At its annual retreat on March 24, the Greensboro City Council praised and criticized the summer youth jobs program that Police Chief Brian James created last year.
Last year, James, in an effort to get kids off the streets in the summer, started a youth employment program. James said the goal of the program was to provide summer jobs for 500 kids, and in its first year, where, as James said, “we were pretty much flying by the seat of our pants,” 525 youths in Greensboro got summer jobs.
While the city councilmembers all initially praised the program, several councilmembers found fault with the kids that were employed. Councilmember Sharon Hightower said she went to one of the job fairs and there were kids from Summerfield participating. Hightower never explained how she could tell that the kids were from Summerfield.
Councilmember and mayoral candidate Justin Outling suggested that the city itself provide more summer jobs for the program because private employers could hire anyone they wanted, “but when the provides jobs you can certainly have geographic limitations around that.”
Outling also said, “I do want to highlight Councilwoman’s Hightower’s point about who’s getting these jobs from an equity perspective, and we talk about equity diversity and inclusion a lot. I think it is really important to be mindful of that because while it’s great for every child to have internships, some children are well positioned for having internships without having a city coordinated program.”
Coundilmember Goldie Wells said, “What your concerned about is someone who doesn’t need this help getting a job, but I think with the bottom line that the chief had in his heart when he started the program is assurance that the right folks will get in the program.”
Outling then said, “It’s not about kids across this community getting internships, quite candidly kids in many of the neighborhoods I represent don’t have problems getting interships.”
Outling said that considering the geography of where the kids in the program lived was important.
James said that when holding a job fair, “If you want us to say, you can come if you live in this area and if you don’t you can’t come here, we just can’t do that.”
City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba said that the city was going to provide assistance for the program and he thought that providing transportation was an avenue the city could certainly consider, but he added, “I do not want anyone to hijack this idea because it is really driven from the Police Department.”
James said that the total cost of the program this year would be about $50,000 including hiring a coordinator, which they didn’t have last year, advertising, renting facilities for job fairs and incidentals.
Councilmember Tammi Thurm said that the City Council should provide that $50,000 so that it didn’t come from the police budget.
Seems Hightower can always manage to sniff out racism or should we say, ‘Class-ism’ since she obviously means just that with her Summerfield comment, Does her reverse discrimination mean there are no blacks in that neighborhood? No deserving kids there? Hightower comes off as the worst racist on the Council–she consistently uses it to criticize just about anything that comes up & in the process causes unwarranted delays, increased costs, poor productivity & inefficiency. While she fancies herself a watchdog for her race, she instead hampers it–maybe one day good fortune will smile on the Council & her voters will wakeup & elect someone who’s really on their side instead of a race obsessed harpy.
Of course our new city manager’s idea is transportation. I personally heard him talk about light rail, read on the Rhino about street cars, and now we need to provide a ride for kids to a job fair.
I am beginning to think “equity” means exclusion for anyone not approved by Hightower, Outling, and Wells. Are you all going to check ids at the door? Certain zip codes need not apply?
Do we really want Outling as a mayor? If it does not apply to ALL citizens of Greensboro, is this not discriminatory? Hightower, Wells, Johnson and Outling are not for every citizen of Greensboro. Seems they are only interested in representing the Black community not every citizen.
They create havoc with no resolution. Just loud mouths.
No we do not want Outling as mayor. He is the worst of the three choices.
If it isn’t open to every one in the city, it should not be supported by the city.
Absolutely! Everything is starting to sound like White’s need not apply
What are you saying highwater that the kids were too “WHITE “ or maybe they didn’t speak ghetto English gosh what a shame. Have you thought that maybe they got jobs because they wanted to work my goodness what a novel idea. You are such a RACIST
You’re right, Rebel. It’s obvious that Hightower is annoyed because this program benefited some white kids, along with the others. Such spite. Such prejudice. Such hate.
Hummmmm……Am I reading a lot of “code” words in all these statements?
What are the jobs offered? Cleaning firearms, polishing nightsticks, lubricating handcuffs – I wish the article had stated.
SSDD
Careful Hightower and Outling – your racism is showing.
There’s also the program offered to minority contractors to assist with getting city contracts. Only offered to minority contractors; not Hispanic, Latino, Caucasian Female, or Asian contractors. What is more racist than restricting who these programs are offered to? The new City Manager is all about diversity; how about we have diversity across the board and not limit it to certain groups?
Has anyone noticed how these tin horn politicians continually mangle even the most well intentioned programs and ideas?
Nothing will change till the voters change the faces in those council chambers.
Don’t hold your breath.
Isn’t it past time to stop seeing racism in everything. Any kid today no matter White or black can get a job anywhere anytime. Outling I did have faith in you but now I think you’re nothing but a male highwater
Last time I checked, Summerfield wasn’t “in the city.” Why should someone whose taxes aren’t paying for the summer jobs program benefit from it? Seems like a legit complaint. How did she know they were from Summer field? They were so stupid that they put their Summerfield address on the application.
Speaking of seeing racism everywhere…
Now ,I would like to add that if the city council wanted diversity ,it should start at Home ‘The council’.Inless I am blind every member of the city council is a minority- not all black but a minority just the same!!!!!! .
It seems that Hightower’s experience says that the children from Summerfield are all white with no blacks.I’ll bet she went down when chief James was checking in the children that Hightower was counter number of black children in Group.
Does Hightower have a lock on the election in East Greensboro ,that she wins all the time and no one else has a chance.Are there no other candidates in East Greensboro? I remember the person that represented East Greensboro before and she had a similar attitude as Hightower.She did not get along with her other council persons.So she got a job on the school board.
Diane Bellamy Small was light years ahead of Hightower. She would ask a lot of questions about police and development cronies but almost always voted in support of police. Our council is like senators and congressman on the federal level. We need term limits.
What’s wrong Hightower did you not see enough baby momma’s in the group. You are such a sad sad excuse for a council person. East Greensboro deserves so much better. With your attitude You probably can’t get a real job anywhere else so I’m sure that’s why you’re trying to keep this one