Sometimes it really does help to come to the Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting and make your case as a speaker from the floor.
Years ago, the late Marie Stanley came time and time again and asked the board to give the health department funding for a mobile medical van after she became convinced that her husband’s death could have been prevented by a service such as that. For years she showed up and spoke, and then, finally, one year, when the late former Guilford County Commissioner Bob Landreth was chairman, the mobile medical unit was funded in the county’s budget.
Well, last year, supporters of the Guilford Clean Power Now Coalition began coming in droves to speak at commissioners meetings, and now it looks like they’re going to get their wish.
At a recent all-day budget retreat, the Guilford County commissioners directed county staff to move forward with a resolution and other efforts supporting Guilford County’s move toward green government. The board hasn’t yet adopted the soon-to-be-written resolution, and there are still details to be worked out.
However, at the board’s Thursday, April 2 meeting, a representative of the group came and presented the board with a package of small cupcakes.
He told commissioners that when they follow through and adopt the resolution, they would be rewarded with a new set of big cupcakes.
It’s not exactly certain what the commissioners’ final resolution will look like, but David Gilbert, a spokesperson for the group, offered the incentives at the Thursday evening meeting.
“I’m here today as a member of the Guilford Clean Power Now coalition of local environmental groups,” Gilbert said. “We want to celebrate the direction that you’re headed with energy policy as demonstrated in last week’s work session. In fact, we brought some cupcakes to help with the celebration. As you will see, your clerk is holding them for you for after the meeting.”
“You’ll also notice that they are rather small cupcakes,” he added. “Granted, they’re small, but they’re just as tasty as the big ones, although they’re gone in one bite. I bet you’re asking, what do we have to do to get the big ones? Well, I’ll tell you, because we’re looking forward to bringing you cupcakes – big cupcakes – and hopefully very soon.”
Gilbert noted that, at the commissioners retreat the prior Friday, the board directed staff to develop a resolution supporting sustainability and the use of clean energy in Guilford County government. He also recounted that the board had directed staff to prepare a strategic energy plan that includes a measurable energy audit baseline, targets and reporting framework, and recommends a new position in the upcoming fiscal 2026–2027 budget for a “manager of sustainability, resilience and renewable energy.”
Gilbert called that a “terrific and great start” but said that what’s still missing is the official policy guiding the effort.
He told commissioners what they would need to do to earn the large cupcakes instead of the small, bite-sized ones.
“We ask you to earn your full-sized cupcake by adopting a policy that provides the goals against which Guilford County Manager Victor Isler and his staff’s actions will be measured,” Gilbert told the board.
He added, “We think a good model for that policy is the one that we’ve been urging you to adopt for the past seven months.”
He said he wanted to review some points in that policy so the commissioners could think about how close they are to getting a “big, delicious cupcake.”
He said the first point is a transition to 100 percent clean energy in county operations by 2050. The second is to seek clean certification for Guilford County through the Certification for Communities program. The third is to build new facilities to at least LEED Silver standards. The fourth is to transition the county’s fleet to electric, hydrogen or hybrid vehicles by 2050.
“Can you taste the cupcake?” he asked the commissioners.
“It’s getting pretty close. Heck, we’ll make it a full-size cake for you if you can move forward with this in the near future,” he said.
Gilbert added that if there are issues about the specific language in the resolution, the commissioners should reach out to the group.
He said the clean energy advocates have already adjusted parts of the draft in response to suggestions from commissioners.
“We’ve met with some of you,” he said, adding that the group would especially welcome the opportunity to meet with Chairman Skip Alston and Vice Chairman Carlvena Foster.
He concluded by adding that the group is looking forward to celebrating with large cupcakes – or even a full-sized cake.
i will also sustain & spring clean thus inspired ! plant sex is all on my face/eyes HELP dam gametes catkins
Are you ok?
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He’s “special”.
FROM THE STORY ..
Gilbert called that a “terrific and great start” but said that what’s still missing is the official policy guiding the effort.
ASKING…
Why are the commissioners recommending adding a new position…” recommends a new position in the upcoming fiscal 2026–2027 budget for a “manager of sustainability, resilience and renewable energy.” – when no official policy has been developed and adopted to guide this important effort? Shouldn’t policy development preceed even the consideration of creating new positions? Perhaps a resulting policy could be effectively implemented within the existing structures of county government.
