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When the county passed its budget recently, there was $1.3 million earmarked for economic incentives going to commercial business. But there were few other details given.

Now that the dust has settled on the budget, maybe there a more fully-formed plan on spending this public money?

Not quite yet.

Board of Commissioners Vice Chairman Steve Arnold told us today that the plan isn't totally developed.

"I don’t know how I can add to what’s been said already," he said. "What we want to do is a little more carefully define the terminology and define what’s anticipated and expected and make sure there’s definition between residential and commercial (development)."

What we know is that $1.3 million represents an expected growth in tax base for commercial development here in 2009-10 that could be used for incentives to grow that tax base. Or that's what Arnold has told us before.

When can we expect to see something solid on this plan?

"Hope that it will be sooner rather than later," Arnold said, adding that it could be as soon as next week.

Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin "Skip" Alston was reluctant to give details.

"(Arnold is) still working on it," Alston said. "He’s still talking to people."

We asked who.

"Leaders in the community, lawyers," Arnold said.

Could we get some names?

"I don’t want to do that," he said.

Why?

"Because I don’t want you to be dogging them like you do the rest of the staff," Alston said.

Though the budget passed with the $1.3 million spending plan and little explanation of how it would work, two commissioners spoke against the idea - Billy Yow and Paul Gibson.

In an earlier Inside Scoop post, Yow said:

"This whole thing has become so convoluted that there's no right or wrong about it ... Steve is pushing the economic incentive thing ... he says he's not really for (community group spending), it's just politics. Are we here for politics or are we here to represent the people and what's right and wrong?"

No, this isn't about H1N1 - what most call swine flu - though Guilford County has made news about that recently.

Instead, this is about a warning that your Web browser may have thrown up as you attempted to access the county's Web site lately. Google, for our Web browser, sent a message that read "Reported Attack Site!" in all red and black.

Scary stuff. But the site is safe, according to the county's information systems director Barbara Weaver. She said that Mac users are seeing the warning, but not as many Internet Explorer users. We use Firefox, and it popped up for us.

In an e-mail, she told us things are safe. The message read:

"We weren’t hacked, but one of our employees who has rights to update the web site had a virus. (the technical staff assure me that the site isn’t dangerous.) We use Content Management Services (basically a way for contributors to publish their information directly to the site). When the employee updated the site with the holiday banner, the virus inserted a single line of code called an <iframe> in the entry. The malware and other malicious sources use <iframes>….We also use a number of <iframes> on the county site for legitimate purposes…an example is the page you use to view the commissioner meetings by video, a page within a page. We are still researching how the employee got the virus."

We access the site nearly every day for numerous reasons, usually contact info, agendas and video of meetings. Just seemed strange to bump against from the county.

But, heck, our nation is developing cyber defenses.

Greensboro City Councilwoman Trudy Wade will face at least one challenger in her District 5 race. Art Boyett filed today, the first day of candidate filing at the Guilford County Board of Elections.

Wade said she plans to file Wednesday.

This gives Scoop a chance to preview some of the info we hope to put on our in-development 2009 election Web site. This is only the bio information. Later we will add more about the issues of the race.

By the way, is there anything that is NOT included in this bio box that you might want to know about your council candidates? Let us know.

City Council Candidates 2009

Name: Arthur “Art” Boyett

Seat seeking: District 5 city council

Age: 66, DOB Sept. 12

Residence: 810 A Carriage Crossing Lane, Greensboro

Relationship status: married to Beth, two grown children

Contact info (e-mail, cell, work, home, best): 336-207-9246 cell, boyett2009@gmail.com

Web site/Twitter/Facebook: on Facebook

Occupation, job title and workplace: retired college accounting professor, most recently at Guilford College

Political experience: never run for office before

Other experience: acting in community theater; starred in "Twelve Angry Men" at Greensboro Community Theater

Campaign manager: Beth Boyett

Treasurer: currently himself; will be Seth Baldwin

Consultants: none

Upcoming campaign events: tba

Have you ever been arrested: no

Have you ever been sued: no
 

On Wednesday we covered Action Greensboro's forum on local government leadership. Sounds like a snoozer, right?

Not really, if you have the back story to what was said. We'll try to add some context here.

Much of the conversation centered around Guilford County, the retirement of former county manager David McNeill that was sudden, and the following resignations of deputy manager Ben Brown and county attorney Sharron Kurtz.

Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones, along with Mike Smith, the dean of the UNC School of Government, and John Alexander, professor of leadership at Elon University Law School spoke at the forum.

The way in which our city and county government operates is designed to keep politics from running the system. Back in the day this was to ensure that all sections of town are treated fairly. These days it has the same fundamentals, but also applies to hiring employees fairly, planning and other things. As we've gotten more advanced in technology and plans, higher levels of expertise are needed for jobs such as planning, land use and economic development, to name a few.

