Yvonne Johnson, Chris Lawyer and Sal Leone (l-r) were among 11 at-large candidates for Greensboro City Council who spoke at a political forum on Monday. (photo by Jordan Green)
Councilman Danny Thompson, one of two at-large members seeking reelection to Greensboro City Council, told voters at a candidate forum on Monday that he is proud of what the council has accomplished during his tenure.
“The successes we’ve had the past two years on council in our economic development efforts and our budgetary process, we’re actually one of the few cities in the country that actually reduced taxes over the last two years,” said Thompson, who is part of the council’s narrow conservative majority. “Revenues have decreased. We were able to cut government spending, and we’re able to provide all the vital services that people want and need without any major cuts that came up in the papers.”
Out of 14 candidates vying for three at-large seats on council, 11 showed up for the forum hosted by the League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad and the Greensboro Voters Alliance. The Oct. 11 primary will winnow the at-large field to six candidates, who will advance to the Nov. 8 general election. Candidates Deborah Fae Brogden, Hayden Jesserer and Christopher McLaughlin did not attend.
Thompson drew derisive laughter from some in the audience when he said, “I think over the past two years the city of Greensboro has been a poster child for open communication in council meetings.”
Mayor Pro Tem Nancy Vaughan, the other incumbent in the race, disputed Thompson’s characterization.
“As far as saying that we had open communications with the landfill, people are coming up and they’re talking to us,” she said, prompting applause. “There’s no dialogue. You know, there was not one community meeting where staff and council members sat down and said, ‘What can we do to make this better?’ To say that there was a discussion, a conversation just isn’t true. Just because people come as a speaker from the floor doesn’t mean they’re being heard.”
The League of Women Voters is among a group of plaintiffs that sued the city council earlier this year, and won a court order preventing the council from expanding the landfill. The Greensboro Voters Alliance was formed by landfill opponents to get out the vote to elect a council more in line with their goals.
Marlando Demonte Pridgen, a first-time candidate from east Greensboro, drew appreciative murmurs during his remarks on whether council is listening to citizens.
“I think when you vote, one of the things you have to look at with this past council is you’re voting on a mentality of government,” Pridgen said. “There’s a mentality on council that they don’t believe the citizens’ input is worthy [of being involved in] government. So as a result, when they come to council meetings, their judgment and their decisions has over and over voted to not listen to the people. I suggest that you have to have it. So practically, how do we do this? You have to have town-hall meetings on more issues.”
Yvonne Johnson, a former mayor who served on council from 1993 to 2009, paid Pridgen a compliment.
“Can’t get much better than that,” she said. “When you don’t follow the rules, when you don’t have public dialogue and let the public speak on an issue when you should and when it’s legal to do so; and when you make decisions and you give no explanation for your reasons to make it; and when you’re challenged and you lose in court; something is wrong,” Johnson continued.
In recent weeks a broad consensus has emerged among candidates on how best to deal with the city’s solid-waste challenge that is starkly contrasted with the conservative leadership’s
dogged efforts to reopen the landfill.
Candidates Vaughan, Johnson, Wayne
Abraham, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Clarence
Easter, Cyndy Hayworth and Chris Lawyer
expressed support for a regional solution
involving Randolph or Rockingham counties.
Vaughan, Abraham, Abuzuaiter, Hayworth and
Sal Leone said they would be in favor of taking
Republic Services up on an offer to reduce
costs while continuing to transport the city’s
waste to Montgomery County for disposal.
Vaughan, Easter, Johnson and Lawyer said
the city should step up recycling efforts to
reduce its waste stream. Abraham, Abuzuaiter,
Hayworth and Johnson said the city should
explore waste-to-energy and other emerging
technologies as they become viable.
Hayworth has elbowed her way into a sextet
of candidates that are dead-set against reopening
the landfill after previously stating that she
was undecided on the issue.
“My answer would be in no manner open
up the White Street Landfill,” Hayworth said
on Monday.
Thompson favors using White Street
Landfill and pursuing regional solution only if
Greensboro can have an equity position.
“Hopefully, by now everyone knows
where I stand on the landfill,” he said. “We
researched it over the past two years by
empirical data as well as the rational input as
to what is best, how do you best use an asset
that the city has, that the citizens have bought
and paid for and permitted?
I believe it should
have been used for household waste. Of
course, I also believe that if were going to not
use that landfill, then we need an equity position
in a regional solution.”
Lawyer did not state a position on the landfill
during the forum, but in the past he has
gone on record in support of reopening the
landfill as a temporary measure.
