The Greensboro City Council is meeting on Monday, Nov. 6 at 5:30 p.m. in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber, instead of meeting on its regular meeting day, which is Tuesday.
The reason the City Council meeting was moved to Monday Nov. 6 is because Tuesday, Nov. 7 is an election day. However, it is not an election day for residents of Greensboro. Up until 2017, the mayor and members of the City Council were elected to two-year terms, but in 2017 the terms were changed to four years, so there is not an election in Greensboro this year. The next Greensboro municipal election will be in 2025.
The first council meeting of the month has a short business agenda and is primarily reserved for the one public forum the City Council holds each month. The last two public forums have resulted in speakers being banned from the chamber for three months. In September, Mayor Nancy Vaughan ordered that Luis Medina be removed from the meeting for being disruptive. Medina’s particular offense was violently slapping the microphone when he finished speaking.
According to City Council policy, when someone is removed from a council meeting for being disruptive, they are banned from personally attending council meetings for three months. They may, however, participate by phone or via Zoom.
At the October meeting, about 10 people were removed from the meeting for chanting and shouting in protest of Medina being banned. At least two of those 10, Billy Belcher and Del Stone, were banned for three months. All three say they are members of the Working Class and Houseless Organizing Alliance and are regular speakers at City Council public forums.
One item on the general business agenda for the Nov. 6 meeting cleans up some issues regarding compensation for the mayor and city councilmembers caused by the city switching from paying employees semimonthly to biweekly, and increases their total compensation. According to the ordinance, the mayor will be paid $29,734 a year plus a car allowance of $4,200. The mayor pro tem will be paid $23,365 a year plus a car allowance of $3,600, and councilmembers will be paid $22,809 a year plus a car allowance of $3,000.
The ordinance also establishes that the mayor and councilmembers may enroll eligible dependents in the city’s medical and dental plans. According to the agenda this has been a longstanding practice but was not established by ordinance.
The ordinance also states that the city will contribute 3.25 of each councilmember’s salary to the 401(a) deferred compensation plan and that councilmembers are eligible to participate in the 457(b) deferred compensation plan.
The ordinance also establishes that the mayor and city councilmembers will receive a raise each time the adopted budget includes a merit raise for city employees. The raise for city councilmembers is capped at 1.5 percent and may not exceed 50 percent of the merit raise for city employees.
I know it’s been there for awhile but WHY do council members get a car allowance. Talking about fleecing the taxpayers. The salary is bad enough but to add insult to injury by the other perks. These positions were never meant to be a paid job. Does anyone on the council have a REAL job if so please post it for all to see
Nice; I wish I could vote to invrease my 8nce at will. Then to, they increased their terms of office from two to four years…. what’s next, dictators for life?
People, wait I should say taxpayers, get ready to bend over again and get out the vaseline they are about to stick it to you again.
Funny how they get a car allowance but the city can’t afford cars for the police.
This smells like the south end of a Northbound bull.
While I haven’t been thrilled about the lack of Council action this year, I agree that they should be paid and that the increase is appropriate. Many Council members also have full time or part time jobs. Being a Councilor is also a full time job. The time and effort they give the public on their second job is tremendous. I don’t know how they do it. They do deserve a salary and car allowance. Every City and Town in the State allows this. As much as I would like to see some change, I don’t know if I could dedicate the time and effort required to be a good City Councilperson. It isn’t easy, it isn’t part time, it is extremely stressful and sometimes can even be dangerous. They deserve it.
That sure is a lot of money for 2 one hour meetings that most of the public is excluded from. Damn give me a break.
They do it by choice and most benefit by directing funds to their “jobs.” See Matheny DGI. Johnson Cure Violence. Nobody makes them run. They do it because it benefits them. Name one thing they have done that actually benefits the tax paying public. Not the takers, but the makers. It is also absurd that they can vote on their own term length-that should come from the state.
Rebel, Zach Matheny has a REAL job, and is great at what he does. Would be awesome for him to run as either Mayor or Congress. He is very limited in what he can do on the city council as the only Republican. He is a solid guy!
He tried to run for Congress.
Zack wouldn’t have a job except for the city. How many others have a job. This is a job for the majority. Just look at where Michelle Kennedy is now. Because of the city she’s getting a very good salary from the taxpayers
While they’re at it, why not get them some crowns for their heads, and also have someone behind them waving a large leaf fan to keep them comfortable?
And to think some that money could have been better spent by fixing potholes, repaving neglected streets, etc., or giving load of tax writeoffs to companies who let cities do their bidding to determine where they will build a factory, etc. It’s called pay to play.
They DO NOT need a salary, or benefits (other than parking), and they can drive their own cars and write off the cost of gas and mileage on their taxes like the rest of us.
Sadly, those in power do everything they can to stay in ower. The King and Queens have no clothes.
City Council members are not public servants. They are elected by voters, not employed by the city. Therefore, any compensation should not be tired to employee compensation. The City Council members are self-serving individuals that burrow themselves into elected positions. There is only one way to remedy the problem and that is TERM LIMITS. It can no longer be relied upon that voters will defeat an incompetent, self-serving incumbent.
The average annual Social Security benefit is about $30,000. With a car allowance included, the mayor is now making more than the average SS payment. Looking at the other over 65 council members, they may be making a tidy $60,000 annually. Not bad for attending one monthly meeting.
Here is an idea for my life-long councilmember friends. If the pay isn’t good enough for you, do not run for re-election. This position is not meant to be a career. It is a temporary elected position meant for you to serve the people, not your own self-interests. In fact, the pay should be so atrocious that no one wants to stay in that job for more than one or two terms.
Have they snuck the lifetime insurance in yet?
Well, the taxpayers vote themselves a free lunch every two years.
When our Republic was formed, only those with skin in the game were allowed to vote. When that changed, it was the beginning of the welfare state; and it will be our demise.
Wow! What a joke! Of course they’re giving themselves an increase! This position used to be about serving your community and standing up for the rights of the citizens. But now, it has nothing to do with community or anything else legitimate. Now it has to do with looking powerful, acting powerful and getting as much money in any way possible off of the citizens of Greensboro that you can get! These clowns no more care about this city and its citizens than the people in California do. This used to be a volunteer job. These people have full-time jobs. This position does not take as much of their time as they want you to think it does. They don’t deserve a car allowance absolutely. And they don’t deserve an increase. They make more than people on social security do. People who have worked their entire life.
This council is a joke anyway. You have a couple of them who get pulled for drunk driving and the officer gets fired instead of the council person getting in trouble. They are above the law in this city, pure and simple. Nancy Vaughn does away with the gun show simply because she doesn’t like it. A show that brought in hundreds of thousands if not millions in revenue. But, because she doesn’t agree with it and she’s the most powerful woman in Greensboro, she stopped it.
This is all a power play for every one of these clowns. They don’t deserve an increase. They deserve to get kicked off and new people put on there who actually do care about the city and its citizens!
This council works hard as hell wasting your tax dollars on frivolous pet projects and general wasteful decisions. Good for them for wasting even more.