The Greensboro City Council is scheduled to select a new councilmember at the virtual meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 14, and there is no lack of choices.
The application deadline was Wednesday, Sept. 9 at 11:59, so if you were meaning to apply but putting it off you have procrastinated too much. However, a lot of people didn’t.
The City Council has 47 self-nominated candidates to consider. The original plan was to give each nominee five minutes to speak to the council about why they should be appointed to the vacant City Council seat, but after online applications started flooding in, the time limit was reduced to three minutes. Even with the reduced time limit, if all nominees speak for three minutes, realistically the City Council is looking at least three hours of listening to them speak.
After that the City Council has to make a decision on who to select to replace former At-large City Councilmember Michelle Kennedy who resigned to accept the job as director of the Greensboro Neighborhood Development Department.
The city released a spreadsheet of the applications listed in alphabetical order, so it is simply a coincidence that former City Councilmember Mike Barber, who is considered one of the leading contenders for the seat, is at the top of the list. In 2017 Barber finished in fourth place about 100 votes behind Kennedy, and in the at-large City Council race, the top three win seats on the City Council.
Also by coincidence, the third name on the list is former City Councilmember and current Guilford County Board of Education member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small.
The 47 people who nominated themselves for the open City Council seat are:
Mike Barber
Pandora Bell
- Dianne Bellamy Small
Julia Blizin
Brenton Boyce
Steven Burns
Kim Clark
Harold Clayton
Rev. Eric Cole
Logan Combs
Roger Cooper
Daniel Craft
Kristan Dunphy
Justin Fennell
Theresa Furman
Dr. LaToya Gathers
Robyn Gest
Dorothy Goebel
Lee Goldston
Kali Griggs
Jacob Hicks
Hugh Holston
Uzma Kashi
Matthew Kennedy
Joel Landau
Rickard Levy
Gerry McCants
Christopher Meadows
John Merritt
Derek Mobley
Jason Norris
Blake Odum
Jacqueline Perkins
Hester Petty
Rebecca Phillips
Jeffery Roberts
Mickela Roher
Katie Rossabi
Michael Rubin
Nicky Smith
Heather Stinson
Dr. Linda Wilson
Gerald Wong
Carolyn Woodruff
John Wright
You can view all the applications here: https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/government/city-council
Did kennedy break the law or not? is that to be forgotten or swept?
We all know they were sweeping before it ever hit the papers the 1st time around. It would be good to hear that something was being done about it.
Hey folks ,maybe she has grown up while being a part of the school board.I have not read that she was acting petty about things happening on that board,I remember she pitched a fit about an office that did not have a window.also she had the worst attitude of anyone before or since.Although Hightower might give her a run for the money.She might be the equivalent of bellamy -small on the current board.
Nah, she just blended in better on the School Board so no one noticed.
PLEASE NOTE: I have withdrawn my name – Elaine Dumont Inman – from being considered, and the Mayor HAS acknowledged my request.
The more research I did made it abundantly clear that this is ONE place I do not care to spend ANY time. I plan to follow the upcoming ‘gaffes’ made, as they continue on, (those which have already been made are bad enough..) and do some writing to keep your readers up to date. It should prove interesting, to say the least!!
Ah, Ms Bellamy-Small…. An especially ill humored and churlish individual, if my one encounter with her is typical.
I seem to recall thinking that she’s a dreadful anti-white racist too.
She made a fool of herself when she was previously on the council, but she is so obtuse that she doesn’t even realize it.
Yep, I cringed when I saw that name too. Like dayum! Some people think very highly of themselves. Bad politicians are like roaches and just go on forever & won’t go away. The very first thing I thought of when I saw that name was there is that racist a$$ Dianne B. Small and the B wasn’t for Bellamy. What a legacy!
It would not surprise me at all for them to select that the horrible D Bellamy-Small; since she makes the rest of them look good – in comparison.
The one with the next highest number of votes should be the one chosen and that is Mike Barber. That would also mean that the voters elected him. It looks like that the City Council is doing everything that they can do to keep from having a white man on the Council. He is a true supporter for the City of Greensboro and that is who we need to represent ALL our citizens.
I hope people remember when bellamy small (and I intentionally used small letters) used her last position on the council to get out of a speeding ticket when another bellamy was the black police chief who would later disgrace himself as the chief of a university police dept.
I hope to remember what I forgot about withdrawing.
Only King of Guilford County would work for me. Answerable to no one. All the free-loaders and grafters can leave the County now.
Isn’t there a vacant seat down the hall? Remember the bathroom scene from “Walking Tall”?