Remove ImagesMusic Hall No Longer Top City Priority
December 13, 2012
The Greensboro City Council swore in the new District 5 councilmember, Tony Wilkins, and discussed a myriad of issues at a council retreat on Tuesday, Dec. 11 at the South Campus of the Gateway University Research Park.
As a first order of business the council voted to accept the resignation of District 5 Councilmember Trudy Wade, who resigned her seat to serve in the North Carolina Senate. Wilkins, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Wade's term at the Dec. 4 council meeting, was then sworn in.
Mayor Robbie Perkins employed a bit of showmanship to "set a little tone," saying he felt the council had had a rough week.
He showed off a talking stick he received from the late former Greensboro City Councilmember and Native American activist Lonnie Revels. Perkins said that Revels had been a unifying figure in Greensboro and transcended regional divides.
"He was a mentor of mine and a dear friend," Perkins said.
Perkins let the councilmembers pass around the talking stick, but elected not to use the item in the traditional sense.
"This talking stick was used in Native American meetings and whoever had the talking stick got to talk," Perkins said. "Now we're not going to get that formal today, because I know that would be too much of a reach for our group."
The meeting was for the most part an open discussion; councilmembers brought up issues they wanted to discuss and gave direction to city staff to look into them.
They started off at Perkins' suggestion and saying where they wanted to see Greensboro in five years. A running theme was lowering the unemployment rate and fostering development.
"I want Greensboro to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state of North Carolina," said Councilmember Yvonne Johnson, who took the lead in answering the question.
Johnson also said she wanted to see Greensboro become known around the country as a "tournament town," a theme the city has been promoting for years.
Councilmember Zack Matheny said he agreed that employment was essential, and said he would like to see unemployment go down by a percentage point a year.
"It's not just about saying you want to support jobs," Matheny said. "It's about decreasing our unemployment rate."
Councilmember Jim Kee said, "I would like to see Greensboro be a leader in the technology field." He said the waste-to-energy field was particularly important, not only for Greensboro but the whole country. He said he also wanted to see Greensboro's median income raised.
Councilmember Nancy Vaughan said she wanted Greensboro to leverage the Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) to create high-paying jobs.
Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter said she wanted to see Greensboro's services and programs excelling and attracting new people and businesses.
Perkins then gave a PowerPoint presentation reviewing the council's accomplishments in 2012 and listing "ongoing initiatives" for 2013.
Perkins touted saving money on the city's solid waste disposal and recycling contracts and hiring a new city manager and city attorney.
Perkins said one of the most significant actions of the council in the past year was to vote against the Jordan Lake Rules, which would have cost Greensboro between $8 million and $10 million a year to adhere to.
Under ongoing initiatives Perkins talked about the economic development strategies, the parity study and disparity study and the attempts by the city to get housing under control.
Perkins also touched on the proposed Greensboro Performing Arts Center (GPAC), which he said could be complimented by the proposed downtown university district, a proposed joint campus downtown.
The Gateway University Research Park, where this meeting took place, is a joint campus and has over 100,000 square feet of vacant space.
After his presentation Perkins invited the councilmembers to bring up priorities for 2013 in four categories; jobs and economic development, public safety, infrastructure and organizational development.
Matheny said he wanted the city to procure "shovel ready sites" to attract business development in Greensboro.
He said that since the city didn't appear to be making progress partnering with private developers; they should consider partnering with PTIA.
"If we can't partner with private developers why can't we partner with the airport so we can create our own shovel-ready sites?" Matheny asked.
Perkins said that the question was how much money the city had to put toward such a venture. He also said the city may need to look beyond jurisdictional boundaries to create regional sites.
Kee brought up the land around White Street Landfill, about 1,600 acres of which he said could be developed and used to attract businesses.
He also said that the methane produced by the landfill, which the city currently flares off and gives away, could be given to companies to run their facilities as an incentive. Kee said the city needed to commit to infrastructure.
Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth said an analysis of the infrastructure costs was already underway and would take around six months to complete.
Kee said that wasn't fast enough and handed out a proposal he had received from Evans Engineering Inc. to analyze the land in two to three months for $40,000.
He also handed out a proposal from Davenport Transportation Consulting to conduct a transportation study of the area to identify what transportation infrastructure would be needed to support development for $18,950.
City staff said that although the city would take six months overall to complete its analysis of the White Street Landfill area, some information would be available earlier.
The council also discussed the Hayes-Taylor YMCA relocation. Perkins said it was an important part of development in that area, and that he wanted to see it completed sooner rather than later. He suggested giving the Hayes-Taylor Memorial YMCA $2 million for the project.
Perkins also supported finding $2 million to finish the remodeling of the old IRS building for police headquarters. The city bought the building from the federal government for $1 and has already put hundreds of thousands into remodeling.
Perkins brought up GPAC again at the end of the meeting, saying it was something the council should move forward on.
However, he admitted that the council had been "making more sausage than wedding cake this week." He explained to a perplexed council that his figure of speech was to say the council's handling of the issue hadn't been pretty.