While several candidates discussed the
importance of improving the climate for small
businesses and boosting unemployment,
concrete proposals were scarce. Abuzuaiter
discussed the idea of incentivizing small businesses,
but did not elaborate on what specific
steps she would take. Instead, she expressed
nostalgia for the city’s manufacturing past
when employment rolls were fuller and residents
were spending more money. Abraham
highlighted the city’s rising poverty rate,
arguing that it creates urgency for achieving
economic development. He released a comprehensive
economic development plan that
includes adopting a Sustainability Action Plan
developed by a citizen council.
Moderator Rebecca Klase asked candidates
if the council should adopt the Sustainability
Action Plan, noting that it offers the city $20
million in savings. Thompson expressed skepticism
about the plan, while other candidates
ducked the question altogether.
“There may be $20 million of soft — I
thought it was soft savings — but it was
also a lot of costs and a lot of burdensome
regulations that we would be placing
on businesses and also neighborhoods,”
Thompson said. “I want to continue studying
the sustainable report.”
The council voted to accept rather than to
approve the report in January.
A number of candidates expressed support
for enhancing the city’s green space. Hayworth
and Abuzuaiter said they favor preserving
Greensboro’s tree canopy, with Abraham joining
them in support of the city’s greenways.
Abraham also wants to use public land for
community gardens.
“There’s an added benefit to all of this
and us keeping our green space clear and
free, is the fact that, number one, there are
health benefits,” Abuzuaiter said. “Once
the [Downtown] Greenway is done I think
you’re going to see a lot of core neighborhoods
connect with each other.”
Jean Austin Brown warned that her answer
would likely disappoint many in the audience.
“I’m just not for that global warming stuff,”
Brown said, prompting titters of laughter. “I
just don’t believe in that.”
A couple candidates fielded questions about
how to address uneven economic development.
Thompson argued that the airport on the
western side of the city will tend to attract big
companies such as HondaJet, while the White
Street Landfill in east Greensboro might attract
waste-to-energy facilities. Vaughan expressed
confidence in the east side’s eventual success.
Leone scored appreciative laughs with his
appraisal.
“If we can develop the east, our economic
boom will be unlimited,” he said. “I
think that’s why I’m so against the landfill.
Nobody’s going to bring big business if you
have a dump there. That’s just common sense.
The only company that can survive there is
probably Terminix.”
Brown’s signature campaign issue is keeping
water rates low. Easter indicated he agrees
with her.
“That’s what made me decide to run for
city council,” Brown said. “When the idea
was brought up to raise the water rates, I
went down to the city council — first time
I’ve ever spoken to the city council. I asked
them: ‘Don’t raise the water rates. People
are losing their jobs. Their homes are being
foreclosed on. And what we don’t need is
more taxes.’ And before I sat down, I said,
‘If you raise the water rates, I am going to
run for city council the next election, and I
hope I get one of your jobs.’”
Hayworth took another tack. “In order to
compete with neighboring municipalities, we
have got to have our infrastructure in place,”
she said. “We’ve got to have site-ready parcels.
We’ve got to be ready so when companies
come to Greensboro, when new business
looks at Greensboro they don’t have to wait
to get the infrastructure in place. Part of that is
water. Had we left the rates the way they were,
even if we had a surplus, we could use that
surplus to work on the infrastructure.”
The council voted to increase water rates in
2010, but then used the proceeds of a lawsuit
settlement to rescind the hike after six months.
On some topics, candidates demonstrated
broad agreement. Vaughan, Johnson and
Hayworth expressed the sentiment that the city
needs to regain a focus on good things that are
happening. Vaughan, Thompson and Pridgen
agreed that economic development and public
safety must be top priorities.
In what appeared to be a shot at
Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw, Abuzuaiter
said, “If any city council members sits up there
and shuffles papers and looks away while a
citizen is standing at that podium, I think they
should be warned by someone.
There should
be a sergeant-at-arms or someone because
every single citizen has the right to be heard
and to be respected by his council member.”
Abraham pledged to show respect to citizens
that serve on commissions, contrasting
the cold reception the human relations commission
received over the summer when it
brought a resolution in opposition to reopening
the landfill to council.
“I would respect the citizens who serve on
the various commissions and boards that city
council appoints people to,” he said.
“Those
people volunteer a great deal of their time, and
they give of themselves, and they care deeply
about our city. And when they come to the city
council to make a report, it should be listened
to and respected.”
Johnson’s opening remarks hit a common
theme among a crop of challengers who
want to see council take a different course. “I
grew up in a time when Greensboro was very
divided, and fought very hard to squash that
division,” the 68-year-old former mayor said.
“And I don’t ever want to see that happen to
Greensboro again.”
sal leone
