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This year’s crop of candidates for City Council include all kinds of characters — a developer, a chef, a community organizer.

And you can add another thing to a couple of candidate biographies: debtor.

Five candidates for City Council have overdue vehicle taxes, according to Guilford County records.

Here’s who they are and what they owed as of Thursday, when the records were reviewed:

• Jorge Cornell, at-large candidate: $214.86 on three cars. Bills due July 2003, August 2004 and November 2008.
• Danny Thompson, at-large candidate: $15.17 for one car registered to his business. Bill due May 2009.
• T. Dianne Bellmay-Small, District 1 candidate: $2.28 for one car. Bill due February 2001.
• Luther Falls Jr., District 1 candidate: $58.47 on one car. Bill due May 2009.
• Daron Sellars, District 1 candidate: $481.01 on one car. Bills due January 2005 and July 2006.

All the candidates said they were unaware they owed money and will take care of the bills.

Bellamy-Small’s bill has been accruing one penny worth of interest every month. Bellamy-Small, Cornell and Sellars said the bills were for cars they no longer own. Falls said he just learned about the bill recently and will pay it on July 31.

It’s worth mentioning that all 33 candidates for City Council get a gold star for paying their local property taxes, according to tax records. All the candidates are up-to-date.

No to concealed guns

Greensboro Mayor Yvonne Johnson was one of eight North Carolina mayors who signed on to a letter and ad urging Sens. Kay Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, and Richard Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, to vote against a concealed carry law.

The measure would have required states to accept concealed weapons permits issued by other states.

“We urge you to stand with us and tell your colleagues in the Senate to respect North Carolina’s right to protect public safety and police officer’s lives by voting against the Thune Concealed Carry Amendment,” read the ad.

Lot of good it did.

Both Hagan and Burr voted for the measure.

But their efforts were shot down. The amendment failed to get enough votes to pass.

A little help from friends

Last week, High Point Road got a new resident — Lounge 2800, billed as an upscale restaurant and bar.

But they might not have been able to open their doors without a little help from Mayor Yvonne Johnson.

When the owners applied for their liquor license, the Greensboro Police Department signed off on the proprietors, but not the 2800 High Point Road location.

The spot was, up until very recently, the home to Alexander Devereux’s Restaurant — a place that got its fair share of attention from local law enforcement and neighbors, some of whom were not pleased with the establishment’s noise and general activity.

A thumbs down from the local police is an automatic mark against an establishment, and Lounge 2800 was denied its temporary liquor license, according to Fred Gregory, attorney for the North Carolina Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.

That was, until Johnson, a family friend of one of the owners, Marcus Allen, sent the commission a letter encouraging it to change its decision.

“She is the highest elected official in Greensboro, isn’t she?” Gregory said. “So that usually works.”

The lounge, which features sofa seating and finger foods in its second-story lounge area, opens at 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

The lounge is aiming for the cocktail-hour crowd, Allen said.

He said he and his partners plan to run a good business, so the extra scrutiny from the residents is OK with them.

Troxler going to China

Browns Summit farmer and state Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler will lead a trade mission to China in August.

The mission, according to a news release, will “focus on expanding markets for North Carolina tobacco, soybeans, cotton and other commodities.”

The trip takes place Aug. 1-8.

Staff Writers Amanda Lehmert and Mark Binker contributed.