Guarino says former Greensboro City Manager Bill Carstarphen’s N&R op-ed is “all wet,” then explains why in detail. What else would we expect from the good doctor?
I agree with Carstarphen’s view that “Guilford-Greensboro community has a great deal to lose if it does not react quickly to defend and sustain its historic commitment to professional local government management.”
The problem is Carstarphen appears to be holding the City Council responsible for the state of Greensboro’s city government, while those who have been following the situation closely believe the opposite to be true — that Mitchell Johnson is responsible for Greensboro’s abandonment of “its historic commitment to professional local government management.” As I noted last week, John Hammer’s been talking for some time now about how the number professionals in city government who’ve fled under Johnson’s leadership. Now there’s hardly anyone left.
It should be no surprise that Carstarphen is rushing to Johnson’s defense — he was forced out by the City Council in 1995. And it’s definitely no surprise that Johnson’s his buddies down at the N&R came to his defense yet again, left-handedly praising the council for being “functional enough to reach a resolution that accomplished the majority’s objective while allowing Johnson to leave on financial terms that were acceptable to him.”
They fired him, dudes — how nice that Johnson was able to leave on “financial terms acceptable to him.” Johnson’s sweetheart deal would be the envy of millions laid off in the private sector who were not allowed to leave on such terms.
