Greensboro City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba revealed his plans for reorganization of city government at the City Council retreat on Thursday, March 24, and it’s not going to be cheap.
Jaiyeoba, who took over as city manager on Feb. 1, plans to add two new “offices,” create two new departments and add one new assistant city manager.
The plan presented by Jaiyeoba adds another assistant city manager position, so that the city will have four assistant city managers and one deputy city manager.
Currently the city has two assistant city managers, Larry Davis and Trey Davis (who are not related), and one deputy city manager, Chris Wilson, who served as interim city manager from July 1 when former City Manager David Parrish resigned to Feb. 1 when Jaiyeoba was hired.
Assistant City Manager Kim Sowell resigned in March in order to accept the position of Durham County manager. That means that Jaiyeoba has two assistant city manager positions to fill – one to replace Sowell and one that will be added in the fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2022.
Jaiyeoba also plans to add a department of general services that will handle procurement and equipment and fleet services, the Minority/Women Business Enterprise program and contracts.
The other new department is the Greensboro Transit Authority Department, which will handle public transportation. Currently the Greensboro Transit Agency (GTA) is a division of the Greensboro Department of Transportation.
The Neighborhood Development Department is to become the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Development, which more emphasis on housing and less on enforcement.
The proposed new office of Chief of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion would report directly to Jaiyeoba.
The office of the Chief Sustainability Officer would report directly to Deputy City Manager Chris Wilson.
A new position already added by Jaiyeoba is Assistant to the City Manager April Albritton.
Jaiyeoba also said that he wanted to better distribute the departments among the assistant city managers, with related departments reporting to the same assistant city manager and all four assistant city managers having portfolios of similar size.
More government, just what we need to spend OUR tax dollars on.
Sounds like an already top heavy organization is getting more so. How many more service employees could be paid for with all of the this added and un-needed admin staff. Greensboro citizens need more worker bees! The last think we need it more Bureaucrats
Lol, top heavy just like the school system. More tax dollar waste.
I want to apply for the “Diversity” job. I have been marginalized.
A ” new office of Chief of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”…. So it’s not only a new level of parasitic bureaucracy, it’s one that’s going to discriminate against white people.
Lol. Diversity is such a trigger word for you. Most large organizations have diversity office roles these days because of narrow minded people such as yourself who deny the extra barriers that affect people of cor and woman owned business. We Wouldn’t need these roles except for people like you who think white people are victims of racism or discrimination because people that are MORE disadantaged receive assistance.
But it shows YOUR true colors.
My true colors are those of a decent, well raised Christian.
Please don’t put words in my mouth. I never said that being black doesn’t bring with it many disadvantages, but I don’t believe that the cure is to institutionally discriminate against white people. When the government plays favorites with its citizens, it’s just wrong. And that’s what all these efforts at “equity” and “inclusion” are about.
The rest of your comment is just another attempt at character assassination of me, using unfounded smears and ridiculous allegations. That is because you are an odious unpleasant nasty little wanker.
“Equity and Inclusion” have literally the exact opposite meaning of “government playing favorites with citizens”. Inclusion, means bringing everyone to the table. You, your neighbor etc. Equity is finding a solution that best meets everyone’s wants and needs. So say we are talking about public transportation, we would included YOU, Austin Morris, and Chris here and look for an equitable transportation solution for you both. Annnnnd I’m done wasting time and energy on strangers unknowingly parroting racist dog whistles on the internet. Hope yall have a good day!
“Diversity” means no Whites allowed.
Get smart and pay attention.
Too true. And they no longer demand equality – that’s not enough. Now they demand “equity”, which means discriminating against Whitey.
Chris,
Why do you constantly seek out Austin to argue with?? Just stating what I notice. Others have shared similar thoughts as Austin but he seems to always get singled out by you. It kind of reminds me TDS but I guess it could be called ADS lol! Just making an observation so go ahead and take aim at me now.
I consistently humiliate him in these columns by exposing the absurdity of his arguments. So I have become the target of his infantile ire.
He’s just a small intellect with a big mouth.
Thanks MGBTQ!
I will say “equity” is a trigger word for me. Because equity in Greensboro means one thing. Look at the other article on a jobs fair for teens in Greensboro. See if you can dissect the meaning of the word “equity” to Outling and Hightower.
WTF. Every city department is top heavy. I thoroughly enjoy how there is no money to make the police department hiring competitive but we can add new upper positions while gas is high, food prices are out of control, ect. All while the property reevaluations will make our county and city property taxes considerably higher. The city manager has not even been here two months. We have elections this year. Slow your roll council or we will see you gone in November.
Until Greensboro voters decide enough is enough, anticipate ever increasing expenditures in each new budget (sooner in this instance.). It’s easy to spend someone else’s money, especially when there’s no objection.
Isn’t that just wonderful,,you get a new Ciyy Manager and ‘Bam’ right off the bat he expands his dept by 40%.Only in Greensboro where we have a ton of Democrats leaders that could care less about Joe Taxpayer.Why not use that quarter/million dollars used as salary for these two and give a break to all taxpayers in the city!!!!!Just saying!!!!Also there must be. Lot of Democrat voters in Greensboro because they keep these peopling power!!!!