The City Council budget work session on Tuesday, May 25 mainly concerned additional spending in the recommended 2021-2022 budget.
The plan to provide Greensboro police officers with take-home cars to be implemented over five years faced strong objections from some councilmembers, but most of the meeting was spent with councilmembers requesting additional spending.
In public safety, the City Council discussed additional salary increases for police, fire and Guilford Metro 911 employees.
Human Resources Director Jamiah Waterman seemed to be having difficulty explaining why it is not advisable for the city to simply raise the salaries of new hires without giving corresponding raises to current employees.
Councilmember Michelle Kennedy asked that the salaries for new hires at Guilford Metro 911 be raised before the recommended raises for current employees goes into effect in December.
Councilmember Sharon Hightower expressed confusion over whether the raises being considered were for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30, or the 2021-2022 fiscal year, which begins on July 1.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan suggested that the compensation of all city employees should be increased based on the metrics the city uses to determine if the salary for a job is adequate. She said, “We’re shooting for 50 percent. As the third largest city in the state, we should be shooting for higher. We’re looking for good employees. We should pay accordingly.”
Vaughan also noted that all the salary comparisons were for the proposed increases for Greensboro employees to the current salaries of employees in other cities and those cities were also likely to raising the salaries of their employees in their upcoming budgets.
Waterman explained that currently the goal was “matching the market,” but that the goal could be changed to “leading the market,” which would involve significant salary increases for city employees.
Councilmembers Tammi Thurm and Kennedy expressed support for raising the salaries for firefighters above what was being recommended.
Take-home police vehicles are OK for a small PD, but not for one the size of Greensboro. I know all the alleged advantages, but they come nowhere near balancing the extreme cost of having so many police vehicles sitting idle for most of the 24 hour day.
Greensboro may be the third largest city in NC, but it’s growth has not kept pace with other cities. Why?
City employees should receive fair compensation, but overdoing it is not necessary.
Vaughn et al need to realize that they are spending other people’s money (hard-earned in many cases).
Explain how every other large city in NC and other states are able to have take home cars at a cost savings but not Greensboro. And most small agencies. Research the numbers and look at how Greensboro makes their city divisions pay a lease for service on cars that are already bought and paid for.
Mr. Ed, they are going to spend their money regardless. Would you rather it go to public safety, roads, fixing our decrepit water and sewer or more for DGI with former city council member Matheny who got that job for a soft landing for his DWI, Yvonne Johnson’s business Cure the Violence, Kennedy’s IRC. They self deal. But no money to have an adequately trained, benefited, and respected police department. No-now Kennedy wants to discuss generally how all minorities are scared of police. BS. I’m not scared. I go to work, pay my taxes, get my kids to school during a pandemic all without handouts. How does that happen? B/C I manage my $ and prioritize spending in my household. Wish the government and the city could do that. Good luck.
“Our” money. Sorry for the typo.
Well said. I’m tired of Michelle Kennedy always pouting and giving the poor pitiful me and my clients. Never mind we pay Both if her salaries. Yvonne Johnson has a gold mine with Cure Violence… especially since they aren’t audited. I don’t even find them in the official NC listing of nonprofits. She’s living well. And poor Hightower is just pitiful. She can’t keep up or keep track and hasn’t yet realized that the MBE requirements also include WBE and DBE who don’t have to be minorities. Our City Council is the laughing stock of NC. Vote NO on all bonds. They can’t even spend what they already have.
Hey if you want to compare yourselves to the market, you should know that my business has seen its revenue drop by nearly 50% since Covid hit, and my income is a fraction of what it was in 2019.
But you people in the Parasitic sector don’t have to worry about the real World do you?
You’re perfectly insulated from it, with money being something that just shows up in your bank account every month, regardless, and increases every year, regardless.
It must be nice to ride the gravy train.
Spare a thought for us suckers out here who pay for you…. and your sick days, and your vacation days, and your annual raises, and your Cadillac healthcare, and your Rolls-Royce retirement (I”I’ve put in my 30 years!” – so have I, 5 years ago).
