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Bill Greene

Office you seek: Mayor, Town of Pleasant Garden

Occupation: President and CEO of The Greene Group. The Greene Groupe has been in business for 30 years. We proudly serve the wood products industry. In 2008, we were recognized by the Business Journal as one of the “Largest Executive Search Firms” in the Triad.

Age: 68

Education: I’m a graduate of Charleston High School, Charleston, W.Va., and attended Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va. Over the years, I have participated in and presented numerous sales and marketing seminars.

Address: 5504 Stonebridge Road, Pleasant Garden

Web site/blog/email address: www.electbillgreene.com, billgreene@triad.rr.com, also on Facebook and MySpace

Previous elective experience: No previous political office.

Other relevant experience: I was on active member of the first President’s Ambassadors Council established by the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce in 2002. I was president of the Ashland Little League. During my three terms as president, we secured a land lease arrangement for $1 per year for 20 years, built a state-of-the-art baseball field and had it certified by the Little League Baseball Association. Field certification is a requirement. All money, materials and labor were donated. As president of the Pleasant Garden Lions Club during the past two years, we increased our club’s membership by 117 percent. I have and currently serve on various committees at my church, Pleasant Garden United Methodist Church. With the help of many friends, volunteers and celebrities, the Matt Greene Golf Classic was established in 1992. This tournament was in honor of my son, Matt, an insulin dependent diabetic since he was 8-years-old. The Matt Greene Golf Classic raised over $1,100,000 for the American Diabetes Association to assist in medical research and education.

Why have you chosen to run for this office? Simple, I didn’t feel I could vote for either one of the other candidates. Instead of sitting around on my duff, moaning and groaning, I decided to throw my hat in the ring. The residents’ “vision” of Pleasant Garden is much more positive and friendly than that presented by my two opponents. The residents of Pleasant Garden are very patriotic and have strong Christian values. We don’t need a mayor taking down our American flags and trying to eliminate the opening prayer from town council meetings.

Key qualifications you would bring to the job: Leadership, integrity and accountability. An honest approach to reach out to all residents and to identify their concerns. A town where every citizen is special.

Family: Wife, Sharon. Five children, nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

What distinguishes you most from your opponents? My leadership and business experience and skills. It is obvious that neither of my opponents understand the need for proper budget preparation, nor has either looked for funding budget requests. Why hasn’t the Town of Pleasant Garden requested and received a grant in over two years? I guess our mayor just likes taking the easy way out — spend taxpayers’ dollars.

Please list the top three issues in Pleasant Garden and your stances on those issues:

1. As mayor, I will seek a balanced budget based on anticipated revenues.

2. As mayor, I will recommend that the soccer program be transferred back to the recreation board.

3. As mayor, I will show our town volunteers how much we, the residents of Pleasant Garden, appreciate their time, talents and energy.

If you were to give Pleasant Garden a letter grade on its effectiveness in managing growth, what would it be? D, For the mayor and current town council. First, there is no growth. As a matter of fact, we are regressing, not progressing. I am for slow, controlled and sustainable growth.

What vote or decision of the current council would you overturn? Why do you disagree with the decision? First, I will need to have town council’s approval to change anything. We have a town council/mayor form of government. I will be an equal member of the town council. However, with that said, I am very concerned with the nonchalant attitude of our mayor has for spending tax payers’ dollars. For instance, We have a budget item to spend $15,000 for a “Book Club.” This money was approved without a formal proposal, with no idea as to how the money will be spent and only 1.4 percent (71 out of 5,000) of the residents of Pleasant Garden completed the survey. The survey didn’t even ask if the people completing the survey were residents. It could be that the number supporting the “Book Club” is far less than 1.4 percent. A copy of this survey can be obtained by calling the town clerk at 674-3002 and asking for the survey dated May 29, 2009. A motion was made at the last town council meeting to eliminate all by $1,000 of the money budgeted for the “Book Club” to off-set the loss of revenue ($14,000+) the town is going to experience from the loss of state tax revenues from sale of beer and wine. This motion was rejected. When all was said and done, our mayor voted to take $14,000+ out of the town’s contingency/disaster fund, leaving that account with a balance of a little over $2,000 for the next nine months.