news-record.com

Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston  appeared in peak form during a tour of the High Point University campus Thursday.

The commissioners met at the university instead of the Old County Courthouse for their regular meeting.

Serious as he can be in political situations, Alston also has a goofier side he shows sometimes.

He brought that along as he rode around campus with Commissioner Bruce Davis , County Manager Brenda Jones Fox , assistant manager Sharisse Fuller  and facilities director Fred Jones  on a eight-person golf cart.

“I don’t like being on a golf cart without my clubs,” he said as he got on board, to which Fox and Fuller replied with peals of laughter.

He carried the mood into the university’s student center, which has game systems, an arcade, billiards table and an air hockey table. There are also a series of fun house mirrors on a wall next to the message, “Choose to be extraordinary.”

Alston made a point to stop before two mirrors as the tour shuffled by. After seeing that, numerous libraries, renovated classrooms and top technology around the well-landscaped campus, Alston appeared impressed.

“For those who have not had the opportunity to come out and tour the campus in the last couple of years,” he said, “it would be good to come out and see and tour and see what makes this university one of the state of the art in the entire country, bar none.”

What: Guilford County commissioners meeting
When: 5:30 p.m.
Where: High Point University, 833 Montlieu Ave., High Point
On TV: This meeting will not be televised live. A tape will air at a later date on cable Channel 13 in Greensboro and other areas of Guilford County outside High Point and cable Channel 8 in High Point.  A video of the meeting should be posted online within two business days.
What’s going on? Check the address. The county commissioners are going on a road show to High Point University. The agenda will be light, with a few small items for commissioners to review and an update on the H1N1 virus in Guilford County from Merle Green , director of public health.
Want to be heard? Speakers can address the board on non-agenda items regarding county business for three minutes at the start of the meeting. A sign up sheet will be available near the lectern.
Full agenda: www.co.guilford.nc.
us/commissioners/granicus
What’s next? Commissioners will have conversations among themselves to choose the next chairman and vice chairman. Several commissioners have said to expect Melvin “Skip” Alston  and Steve Arnold  to keep their position as chairman and vice chairman, respectively.

Over the past few weeks, we've worked on a few stories needing deeper information from Guilford County. The first is one we ran Sunday about the county's debt load.

Now, we're working on what the county's new incentive policy does and how it would operate. Who accepts applications? How does the process work?

In both cases, responses from the county to information requests have taken some time.

Here's the part where we say that reporters understand that some responses to info requests take time to gather. And we know that the world doesn't revolve around us. But the world - the government world - does revolve around the people that it serves, and people are able to ask questions about how things work.

Lately, we're asking questions about the county's bond debt and how $1.3 million would be spent.

We heard from the county about the bond debt on Friday, when they gave us a handy excel spreadsheet to show how county debt would look like in coming years. Unfortunately, it came after deadline for our story, and at least a week after we had first asked for information. Along the way, though, they pointed us to certain areas in current plans and procedures to show us where to get figures for a picture of what county bond debt could look like. And we know that finance and budget office employees have been busy lately with audits and a sooner than usual budget planning for the county.

They often let us know about their work load when we make information requests that may be more complex than usual.

For example, this: All department heads must have their budgets into County Manager Brenda Jones Fox by the end of October. Usually budgets are due after the first of the year.

So, we understand how some delays in getting back to us may arise.

Greensboro was similarly responsive, relative to their workload.

Speaking of Fox, we've been hoping to hear back from her on how the $1.3 million incentive program would work. Nearly two weeks ago we sent her an e-mail (along with then-county attorney Matt Mason, and deputy manager Sharisse Fuller) asking about some basics on the program.

When we saw her at the commissioners meeting Thursday, Oct. 15 -the day after e-mailing her questions- Fox said she would get a reply to us.

Since then, we haven't heard from her.

We did catch up with Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Steve Arnold the other day to ask about what he knew of the policy and how it would work.

We're also seeking answers to questions such as how the policy would work with county staff, which is something that county staff is often best-suited to answer.

As for the incentive policy, expect to see a story on that later this week.

And if you have any questions, as always, drop us a line: gerald.witt@news-record.com

More than one City Council member has said the board is getting along much better since they – nearly unanimously – agreed to hire new City Manager Rashad Young.

Just to test that issue, it seems, the council started its regular Tuesday meeting with a row over trash disposal.

A group came to ask the council to consider a pilot project on an alternative way to dispose of trash. Councilman Mike Barber accused Mayor Yvonne Johnson of bringing the group in as an attempt to block the council’s plan to ask for RFPs on the trash issue.

Barber was in support of the request for proposal, which was requests by another group that had an separate proposal for how the city should handle its trash.

The mayor said she had not, as Barber accused, arranged for the group to visit the city landfill.

After much back and forth about the intentions of the group and how the council should proceed in regards to trash, Councilman Zack Matheny got his turn to speak.

“Rashad,” he said to the new city manager, who was attending his first meeting, “welcome to Greensboro.”

“Are we having fun yet?” Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw asked.

The city’s Commission on the Status of Women is asking City Council members to help save an historic home on North Elm Street.

The home near the corner of Elm and Cornwallis streets was designed and built by students from Woman’s College with the help of architect Edward Loewnstein some 50 years ago.

The home might be demolished to make way for condominiums, pending the City Council’s approval of a rezoning request for the property later this year.

The commission – whose members are appointed by City Council –asked council members to consider the historical value of the home.

“We urge you, members of the City Council, to uphold the integrity and innovation built into this home as a project worthy not just of preservation but of promotion as a vibrant city attraction that pays homage to the work of Greensboro's women," according to a motion adopted by the commission Tuesday.

Rashad Young is wasting no time getting down to business in Greensboro.

