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Election Day is right around the corner. So, let’s take one last pass at letting the candidates query each other.

Here are District 4 candidates Mary Rakestraw and Joel Landau.

RAKESTRAW TO LANDAU: “Your Web site has listed at least one controversial political activist supporter (e.g.: a Communist Workers Party organizer) but has now removed that one.  Why are you removing names and have you received any financial contributions from them?” 

(The question refers to Signe Waller, a survivor of the Nov. 3, 1979, shootings in Greensboro.)

LANDAU’S RESPONSE: “I think it’s a shameful, irrelevant question. It reminds me of McCarthy witch hunt-type of tactics.

“There is one person, Signe Waller, who had been on my Web site. Unlike most candidates, I listed a bunch of supporters on my Web site. There are Democrats, Republicans, unaffiliated — a lot of people I don’t know what they are. Signe is someone I met working at Measurement Inc. a couple of years ago. I was assigned a seat next to her. We got to talk to each other. She is a lovely lady. We became friends of sort.

“Back in July or August one of my supporters came to me and said, 'I noticed Signe’s name on your Web site. That could become a distracting issue because of some controversy around her.’ I talked to my campaign manager and we decided, yeah, we didn’t want it to become a distraction. ...

“The campaign is not about what Signe Waller did or said 20 or 30 years ago. There are much more pressing issues.”

LANDAU TO RAKESTRAW: “Have you ever, or will you ever, accept any campaign contributions from special-interest groups such as North Carolina Realtors Association PAC, BuildPAC, TREBIC (Triad Real Estate Building Industry Coalition) or from attorneys who often represent development or other interests in front of the City Council?”

RAKESTRAW’S RESPONSE: “I have. I’ve been in the city since 1969. I have been a Realtor, a broker agent for probably over 25 years.

“I have worked at the Department of Social Services. ...

“I tried to look at the percentages of who gave me what. Like 54 percent of the people who gave me money were not involved. They were like my Kiwanis friends, church friends, people like that. ... As you know campaigns are expensive and people want to see their friends get elected.

“When I make a decision, my decision will never be based on who gave me the most money. It will be based on what is the best for Greensboro.”

Meet the manager

Rashad Young is wasting no time getting down to business in Greensboro. When Scoop caught up with Young a few hours before his first City Council meeting, the new city manager had been in charge for just three days and he already had met with some City Council members, attended a community meeting, decorated his office and had a ride with a police officer.

He said he has been putting in 15 hours a day studying up on the city. He’s got a 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.

Young’s wife and two young boys will be moving to Greensboro next month. But he is growing accustomed to 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.

Speaking of the manager

More than one City Council member has said the board is getting along much better since they agreed to hire Young.

Just to test that issue, it seems, the council started its Tuesday meeting with a row over trash disposal.

A group came to ask the council to consider a pilot project on an alternative way to dispose of trash. Councilman Mike Barber accused Mayor Yvonne Johnson of bringing the group in as an attempt to block the council’s plan to ask for bids on the trash issue.

Barber supported the request for proposals, sought by a different group with a separate proposal for how the city should handle its trash.

The mayor said she had not, as Barber accused, arranged for the group to visit the city landfill.

After much back and forth about the intentions of the group and how the council should proceed in regards to trash, Councilman Zack Matheny got his turn to speak.

“Rashad,” he said, “welcome to Greensboro.”

At the end of the evening, Young said the five-hour-plus meeting was the longest he has ever attended.

But he was still in good spirits. And he said he has some ideas for making them shorter.

Chairman watch 2009

Who will be the next chairman and vice chairman for the county commissioners?

“We may continue on as we are,” said Steve Arnold, vice chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners.

“There’s a lot of board members that seem satisfied with that approach.”

Arnold, a Republican, and Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston are the two longest-serving commissioners on the board.

When Arnold and Alston, a Democrat, came together to lead commissioners in December 2008, they quickly ousted the county manager and deputy manager and witnessed a churn in the county attorney’s office that was settled this month with the hire of Johnston County’s Mark Payne.

Under their tenure, the pair also created a $1.3 million plan to support some property owners who add value to their land for business applications and kept the property tax rate steady in the 2009-10 budget.

The two also take credit for uniting Democrats and Republicans on a typically contentious governing body.

“I think Skip will most definitely be chairman next year,” Arnold said.

Compiled by staff writers Amanda Lehmert and Gerald Witt.