In a major shift, at the Tuesday, Jan. 18 City Council meeting, Councilmember Yvonne Johnson was recused from the discussion as well as the vote on funding One Step Further with an additional $400,000 to oversee the Cure Violence program in Greensboro.
In the past, Johnson has participated in the discussions, very effectively lobbying for One Step Further, where she is the executive director, to be funded, and was only recused from the vote on the allocation. However, a law passed by the North Carolina legislature last year made such actions by an elected official on behalf of a nonprofit where they were employed illegal.
At the meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 18, Johnson asked to be recused as soon as the agenda item was called, and Chairman of the Board of Directors of One Step Further, former Mayor Robbie Perkins, gave the presentation. After Perkin’s presentation the City Council voted 8-0 to allocate $400,000 to One Step Further for the Cure Violence program, which operates in Greensboro under the name Gate City Coalition.
The presentation also differed from past presentations, where it has been claimed that the Gate City Coalition was having a positive impact on reducing crime in the two small areas of Greensboro where it operates.
Perkins said that the report by a group from UNCG had noted that Gate City Coalition really needs three years to show results.
Perkins said, “The work that is being done by the coalition is very difficult work.”
Mayor Nancy Vaughan said, “I know that when we first did this that we would have to make a long-term commitment.”
She said, “It’s very difficult to quantify something that doesn’t happen.”
The goal of the Gate City Coalition is to prevent violent crimes from happening by working with those likely to commit violent crimes and convincing them that there are better solutions.
Councilmember Sharon Hightower said, “Cure violence has had some growing pains but I think it is going in a positive direction.”
Councilmember Tammi Thurm asked if the City Council was underfunding the Gate City Coalition.
Perkins noted that $363,000 covered direct expenses of the Gate City Coalition and that $36,000 went to One Step Further for administrative costs.
The report to the City Council on the Gate City Coalition in December noted that Cure Violence had not provided the necessary training for Gate City Coalition at the beginning of the program.
When the program was first funded in 2019, Cure Violence was paid $100,000 by the City of Greensboro to provide training for the Gate City Coalition team.
Really robbie. You need to get busy. I’m seeing too many paper boxes on the corners downtown they’re so ugly.
Let’s just continue to throw money against the wall and hope something sticks. This is a complete and total waste of tax payer money. Another reason to get rid of this city council, if we could ever just vote on such a thing!
word.
“The report to the City Council on the Gate City Coalition in December noted that Cure Violence had not provided the necessary training for Gate City Coalition at the beginning of the program.”
Sounds like $136,000 has already been flushed down the crapper with another $36,000 hovering overhead.
No accountability!!! Johnson recusing herself from the discussion and vote means absolutely nothing; the votes were already paid for.
It’s just money going into pockets, with no expectation of results.
The $36,000 to Cure Violence was reported incorrectly in the article. The $36,000 a year goes to One Step Further for administrative costs, not to Cure Violence in Chicago as reported. The article has been edited to correct this error.
word
Rainbows, unicorns and pixie dust.
Will it ever stop?
Cronyism at its best.
She said, “It’s very difficult to quantify something that doesn’t happen.”
Thief Yvonne doesn’t have to be present to get her pockets full as all the other thieves will look after her so she will vote to fill their pockets.
All of them need to go to jail for what they are doing.
word
Cure Violence-headquartered in Chicago?Chicago?Really? Well they should be the penultimate experts on violence.And we pay them 172,000 for training? when was the training done? whom did they train and who trained them??
Was the training to teach our representatives how to funnel taxpayer money to ineffective foundations on which some of them serve and get paid? You can safely say that Chicago is the Harvard of that kind of shady practice.
This whole thing is disgusting and should be being investigated by the SBI,at least.
Where are the broadcasters and the public media who should be investigating and reporting on this steamy mess??
You are not public servants.You are shameless hacks.
The correct figure for training is $100,000. It was incorrectly reported in the article. The $36,000 a year goes to One Step Further for administrative costs not to Cure Violence in Chicago.
show me the money
As long as Yvonne Johnson is breaking we will be transferring money from taxpayers to her, and will get nothing in return.
Just asking what does the 363k buy the taxpayers of Gso.
Have you noticed that any enterprise in the Productive Sector that fails invariably ceases to exist, whereas any entity in the Parasitic Sector that fails invariably receives even more money?
“This program is clearly failing, We must give it more money!”
Robbie lining his pockets? Another unscrupulous person connected to Johnson and the cure for Violence
It was recently made illegal to graft openly but it has always been unethical. It’s sad when the folks in Raleigh have to specifically define shenanigans. When are elections again?
With all of the noise Council made about accountability in the Civil Rights Museum Financials, where is the noise over the accountability for Yvonnes programs.
Throw money away like no one can , cause it doesn’t come out of their pay check.
These social projects get started and they never go any where because of the self loathing council good doers can’t run a laundry mat.
TRASH IN TRASH OUT , NOTHING MORE NOTHING LESS.
Why can’t the taxpayers get an honest answer from Yvonne. What are we getting for our tax dollars. Please Yvonne get out of the closet and set us straight. If you can
If you want to do something REALISTIC about crime in Greensboro, put more officers on the street, downtown curfew for under 18’s and enforce our laws without a nod to the “Woke”.
More money wasted is equal to yet more requested, then applied to a problem it alone will never cure.
More enforcement is the only cure for this plague,not the politics of the left.