He’s been in charge for just three days and he already has met with some City Council members, attended a community public safety meeting, decorated his office and had a ride along with a police officer.

When Scoop caught up with Young Tuesday morning, a few hours before his first City Council meeting, he said he was putting in 15 hours a day studying up on the city. He’s got a long list of folks to meet and planned briefings on economic development.

“We’ve got to get things done. We’ve got things to do,” he said. “I’ve got to be really aggressive about this.”

Young’s wife and two young boys will be moving to Greensboro next month. In the meantime, he’s living in the New Garden Road area.

He has not picked his favorite type of barbecue yet. But he is growing accustomed to the laid-back southern living. City hall’s casual Friday will continue – for now.

But one Greensboro tradition he won’t continue is being a blog reader. Dayton had its share of blogs, too, Young said. And they served as an unneeded distraction.

“I don’t have time for the noise,” Young said.

What: Greensboro City Council meeting

When: 5:30 p.m. today

Where: Melvin Municipal Office Building, 300 W. Washington St., Greensboro

Watch it: Time Warner Channel 13 or www.greensboro-nc.gov/citygovernment/council

How to speak: Sign up before the meeting. Speakers have up to three minutes for items not on the agenda. The speakers-from-the-floor section is limited to 30 minutes.

On the agenda: The council will be asked to grant landmark status to the J. W. Jones Building, which is currently home to Natty Greene’s Pub.

-- The council will consider giving family care homes five years to get into compliance with distance requirements.

-- The City Council will consider giving a $1.54 million economic incentive grant and $1.8 million from the city’s Water and Sewer Trust FundImprovements Fund for the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority to build water and sewer infrastructure.

-- The council will be asked to accept a bid for $1.9 million to build a new fire station on West Vandalia Road.

-- The council will consider adopting the same ethics guidelines of state officials, who are required to fill out a financial disclosure form.

The Sunshine Center at Elon University and the City of Greensboro are getting together to hold two workshops on open government next week at the Historical Museum.

So go down to the museum Thursday and learn about how you can learn more about what your government is doing. And how you can help in that effort.

From the release:

The workshops are free and open to the public, and they will feature multimedia presentations on best practices in making and responding to requests for public records.

The 2 p.m. session is geared toward city employees, and it will cover how to manage media requests. The 7 p.m. session has a more general appeal, and it will focus on public requests and will provide resources to create more efficient public records requests.

Participants in both workshops will gain information about open government resources, recent legislative activity, the Freedom of Information Act, Greensboro’s protocols for dealing with public records requests and more. Time for questions and answers will be provided. Representatives from the Sunshine Center, Elon University’s School of Communications, Elon University’s School of Law and officials from the city of Greensboro will all make presentations.

Here at the N&R, we're committed to making sure that what you hear from candidates is accurate. So here's the first in a series of occasional fact-checking that we'll do when we hear candidates making claims on the campaign trail.

Mary Rakestraw, a longtime opponent of incentives as a county commissioner and city councilwoman, again stated her opposition to the money that government uses to attract businesses while she was at a candidates forum this week.

“I’ve never voted to give cash incentive to a business," the District 4 candidate told those gathered at the forum.

So is that totally true?

In general, yes. She has a long history of opposing incentives.

Rakestraw did vote in 2004 to offer Dell $7.1 million in incentives and other government money when the computer manufacturer was choosing between several North Carolina municipalities.

Dell, aside from being one of the biggest deals of its day, was one of the largest incentive packages that Guilford County has put together. Dell announced this past week that it is closing the plant.

After a quick search of her voting history, we asked her about her statement this past week.

"You’re wrong on that," she said. "I never voted to give any kind of cash deals to Dell."

But the Guilford County Board of Commissioners meeting minutes from Dec. 2, 2004, tell a different story:

The motion carried 9 to 2 on the following roll call vote: YES: Alston, Barber, Coleman, Davis, Landreth, Thigpen, Rakestraw, Shaw, Wade. NO: Arnold, Yow

While looking after candidates, let's review something that Rakestraw's opponent, Joel Landau, said during a Sept. 8 forum when he mentioned that the city spends $100,000 on a lobbyist in Raleigh.

Turns out that Greensboro paid its lobbyist $40,786.90 last fiscal year, according to the city attorney's office.

"I don’t recall offhand," he said about where he got the $100,000 figure, adding that it could have been local media or a city report.

"I remember having seen that number," he said.

UPDATE 1:

Rakestraw, after we spoke with her, did some fact-checking on herself. She did vote for the incentives, Rakestraw learned from the Guilford County Clerk's office.

Here's what she said.

"I don’t  vote for cash incentives," she said in a voice mail. "I voted for infrastructure."

The $7.1 million incentive package included $5.6 million in county money and $1.5 million from a water and sewer trust fund. Both were included in the same resolution for the Dell deal.

UPDATE 2

Landau gave us a call Thursday, after he had found out where he first spoke about the $100,000 figure.

It was in a questionnaire that he filled out for N&R readers.

"That is an expense that  we can do without," he said.

So you want to know how to apply to the new incentive, or maybe see if you qualify?

Well, if you're adding an addition to your home, don't count on it. Unless that addition is for a home office. And there's no job requirement. And few details are needed for most any property owner - not necessarily a business - to apply.

And there are some other stipulations to the county's newest incentive policy, which is outlined in this document. And if you think you qualify, here's the application. And if you're looking for the Permitted Use Schedule, here it is.

Along the way, this was billed as something to help small business. But this benefits the property owner, which seems to be the most trackable way for the county to watch these incentives.

There's no job requirement, just a $10,000 minimum investment. And companies making an investment of more than $3 million must give some more details about job creation, if any.

So, are you, dear reader, into this policy? Why or why not?