Protest Petition Talk Round Up from Editorials,Letters to Editor, News Report in North Carolina

I wanted to give you a link to plenty of talk about protest petition in North Carolina after a few lawmakers snuck in this bill to appease their crony capitalist to take away the bargaining power of neighborhoods all over this state. Here we go

Petition Retreat from Greensboro News and Record editorial out today

HERE

Killing Protest Petition Not In Our Best Interest by Greensboro Attorney and former State Senator Don Vaughan

HERE

Bill would weaken neighbors’ ability to fight zoning changes, by Charlotte Observer

HERE

Bill could hinder neighbors ability to fight stores, businesses, WSOC tv in Charlotte

HERE

Protest petition quietly put to death amidst sweeping GOP changes, Yes! Weekly Jordan Green

HERE

Bill Would Eliminate A Tool Neighbors Have To Fight Zoning Changes, WFAE radio in Charlotte

HERE

Protest Pinched, Greensboro News and Record Editorial

HERE

We also have our local TREBIC Cartel attorney Tom Terrell NC Legal Landscapes who works for the developers who I just heard is going to have this blog post as a opinion piece in Sunday's Greensboro News and Record with a post titled, Legislative Update – Protest Petitions Killed . . . Finally

HERE

Greensboro Mayor Robbie Perkins Plays Fast And Loose With Protest Petition Facts , Billy Jones Blogger East Greensboro Performing Arts Center

HERE

News & Record : Guilford fees cover most costs of printing late tax lists

News & Record : Guilford fees cover most costs of printing late tax lists: An Example Description

I would also like to add that i do not care if you are a tax delinquent or pay your bills ahead of time this North Carolina law that states you have to advertise this in paid paper is a complete waste of taxpayers money and needs to go away. Thanks for the questions Joe Killian.

News & Record : Editorial, March 28: The people’s business

News & Record : Editorial, March 28: The people’s business: An Example Description

Nice try Allen and Doug but your thinking is muddied by your economic interest and if you would understand that it is 2013 not 1949 then you would understand the problem. But hey even your editor GRITS had this to say this is from your own editor gauger "Equally important has been the digital revolution. Time was when newspapers provided a public service by publishing news-of-record information, because your only other way to view it was to schlep to city hall or the courthouse. Now many governments publish public records at their websites. "

$25,000 Greensboro Contract with Unofficial now Official Lobbyist Marlene Sanford President of the Most Powerful Lobbyist Group in the Triad. What a Waste of Taxpayers Money!

 

 

During the City of Greensboro meeting on March  5, 2013 at the complete end of the agenda,Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth wanted the council to sign into a contract with the president of the Triad Real Estate Building Industry Coalition(TREBIC) Marlene Sanford for a total waste of taxpayers money for $25,000 you can see the contract at end of blog post. Here is a link to the video of the back and forth on this wasteful government spending CLICKHERE  and thanks to Council member Tony Wilkins at end of discussion to say "WHOA WHOA WHOA" we need to hold off till next meeting. It was also amazing to see in video that Councilwomen Yvonne Johnson with the help of one of the founders of the TREBIC CARTEL Mayor Perkins bring a motion to pass this without even seeing the contract with Marlene Sanford, unbelievable.

 

There is no reason for the City of Greensboro to hire this unofficial now official lobbyist Marlene Sanford for $25,000 because she has been working for years on this issue of Jordan Lake Rules as a unofficial lobbyist for the TREBIC CARTEL. Why would you waste taxpayers monies when she is getting paid handsomely by the most powerful unofficial lobbyist group in Guilford County . Let's not forget that the TREBIC CARTEL was unofficially lobbying the state to deny the citizens of all of Greensboro the right to Protest Petition .

 

Let's do a little timeline on just how long Marlene Sanford has been a official lobbyist at the State of North Carolina for TREBIC. According to the lobbyist web site CLICKHERE , she just filed on February 26, 2013 one week before the Greensboro City Council meeting on March 5, 2013 which came out of left field from the City Manager who wants to pay a person who has been working on this issue already.Who at Greensboro City staff thought this was a brilliant idea?You can also see from the lobbying web site that it has been a very longtime since she has registered with the State of North Carolina as a lobbyist CLICKHERE  which is a total of 13 year break from finally becoming a lobbyist when we have known for a very longtime what she was but has been doing plenty of politicking under the table. Yes! Weekly did a great front page article titled "The Unofficial Lobbyist TREBIC & The Building Industry from October 17, 2012 CLICKHERE. 