Essentially, the council-manager form of government keeps politicians from playing favorites. But it can go haywire, and some have mentioned in county halls that when Board of Commissioners Chairman Melvin "Skip" Alston and vice chairman Steve Arnold took power, they did so in order to put their hands directly on the day-to-day operations.

"And the people who are setting policy are getting into the administration of government," Alexander said, "and things may be less efficient and may be more political."

Shortly after Alston took power, he created committees to examine government operations, substance abuse, the budget, and hire a new manager and county attorney.

In that regard, they did put their hands on government in a greater way, with the promise of no property tax rate increase for 2009-10. That was delivered, as were numerous other cuts, and layoffs that affected some key employees and eliminated vacant positions.

Meanwhile, Arnold made a move that was uncharacteristic for a commissioner - sat in on county staff budget hearings. Typically, the county manager makes a budget with his or her staff and then delivers it to the commissioners for them to dissect and cut or add.

What's significant about those meetings is that they are closed-door. And though there's no quorum of elected officials present, if two or more commissioners are making decisions about public money then it begins to run into the grey area of North Carolina statute controlling open meetings.

Which the forum also addressed, on the question of transparency, and how Mecklenburg County does its business.

"We try to create that transparency by saying to our staff to make sure that they not give anything that gives any impression that you are tying to hide," Jones said, adding that he tells his staff to avoid the impression that "you are trying to hide the public’s business from the people."

When that works, we receive messages about county moves such as the hire of a new manager or plans to cut the budget. But we didn't even hear about the joint meeting called to reduce the bond sale, which saved county money, until 10 minutes before it happened.

When transparency doesn't seem to work, we have to ask for information about layoffs, departures of key county personnel and the way in which money is given out to community groups.

And let's be clear: this post is not a reporter's lament. It's about community perception of its government in distributing information on how its tax dollars are spent and high points from the forum.

"We as managers have an obligation that the media understand the policy that’s being proposed," Jones said. And that has happened, at times, between Guilford County and the N&R. Brenda Jones Fox, who is spotty about returning phone calls and messages, spent about an hour explaining the county budget to us one morning.

At other times, the communication is not so good. Only after a commissioner asked for it have we received information about the severance packages paid to laid off county employees. And then, the figure is a "to date" amount, not a total.

This is information, we feel, the county should be able to know.

On to other forum topics.

When filling jobs, professionals talk to one-another. In Guilford County, after a short search for applicants, the county promoted from within for its county manager. That is not uncommon practice in government, but Jones said he did field calls from people interested in the open manager's spot here.

"There are not many jobs that are open in North Carolina where I don’t get a phone call about that community," Jones said. "And I don’t criticize that community, but (Jones tells the potential applicant) there are questions that I have that you would like to have the headhunter answer."

When searching for a county attorney, local attorneys said that Guilford County would have trouble finding a staff member to put on board. Eventually the county hired a firm at a greater cost to the county, which is not uncommon for a county of this size.

There seemed to be an implication among the panelists that there's Guilford County has a reputation lately among its peers that's been tarnished.

But the meeting wasn't all about slamming the county, though Guilford County seemed to receive most of the pointed discussion. Alston was able to offer his thoughts, as well, and leaned on the successes of the Board of Commissioners.

"We’ve been able to cut out of the budget, $24 million," he said. "That’s leadership."

Then he spoke to the public.

"And call us. A lot of county officials are talked about, and not talked to. And if you talked to us, then you might understand the reasoning that (commissioners) do what they might do ... and I don't mind talking to anyone at all about what’s been happening over the last several months."

This is true. Alston is very responsive when called. For his corhort, Arnold, however, it's a different story. The number listed as his contact on the county's Web site - 887-8383 - is disconnected.

Then again, why should it be the responsibility of the public to contact their elected officials to find out what's going on? Why should the county's roughly 250,000 registered voters have to track down Alston themselves? Wouldn't that be a bit inefficient?

Tonight's local government forum at the Empire Room in downtown Greensboro featured Twitter as a main component of the event.

Some audience questions were sent through Twitter and through Action Greensboro's blog. Those people who were unable to attend (the event was capped at 250 people) could watch online and ask questions during a Q&A session with Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones, Dean of the UNC School of Government Mike Smith and John Alexander, professor of leadership at Elon University Law School.

And the conversation touched on issues such as turnover at the top administrative positions of Guilford County and Greensboro, how to grow wisely with neighboring towns and cities and what it means to have a separation between elected officials and government.

The speakers generally tended to agree that the separation between government and elected officials is a good thing and helps keep politics out of the day-to-day operations. Politics helps set policy that a county manager follows for a government's daily work.

"And you're taking better care of your resources," Smith said of the separation, "and less inclined to make decisions for inappropriate reasons."

And way down in big ol' Mecklenburg County, Jones has been paying attention to what's happening up here. He said that though he would never tell someone not to go somewhere for a job opening, he would suggest certain questions to ask of a community.

