The agenda for the Tuesday, Jan. 2 Greensboro City Council meeting has had some significant changes since it was released last week.
On the original agenda, approval of the $369,000 contract with Schaefer Plastics North America LLC to assemble and delivery the 75,000 new 95-gallon grey yard waste carts was on the Consent Agenda. Items on the Consent Agenda are supposed to be routine and noncontroversial items that are all passed with one vote. According to City Council policy, items on the Consent Agenda may not be discussed by councilmembers. This policy is routinely ignored when Councilmember Sharon Hightower wants to discuss an item, but is also routinely enforced for the other eight members of the City Council.
On the City Council agenda that is currently on the city website, the contract with Shaeffer Plastics for the yard waste bins has been moved to the General Business Agenda, which means that the public may comment on the agenda item and city councilmembers may discuss it.
Also added to the General Business Agenda is an item “to amend the Capital Leasing Fund Appropriation in the Amount of $4,169,000 from proposed Financing Activities.”
According to the agenda, “Limited Obligation bond financing will be needed to fund appropriations for the purchase of additional yard waste carts ($3,747,000 – cart material and $369,000 – assembly and delivery along with $53,000 for estimated bond issue costs).”
So, as it turns out, despite massive property tax increases in the past two years, the city doesn’t have the funds to purchase, assemble and deliver the new yard waste carts and will have to borrow that money and that increases the cost to the city by adding in the cost of the bonds.
According to the Field Operations Department presentation, five new vehicles will also have to be purchased for collection of the yard waste carts and the paper bags of yard waste, which residents will be required to use for yard waste including leaves that are in excess of what will fit in the yard waste cart. So far there is no item on the agenda that covers the cost of these new vehicles.
So, the $4.1 million that the city plans to borrow to pay for the yard waste carts, assembly and delivery is not the total cost of ending the loose leaf collection program and initiating the yard waste cart and paper bag program. The cost of the five new vehicles will have to be added to that cost and, according to the city, the result of borrowing and spending these millions for the new program will result in a savings to the city of $10 million over 15 years.
The original agenda for the Jan. 2 City Council meeting included the contract for assembling and delivering the 75,000 yard waste carts, but not the funding to purchase the yard waste carts, which is certainly a case of putting the cart before the horse.
And the BS gets deeper and stinks even more. Happy New Year! Your council at work….you voted them into office. They are “fighting hard” for you!
Our city/county leaders kick off the new with more outrageous actions!! Who are the people who continue to vote them in office?+
I can hear Irving R. Levine reporting “The Fleecing of America.”
Now is the time to cancel the entire idea and do what this city council has never done. Use commen sence and do what the taxpayers want and forget these warm and fuzzy ideas that benifit nobody.
Talk about ridiculous!!
I find myself singing, “Where has all the money gone… ” to the old tune of “Where have all the flowers gone…”
The lack of foresight the cluster of bumbl8ng nabobs that we smilingly refer to as a city council is monumental. Oh. I suppose “Big City” will find something positive to say about the lack of fiscal responsibility, but the financial windgall the city should have from the windgall of a massive tax increase has been spent. The council’s profligate spending on boondoggles like “Cure Violence” has apparently left the cashbox empty.
Typical action by this Council. Remember WHO you voted for?
I hope this blows up in their face. Stay with what you have!
Need a halt to the change in leaf collection service. City says it will save money. Who did the analysis? How do we know the city was effectively managing the leaf collection and if similar savings could be made via better operation? City is trying to commit to a small contract that then extorts the remainder of the funds.
And after the massive increase in taxes, how does the city not have funding for projects? Another issue all together.
We could learn a lot from Winston-Salem. Check out the article:
https://triad-city-beat.com/winston-salem-leaf-problem/
WS has the same challenges as GSO, but with one huge difference: They are actually trying to improve the situation by buying updated equipment, which ironically, is offered by a Greensboro firm: Carolina Environmental Systems.
