I don’t know how many times I’ve written that hed, but it seems pertinent no matter who’s sitting on the Greensboro City Council.
I had a feeling the Rhino’s John Hammer would weigh in on the parliamentary chaos at Tuesday night’s meeting. I was not disappointed:
The meeting might not have been quite so long if the council had a parliamentarian who knew some of the basics of parliamentary procedure, but unfortunately, acting City Attorney Becky Jo Peterson-Buie, who knows less about parliamentary procedure than seems possible, bollixed everything up.
The council would be better served just to pick someone at random from the crowd to be the parliamentarian. There is a chance that they would pick someone with some knowledge of Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised. With Peterson-Buie, the council can rest assured it will get pure nonsense. What is criminal is that the city is paying Peterson-Buie $130,000 a year and she refuses to learn even the rudiments of parliamentary procedure.
Hammer makes mention of the issue that sparked the parliamentary chaos, which was council debate over making East Market Street Development Corp. the lead agent on the east Greensboro revitalization project known as Bessemer Center, which council member Robbie Perkins said wouldn’t “get done without significant city support and I’m talking big money.”
As for fellow council member Zack Matheny’s plan to make downtown safer, Matheny said “the city always seemed to be able to come up with money when there was a project it wanted to do, and this time he was sure the city could find the money.”
Hence the problem.