 

You can also see from the picture above that Marlene Sanford was unofficially lobbying the State of North Carolina representatives at the Greensboro delegation forum on Presidents day February 18, 2013 well before she filed as a lobbyist while current session was going on. The picture was on the front page of the Rhino Times that week.

 

Let's not also forget that the Greensboro Partnership has a lobbyist in Jason Cannon who is paid by the chamber but probably with a little digging could find out that the taxpayers of Greensboro with a pass through are footing this bill for a lobbyist at the state level.

 

Doug Clark from the Greensboro News and Record chimed in as well on this issue pointing out two big reasons for not hiring TREBIC as a lobbyist

they are

 

"One is that TREBIC takes positions on city issues, making Sanford an advocate before the council. Her relationship can be adversarial when TREBIC opposes city policies. Adversary sometimes, paid lobbyist sometimes? No, that’s not a good relationship.

 

The second reason is more basic. Greensboro doesn’t need to pay anyone to argue on its behalf regarding the Jordan Lake rules. The legislature is already very friendly toward the city’s position. Phil Berger, the powerful leader of the state Senate, represents Greensboro and has already indicated his support for amending the rules. When you have Phil Berger plus most other Guilford County legislators on your side (Pricey Harrison and Alma Adams excepted), you’re throwing money away to hire a lobbyist."

 

Two very valid points to make and if you see in contract it looks like the they have routine expenses you are going to pay for in transportation, telephone,postage,copies,and meals. It must be nice to have the taxpayers pay for meals to a lobbyist who is probably paid very well by her own non profit in TREBIC CARTEL.

 

If you would like to send a message to the Greensboro City Council to not waste taxpayers money on a lobbyist who is already getting paid to lobby please contact your Greensboro City Council.  CLICKHERE

 

 This message brought to you by the Triad Citizens Against Government Waste.

 

 

$25,000 Trebic Contract With City of Greensboro by

News & Record : Short Stack: Keep Public Notices Public PART #2

News & Record : Short Stack: Food for thought, quick and over easy: An Example Description

Greensboro News and Record for Monday the 18th of 2013 had this in their Short Stack section of monday's paper

Keep public notices public

There’s a renewed effort to pull public legal notices out of newspapers in North Carolina. And while it concerns papers that they could be stripped of a longstanding revenue source, this involves a much bigger issue.

Sharing these notices with the taxpaying public on the printed page significantly increases the opportunity for more citizens to see them. Relegating them to government websites, as the proposed legislation suggests, reduces visibility. Not everyone has access to a computer or to affordable Internet service. North Carolina offers one of the nation’s lowest levels of broadband Internet availability.

Fewer citizens are as likely to see such notices on a government websites as in a daily newspaper. Which contradicts the notion that public notices should be public.

 

The Greensboro News and Record is in never never land with this load of malarkey that was given to us this past Monday. One thing we all need to understand is that it is all about the money and not one bit about notifying the public in regards to public notices. If the Greensboro News and Record was wanting to inform the general public than even with a new design for their crappy website we see that there is no place for them to place public notices on their web site, you have to pay to see a public notice in paper and if you are not a subscriber to the News and Record than hopefully you picked the right day to view the public notice section of paper.Being a subscriber to the News and Record with a facebook special will cost you $150 and we have seen that newspapers all over this country are not gaining subscribers but actually losing subscribers. Here is a report from Roch101 . We also have the Editor of the Greensboro News and Record Jeff "Grits" Gauger  say this in a blog post

"Equally important has been the digital revolution.

Time was when newspapers provided a public service by publishing news-of-record information, because your only other way to view it was to schlep to city hall or the courthouse. Now many governments publish public records at their websites."

 

THANK YOU EDITOR OF GREENSBORO NEWS AND RECORD FOR MAKING MY POINT

If you are able to get to a computer either at your home and if you live in Guilford County you can go to any library and they will give you free access to the Internet if you would like to see  public notices it would be to our benefit to have this available 24 hours a day not just in a paid paper but free to all of us on each city and county municipality website. Granted it will cost money to have this available to the masses on city and county websites but i think with just this one bill below would take care of plenty of public notices for the whole year.