What does GSO do? Record tax increases and they STILL have to borrow money just to buy the roll-out carts. Never mind the cost of five new trucks, which I would support if they were the new efficient loose lease trucks.
It is getting evermore difficult to justify living in GSO city limits. I know people who have made the move out.
If this passes, there needs to be an immediate tax rate decrease in recognition of less need for labor and equipment required to process leaves.
My thought on council meeting tonight…..RINO needs to stay on this….it smells
Houston, we have a problem. My observations.
I am a native of Greensboro and have spent a lot of my energy and resources to try and make Greensboro the best it can be. I had business in Charlotte and Raleigh but my heart was always in Greensboro.
I have totally misunderstood the purpose of the Greensboro City council. I thought the city council’s purpose was to efficiently run the city on a continuous improvement path. This is the way it was when I held leadership roles.
I live in Florida now for the largest part of the year and am a Florida resident. Greensboro recently made a totally ill rational decision to abandon their poorly run bulk leaf program. I have done a lot of research on this subject since the tax payers, without any or little input on this proposed change were made aware of this potential change. After doing this research, I realized how poorly run Greensboro’s system was once I saw what our sister communities were doing. This includes their organization and equipment.
I planned to watch the speakers on the proposed leaf program tonight as I feel it will hurt the city that I love very much. I feel that even if legal action is needed to prevent this costly mistake, it should be done.
I was told the speakers would start at 5:30 and the first speakers on the leaf program (the primary concern of taxpayers did not start until at least two hours later). I am confident this was by design. Wear them out but to their credit the speakers waited.
During that time I heard several political speeches and eat dinner. None of this helped Greensboro be a more efficient or desirable.
As a taxpayer, I was shocked at what consumed the two hours. It was basically a political forum and had nothing to do with how efficiently Greensboro runs. I was totally shocked and had I been a new business considering Greensboro by attending the meeting, the decision would have been an easy one. As a taxpayer, I resent my city taking a position for me on anything other than how efficiently my city runs and the services it offers.
There is a time and place for issue debates but our city council meeting is not one of them. Council members were elected to efficiently run the city and serve as a communication link to the community and nothing else.
I am totally amazed that we were able to develop the TANGER CENTER and successfully run our coliseum for 50+ years. There competition is strong and our competition sees the cracks are beginning to appear. These cities will use these weaknesses to their advantage.
What are the councils plans for the parking garage and new hotel (under development for 5++ years?????). How many tax payer dollars were spent on this private development? I believe in build and they will come and it has happened before in Greensboro but under different circumstances and leadership.
Tonight’s council meeting was an eye opener for me and I wish I had not watched.
Board meetings should be short, concise and productive. None of that happened tonight. In my opinion it was a sad day for Greensboro but I can only assume it has been going on for some time.
Mike Haley
The city has long ago passed on focusing on the core services and responsibilities of the city. When complaints arose about ending loose leaf collection, Mayor Vaughan dismissed it with a wave of her hand, stating that “only” 42 percent of residents use it. In response a person noted that after water/sewer, that is probably the most used city service. But we do have a city Office of Sustainability and Resilience. They are part of the group that has convinced city council to end the collection and lectured us all about how we can merely mow (mulch) the leaves into our lawns. If that were feasible, I would have been doing that for the last 35 years. They ignore the fact that some of us have an overabundance of those tall, mature, wonderful trees that take in CO2 and emit O2. We are helping the environment and in return, we need a little help to remove some of the WAY too many leaves to just mulch.
Wonderful letter and observation. I have been in this city for most of my 75 years and wish our city council had the guts to operate as they were elected. Serve the taxpayers and remember who they work for. Not work against and show off to the warm and fuzzy ideas that do us no good. Thank you Mr. Haley and please do not give up on Greensboro.
