward teen. Until that changes, you will always get what you have now with everyone pointing a finger at someone else who is responsible.
No amount of money, or free passes to get out of high school or get into college, is going to change that.
Totally disgusted! No accountability for our tax dollars? Why did survey takers NOT ask the citizens of Greensboro who tax dollars they are using? Anyone have a say or even asked about the UNCG survey? Would be nice to find and prosecute these crooks.
JOHN- can you report the salaries of the employees of the cure for violence? Bet if this same program was supported on any other place but the Eastside, Hightower, Wells, Johnson and Vaughn would be the first to yell, “Racism”.
Not confident Hugh Holston is truly one to voice his opinion as he so claims ? I guess he along with Abuzuaiter and Thurm has been silenced just like Justin. ” The time is always right to do what is right”!
The money could be used to support the employees of Greensboro. Especially our police and fire departments.
” It is not possible to be in favor of justice for some people and not be in favor of justice for ALL people” – council probably has no idea who said that?
Where is Justin Outling? Was he at the meeting? If so why did he not comment? Will he be any better that Nancy if elected Mayor?? We surely do not see him voicing his opinion!
Yvonne Johnson is one of the biggest thieves in Greensboro or anywhere around. She’s been that for many years sad to say. Her and King Skippy have lived a life of luxury on the taxpayers for years.
God and Karma will get them I guarantee it.
Just imagine a toilet crammed full of hundred dollar bills. That’s what this amounts to.
Would city fund a nonprofit tar and feather storefront.? It could be in a undersevrved area.
More of the Democrats stealing taxpayer money without any accountability (or results…those who voted for these liberal idiots do not pay the majority of these wasted taxes (if any at all) so they do not care if the taxes are wasted…when the “inmates” outnumber the guards and totally run the asylum, this is what you get…better find a way to get some honest votes in Greensboro or realize this is how it will be!!
Where are the lawyers? A person on the council should be removed if obtaining any financial advantage from the council for any purpose. The potential for influence/favor peddling is extreme.
Lets see, the study says 14 people indicated that the program has truly benefited them. The cost of the program was $900,000. Therefore, the cost per person was $62,285.71. That makes the cost benefit ratio just a bit high. The only person benefitting from this fiasco is Johnson. If she thinks this program is so worthwhile, why not serve without a salary?
I suggest that all these public-funded “Programs” be required to use a city-approved cloud-based, non-erasable, accounting system. It should include all cash outflows and inflows, all expenses, and their backup documents. It should be accessible daily by the city, and subject to periodic review as well as a yearly review by an employee of the city who is directly accountable to the city manager. As far as I can tell, no one has found the missing Project Homestead data server. That fiasco should be allowed to happen again.
Sadly, the majority of the taxpayers in the Greensboro know nothing about this program, or where the money is going. They have zero clue that Yvonne Johnson is getting this money for some money pit program. That’s because the city council is not going to make this widely known, and neither will the News & Record. None of the TV stations will report on it. The city council is not accountable to the taxpayers and thus the average Joe blow knows nothing. Yvonne Johnson just keeps lining her pockets and smiling all the way to the bank. Does anyone recall a few years back when her husband was delinquent on his city taxes? I believe this is when she was serving as Mayor!! It never ends
Right you are. Tune into the local mainstream media/print outlets, if you enjoy a good dose of happy talk about social justice related interests and issues. Nothing a true journalist would claim.
Think I heard this story awhile back…Civil Rights Museum….thousands of $$ gone with nothing to show and no accountability year after year after year…and now King Skippy is driving the bus again…Greensboro Proud indeed
This sad story has been around over 20 years. skip and earl fleeced Gso for a lot of money. earl got away with over 700k in the early years and skip didn’t build his plantation complete with servant quarters out back by selling hot dogs. God I miss Billy Yow
It’s all about the votes, and money interests, and how they carve up the districts. Sad.
What you see is what you get.
Johnson-One Step Further Exec- paid $48,000. plus.
This is how it works.