Bill Knight Mayor of Greensboro N.C. Congrats

Below is some of the overall numbers from the Greensboro municipal elections of 2009

Registered Voters:
219,066
Ballots Cast:
39,542
Voter Turnout:
18.05 %

Bill Knight 51.31% 17,624

Yvonne Johnson 48.59% 16,689
Write-In 0.10% 34
TOTAL= 34,347

Congrats to Bill Knight who had a campaign war chest of around $23,000 according to the pre election campaign report. The Mayor of Greensboro Yvonne Johnson had a war chest of around $38,000 according to the pre election report.

One aspect of this election that happened is that one developer has been defeated in Sandra Anderson Groat in the at large race but another developer has now been brought on to be a part of council in Jim Kee in district #2. It will be interesting to see if the make up of the new council will be more aligned with hearing from the citizens of Greensboro or be a rubber stamp for King Zoning Stud Henry Isaacson in regards to zoning cases being brought to the Greensboro City Council. Since we know that Henry Isaacson in a news and record article on Sunday before the elections had this to say had this to say about mayor Yvonne Johnson, "Here’s a woman who has had a tremendous amount of experience in city government,” said Henry Isaacson, an attorney and Johnson supporter. “She knows this city north, south, east and west. That is my yardstick for a mayoral candidate.”

Henry Isaacson's yardstick is counting votes and it looks to me that it might be a little bit harder for the zoning stud lawyer to get his way like he has been getting away with in the past. Look forward to the video of council meeting for the next few years to see if there is any difference.

It might also be time to bring some real ethics reform to the Greensboro City Council because we have seen companies like the Koury Coproration have a rezoning case come in front of council and have the president and other members of the irrevocable trust of joseph koury give around $500.00 to the Mayor Johnson campaign on around 6/1/2009 right before the rezoning case came in front of council. This is called the pay to play aspect of local governments and it needs to stop.ETHICS, ETHICS , and ETHICS time for a change.