The Raleigh City Council, on Tuesday, July 14, appointed Stormie Forte to fill a vacant seat, making her the first black woman to serve on the Raleigh City Council.
In terms of diversity on its City Council, that puts Raleigh more than three decades behind Greensboro.
In 1983, Katie Dorsett became the first black woman elected to the Greensboro City Council. Dorsett died recently after a long career of public service, which included serving on the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, as the secretary of the Department of Administration for the state of North Carolina and as a North Carolina state senator.
The Greensboro City Council currently has three black women serving: Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson and Councilmembers Goldie Wells and Sharon Hightower.
In 1993, Johnson was the first black elected to an at-large seat on the City Council and later became the first black mayor pro tem. The mayor pro tem by tradition is the at-large councilmember who receives the most votes.
Johnson in 2007 became the first black elected mayor. Johnson lost her reelection bid in 2009, and in 2011 again won an at-large seat. Other than from 2009 to 2011, Johnson has served on the City Council since first being elected in 1993.
North Carolina 12th District Congresswoman Alma Adams served on the City Council from 1987 to 1994, when she resigned to fill an open seat in the state House where she served until winning a special election in the 12th Congressional District in 2014.
The late Claudette Burroughs-White was originally appointed to replace Adams on the City Council in 1994 and served until 2005.
Guilford County Board of Education member T. Dianne Bellamy-Small served on the Greensboro City Council from 2003 to 2013.
The current Greensboro City Council, along with the three black women already mentioned, includes five white women – Mayor Nancy Vaughan and Councilmembers Tammi Thurm, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Michelle Kennedy and Nancy Hoffmann – and one black male, Justin Outling. Since the 2017 election there has only been one male on the City Council and no white males.
By reading the number and minorities on the city council along with mayor,can you understand why there is so much irrational spending and raising taxes on the people of Greensboro. There are no conservatives on the board who would tend to try an d reign in the waste that is going on .Greensboro’s taxes rate near NUMBER ONE in the state.Also we pay our city managers (Greensboro &High Point)and others on par with Raleigh and Charlotte .Both communities would do better if there were tightening of our collective belts.Why in the world arn’t there more conservatives in Greensboro.Or are we predisposed to just be stuck in a Democratic town,with no hope except higher taxes year by year to be thrown away by the Democratic city Council.Take note of the county commissioners who are led by Republicans.There have been O tax increases since 2012 where the county voted in a majority of Republicans.If we had voted in Skip and his crowd we would have been taxed each year. Dems only know how to tax and spend your money.Republicans are economically smarter because they know that the tax earner can spend their own money.
I thought people should be judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin.
Taxing and spending buys indigent votes. Let’s all get on.
Coop d’Dem
Rich, your bigotry is as bad as your logic and your data.
1) Greensboro’s City Council seats are non-partisan races. Your comment about minorities says more about you and your way of thinking than about the council members.
2) Greensboro’s taxes are not even close to being the highest in the state and has had 1 increase in the last 10 years. Check out the data — it’s readily available from the NCDOR website.
3) Comparing the county government to the city as examples of “Republican” leadership vs “Democratic” leadership is folly. These municipalities serve completely different roles to very different populations.
Your post(s) sound like you’ve tried to replace having a personality with a political ideology and that’s unfortunate. You should get out and enjoy some of the City’s parks or the Greenway. You should meet some more minorities and maybe even some Democrats. You never know, you might like a change of pace.
Greensboro does have the highest property tax rate of any comparable city in the state and has had two tax increases in the past four years.
I guess it all comes down to your definition of a “comparable” city. Comparable how? Size in square miles? Population? Population >18 years old? Population 18-65? Residents’ perceived quality of life? Elevation? Services offered by the city?
Conflating “tax rates” and changes in “tax values” is disingenuous.
“Comparable cities” is actually a term used regularly by municipal governments. I did not confuse tax rates with tax values. By state law, local governments are required to publish the “revenue neutral” tax rate after revaluation. Greensboro did and that rate was lower than the rate levied against property, making it a “tax increase” as I stated not a tax rate increase.
You are both off, but so am I. Let’s agree to disagree.