Triadwatch is working on getting support from the State Representatives to exempt Guilford County from the tax delinquency bill and save taxpayers close to $100,000 because the tax department provides this information to all the citizens of Guilford County 24/7 .Here is a link to a post on Triadwatch CLICKHERE

Triadwatch also did a public records request to see just how much taxpayers money it cost to place the tax delinquency bill for the citizens of Guilford County as we see from this scribd documents that the Greensboro News and Record made over $80,000 just on one insert in the Greensboro News and Record March 14, 2012 .

2012 tax delinquency bills for guilford county nc by triadwatch

Hopefully we will see some local or state bills address the issue of public notices in paid papers and to do away with it all together and save taxpayers all over this state maybe millions of dollars from cities , counties and also school boards having to put public notices in paid papers.

Guest Column: Marcus Kindley Response to Editorial on Guilford County Redistricting

Guest Column from Marcus Kindley

My response to the Greensboro News and Record editorial concerning the redistricting of the Guilford County Commissioners.

Link to the Greensboro News and Record Editorial: Let Commissioners Do It CLICKHERE
________________________________________________________________________________

To Begin I quote,
“In a partisan power play 20 years ago, Democratic legislators created the current
11-member county board, with nine districts and only two commissioners elected at large. Now
Republicans have enough legislative muscle to change that configuration, but
what was state meddling two decades ago would be state meddling today.”

I venture to say that at that time the News and Record probably thought that this, to quote, “Partisan POWER Play” 20 years was just fine. I also venture to say they would have pointed out how wonderful it was.

Now, they think this was bad and that the duly elected House of Representatives should butt out. Yes, they, being the mouthpiece of the Democratic Party of NC, now believe that what the Dems did
while in power was ok, but with the GOP in charge we should let the DEMOCRAT
CONTROLLED county commissioners do the redistricting.

Does any intelligent person really believe that the DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED County Commissioners will redo their gerrymandering?

Will they open the door to lose control of their majority, to allow fair
representation for the citizens of Guilford County?

 Of course not! Are they that stupid, and yes I mean that!
No they are not. They are just showing the biased reporting and opinion of
their “ Paper”!

Now we will see the left in Guilford County start crying racism! Led by Commissioner Skip Austin, Count on it! I give it less than 24 hours. One thing about the Democrats they never deviate form their
playbook. The News and Record will provide all of the usual coverage. We as citizens must now stand against the onslaught of biased coverage and hateful rhetoric and make it possible for the Citizens of Guilford County to have the privilege of deciding who has OUR best interest at heart.

This bill is fair and levels the playing field. It was not, as the Democrat plan was and has been, stacked in favor of one group or another. The citizens of Guilford County now have the opportunity of true representation.

I thank Rep. John Blust for giving the citizens of Guilford County their right of representation back after being denied so long!

$86,740.29 is the Amount Guilford County Taxpayers Paid For Tax Delinquency in Greensboro News and Record on March 23, 2011

Triadwatch did a public records request with the Guilford County Legal Department in regards to public notices in local pay newspapers. One of the questions asked to the Guilford County legal department was this;

On March 23, 2011 in section C of the Greensboro News and Record there was a tax delinquent part of the paper that consisted of over 20 pages of tax liens from the Guilford County Tax Department . I would like to know specifically how much this 20 page part of the paper cost the taxpayers of Guilford County

Robin Keller Paralegal with Guilford County got in touch with the finance department  and this is what she e-mailed me back with;

"Regarding your question concerning the cost to run the delinquent tax listing on March 23, 2011, in the Greensboro News and Record, the amount was $86,740.29. I was also informed by our finance department that some or all of this cost is reimbursed when paid through an advertising fee that is added to the delinquent bills."

The finance department says that some or all of this cost is reimbursed but to me this is a wasteful use of taxpayers money. Does anyone really care about the tax delinquency in Guilford County? Should the county have a up to date database online for all to see on a daily basis for tax delinquency? I also found out that not only was this $86,000 invoice in the Greensboro News and Record but it was also in the High Point Enterprise as well and will update as to that amount as well and if the 2 papers are similar in costs  than this bill could be doubled to $172,000.

