Committee requests subpoena of former Journal reporter
The Silk Plant Forest Citizen Review Committee passed a resolution Monday requesting the Winston-Salem City Council issue a subpoena for former Winston-Salem Journal reporter Phoebe Zerwick related to the committee’s investigation of police procedure in the 1995 Silk Plant Forest-Jill Marker assault case. The committee also asked the city council to subpoena all notes and documents related to a five-part investigative series written by Zerwick for the Journal about the case in 2004. The committee had previously requested Zerwick appear to testify about her interview with former Winston-Salem police Detective Donald R. Williams. The Journal declined the committee’s request. Committee members suggested that Zerwick’s published interview with Williams, the lead detective in the case, indicates he might have withheld evidence from Smith’s defense team. The city council has already used its subpoena power to compel Williams to testify about police procedure. On Monday, Assistant City Attorney Al Andrews said Williams will probably give his testimony before city council sometime in June. In other developments, Lt. Joseph Ferelli and Sgt. Chuck Byrum, the two investigators assigned to assist the committee, said an independent handwriting analyst had determined that there was a “high probability” the statement given to police by Kalvin Michael Smith was his handwriting. The analyst’s findings contradict the testimony of former police Detective Randy Weavil, who has claimed that he wrote the statement as Smith dictated to him during a police interrogation in January 1997. — KTB
Winston-Salem City Council
A measure that could eventually provide funding for light-rail service between Greensboro, Winston-Salem and High Point cleared its first hurdle April 22. The NC House passed House Bill 148 by a vote of 77-40. The bill would allow metropolitan counties to assess a half-cent sales tax for intermodal transportation needs. It would require local approval by referendum, and would give the Research Triangle Park and Piedmont Triad regions the opportunity to offer new transportation options, Winston-Salem City South Ward Councilman Dan Besse said. The passage of the bill fits perfectly with the city council’s 2009 legislative agenda. Besse said the council met with NC Reps. Bill Mc- Gee (R-Forsyth) and Larry Womble (D-Forsyth) on April 20 to outline its priorities. “At this point, there’s no funding mechanism for this type of project,” he said. “If Winston- Salem and Greensboro wanted to build a passenger rail system between the cities, this would be the way to find the local share of funding. There’s substantial funding available at the state and national level.” Besse said the council also discussed annexation bills currently making their way through the General Assembly. The council supports a bill that would make “modest modifications” to criteria for annexed areas, but opposes the annexation moratorium bill proposed by Rep. Larry Brown (R-Forsyth). Brown said he’s not concerned that the city council opposes his bill, which would place a moratorium on municipal annexation until June 2010. “We’re not elected to represent cities; we’re elected to represent citizens,” Brown said. — KTB
Wade misses chance to help ally
District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade, a Republican and a member of the Greensboro City Council’s conservative faction, missed an opportunity to get her pick appointed to the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority at the end of council’s April 21 meeting. District 1 Councilmember Dianne Bellamy-Small, a progressive rival who represents predominantly black southeast Greensboro, got Lee McAllister appointed to the board by a voice vote before Wade realized what happened. Wade protested, “Gwen Alston was also interested in that from my district, and I would like to put her name up.” Wade’s pick is the wife of Democratic Guilford County Chairman Skip Alston, with whom she once served on the county’s governing body. The Simkins PAC, a consortium of black leaders including Alston that distributes its endorsements in the black community at election time, gave Wade the nod in 2007, even though her opponent, Sandy Carmany, was a staunch supporter of former City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s handling of Chief David Wray’s resignation in the wake of allegations of racial profiling within the force. Wade insisted on an electronic vote. McAllister was approved 6-3, with only Wade, Mayor Yvonne Johnson and at-large Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw voting against his appointment. — JG
Forsyth Democrats study
