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Because we can't get it all in the paper, and there were some interesting things said, here's more from the interviews on the city's statement of regret this week.

Bob Peters, who served on the Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Commission:

"I don't demand apologies or regrets I’m happy when I get them," he said. He broke from other members on the commission on the issue of requesting the city offer an apology for the 1979 Nazi/Klan-CWP shootings.

"But to me the whole thing about the shootings on November 3, 1979, one of the main things that hit me was the extreme danger of using violent language. ... Violent language leads to violent actions and can lead to extreme actions. We had some of the extremely violent language on both sides."

Former Mayor Keith Holliday:

"Everybody would have treated this different if we had the ability of hindsight," he said, and then he spoke to some of the conspiracy theorists, who he does not agree with. "Does that mean that you end up placing blame in certain areas? And especially for those who are suspicious of government and the establishment?"

"And there is no way that I feel there was any orchestrated and police sort of openly turned their backs to have a gunfight. And I will never believe, based on what I know, that there was any conscious effort to let that happen."

Councilman Zack Matheny:

"The comments made, about taking a step back, that we’re taking a step back ... Do you think we’re at a lower point today than we were in November 3, 1979?"

"Is that a racial, a truly racial thing that happened? Or did it happen with the threat of unionizing a plant?" he said. "It started out with unionizing a plant. It started out with groups walking ... it didn't start out as a black white thing."

"As far as repair, we need to continue to have the conversation."

Councilwoman Goldie Wells:

"One thing you can do you can make it better, by just talking about the facts. And the things that keep us so bound are secrets and the lack of communication. We need to go on and talk about it and find out about why people feel the way they feel. We just need to talk and be honest."

"People don’t trust folks because they can’t be trusted. We’ve got to be trustworthy and trust others," she said.

It was a strange evening at the City Council Tuesday night, with the arrest of consultant Bill Burckley and a spat between council members.

You can read about Burckley here.

As for that fight, there was tension between City Council members Zack Matheny and Goldie Wells during the Truth and Reconciliation discussion.

Wells made a cutting remark to Matheny after he explained, in depth, his decision not to support the Human Relations Commission recommendation that the council should say it regrets the 1979 shooting.

At the end of eight hours worth of meetings, the pair exchanged words again when Matheny asked council members to change their Monday meeting time to 5 p.m.

He said it was difficult for him to take time off of work in the afternoons. Wells told him he had to make sacrifices to be a public servant.

After the meeting ended, Matheny was seen shouting at Wells about his job responsibilities and her treatment. Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat stepped in to defend Matheny against Wells. Other council members encouraged Matheny to move along and drop the matter.

Wells, who has butted heads with other council members before, she doesn’t think Matheny understands her.

“He doesn’t treat me like an elder,” she said Wednesday.

Matheny has said he doesn’t appreciate the way she treats or speaks to him, sometimes commenting about his youth. He is the youngest council member at age 36.

"I've take it for a while," Matheny said Wednesday. "What am I supposed to do? When are you (Wells) going to treat me like a council member? When wil you treat me like an equal?"

Looks like it wasn't all about the county budget this year.

Some more issues are up for discussion in Thursday's commissioners meeting. Here's the agenda.

We'll bet that the heavy equipment tax will receive some lengthy discussion.

Commissioners will also discuss ending health insurance in retirement for employees hired in the future. That would save the county money, but make working for government less attractive.

If commissioners pass the resolution, it doesn't appear to affect future employees. So, those currently working for the county would not lose their retirement health insurance benefits.

A mainstay of many government jobs is a healthy benefits package including insurance, retirement savings and other perks. It appears that some of those benefits may be going the way of some county jobs that were shed this year.

Greensboro made The Charlotte Observer over the weekend – as an example of how state budgets have been padded with gifts to special interests or projects that don't pay off.

From the story:

“Four years ago, state legislators gave $2 million to the city of Greensboro to launch a “Hall of Champions” for the Atlantic Coast Conference. It was to showcase the ACC's athletic heroes, an idea pushed by Kay Hagan, then a state senator, and other legislators.

“Since that time, no additional money has been raised for the project, which was expected to cost $23 million. The city bought the building but backed out of using it for the hall.

“The ACC Hall of Champions is a relatively small project. But it shows how the General Assembly's spending customs can get it into trouble when revenues start plummeting.”