We've noted Guilford County's changes many times in recent months.

There weren't any major conclusions reached, and the language was mostly civil, for a civic process.

The overriding impression was that things here may not change drastically or immediately, but that maybe more people would be spurred to get involved in the community.

More community involvement by the people living here. Now that's something Scoop can get behind.

Action Greensboro is hosting a forum on local government that appears to have all the makings of creating a good conversation.

All 250 seats are taken at the Empire Room, where it will be held.

Those who weren't able to make it can still find a way to get a good shot of the action by viewing it online here.

Here's a primer of some topics of conversation expected tonight:

The council-manager form of government, and how the elected officials, managers and staff work in that system.

Increasing the cooperation between the cities and county, which has had a spotty history here.

Roles of media and the citizens in the government.

This should be an interesting forum. We'll be there, and will have something online as soon as we get back. And we hope to Twitter the event. Action Greensboro will, too.

Meanwhile, our fearless editor is taking bets on how many elected folks will show up.

No elected official likes to raise fees and taxes.

And that unease about spending taxpayer money had City Council members carefully considering their options about the 2010 water rates this week.

But Water Resources Director Allan Williams gave the council three options: use $2.1 million from a savings account; cut back maintenance projects to keep the rates flat; or increasing water rates by six percent.

Putting off work on water lines was not a popular option. And at first, only four council members liked the idea of dipping into the city’s reserves. But they also expressed concern about asking residents to pay more in a difficult economic time.

So Councilman Robbie Perkins tried to talk council members through the options.

“Ok, who wants to raise water rates six percent?” Perkins asked.

“That is not the right question,” Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small said, to laughs from the audience.

Councilman Mike Barber offered another variation.

“Who wants to stab the taxpayer in the heart?”
 

UPDATE: The big table in the center of city hall's plaza level council room was decidedly empty come 3 p.m. on a recent Tuesday afternoon.

The staff members were there. The journalists had their laptops ready.

But most of the city council members -- the guests of honor of this and every council briefing -- were MIA.

Councilman Mike Barber took the opportunity to chastise the absent members for not showing up for the session, which was scheduled so council members could give the staff key recommendations about financial issues.

"Over the last few months, it's as though the council meetings aren't important enough to attend," he said.

Mayor Yvonne Johnson and Councilwoman T. Dianne Bellamy-Small were the other two members in attendance when Barber made his comment. Councilman Zack Matheny and Councilwoman Trudy Wade both came a few minutes late.

Barber has a point. Briefings in March and April were cancelled by council, sometimes because people were too busy to attend.

The issue made Scoop wonder, who has the best attendance record on council?

No council member has had perfect attendance since they took office in 2007 until May 2009, according to an analysis of the City Council meeting minutes compiled by the city clerk. For simplicity, Scoop’s analysis did not make any distinction between excused and unexcused absences.

Bellamy-Small has a near-perfect record.

She never missed a regular meeting. But she arrived late on one occasion noted in the minutes.

Wade came in a close second, with one absence.

Councilman Robbie Perkins wracked up the most absences, arriving late three times and being absent four times. Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat had one tardy and three absences; although during one of those meetings she participated via telephone for part of the session.

And Barber ends up in the middle with the rest of council members, who each had two to three occasions when they were late or absent. Barber had two absences (during one he made a guest appearance by telephone) and one tardy, as counted by the clerk.

The clerk’s office does not keep a record of attendance for council work sessions or the briefings that concerned Barber.

Scoop had incomplete records for those meetings, but can anecdotally verify Barber’s statement; they are not as well attended by council as regular meetings.

And so far as we can tell, the clerk’s minutes don’t always note if council members leave early, do the crossword during the meeting or sneak out of the council chambers to check the basketball scores.

So if you are using attendance as a measurement of your council member, make sure it isn’t the only tool you use to judge.

At the end of Thursday's Guilford County commissioners meeting, Commissioner Paul Gibson asked for some information that we've been trying to get for some time on the county's layoffs, early retirement and contract with a new county attorney.

"We have never gotten any figures on what the cost was for Guilford County on the early retirement packages that were offered," he asked County Manager Brenda Jones Fox. "I’d like to see what that package of early retirement has cost us."

This is stuff we asked about back when the early retirement was announced. And for the layoffs. And the day after it was announced that Nexsen Pruet would be the county's new top legal counsel, we asked Fox if she had details on the cost of the contract. Which she didn't have at the time, but last night said told Gibson that it was prepared.

That makes sense, somewhat, because it takes a little time to draw up contracts.

So now that a commissioner has asked for that stuff, does that mean that the rest of the public now gets to know?

That's what we hope to find out today. We asked Fox and other county staff this morning for the same information that Gibson asked for, which Fox said Thursday she would provide for all the commissioners.

Follow our Twitter feed for Guilford County commissioners here. Live meeting updates.