Welcome to the Emerald (Green) City. Incompetent city management took a problem stemming from a lack of enforcement that generated dangerous piles of leaves in the streets washing into storm drains, resulting in street flooding and resolved the unlawful activity by increasing the homeowners obligations. When leaves are raked to the curb, a ‘one man’ leaf vacuum truck can easily remove leaves, transport them to a proper area of disposal and unload. Whether those leaves are ‘dumped’ at the landfill for composting OR dumped at a garden site (for a small fee) the problem is solved without unreasonable burden upon the homeowner. Curbside leaf collection was successful for years for the City of Greensboro and the homeowner. The changes now being brought about are due to incompetent enforcement of where leaves are left along the street. Law enforcement of city trash rules, traffic rules, vehicle registration, licensing and improper equipment violations are a JOKE in Greensboro. It is no wonder we have a tremendous escalation in crime. When people are allowed to ignore the ‘little laws’ it undoubtedly leads to greater crimes. I truly believe that the escalation of crime in Greensboro began when the City of Greensboro railroaded Chief David Wray. Since the Federal Government grabbed Wray up for employment with Federal Law Enforcement, it manifests Greensboro’s witch hunt. Also contributing to Greensboro’s downhill slide was the loss of Ed Kitchen as City Manager which lead to incompetent management since Kitchen’s retirement. The crime problem in Greensboro is due to the lack of enforcement of all laws for for the past 17 years. Correct a child for stealing bubble gum and it’s doubtful they’ll become a bank robber.
Agree with your post. One comment about “leaves in the streets.” We have a LOT of leaves. I try to put them at the edge of the yard, some end up over the curb due to sheer volume. That is due to having only two pickups. And heaven help you if they come earlier than the published week for the first pickup. The problem I have is this: The pick up crew will only go so far into your yard. Apparently about three feet, judging from our recent pickup. With my volume of leaves, that left a fair amount in our lawn. And of course, trying to obey the city, we have to reseed that portion of the lawn every year, because the first pickup is around the end of December. So by then, I have nearly the entire season of leaves at the curb. So for our last pickup, I plan to put most of the leaves over the curb leaving about a two foot margin in the yard to ensure the crew with actually pick up the leaves.
When a city must borrow money to buy trashcans, that city is in serious trouble. Yet, taxpayer money is given to the Woolworth Museum. Why not ask Skip Alston for a loan?
It is hard to believe the depth of stupidity of this council! The waste of tax payers money and continued
incompetent leadership!
It is really hard to trust a council that doesn’t honestly know the costs of what they are about to undertake, nor appreciate the number of residents who rely on the loose leaf collection. So they have to borrow the $4.2 million cost (includes the cost to place the bonds) to buy and finance the cans. They have to issue bonds, but no mention of that cost. With interest up that will cost. No mention of the cost of five new trucks – which I would support if they updated equipment for loose leaf collection. Coincidentally, Winston-Salem is upgrading their fleet: “The decision awards a purchase order for two 2024 Freightliner M2 106 trucks with Pac-Mac automated leaf-collection systems from Carolina Environmental Systems, Inc. based in Greensboro. The company has offered a quotation for the vehicles at $256,986 each for a total cost of $513,972.” Of course, our trucks will merely dump the cart contents and so I assume would cost a little less? Perhaps GSO should contract with WS to manage our loose-leaf collection!
Mike Haley Nailed it. By pointing out the fact that the vacuum truck style of collecting leaves is being misorganized from the very beginning. Most other cities within North Carolina follow this way of collecting leaves most of them go as far as bulk pick up yard waste and such. The path that the City Council has put us on for 2024 is going to be a freaking disaster as it comes to leaf collection and from what I can see there are some other things about to come down and pipe too.
Thank you Uncle Mike. My leaves have been picked up once this year. Manufactured problem. Not going to leave the leaves on my lawn for weeks and killing my grass. Sorry
These crooks must go. They raise our taxers and take away city services. Waste of tax money. Voters are to blame as well. As far as the leaves rake them in the road as protest. What will they do give us a ticket? Send it back to them they can not punish all of us.