Adams, a 55-year-old quality control engineer for Johnson Controls; Taylor, a 28-year-old juvenile justice counselor; and Montgomery, a 21-year-old Winston-Salem State University student, represent the future direction of the city and appear poised to take up the mantel of leadership.
City Councilman Robert Clark said it best during a Nov. 1 meeting of Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment. Clark, the sole Republican on the council, said Winston-Salem finds itself at a crossroads. The days of RJ Reynolds, Sara Lee and Hanesbrands are behind us. The big money and powerful influence of the founding families of Winston-Salem have waned. That is true. The old ways of doing things, however, are still alive and well and very much a part of city government’s modus operandi.
Adams, Taylor and Montgomery are all very bright, studious and well read individuals. So I’m sure they’re familiar with the axiom that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
There are many recent examples to illuminate that the old social order still exists in Winston-Salem. The downtown ballpark is a perfect one. The events leading up to the city council’s approval of the resolution to invest $12 million of taxpayer dollars into Phase I of the baseball stadium offers valuable insight into how business is done at the highest levels of city government.
Mayor Allen Joines, acting in his capacity as president of the Winston-Salem Alliance, signed an agreement with Billy Prim, owner of the Winston- Salem Dash, to assign Prim’s real estate development company options to purchase 38 properties the downtown ballpark site in December 2006. The transaction took place nearly a year before the city council approved the deal. County tax records reveal the alliance was purchasing options on properties near the ballpark site as far back as 2003.
After two contentious public hearings, the council unanimously approved a resolution to secure an additional $15.7 million to complete construction on the ballpark last June, bringing the city’s investment to nearly $28 million. Prim said he turned to the city for additional assistance because he had no other alternative. The fact that the city donated the $5.5 million it raised from the sale of Ernie Shore Field to Wake Forest University to Phase I of the project has often been overlooked in the ballpark controversy.
Giving $5.5 million to a multimillionaire to build a baseball stadium is just one example of how things have always been done in Winston-Salem. Prim, along with his ex-business partner Andrew “Flip” Filipowski, sold their company, Blue Rhino, for $340 million in 2004. Does anyone really believe that Prim needed a $5.5 million donation from the city? This is money the city will never recoup.
Considering the current state of our economy, couldn’t the city find a better usefor that $5.5 million? How about investing in the city’s Economic Development Revolving Loan Program or revitalizing its workforce development program? Perhaps the loan program could help small businesses located outside Winston-Salem’s Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area. The city’s economy will soon have to absorb more than 900 Dell employees. The nation’s unemployment rate currently stands at 10.2 percent, the highest in a generation. Adams, Taylor and Montgomery all expressed good ideas for helping displaced workers, but how successfully they build support on the council will ultimately determine their effectiveness as public servants.
Adams, Taylor and Montgomery seized upon the issues of the downtown ballpark and Dell closing to contrast themselves from sitting council members. All three expressed support for the idea of a downtown ballpark but criticized the council for how it handled the financing of the stadium and the lack of transparency in the negotiations between Prim and the city. With six members of council winning re-election, they will have to strike a balance between building alliances while remaining true to their positions on the issues.
The results of the Nov. 3 election reveal that Winston-Salem voters are somewhat disenchanted with their current leadership. The incumbents involved in competitive races — Molly Leight, Dan Besse and Wanda Merschel — all won re-election, but it wasn’t easy. Leight, a one-term Democratic incumbent, was unopposed in the general election, or at least she thought. Last-minute write-in campaigns by Nathan Jones, a Republican, and Carolyn Highsmith, a Democrat, generated a whopping 697 votes. However, Leight scrambled her campaign staff days before the election and managed to capture 958 votes or 58 percent of the ballots cast. Merschel, a three-term Democratic incumbent, had to wait until the final precinct reported on Election Night before she could celebrate a narrow victory over Republican Peter Sorensen. Besse won his race for the Southeast Ward seat by a more comfortable margin, but still faced a significant challenge from Republican Ted Shipley.
Adams, Taylor and Montgomery can learn a number of valuable lessons from their city council colleagues. Most of all, they should see clearly that it’s all too easy to fall back into the old ways of governance. They represent the hope for a brighter future in Winston- Salem, but only if they heed the lessons of history.