Thanks.
Were the cupcakes baked in a solar powered oven?
i use one almost every sunny day $28. on any cloudless day i will reach 230*. it’s low temp long duration cooking. get the ‘pouch’ type. reorient it towards sun 4x / day. ideal for cooler summer kitchen
I can assure you all that there is no relation between me andthis Gilbert fellow. What a funny coincidence though, as I too love a good cupcake.
is this sexual innuendo ! i luv ‘a good cupcake’; do have have one, gilbert ? do u ever get one, gilbert ? have u ever HAD one, gilbert ?
Of course I’ve had a cupcake before. I’m confused how you are relating my love of cupcakes to any sort of sexual joke though. I would ask to explain, but I’d rather you not. I like to eat cupcakes and enjoy them as a dessert. Can we leave it at that?
k. u earned the ‘cupcake’ merit badge & we promote u to pie if we like your crust
Your comments always confuse me. Maybe I’m just getting too old though, who knows. I always have to ask my grandkids for help with one of my technologies whenever they come over.
of course not, it would not be any fun.
Who could have ever guessed that Skip Alston is so corrupt that he may require a bribe of sugary snacks to do anything but sit around and waste taxpayer dollars?
Lol, I guessed it! More BS and smoke blown into your face. Bribery is the name of the game with County Commissioners.
Bingo Bango
Will those cupcakes be made with an electric stove or gas? LOL
Where will they park the electric vehicles that are no longer allowed to be parked inside parking garages and are discouraged from parking them in groups (school buses come to mind) to prevent large fires? I’d think that would also mean that they’d discourage parking fire trucks and ambulances inside buildings where personnel sleep and work. I’m just curious.
(I think they baked the cupcakes with an Easy Bake Oven – Battery Powered)
npr radio says that only ONE CHARGING DEVICE allowed & ONLY on their person aboard delta planes: NONE allowed in baggage or overhead because of the spontaneous FIRE RISK ( a kid with aboxa matches is safer)
Looking at these folks, I guarantee you, they protested nuclear energy in the 70s with Jane Fonda… Think of how far clean energy could be without that misguided group.
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So true!
Don’t they look like a bunch of silly well meaning fools?
Just go hug a tree. And buy some new sandals.
supporting evidence: they are all inside a roofed building under umbrellaz. wut r they trying to communicate while being photographed ? dementia ? if present, i would have ‘mooned’ them in response
i am that guy on the spaceship with her in ‘barbarella’ – we did not protest nuclear energy (i did not use a period @ the end of my sentence because i’m trying to confuse austin morris)
So here we have it….. right after announcing a $137,000,000 county admin building in a county with a terrible record of estimated vs actual costs, a terrible record of building maintenance of even the simplest of school buildings, and on the cusp of decisions about how much tax we will pay and how it will be spent, we now know that: Instead of just building an energy/ROI cost-efficient structure, nooooo…..we have to provide a long-term meal ticket for all the LEED Consultants required to get the plaque, then, as at Northwest School, they will need a new group of consultants to tell them how to make it work. I am certain that at this very moment, deep in the halls of the county building, someone is eating cupcakes while deciding how many new county employees will be added just to manage all the consultants required going forward….goody.
“When you scale these LEED Silver requirements up to a $137 million project like the new Guilford County complex, that “all-in” premium lands somewhere between $2 million and $4.1 million, since we’re talking about a high-visibility, 118,000-square-foot government facility, the costs shift from simple material swaps to much more complex integrated systems. You’re looking at roughly $450,000 to $800,000 just for the “Soft Cost” expert team—specialists who handle the massive documentation load, high-level energy modeling for the four-story layout, and “Enhanced Commissioning” to ensure the HVAC and IT cooling systems are actually tuned perfectly before move-in.
The biggest chunk, likely $1.5 million to $3.3 million, goes toward the “Hard Cost” construction premiums. On a build this size, that means investing in high-performance glazing for all that square footage, high-efficiency mechanical systems like VRF or chilled beams, and a logistics premium for sourcing low-carbon or regional materials. Toss in another $40,000 to $60,000 for the USGBC registration and review fees—which are calculated by the square foot—and your total estimated investment to get that Silver plaque sits right around $3.08 million. It’s a significant number, but for a county building, it’s usually justified as a long-term hedge to keep utility and maintenance costs down over the building’s 50-year lifespan.”
