It is extremely unusual for the Greensboro City Council to cut off a city department head in the middle of a report.
However, the City Council cut off Greensboro Department of Transportation (GDOT) Director Hanna Cockburn at the Jan. 4 meeting when she was attempting to explain why the concerns of the business owners on North Eugene Street had not been recognized or addressed by GDOT before North Eugene Street was closed between Smith and Bellemeade streets.
First Cockburn said, “Many of these questions were addressed at the meeting on Dec. 20.” Cockburn did not go into any detail on how those questions had been addressed. Many of the questions brought to the City Council’s attention by business owners had to do with how deliveries would be made and how customers were supposed to get to their businesses with the street completely closed to vehicular traffic. Cockburn gave no indication of how the city had addressed these questions or why after the initial meeting there was no follow-up by the city before the announcement that the street would be closed on Monday, Jan. 3 was made.
Cockburn then said, “I am deeply sorry that these items were not addressed four years ago. I wish I had a time machine; I do not have one. If any of you have one, please let me know.”
Cockburn then said that according to the contractor the street needed to be closed to get the project completed in a timely manner.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan interrupted Cockburn and said, “I’m sure the contractor is going to take the path of least resistance, what they think is going to be easier for them. But this is an unusual occurrence because they have been through this already.”
After the flippant comment about a “time machine” the City Council didn’t allow Cockburn to speak and directed their questions to Assistant City Manager Kim Sowell, who agreed to contact the business owners the next day, set up a meeting with all the stakeholders within a week and reopen the street while the discussions were taking place.
Sowell did not request the use of a time machine to accomplish any of those tasks.
Funny! Greensboro is still stuck in the time machine of the early 1960s.
Perhaps our citizens could use the Time Machine to go back and change their vote….
“Stupid is as stupid does”. Better learn how to be a little less flippant when you are speaking to government officials that could determine whether you keep your job. Maybe she should be glad the council does not have a time machine. They may have gone back to the day before she was hired and made a different selection.
This is what happens when you hire someone with a college education instead of real world job experience
LOL, how would anyone experience if they all had your mindset. What he experienced has was a learning opportunity (assuming she is new to the role as you assume). She will be better for it next time she addresses the council.
Right! Today, a college degree means your are pretty-near indoctrinated.
Thanks for alerting the public to your unenlightened stance as a gleefully ignorant, anti-knowledge cretin who cannot be trusted to make important decisions involving a profitable business or civil society.
If you re-read the Jan 27, 2020, Rhino, you will find out more about our transportation head. If you google her, you can read her resume. Bachelor of Arts and a Masters of Arts in Urban Planning ?? What happened to having an Engineering degree? OK, over look that, what about common sense? Must have been hanging out with the city council! If you close a street that has active, viable businesses on it, what the hell do you think will happen? I thought Greensboro’s elected officials couldn’t mess up any more than they have already. Shame on me for letting that one bite me on my a**, She was hired by Parrish and his statement “it’s a different skill set, it will be different”. Yeah, upsetting our store owners because she couldn’t tell the construction head he could not close the street to make it easier for him. Damn,,,,
chris unlike you I knew my facts before I posted my response. Please read Mac’s post and you can go slowly one word at a time to be sure you understand.
The position should have required a degree in Transportation Engineering and a North Carolina Professional Engineering License. Who writes the qualification requirements, Donald Duck? If the City of Greensboro cannot hire a true professional engineer to fill this type of job something is grossly wrong in City Hall.
I’m a former Westmoreland GDOT employee and when he was the director stuff got done and handled. He was compassionate and understanding of peoples circumstances. Jim was a fine man to work for on a bad day. The current total GDOT brass are people of numbers
I watched this Council meeting and I didn’t perceive Ms. Cockburn’s response as flippant. I perceived her as really wanting to help, but saying that she couldn’t go back and fix the wrongs that were done to the businesses when Roy Carroll built his hotel. I do think this is another example of the City not having a backbone and looking out for larger businesses (Yates) instead of the smaller ones.
Yeah, she does sound a bit flippant or maybe just frustrated with the situation. When were the bid packages for this work issued, before or after she took office? Did they include information about whether this work would have to be performed without closing off the streets? What did the contractor’s bid say and what did his contract say? Given this is work occurring in a busy downtown business district it seems to me that the question of street closing would be the number one concern to the city as well as the contractor because it would drastically affect the contract amount and the schedule. It should have been clearly spelled out in the contract documents.