Public notices in local papers consists of a variety of issues from  foreclosure notice, general legal notice, notice of creditors, notice of hearing, notice of meeting, notice of sale, and request for bids. The public notices request was also sent to the City of Greensboro which has provided me with a lot of information in regards to the Carolina Peacemaker and the Greensboro News and Record. In future post this week i will show you just how much  money it is costing the taxpayers of this county and the city of Greensboro to advertise in the local papers of choice which is Carolina Peacemaker and Greensboro News and Record.

One of the main reasons to bring up this issue of public notices and the wasteful spending of taxpayers money  on a weekly basis is because there are some bills in the North Carolina Legislature who want to keep up with the technology age and do away with this expense. One of the bills wants  public notices shown electronically online this bill is called CITY/COUNTY ELECTRONIC NOTICE #472 CLICKHERE and there is also the same bill on the Senate side of the North Carolina Legislature Senate Bill #773 CLICKHERE

We have seen all over this state the local newspapers write editorials to keep this taxpayer funded money pit flowing to the local newspapers. We also had the Greensboro News and Record with help from the N.C. Press Association display a full and half page ad titled "Would you let a fox guard your hen house" CLICKHERE and it is the middle ads opposing house bill #472.

We also see a few more bills that are being considered at the state level for example

House Bill #307 Local Electronic Notice ,
 An act to allow the county of Wake and the towns of Cary, Clayton, Wendell, and Zebulon to use electronic means to provide public notice in lieu of publication.

House Bill #361 Currituck Electronic Notice,
An act to allow Currituck County to provide electronic notice of public hearings

The reason for this post was because as we see from the Greensboro News and Record Editorial titled "Help Public See Notices" CLICKHERE . They never once said how much this information is costing the taxpayers of Guilford County . After that editorial it was apparent that a public records request was in order and in the coming week we will post the pdf files on the invoices for the past year and a half in regards to the Carolina Peacemaker and the Greensboro News and Record .

As we see with the tax delinquency bill of $86,720.49 this is just one of many public notices that are costing us plenty over a years time and this could be handled in a manner on city and county web sites all over this state with parameters in place that will make the hen house more transparent and not costing us money to put in local newspapers .

Below is Part #1 of 6 documents that will be discussed this week in triadwatch in regards to this issue because it is time the local newspapers get off the government trough .

Public Notices 1 Carolina Peacemaker

If the Coliseum receives $1.8 million from Greensboro taxpayers per year, how many free tickets has the GN&R’s Editorial Board received from whom?

Sometimes people mistake the way I talk

for what I am thinking.

Idi Amin

Running the coliseum

…Matt Brown is a lot like the star basketball players…

…the coliseum's managing director, has a shooter's touch. And a shooter's memory.

Just because one Big Idea fails to draw iron doesn't mean the next one won't be anything but net.

…Brown has scored more hits than misses, and he's generally regarded as being very good at what he does.

…Brown makes a valid point.

…The coliseum is an important and precious local asset.

Greensboro News and Record Editorial Board

Editorial Cartoons of the Week 6-25-2010, Topics:Standing Up To The General, US in the World CUp, Stopping The Spread and a few more

At Least He Is Consistent

Standing UpTo The General

A Different Approach

Propped Up

Stopping The Spread

US in the World Cup

ALG Editor's Note: William Warren's award-winning cartoons published at GetLiberty.org CLICKHERE are a free service of ALG News Bureau. They may be reused and redistributed free of charge.

Guilford County's New Ethics Policy with No Thanks to Shaw, Yow and Arnold on Censure Procedures

Code of Ethics - Final Approved 050610 for Guilford County Board of Commissioners





The Guilford County Board of Commissioners on 5-6-2010 voted 11-0 to approve the new Ethics policy after a lengthy discussion about the censure procedures where a substitute motion was offered by none other than Steve Arnold who is not the most ethical politician when it comes to unloading property before a court date . Here is a quote from the Greensboro News & Record with a title "Judge Says County Commissioner Can't Avoid 1 Million + Plus Debt" here is the quote

"In issuing the opinion Wednesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Thomas W. Waldrep Jr. found that Arnold transferred tracts of land to relatives to avoid creditors after defaulting on loans and agreements. Waldrep said there were “multiple badges of fraud” in the case, in which Arnold admitted under oath to trying to keep assets from creditors"  CLICKHERE

It is great when you have a judge saying that a county commissioner had multiple badges of fraud. Would this ethics policy been used for this case? The censure procedures are in place for a reason and to see Steve Arnold try to take this out of the policy really shows his true colors. Then we also had Linda Shaw and Billy Yow as well vote in a substitute motion to get rid of the censure, bad move on their part.

