Residential address: Delmonte Drive (map)
Incumbent or challenger? Challenger
Age: 59
Campaign website or blog: bellamysmallforcouncil.com (link)
Endorsements: Dorothy Brown and Carolina Peacemaker, Greensboro Police Officers Association, Occupy Greensboro Media Group, Professional Fire Fighters of Greensboro and Simkins PAC
Occupation and employer: Executive director, Transition Network
Previous elective experience (including election campaigns): Greensboro City Council, 2003-present
Civic and volunteer experience (including service on city commissions and boards): NC state youth advisor, NAACP; Guilford County Coalition on Infant Mortality, Baby Basics program; Greensboro Historical Museum, Real McCoy exhibit; Greensboro Public Schools, School Safety Task Force; Negro League Baseball Recognition, Greensboro Red Wings; Mayor’s Task Force on Drugs; Greensboro Education and Development Council Community Advisory Board, Challenge Greensboro, class leader; Friends of Vance Chavis Lifelong Learning Center; member, St. James Presbyterian Church
Education (highest degree attained and name of institution): Bachelor of arts, music/English, UNC-Chapel Hill; post-graduate studies at UNCG and Duke; Challenge Greensboro; Triad Leadership Network, political fellow, IOPL, fall 2004
Party registration: Democrat (nonpartisan contest)
Where were you born? Winston-Salem
When did you move to Greensboro? 1976
Paid consultants working on your campaign: None
Campaign manager: [Incomplete]
Treasurer: [Incomplete]
Do you favor or oppose reopening the White Street Landfill for household waste, beyond the small amount of sewer sludge currently accepted? Briefly explain your position.
Opposed. We need to respect the decision of the 2001 and 2006 City Council. By re-opening the landfill, economic development in east Greensboro will die. The people will suffer.
Where do you stand on the “strong manager” form of city government and why?
Our city charter created a manager/council form of government. The council’s responsibility is to be a policy board. We hire qualified and talented staff to run the city’s daily operations. We should let them do their jobs.
Should the city of Greensboro place more or less emphasis on maintaining a healthy water and sewer fund to plan for future growth? Why or why not?
We need and must have a “healthy water and sewer fund.” Three things drive economic growth: 1. water, 2. sewer, 3. roads. Go back to the mid ’90s when the city of Greensboro had no plan and no funds and were threatened with a moratorium on growth and development by the state. Do we want to go back to this? We have spent the last 17 years building a system to provide for the needs of our citizens. It would be foolish to turn that around.
The city’s tax base has remained flat for the past two years in a row, and the foreclosure crisis continues unabated. As a member of city council, how would you balance the need to fund services such as police patrol, fire protection and park maintenance that citizens care about with the reality that the revenue picture remains bleak?
We have a legal mandate to provide public safety, water and sewer, infrastructure and waste management.
Do you believe that city staff deserves council support to implement a program to spend federal grant money to improve the energy efficiency of residences and businesses, or does this program warrant additional oversight from council? Briefly explain your position.
Yes. No.
How would you assess the value and effectiveness of Greensboro’s Rental Unit Certificate of Occupancy program, which is now prohibited by state law?
If RUCO had not been effective, a law prohibiting it would not have been passed. Do we have a massive number of “slums” in Greensboro today? Did tenants feel they could be assured of safe and clean housing and someone to enforce this right for them? They did with RUCO.
How should the impasse over management and operation of the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market be resolved?
The vote from the council was 5-4 in favor of the private group.
What, if anything, should be done to resolve racial tensions, and to enhance professionalism, integrity and fairness within the Greensboro Police Department?
Our police department is one of the best in the nation. They have and have had good leadership in the midst of scandal. Think about 24 hours without police, then ask about “tensions” of any kind. I believe the appropriate effort has been given over the years to address the concerns of those who have fairly made their issues known. No governmental entity is totally perfect, but each day people in these positions do try to do their best to protect and serve.
What would you change about Greensboro’s land use patterns if the decision were yours to make? Please answer the question in terms of places people live, work and shop, in terms of the modes of transportation people use to get from point to point and the vitality of neighborhoods and commercial corridors?
I would continue my efforts to enhance infrastructure development and the promotion of economic growth in east Greensboro so that “live, work and play” are a way of life just as it is in west Greensboro. We need to complete an inner loop so that east Greensboro has the ease of traffic flow north and south as we have in west Greensboro. Mass transit be used as an economic driver and reduce traffic in areas that are too reliant on cars.
What is Greensboro’s greatest asset? What is Greensboro’s most pressing problem?
a. Educational opportunities, human capital, a supportive “can do” spirit, for the most part. We have and have had the opportunity to be greater than we are, if we would stop acting like a small Southern town.
b. Not re-opening the White St. Landfill, unemployment, economic development to be strategically planned for all of Greensboro, and a need to return to respectful, responsive and responsible government.
Articles about this candidate:
Candidate profile: Dianne Bellamy-Small (link)
Differentiating between the District 1 candidates (link)
Campaign website exaggerates discussion of restaurant tax (link)
A&T vote inspires fiery city council campaigning (link)
Vendor selection in landfill decision questioned (link)
Bellamy-Small switches from mayor's race to District 1 (link)