Read the whole story here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/778124.html
 

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/citygovernment/council.

How to speak: Sign up before the meeting. Speakers have up to three minutes for items not on the agenda.

On the agenda: The Human Relations Commission will give the council its review of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s work.

City council will hold a public hearing and decide whether to put $20 million bond referendum on the November ballot. If approved, the money will be spent to make changes at the Natural Science Center.
 

Council members will consider approving a bond sale to fund construction of an aquatics center at the Coliseum. Last fall, council members promised to not sell bonds until the end of this year.
 

Speaking of the city manager search, consultant Colin Baenziger has irked some council members.

Some in the Gate City did not appreciate that he said Greensboro is like another fabled southern city.

“But what is the real reason to live in Greensboro?” reads the background info on the city on the consultant’s Web site, which will be used to recruit the next city manager. “That is easy – it is all the people who live here. Although the third largest city in the state, its residents affectionately characterize it as having a Mayberry mindset.”

Not everybody took it as a loving comparison.

“I guess it makes some people think that we’re backwards or country bumpkins,” Councilwoman Trudy Wade said.

Council members agreed his description – which he compiled after meeting with business leaders, members of the public, and council members – should be tweaked.

“I looked at Mayberry most of my life and I liked it,” said Mayor Yvonne Johnson, “but I don’t know if that’s they way we would like to describe ourselves.”
 

UPDATED: Scoop reported the scuttlebutt last weekend that some city council members were interested in making Interim City Manager Bob Morgan the final replacement for former City Manager Mitchell Johnson.

Councilman Robbie Perkins called Monday morning to say there was no such movement.

Even if there was, the issue was sorted out at Tuesday’s city council budget session, when the city manager search unexpectedly came up.

Mayor Yvonne Johnson asked the council members whether they wanted to continue with the search with consultant Colin Baenziger and Associates, or whether they wanted to cancel the search and look locally.

She raised the issue, she said, based on a conversation she had with a fellow council member. She said she wanted to see where things stood.

So they voted. Out of the full council, five members – Councilwoman Trudy Wade, Mayor Pro Tem Sandra Anderson Groat, Councilman Zack Matheny, Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw and Johnson – voted to continue with the search.

Whether or not council members want to give him the gig, Morgan has not said if he has put himself in the running.

But last week he did say he was enjoying his time as city manager.
 

In March, commissioners talked briefly about a heavy equipment rental tax that would raise about $100,000 for the county.

The discussion was tabled. (Click that link and go to item C1 to see video from that conversation.)

But commissioner Billy Yow and vice chairman Steve Arnold opposed the measure. Arnold is a former developer, and Yow is a well digger, so it's conceivable that both would have an interest in keeping down the cost of renting heavy equipment beyond their being Republicans.

Commissioner Kirk Perkins, a Democrat who is also in real estate and development, said that he would support the measure.

Democratic commissioner Carolyn Coleman moved to table the discussion until a later time so that they could see how the county's sales tax collection worked out and see if the revenue is needed. The 2009-10 budget predicted sales tax revenue would drop by $13.3 million over the previous year.

Problem is, that's a moving target because the state has been inconsistent with sales tax returns to municipalities this year. The county's budget director, Mike Halford, has told us that that figure is difficult to pin down because of that issue with the state.

According to the Guilford County tax department, the new tax would replace revenue that was lost when the state excluded heavy equipment items from property taxation.

What's the root of the issue here? Looks like it's the attempt to replace lost revenue vs. a tax cut that, some would argue, encourages development. Bulldozers grade the land that new buildings go on, and that equipment is often rented by contractors.

Those are things that we're also trying to look into, ourselves. We expect to have more on this issue later.

Greensboro is taking applications for its citizen education program, CityAcademy.

City staff members are invited to purchase discounted Greensboro Grasshoppers tickets for June 15.

The special ticket deal was arranged in part by Councilwoman Sandra Anderson Groat, who wanted to throw the staff a party in Center City Park in June. But the event proved too complicated to put together on short notice.

Instead, staff members who show their city identification at the ball park can purchase up to two tickets for the June 15 game for $2 each.

The double-header begins at 5:05 p.m. The Hoppers will take on the Hickory Crawdads.