Greensboro City Council Members Barber and Wade Didn't Know About Their Own Paid State Lobbyist, Amazing

While reading the Rhino Times there was a front page article titled "Amorphous City Wish List Kept From Senate", CLICKHERE to read the article.

At the end of the article there was some very interesting revelations from Greensboro City Council member Mike Barber. Below is what was said in the article.

"In asking about the stimulus project list Barber mentioned that he had discovered that Greensboro has a paid lobbyist in Raleigh.

The lobbyist for the City of Greensboro is Cam Cover with the law firm Brooks Pierce. It would be interesting to know what she is lobbying for because Barber and Councilmember Trudy Wade said they were surprised to find that Greensboro had hired a lobbyist.

It seems that with seven Greensboro residents in the legislature, Greensboro wouldn't need to pay a lobbyist. Especially when you consider that four of those legislators have served on the Greensboro City Council.The Greensboro City Council is going to be looking for places to reduce spending this year, and cutting out a lobbyist that councilmembers don't even know about should be near the top of the list."

Well look no further than what was posted about this relationship here on TRIADWATCH back on September 6, 2008 CLICKHERE with a title "City of Greensboro + $125 an Hour Lobbyist + Brooks Pierce Law Firm = Conflicts of Interest."

If these Greensboro City Council members want to cut money from the budget this would be a great one to do with in 2007 it was over $40,000 billed to the city of Greensboro from Brooks Pierce Law Firm. If you would like to see what the law firm is actually billing click on the title in the post from September 6, 2008.

It is hard to believe that the Greensboro City Council members didn't know that they had a paid lobbyist on the state level. There are a lot of conflicts of interest about this issue that need to be either done away with or talked about as a council.

You can also add that the City of Greensboro already pays handsomely to the League of Municipalities who are as close to being a lobbyist firm as they come because once they have concerns with a bill it will get watered down to practically nothing.How much does Greensboro pay them?

Greensboro City Council Member Mike Barber you might want to check out this post on TRIADWATCH as well CLICKHERE with a title "Brooks Pierce Law Firm + Greensboro City = $72,909.64 PAYDAY".This bill was in your attachments for the October 7, 2008 meeting.

Let me also add another tidbit to this talk on paid lobbyist on the state level. There is a lawyer in town by the name of Derek Allen who happens to come up in front of Greensboro City Council plenty of times for zoning cases . His law firm is guess who Brooks Pierce Law Firm . If you dig a little deeper it shows that he was the paid lobbyist for the City of Greensboro a few years ago, isn't that a cozy relationship for him and his firm. Nice circle of friends.