The Forsyth County Democratic Party agreed during the its county convention on April 18 to study a proposal to petition the Winston-Salem City Council to make two of its seats at-large seats. The proposal — put forth by Frank Eaton, the chairman of the Forsyth County Young Democrats — created a good deal of controversy. “People were furious about it,” Eaton said. “Older African-American members of the party were very unhappy.” At-large elections have traditionally been used to disenfranchise black voters, and typically make municipal campaigns too expensive, which narrows the field substantially, Eaton said. But the election of Barack Obama has signaled a sea change in electoral politics, and making two of the eight council seats at-large seats would help level the playing field for younger candidates, Eaton said. At the moment, Winston-Salem is divided into eight wards. Eaton’s proposal would divide the city into six wards and add two at-large seats to the council. Eaton said he researched the history of minority representation on the Winston-Salem City Council and discovered that in 1947, Kenneth R. Williams was the first African-American candidate to beat a white candidate in a municipal election in the South in the 20th century. Eaton attributed Williams’ victory to a massive voter registration drive of African-American RJ Reynolds workers. “Barack Obama just won Winston-Salem,” Eaton said. “If he ran for city council he would win. It shows an African-American can win an at-large an election in this city.” — KTB Resolution against 287(g) The Greensboro Human Relations Commission will consider a resolution opposing the 287(g) program on May 6. Marikay Abuzuaiter, a member of the subcommittee that drafted the resolution, said that it states that 287(g) has not been very successful in other cities where it has been implemented and has resulted in incidents of racial profiling against members of the Latino community. Considering that the Human Relations Commission charged the subcommittee with drafting the resolution, Abuzuaiter said she was confident the commission would approve it, after which time it would go before the city council for consideration. “287(g) is supposed to be for someone who is arrested for doing something terrible,” said Abuzuaiter, who has declared her intention to run for city council. “The community belives that if there tail light doesn’t work, then they’re going to be taken downtown and checked for immigration status. That’s belief. The resolution is that we do not want something like this. We are a diverse community.... We do not want our citizens fearful about reporting crime.” — JG
Rakestraw’s political patrons
Greensboro at-large Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw filed an amended campaign finance report with the NC Board of Elections on April 13 disclosing the names of 13 contributors who wrote $100 checks to her 2007 campaign for city council. The amended report was filed after Andrew T. Murphy of the Stand Up Greensboro PAC requested an official inquiry into the councilwoman’s campaign finance reporting. The contributions, which were all received in October 2007, came from Derek Allen, a real-estate and development lawyer with Brooks, Pierce, who frequently argues rezoning cases before the council; Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes, like Rakestraw, a Republican; Mark Austin, founder of the Greensboro Landlords Association; Jonathan Coker, an employee of Signature Property Group and a member of the executive committee of the Greensboro Landlords Association; Robert N. Hunter Jr., who is now a judge on the NC Court of Appeal; Nancy Vaughan, wife of NC Sen. Don Vaughan; lawyer Peter Evenson, a director of the Tuggle Duggins law firm; the NC Home Builders Association PAC; lawyer Marshall Hurley; Dan O’Shea, general manager of the Triad market for Fairway Outdoor Advertising; Sandra Sandler of Greensboro, listed by www.campaignmoney.com as a donor to Swift Boat Vets and POWs for Truth; and Robert Young. — JG
Greensboro anti-peddler
An ordinance proposed by District 3 Councilman Zack Matheny that would have prohibited door-to-door sales, begging and other soliciting after 6 p.m. went down in defeat in a 7-2 vote by the Greensboro City Council on April 21. District 5 Councilwoman Trudy Wade was the only one who supported Matheny’s proposal. The vote came after council heard comments from an Oak Ridge door-to-door salesman, who said he derives 50 percent of his business selling food products in Greensboro. The salesman said most people are not home before 5:30, that he eats into his savings during the winter months when people are broke and the sun sets around 5:30 p.m., and that he makes up his revenue in the summer months when there are more hours of daylight and people are thinking about grilling out. If Greensboro passed such an ordinance, he said, he would expect other Triad municipalities to follow suit, and his livelihood would effectively be destroyed. Matheny amended his motion to prohibit soliciting after 7 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. “The problem with the 7 p.m. time is the hours between 7 and 8 are very productive,” the salesman countered. “The good Lord closes the business day, from my point of view, when the sun goes down, and that’s the way I’d like to keep it.” Matheny countered “I’ve continued to get complaints and concern about people walking through neighborhoods and the increase in crime in the neighborhoods, from retirees, from single mothers….” He promised to keep trying to get a resolution passed to further regulate peddling. — JG
Free health screening
In celebration of the Cinco de Mayo holiday, the Guilford County Department of Public Health will provide free and confidential testing for HIV and syphilis, along with free cholesterol screenings, on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Super G Mart at FantaCity International Shopping Center. Call 336.641.7777 or 336.299.6242 for more information. — JG
