John Hammer: "City [of Greensboro] Wants To Know Where Its Money Is" from Guilford County, with a little Skip Alston hotel history

"How much money is in the joint city county water and sewer fund
and where did the interest on the money go?

...despite the fact that Guilford County sent the city
a five-inch thick stack of paperwork about the fund,
[Rashad Young] still didn't have the information he needed
to determine how much was in the fund.

And the county won't say,
even though it is a joint fund
and half of the money belongs to Greensboro.

To do righteousness and justice

is more acceptable to Yahweh than sacrifice.

Proverbs 21:3

...Following a unanimous vote of the City Council,
the city sent a letter terminating the joint water and sewer contract
in June 2010.

So Guilford County has had 17 months
to figure out how much is in the fund
because the agreement states that when the contract is terminated,
the money in the fund will be divided evenly
between Greensboro and Guilford County.

...On July 11, 2011, over a year after the City Council
had sent the notice of termination of the contract to Guilford County,
Young sent a letter to Fox
still trying to get Guilford County to agree to have the fund audited.

On Sept. 21, 2011, 15 months after the county was first notified
that the contract was being terminated,
Young wrote that the city was willing to pay for the audit
by the internal audit staffs of Greensboro and Guilford County,
followed by the city's outside auditor...

In politics, nothing happens by accident.

If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

...Young received from Fox was a letter
stating that there were complex issues involved.

...The first is that Guilford County wants Greensboro
to agree to pay for two projects
...the commissioners had already agreed to pay for
with county bond funds in 2006 and 2007.

The second is the question of interest on the money in the fund.

If the fund does in fact total $20 million,
as the city was told at the October meeting,
then ...the government could reasonably expect to earn
$500,000 to $700,000 a year in interest.

1% x $20 million = $200,000

Young said ...he was told that the county said
the money was not in an interest-bearing account,
which is ridiculous.

What does the account statement say?

He said at another point,
"There was a comment made
that the agreement did not speak to where the interest would go,
so the county kept it."

You shall not raise a false report

Exodus 23:1

If the county has kept the interest from this joint account for 42 years,
that would certainly explain
why the country refuses to tell the city how much is in the account
and has rebuffed the city's attempts to audit it.

If interest has been removed from the account,

how much money has Guilford County "confiscated"?

If the agreement doesn't speak to where the interest would go,
it also doesn't say that it belongs to Guilford County.

...In one letter Fox states that the fund cannot pay for an audit
because the agreement doesn't state that money from the fund
can be used to pay for an outside audit.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Exodus 20:13

Young said that after going round and round on the audit,
the city agreed to pay the cost.

...When somebody goes to great lengths to hide something,
you have to figure they have a reason.

In this case it appears that the county
has been taking the interest from the joint account and spending it.

...If the county is trying to figure out
how much should be in the joint account
based on the fact that the county had been taking the interest for years,
that would be very complicated.

When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted

the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief

to things he does not believe,

he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.

Thomas Paine

...just over a month after Knight had been sworn in as mayor

...Alston threatened Knight and Vaughan about what would happen

if they didn't support the federal funding

for a proposed hotel on South Elm Street.

...both Vaughan and Knight said they felt threatened

and also believed it was highly inappropriate for Alston,

who was the real estate broker of record in the deal,

to be bringing up a private business deal

in which he stood to make a lot of money...

...At that meeting, Alston told Knight that if he didn't support the hotel

that Alston might remove him from the dais

for the upcoming opening

of the International Civil Rights Center and Museum...

...The city had been told
that there was about $12 million to $14 million in the joint account
so was expecting a check for about $6 million or $7 million.

...either the county had no idea what was in the account
or the county was once again misinforming the city,
because this October it was revealed that the estimate by the county
was off by as much as 100 percent
and that the actual amount was $20 million to $24 million.

It may have been when the city insisted on an outside audit
that the county "found" the additional revenue.

...There is no question that Guilford County has the money..."

How can there be no question,

if the County hasn't released an account statement?

John

Lying by omission

One lies by omission by omitting an important fact,

deliberately leaving another person with a misconception.

Lying by omission includes failures

to correct pre-existing misconceptions.

…Propaganda is an example of lying by omission.

Wikipedia