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Scoop collected a big ol’ box of documents from City Hall last week — the lengthy response to a hotelier's public record request on the recovery zone facility bond issue.

The stack of paperwork was not that eventful; it mostly was copies of the three financial feasibility reports on the Ole Asheboro Hotel project and the two other bond projects.

But there is some interesting e-mail traffic in there.

For instance, hotel project attorney Eric Pristell makes an extensive argument to City Attorney Terry Wood about why the hotel’s project information should not be considered a public record.

He argues that the information should be considered “trade secrets” and therefore protected under the law. Wood agreed with him, and multiple pages of the report were blacked out.

Pristell tells Wood he wouldn’t disclose the unredacted version of the proposal if he were the city attorney.

“The fundamental reason is that if the public decides to sue and you lose, your damages will be significantly lower than if you released the document and my client sued. Our damages, if proven, would be substantial. Food for thought,” Pristell wrote to Wood.

Meanwhile, the stacks of e-mails also revealed what money or power gets you in city government: easy access to top officials.

Based on the e-mails, it’s clear both Melvin “Skip” Alston and Bridget Chisholm — proponents of the Ole Asheboro Hotel — had access to City Manager Rashad Young to discuss the project.

Young said he spoke with Chisholm over the phone during the holidays and met with hotel proponents and city staff at a meeting to discuss the public parking garage portion of the proposal.

And on the opponent side, hotel owner Dennis Quaintance had access to Assistant City Manager Andy Scott. They exchanged multiple e-mails on the topic and Quaintance even requested a (same-day) meeting to get further details about the project and the way the bonds work.

Wonder if this is the kind of thing City Council members mean when they say the city should be more business-friendly?

Museum wrap-up

And now, some loose ends from the International Civil Rights Center & Museum opening.

Council members applauded Mayor Bill Knight for graciously asking former Mayor Yvonne Johnson to cut the ribbon for the museum.

“It was just appropriate,” Knight said, considering Johnson had been a student in Greensboro when the sit-ins started 50 years ago. “Anybody would have done the same.”

Being a city official at such events has its perks, it seems. Councilman Jim Kee called on a police officer to give him a ride from downtown back to N.C. A&T after he got stranded after the student march Monday.

He thanked the officer at Tuesday night’s council meeting for helping a man in need.

Meanwhile, some people — similarly stranded over the weekend by the winter weather — were miffed that the city pulled out all stops to clear out downtown for the ceremony.

It took days and thousands of hours for all the city streets to be cleared out.

But in a few short hours Saturday, 55 employees cleared downtown of every speck of snow. Eighteen tons of salt and $18,750 later, downtown was ready for its spotlight.

Two say 'no’ to Tasers

Two Guilford County commissioners said they wouldn’t vote for the sheriff’s office to have more Taser stun guns because of concerns about them being used in schools.

At their Thursday meeting, the commissioners approved 10 more stun guns for Sheriff BJ Barnes’ deputies, but Commissioners Bruce Davis and Carolyn Coleman said they couldn’t support the move.

“We need a study on the use of these Tasers, and we should eliminate them from the school system,” Coleman said.

Davis said the controversy over the use of Tasers by school resource officers in the county’s schools was an ongoing issue that would have to be resolved before he would vote in favor of purchasing more of the weapons.

The commissioners approved the purchase 9-2, authorizing Barnes to spend $24,494 for 10 Taser kits.

The Tasers have been used in Guilford County schools four times in the past two years. The devices deliver a 50,000-volt electric shock for 5 seconds.

Staff writers Amanda Lehmert and Joe Killian contributed to this report.