Former District 3 City Councilmember Justin Outling came within a few hundred votes of being elected mayor in the July 26 election.
During Outling’s campaign, which because of the delayed election lasted over 18 months, he repeatedly called for more City Council work sessions on public safety and crime.
Outling lost the election to Mayor Nancy Vaughan, and it appears that the idea that the City Council should meet regularly about public safety issues went with him.
The proposed schedule for City Council work sessions through the end of this calendar year doesn’t include a single mention of public safety, the Greensboro Police Department or crime.
The work sessions are scheduled for Thursdays to begin at 2 p.m. and last about two hours.
On Thursday, Sept. 29, the proposed work session agenda has two items the downtown parking plan and the strategic energy plan.
On Thursday Oct. 13, the City Council is scheduled to have a half-day mini-retreat from 1 to 4:30 p.m. with a facilitator. In the past, having facilitators at work sessions has meant a lot of talk about how councilmembers feel about issues and projects.
The Thursday, Oct. 27 work session is for “Housing Program Updates.” These will include the “Home Repair GSO Program,” “Nussbaum Guidelines,” “Community Hero’s and Homebuyer Assistance Program Changes” and the “Preservation Loan Policy.”
The Thursday, Nov. 10 work session is scheduled to be an American Rescue Plan review.
Topics to be scheduled in 2023 include economic development, creative economy/eco-system and equity planning, policies and investments.
Assuming those topics cover the first three months of 2023, it’s possible that sometime in April or May 2023 the City Council could hold a work session on public safety, crime and the rising vacancy rate for sworn officers in the GPD. If the trend in vacancies in the GPD continues at its current rate by then the GPD should be short over 150 sworn officers.
Face a fact City Voters: You’ve elected a city government that could care less for your family’s safety, your safety, your personal property. Yet they sure pay attention to tax increases. Enjoy the ride suckers.
The election has come and gone.
The people have mumbled.
You get what you vote for.
Wait until one of these councilpersons personally experiences a crime. Then, they’ll be jumping through their butts to do something about it.
They have the chiefs as their personal 911 bitches. They do not care. All of their problems get solved. Like the mayor getting a peon ordered to pick up black garbage bags in Irving Park. Would I get that service, probably not.
Nancy Vaughn likes to play white knight. She should have turned this over to Solid Waste to handle with instructions to work with the resident. There was no reason for Vaughn to get involved except to play white knight.
Aren’t all the “liberals” white knights who are here to save us poor, uneducated middle class and below. They swoop in to tell all of us minorities how to live and stay on the plantation. Unfortunately my family still lives on the east side plantation near where Hightower suddenly gives a s?!$ about Randleman Road. I can guarantee no one is worrying about dumping, houses that should be condemned, high grass, black trash bags or anything else. Go drive south of the coliseum on Hardie and see all the s?!$hole rental houses. If you’ve got the balls.
How many more have to die at the hands of this city council before they start properly fund our police department? Would it take one of their family members to be killed or one of the council members before they start taking the crime rate in Greensboro seriously? Praying none of this happens, but time for our city council to wake up!
How can the Party that enabled our country’s decline, be able to “rescue” it?
They do not care that is why it is not on the agenda. As long as they live in their bubble and are generally safe and can call a police chief personally to have an issue settle they do not care. We are serfs in the Greensboro political system. Not one person on that dais personally gives two s$%^! about anything other than their own personal financial gains and/or ego. Guess what? We are not Raleigh, not Charlotte, not even Durham. We are the “gate city” in which people with good common sense going east or west keep driving.
It is already too late. It takes about 18 months to 2 years from recruitment to having a qualified officer on the street. Council has kicked the can too far down the road. Pay and perks are terrible in Greensboro for the police. Not to worry, the cure of the violence program will reduce the crime wave (wasted money). The police should run the police, not the council. Blame the council for the crimes not the police. Let the police do their job.
Members of Council love to meddle in police affairs. That undermines authority and results. Too bad. Many on City Council see the police department as the boogie man. Boo!
The city council should stop being WOKE and wake up to reality. The crime statistics will stop your economic development plans because because no company will want to come to this area. Public safety should be your 1st concern.
Many thanks Mayor Vaughan, you are responsible for Greensboro being #1 in the State for Crime and Aggravated Assaults! Also Mayor Vaughan, your refusal to have the Greensboro Police Dept. effectively enforce Traffic Law in Greensboro has resulted in many deaths, crippling injuries from crashes and a complete dis-respect for the Law in Greensboro. If I was an aspiring Law Enforcement Candidate, Greensboro is the last City I would go to work for!
Jim Donaldson
If you think Nancy Vaughn cares, you would be wrong. She would appear to care if it were election time. Since it is not, she does not care.
When will the voters realize they are not about issues, it’s about appearances?! And Dems are worst than ‘pubs in that when it fails, throw more money at it.
Virtually all large cities in the US that Democrats have run for fifty plus years, have been turned into hellholes! Nancy’s and associates are following in lockstep.
I propose a “Randleman Road Crime Initiative” whose main feature is to check anyone about to enter the Randleman Road area for weapons. If a person doesn’t have a weapon available, then they would immediately be given one!
Randleman Road is a prime example of cause & effect. The cause was the building of large amounts of affordable housing by the city. Visit any time after dark to see the effect, if you dare. But bring a weapon!