All the public hearings over the new tax valuations and the coming tax rate decision just became known as Skips Alstons………..”LET THEM EAT CAKE TOUR.”
This article is a cupcake. So is the board.
I am rather liberal minded and very pro-Green energy but having a “manager of sustainability, resilience and renewable energy” is a fluff role that will lead to little actual value for the county. It’s like DEI roles…..right idea but mostly waste of money as the role is more a ‘vanity role’ to show they are trying to ‘do good’ but will not delivery any real impact as intended.
agreed. titles like these are just a bunch of hogwash used to give politicians relatives inflated payroll and/or launder money. we become more and more like the corrupt nations of south america by the second. before you know it pablo escobar will be our next mayor laundering his drug money through wasteful spending and useless programs
That is a bit extreme. Can’t say I see a link between fluff jobs and evil drug kingpins. I don’t think it is the inflated payroll politicians love. It is the easy way to say they are doing something when aren’t really doing anything. The money is meaningless to someone like Skip, to him it is just free money. This is just a lazy way to say he has done something important and check the box. Bonus he gets a cupcake too.
skip cant wait to expand his lucrative corruption business into the drug trade if he hasnt already
Saw your comment on the High Point drug dealer in the jail. Made me truly laugh out loud. Well done.
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I agree with “Professor” Chris in this instance !
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The most difficult thing about building perpetual motion machines is figuring out where to hide the battery.
you can broadcast the power from a remote location, such as my wife’s cleaning supplies.
u b funny wut does she clean with, napalm ?
Ah, you have errerred. You ASSume she cleans……
Cupcakes? Cupcakes??? You mean to tell me that our Board of Commissioners is so incompetent, so unable to execute the powers vested in them by we the people that they are taking bribes of cupcakes?
This is WAY OVER THE LINE. Not funny, not clever, not some harmless little moment. OVER. THE. LINE. If ANY commissioner thinks it is acceptable to sit there and be “rewarded” for policy decisions, even as a joke, then they have no business holding office. FULL STOP. There needs to be IMMEDIATE consequences, up to and including REMOVAL from their position, for anyone who thinks this kind of behavior is acceptable. And let’s be honest, if this is what they are comfortable doing out in the open, what else has been going on behind closed doors?
That is what this has come to? Not serious policy debate, not careful consideration of costs, not any real accountability to taxpayers. No, apparently all it takes is a tray of sugar and a cute little speech and suddenly we are talking about reshaping county policy for decades.
And let’s not play dumb about what happened. You can dress it up as a “joke” all you want, but the message was crystal clear. DO WHAT WE WANT, PASS WHAT WE ARE PUSHING, AND YOU GET REWARDED. Today it is CUPCAKES, tomorrow it is CONTRACTS AND KICKBACKS. The principle is the same, and it should make every single person in this county absolutely furious.
Because where is that same energy when regular citizens show up? Where is the excitement, the enthusiasm, the eagerness to “move forward” when taxpayers are the ones speaking? It VANISHES. Suddenly it is slow process, more study, more waiting, more “we appreciate your input.” But bring in an organized group with an agenda and suddenly things start moving REAL QUICK.
And of course the board just goes along with it. No pushback. No one saying this looks ridiculous. No one saying maybe we should not be entertaining this kind of behavior in a public meeting. Just SMILES, NODS, and business as usual.
That is the part people are sick of. It is not just this one incident. It is the PATTERN. The feeling that decisions are already leaning one direction, and certain groups just get ushered right along while everyone else is expected to sit quietly and hope they are heard.
If this is what passes for leadership now, then no wonder people are losing faith.
Wait, you think the cupcakes where the real difference maker? LOL
Chill and allow a little humor to enter your heart. You will live longer and happier.
I wonder what the moonbats baked into those cupcakes
these people are lifetime hippies you can tell just from their age in the picture. they havent done a single thing differently or changed any of their opinions in the last 60 years. how can they expect their methods to work now?? dang idiots i tell you.. so much for the scientific method
But everyone is entitled to my opinion………
Twang beat me to it. As the hippie generation passes, perhaps the world will return to equilibrium.
you are ancient greek philosopher how did twang beat you? is he a time traveler?