On Tuesday, Nov. 11, the Rhino Times posted an article raising questions about the proposed City Council resolution to place $135 million in bonds on the 2022 City Council general election ballot.
The article was headlined, “Resolution for $135 Million Bond Referendum Raises Questions.”
As a result of that article, city staff revised the resolution, but didn’t mention that revision at the City Council meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 17, when the City Council unanimously approved the revised resolution.
The issue raised in the article was that the resolution to place the $135 million in bonds on the ballot stated, “A bond referendum is hereby called to be held between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 26, 2022 at which there shall be submitted to the qualified voters of the City the questions stated in the form of ballot set forth in Section 4 of this resolution.”
But according to the state statute setting the date for the City Council general election, the date of that election may be April 26, 2022, or if there is a runoff in the election for a US Senate race or in a race for a member of the US House of Representatives, the City Council general election will be held on May 17, 2022.
The original resolution set the bond referendum for April 26 with no allowance for the possibility that the municipal general election would be held on May 17.
The revised resolution that replaced the earlier version in the agenda packet states, “A bond referendum will be held in the City of Greensboro, North Carolina on Tuesday, [April 26] [May 17], 2022 regarding the approval of the following.”
The bond referendum, which totals $135 million, will include separate votes on $30 million in Housing Bonds, $70 million in Parks and Recreation Bonds, $14 million in Firefighting Facilities Bonds, $6 million in Law Enforcement Bonds and $15 million in Transportation Bonds.
$70 million in Parks and Recreation Bonds versus $6 million in Law Enforcement Bonds.
I will vote a resounding “NO” on this bond package, unless the allocations to the above departments is reversed.
Seriously, with all the problems we have in our city today, and the council members think it’s a better decision to allocate over ten times the police allocation to Parks? You must be kidding!!
Welcome to the world of “La La Land.”
I’m with you Joe.
I will not support this bond referendum because the majority is not being used to provide for law enforcement. Take a look at our city and tell me we need to spend OUR funds on yet more parks. But we did, at least, top Charlotte. Well done city council!