Forsyth County Commisioner Debra Conrad is taking some heat for using her position as an elected official to drum up some business for her marketing company at the N.C. Associaition of County Commissioners Conference:
Conrad writes in the solicitation : “I am a county commissioner in Forsyth County and president of Conrad Marketing Specialists LLC, an advertising distributing company in Winston-Salem.
“I noticed your company will be an exhibitor at the NCACC conference in August. We would appreciate the opportunity to provide promotional products for this conference or other events. CMS offers competitive pricing and local personal service,” the e-mail reads.
Right now, the problem is Conrad used her title as county commissioner to promote her business. The bigger problem will arise when companies — with Conrad’s help —–make it on the short list for business with Forsyth County. Conrad would have to recuse herself in such a situation.
Technically, she’s doing nothing wrong. But it just doesn’t look good.
But it looks even worse down Interstate 40, where the N&R reports that Greensboro Coliseum Commission chairman Kevin Green will run for City Council. Let’s see — we have Coliseum director Matt Brown and Greensboro Sports Commission president Marc Bush involved in this deal. Gee, I wonder what they hope to accomplish with some influence on the City Council? The Rhino’s John Hammer says the city’s rejected offer on the Canada Dry property “appears to be the end of it,” but it looks like Brown, Bush and Green aren’t ready to give up.
Hoggard’s right: This smells really, really bad. Then again, things involving Matt Brown these days generally do. Just a reminder, in you’ve forgotten: Brown’s our highest-paid city employee.