You can go put on a uniform for the lowest salary and benefits in Guilford County. Or do a ride along.
I have done a ride along. Big deal.
Your whining and shilling for cops is nauseating.
They’re bureaucrats with badges.
The personality type drawn to law enforcement is the High Control/Low Intelligence type. In other words, they’re mostly bullies with badges (and the whole power of the state behind them).
Why don’t you try to get a real job – you know, in the productive sector?
Wow, stereotype much? I bet if you asked the average cop if they love bureaucracy, they would be likely to say no. Most cops I know complain about bureaucracy because it hinders their ability to actually fight crime. Believe me, they are not getting rich or rolling in accolades. Sure there are bad cops, just like there are people who do a bad job at whatever it is you do. Doctors kill patients every day in every state, yet no one hates doctors. No one wants to disband all the teachers, even though that profession has its own problems. Seems that just the cops are always on the chopping block. Yet they sign up for it anyway because they want to make a difference.
I’m sure whatever business you’re in makes a positive difference in the world, maybe not as good as catching a murderer, or rapist, or stopping an active shooter. (See the Smith High School incident from a year or two ago where the cop stopped the shooter before he could get his first shot off. Great job Officer Evans!) If your kid went to Smith High School when that happened, you would be changing your tune.
Literally just about every killer in the world is stopped by a cop. Every rapist, every thief that gets caught is caught by a cop. Go live in downtown Portland or Seattle for a few days and see how you like a cop free zone. Try out skid row in San Francisco or take a walk through your favorite ghetto when you know no cops are around and let me know how it turns out. It’s easy to hate cops until you need one, and when you do, they will come to help you even though you hate them.
Ok don’t call 911. Please we would not want a Neanderthal cop to respond to your house or business. Especially not one who has a Masters degree from 2 real universities (not an online diploma factory). Or one who grew up in the hood of Greensboro and never left the city (except for school) even when other opportunities arose to GTFO of here.
These decisions are very important and valid; however, this City Council is NOT intelligent enough to make these decisions. All their decisions is only about themselves and NOT in the best interest of the citizens of Greensboro. Lets hope that we will have a better group of Council members in the the near future.
Imagine that. These clowns clueless & confused. Anything less would be a disappointment.
GPD currently has over 40 hard vacancies. If you count those that are not fully trained, it is over 70. That is over 10% of the authorized strength. I believe the mission of Hightower and Kennedy is to do a defacto defund the police. Keep it up with the crappy benefits and pay. New recruits will keep going to GCSO and High Point PD where they have a take home car, higher pay, and less political BS. And guess who is going to keep the high murder rate-the very citizens they pretend to defend by insuring that there are lower quality police hires, officers with low morale, officers who answer calls and take reports because they know if they say something someone in power “perceives” as inappropriate they will be hung out to dry. Record high murder rate last year. Break down those demographics. I also love how most council members do not say jack, Looking at you D4 Hoffman, former mayor Johnson, Goldie Wells.
Five years to implement a take home car program is unacceptable. Explain to me city of Greensboro how High Point, Winston Salem, Charlotte, Raleigh, and all sorts of smaller agencies can have had a take home car program for YEARS and Greensboro cannot. The city is a joke around the state as well as their police department. This is not a reflection of Brian James (although it is of the previous few chiefs who sucked). James is being given nothing to work with and keep his job. Police agencies across the country are in a perilous position. Minneapolis has 200 vacancies. Seattle has lost 20% of their police department in a year. Greensboro is headed in that direction. November (if the council does not get their way and delay for another year) cannot come soon enough.
Greensboro is a National joke .. not just NC …
Sounds like to me, the council is just trying to keep up with the Jones sort of thing. Pay them by the schedule and a cost of living raise like 3%. Has anybody on the council ever run a business????
The city went years several years where no one got a raise period. No cost of living and insurance went up. Why do you think so many city employees work second jobs? Or off duty for police? Or the stereotypical mowing lawns for firefighters?
Someone please tell me. . . . .can the City use their “magical” COVID funds from Biden to purchase vehicles? Or, is that designed to go to their favorite community groups owned by Johnson and Kennedy?