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Linda Kellerman has had a bizarre month.

Back in April she dropped out of the Democratic primary for the Guilford County Commissioners seat in District 6, citing the death of her daughter Michelle Hall and her need to grieve.

She publicly bowed out and though it wasn't in time to remove her name from the ballot, she endorsed opponent Dan Miller. She worked the polls for him the day of the May 8 primary.

But when the polls closed and the results came in on primary night, Kellerman got a shock.

She ended up with nearly 57 percent of the vote, beating Miller by more than 600 votes.

"I had no idea what to think," Kellerman said today. "I had to decide what it meant, I had to decide what I was going to do."

Having been elected by such a wide margin, there would be no runoff. If Kellerman said she no longer wanted to be the Democratic candidate, Miller wouldn't automatically get the nod. The local party would hand-pick a candidate for the Nov. 6 election.

After sitting down with Miller, Kellerman decided to move forward with her candidacy. She re-filed her candidate committee paperwork with the Guilford County Board of Elections today.

"I think voters may have seen a strong female candidate and wanted to support her," Kellerman said.

Her daughter and her mother, who died just last summer, would have told her that means she should press on with her candidacy, Kellerman said.

She'll face either Jeremy Williams or Hank Henning in November. The two Republican candidates are going into a runoff to be held July 17.

Tuesday night the council approved $24 million worth of coliseum improvement projects. And with that, they also put to bed the debate over whether hotel tax revenue could be used to build a $50 million downtown performing arts center.

Since early this year, the city manager's office and the convention and visitors bureau have disagreed on whether the state law -- which dictates the use of the hotel room rental fees -- allows the revenue to be used on something other than the coliseum.

Some downtown performing arts center supporters floated the idea of the city using its hotel tax "debt capacity" (sort of like your personal credit limit) to build the center. Greensboro's got $35 million of that capacity -- money that could go a long way toward the $50 million in construction costs.

It would be a way to get the performing arts center built without having property tax payers pick up the tab.

But coliseum supporters, including the folks at the visitors bureau, wanted to ensure the coliseum has a means to pay for on-going maintenance. They wanted the debt capacity used on that $24 million coliseum project list.

The majority of council members agreed.

Interim City Manager Denise Turner Roth offered the council one other way to use hotel tax revenue for the performing arts center. She said the county's portion of hotel tax revenue has no legal requirement that it be used at the coliseum.

The trouble with that conclusion: The staff says Greensboro only has $7 million in county hotel tax debt capacity. That's $4 million less hotel tax money than the staff planned to spend for a proposed performing arts center.

Who fills in that gap? Roth said private donors or some other yet-to-be determined funding source.

Scoop's thinking bake sale. We like cupcakes.

Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins returned from a trip to Israel early Friday morning.

He traveled with 36 mayors from around the globe in a trip sponsored by the American Council for World Jewry.

The group met several business leaders as well as top government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu -- who was in the midst of a major government upheaval.

After meeting with the mayoral delegation Monday, Netanyahu went off to the Knesset, Israel's parliament, to form a new coalition government, Perkins said.

"It was cool on top of cool," Perkins said.

The city paid the airfare for the mayor's trip, about $1,200, Perkins said.

Tuesday night, the Greensboro City Council will get an early look at the on-going downtown performance arts center feasibility research.

They are still weeks away from deciding whether to put a proposed $30 million bond referendum on the ballot. But they will be asked to take the first, albeit procedural, step in that process Tuesday.

The issue is bound to drum up council members' deep concerns about the timing of building such a big project.

Mayor Robbie Perkins has been the poster boy for the project, talking it up all over town. But since the issue first popped up in January, council members have openly questioned whether the city can afford to build a performing arts center now, as local unemployment continues to be high. Council members said they are eagerly awaiting the financial details of the proposal before they say for certain they will support a ballot measure.

"I’m excited about the idea, but it has to be feasible," Councilwoman Nancy Vaughan said.

Even the council's arts supporters, like Yvonne Johnson and Marikay Abuzuaiter, worry about whether residents will support it.

If the council puts a bond on a ballot and voters punt it -- that could be worse, Johnson said earlier this month.

"Everywhere I go, I make a point to ask what (residents) think, and I’m not getting good vibes," Abuzuaiter said.

It's going to be a rather busy meeting Tuesday night. You've got budget talk. GPAC and Coliseum debates. There's even a little trash in there for good measure.

Want to go?

What: Greensboro City Council meeting

When: 5:30 p.m. Tuesday

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

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

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 session is limited to 30 minutes.

On the agenda: The City Council will consider:

— Rezoning 2823 Randleman Road to allow Bridgeland Development LLC to build 66 senior apartments. The zoning commission denied this request.

