UNCG economics professor and local media source Don Jud endorses the incumbent conservative bloc in the upcoming City Council election:

At the local level, the most important thing leaders can do is to make sure that our local government functions as efficiently as possible, providing the highest quality services at the lowest possible price. Only in this way can they make Greensboro the most attractive it can be as a place to live and work, making it a magnet for enterprise and employment.

A strict focus on public-sector productivity means local leaders must resist programs that are wasteful and unproductive, like closing the landfill, funding wasteful local nonprofits, pushing unnecessary and expensive infrastructure, and needlessly raising water and sewer rates.

As you can probably imagine, I’m still having trouble with Mayor Bill Knight voting in favor of a pay raise for for interim City Manager Denise Turner Roth, and I can’t help but wonder how many conservatives are having trouble with it, too.

Face it, this is a hot-button issue, the type of gov’t cronyism conservatives have been calling out for four years now because they believe it’s responsible for the mess we’re now instead of corporate greed, although I would like to think even the Occupy Wall Street crowd would have trouble supporting a $38k raise for a gov’t official while the 99 percent continues to struggle.

Yet again I’m frustrated with Mayor Knight. I would expect him to speak out against this in order to reassure taxpayers he’s truly looking out for them, but he offered no comment why he voted the way he did. I can’t help but think this is a last-minute tactical error that could cost him the election. Voters sitting on the fence will think to themselves that it really doesn’t matter who’s mayor. They won’t vote for Robbie Perkins; they just won’t vote.