I didn’t take time to read Saturday’s N&R article on Action Greensboro’s bus trip down to Charlotte, figuring it was just another space-filling display of Charlotte envy. It basically was, but after noticing the attention it received in the blogosphere, I gave it a read.

I would like to know exactly who made up the group of “Greensboro leaders,” considering the fact that, with the exception of Guilford County commission chairman Kirk Perkins, the only people quoted in the article are leaders of economic development nonprofits. I’d like to know if some of our political leaders overheard some of the smack that was being spoken, like this from Bob Braswell of the Greensboro Partnership:

“And as long as we elect persons who are dysfunctional and lack professionalism, we will always trail more progressive communities….“To obtain the caliber of person that we need on any of our elected political bodies, there’s going to need to be radical change,” he said, “because a business person who has been trained in their respective profession and performs at a high level is not going to put up with the monkey business and shenanigans that some of our elected officials are famous for.”

OK, to whom was Braswell referring as “dysfunctional?” The fact that Perkins is quoted in the next graph indicates Braswell is talking about out Guilford’s colorful group of county commissioners. But could he be talking about a mayor who used to work crossword puzzles during City Council meetings? Or a council member who doesn’t seem to see anything wrong with setting up incentives for a land deal he’s marketing? Or for that matter, how about a micro-managing city manager (non-elected, I realize) who pressures his staff into putting together hapahazard bond packages?

Fair enough, private sector leaders didn’t escape criticism, although I’m not sure why the CEOs of RF Micro Devices and New Breed were singled out. I’ll say this about RF Micro, though: their leader sure doesn’t mind being in the limelight when coming to local government for economic incentives.

Plenty of dysfunction to go around.