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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?

As Guilford County Commissioners head into their meeting tonight, former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr has something for them to consider in a letter he wrote (which ran in print in the N&R).

In short, the message from Orr is that local government should get out of the incentives business. The county is looking at a $1.3 million plan that would open up incentives to businesses in the community that add a certain amount of taxable property value.

From his letter:

In Raleigh, Governor Perdue recently charged the members of her Economic Development Board  “to put into place a system of economic development that works for every county and every city in this state”.  Meanwhile, the Guilford County Commissioners continue to wrestle with a proposal to use $1.3 million in tax funds for economic incentives to small businesses – a proposal promoted as a way to support small businesses that don’t get the multi-million dollar incentive deals that the Dells and Googles get.

-snip-

  Finally, an economic development policy that pits one North Carolina community against another strongly favors the large wealthy counties like Mecklenburg and Wake at the expense of smaller and less affluent areas in our state.  Surely an economic development policy that allows our larger, economically strong cities and counties to raid their struggling fellow North Carolina communities of desperately needed jobs and businesses is fundamentally flawed, if not straight out unconstitutional. 

                I recognize that North Carolina is not getting out of the incentives business but if the state is negotiating an incentives package for a large corporate entity, there is no reason for local governments to be thrown like lambs to the slaughter in further negotiations about the final site.  And there is certainly no reason to encourage local governments to try and compete against each other in the unfair world of targeted incentives bidding.  Getting local governments out of the incentives business will save millions in taxpayer dollars at the local level that can be better used for education, infrastructure improvements, public safety, and yes, tax relief.  If this is done then economic development dollars at the local level can be spent more effectively in recruiting new businesses and encouraging existing businesses rather than pouring tax dollars down the proverbial drain.

Read the full letter here.
 

Police Officer A.J. Blake says he has filed another Equal Employment Opportunity Complaint against the city of Greensboro -- this time for retaliation over his recent demotion.

Blake was reinstated by Interim City Manager Bob Morgan last week. Blake was recommended for termination earlier this year after he had been convicted of two counts of assault. Morgan made his decision after Blake has won an appeal and was acquitted.

Blake is back at work – doing a desk job for the time being.

This is Blake’s third time filing such a complaint against the city. He is also one of more than 30 black police officers involved in a discrimination lawsuit against Greensboro.

Meanwhile there is a City Council meeting planned for Friday, where council members had planned to hear from Interim City Manager Bob Morgan about why he reinstated Blake.

But it looks like there may not be enough council members present to hold that meeting. Scoop will let you know where things stand on Friday.

The City Council will meet in closed session Friday to find out why Interim City Manager Bob Morgan decided to reinstate police officer A. J. Blake.

Blake was charged with two counts of assault after having a fight with his girlfriend at a party earlier this year. He was convicted in March, but was found not guilty by a jury when he appealed. Blake will return to work, with a demotion, this week.

The council meeting was called by Mayor Yvonne Johnson at the urging of Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw, who was disturbed to hear he got his job back.

Blake had been recommended for termination by Police Chief Tim Bellamy. Morgan overruled that decision.

“It looks like Tim Bellamy has no control over the police department. He has no credibility. The rug has been pulled out from under him on this decision,” she said.

Morgan declined to say why he opted to keep Blake on the job. But Morgan made his decision after Blake was found not guilty of the charges on appeal; Bellamy made his decision before the Blake’s appeal.

Rakestraw and another council member said they did not know Blake had been acquitted. ( Must not have been reading Greensboro's various print publications.) In the case of another officer, Scott Sanders, Rakestraw has argued for him to be reinstated and given back pay after his acquittal on criminal charges.

It’s unclear what City Council members hope to accomplish at the meeting Friday. By Greensboro policy, the city manager has the final word on an employee discipline case of this sort.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, District 1 candidate Ben Holder called for the city to investigate a claim by Blake would not be able to work with the gang officers upon being reinstated. He asked for the City Council to clear up lingering questions about the unit.
 

So Charlotte's hunting for ways to pay for a streetcar. They've got to somehow scrounge up $457 million for the line.

Options such as a city tax or finding federal money are out there, and it appears that  a combination of those will end up coming together.

So what's that got to do with us?

Not much, except it reminds us of action the county took last week for its own public transportaion contract with MV, which was extended for the same price as the current deal.

That means that the county is paying the same price for its service, for the most part. But if more people want rides, then someone's going to have to pay. And right now, it looks like the county isn't interested in footing any more of the bill than it has to, especially for those people who could get around on their own.

Tradidtionally the county's public transportation riders were those who had no other options - the elederly and those on Medicaid

"We will not be able to provide general rides for someone who may live in an unincoproated area," Myra Thompson told us last week.

That means that if you were using the county rides to get to work and you have wheels anyway, you may have more trouble finding a ride from the government than before. Or if the county government feels that you could get around otherwise, you'll have to look elsewhere for a ride.

The county extended the current contract with MV Transportation until Oct. 15. In that time it hopes to find a few vendors. Here's the full request for proposals on the county's transportation contract.

You know, Greensboro once had streetcars of its own, way back when.