The other day the editorial board at the Greensboro News and Record chimed in on this new Ethics Policy CLICKHERE  Here is a part of the editorial

"Supporting Arnold, Commissioner Billy Yow worried that such actions “could get into the constitution, freedom of speech, perhaps,” and trigger lawsuits.



Yow need not fret about that. The policy allows censure, not censorship. A censure is an official expression of disapproval. It would carry no legal weight and would not remove a commissioner from office. But it would let the board state publicly that it intends to hold its members to a high standard of personal conduct."


The scribd version of the Guilford County Ethics policy is above and hopefully in the future there can be some add ons to this policy because the Commissioners never had a time where the general public could look at the policy before they voted on it. Correct me if i am wrong but has the City of Greensboro or City of High Point adopted a new Ethics Policy? Would love to know and will try to find out the answer in a update to this post.

Did the Greensboro News and Record Editorial Board just float a Coliseum power grab funded by more taxes?

…Would Brown, unfettered by city ties and free to wheel and deal without having to ask first, deliver a better bottom line for the arena…?

…A coliseum authority?

...from what sources?

Possibly a prepared-food tax, he [Matt Brown] said, but such an arrangement did not fly with a proposed Major League ballpark in Kernersville, which would have been financed by a 1 percent tax on food and beverages sold in restaurants and a 50-cent tax on each ticket sold...

Greensboro News and Record Editorial Board

Is the GNR’s Editorial Board justifying an annexation fight because it’s the right thing to do, or because its an expensive mistake?

Annexation setback

Greensboro shouldn't accept its defeat in an annexation dispute without taking the case to a higher court.

The city courted trouble by waiting years to annex land in eastern Guilford County. By the time it acted, residents of three subdivisions on Millstream Road contended they should not be bound by an annexation agreement signed by the developer before they bought their property.

…Greensboro predicated its annexation on a pact with the subdivision developers a decade ago in which it would provide water and sewer and the developers would consent to annexation.

[Hartzman Question: Should municipalities create conditions in which developers can easily gloss over material information to new homebuyers?]

This agreement was recorded with the Guilford County Register of Deeds, negating protests by subsequent homeowners that they weren't aware of annexation plans.

[Hartzman Question: Aren’t real estate transactions subject to more disclosure than Register of Deeds filings?]

[Hartzman Question: Shouldn’t material information about financial implications of annexation be disclosed to new homebuyers, and if so, what documentation were Millstream Road homeowners and their attorneys provided to make informed decisions?]

…The city was slow to annex but, having gone so far into it now, should pursue it to the end.

Greensboro News and Record Editorial Board, February 14, 2010

What words could some describe the GN&R Editorial Board’s sudden feelings of fiscal prudence after endorsing most GSO and Guilford debt adventures?

Put away the plastic

A report focusing on state government's debt level ought to grab leaders' attention like a repo man banging on the door.

The state has "substantially exhausted" its general fund debt capacity until 2011…

That means the same for state government as it does for a consumer who's hit his credit card limit: Don't borrow more until you pay down some of what you owe.

But, as anyone with a credit card knows, that's easier said than done thanks to high payments due, plus interest, for purchases already made with borrowed money.

Greensboro News and Record Editorial Board, February 9, 2010

Did the Greensboro News and Record Editorial Board know we were going to need to borrow $18.5 million and spend another $6.5 million a year for police, while they promoted an extra $7 million for the Aquatic Center, $20 million for the Natural Science Center and $651.1 million of county debt on top of $155 million of city debt in 2008?

Is the Greensboro News and Record Editorial Board saying it’s OK for community leaders to lie to the public?