— Public comments on proposed $24 million worth of coliseum projects, including $2.3 million renovation of the Canada Dry building. The council will decide whether to pay for those projects using hotel-motel tax revenue.

— The city manager’s fiscal year 2012-2013 recommended budget.

— A preliminary feasibility report on the proposed downtown performing arts center. The council will also decide whether to take the first step to putting a $30 million bond referendum on the November ballot to build such a center.

— A report on which companies proposed to operate the city’s trash disposal services.

When the Guilford County Board of Commissioners discussed a $1.2 million incentives package for Ralph Lauren's expansion in High Point this week, Commissioner Bruce Davis got a little unexpected laughter

Launching into a long speech about how much Ralph Lauren has meant to High Point and to Guilford County and how wonderful the jobs would be, Davis was reigned in by Commissioners Chairman Melvin "Skip" Alston.

"Just for the record we aren't being televised," Alston said, poking gentle fun at Davis' long-winded speech -- something to which several commissioners are partial during their regular, televised meetings.

The line got laughter and applause from the audience and other commissioners.

"It's good practice, though!" Commissioner Bill Bencini said.

"What are you running for now?" Commissioner Linda Shaw jokingly asked Davis, who last week came up short in the Democratic primary for N.C. Senate in District 28. He ran for the seat as an independent in the last election and lost.

After the meeting, Davis talked a little more seriously with Scoop about his political future.

He said after his current term expires on the commissioners board, he'll likely move on to another challenge -- either running for the N.C. House or running for a seat on the High Point City Council.

"I think I've represented High Point well as a commissioner," Davis said. "That might be the next thing for me."

One of the potential repercussions of Tuesday's approval of the so-called marriage amendment is that North Carolina cities may no longer be able to offer benefits to the unmarried partners of city employees, according to some legal experts.

Greensboro's legal staff batted the issue around earlier this year, when the City Council was deciding whether it would oppose the constitutional amendment that limits marriage to one man and one woman, and bars the state from recognizing any other type of union.

Then Interim City Attorney Tom Pollard concluded that it would be difficult to predict how the amendment might be interpreted by courts and that the city would have to study the issue further if the constitution is amended.

So here we are, with a new amendment to the constitution. Thursday, Interim City Attorney Jamiah Waterman said the issue in under review.

Seven homosexual city employees take advantage of the partner benefits Greensboro offers, according to the city staff. The amendment doesn't go into effect until January, the same time the city's benefits begin a new year. So any changes to the city's offerings aren't likely to take place until then.

Here's a look at how voters in Guilford County voted on Amendment One, precinct by precinct. 

I think it's fair to say that Mayor Robbie Perkins lost his patience with blogger and frequent city council commentator George Hartzman Tuesday night.

It was late. Various issues had dragged on. And Hartzman got up to speak against the council holding a public hearing to take on more debt at the coliseum — a decision that is typically non-controversial.

Perkins tried to dissuade him from speaking. When Hartzman was not moved, Perkins floated an idea to limit the number of times a person can speak before the council in a given month.

"The concern I’ve got is that I don’t think it’s fair to any of us, the staff or the general public, that one person can dominate an agenda for a long period of time, repeatedly," Perkins said. "I don’t think it serves a public purpose."

In case you don't know Hartzman, he's an advocate for open-government practices who has has made it his job to point out who is behind certain council decisions. He studies candidates' campaign finance information and then points out when a council member is voting on behalf of an item that benefits his campaign contributor.

Hartzman has done the same thing with council members business ventures and their public duties. One of his recent inquiries actually caused the council to reconsider a vote, this time excluding Perkins due to a conflict of interest that should have precluded him from voting the first time.

And he speaks before the council a lot. Sometimes three or four times in a given meeting.

Of course, any rule the council approves regarding speakers would effect more people than just Hartzman. That led Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small to ask, "How do we look in terms of freedom of speech?"

Interim City Attorney Jamiah Waterman said the council could adopt reasonable rules regarding speech at meetings. But they have to be neutral in regards to content. In other words, you can't block someone from talking just because you don't like what they say.

Waterman joked that the new city attorney could take up the issue when he starts his job later this month.

In honor of Bicycle Month, Mayor Robbie Perkins and Councilman Zack Matheny said they will bike to work on May 18.

That's the official bike to work day, meant to encourage people to seek this form of transportation. The men made the announcement after the council designated May bike month on Tuesday night.

It's great when council members led by example. But it didn't seem like much of a sacrifice for Perkins.

He lives across the street from his office.

Granted, it's a four-lane road. But come on.

Later, the mayor said he'll take a tour down to Latham Park and then come back downtown. By the time he gets to work, it'll be like he took a spin class, he said.

No word whether he will wear a suit to work that day.

See a full schedule of bike events at bicyclingingreensboro.wildapricot.org.