How many times can I write this? I tuned into Tuesday’s Greensboro City Council meeting and —like Guarino—- I was blown away by the almost surreal atmosphere. Here we have a meeting discussing three important issues —–redistricting, the coliseum and the White Street landfill —-and we have one council member (Zack Matheny) missing in action and two more council members (Danny Thompson and Dianne Bellamy-Small) participating by phone.
Bellamy-Small kept shouting incoherently, while Thompson kept fading in and out, supposedly due to a low cell phone battery. This practice has become way too common on all three Guilford County boards; it was a total joke when Carolyn Coleman participated by phone at a recent county commissioners’ meeting. I understand if elected officials sometimes cannot make meetings, but in such cases, they should just be counted absent.
Meanwhile, the audience protesting council member Mary Rakestraw’s controversial plan was indeed rude; one speaker addressed council member Trudy Wade and said he spent 20 years in the Air Force “defending your butt;” unfortunately Mayor Bill Knight did not immediately cut the guy off.
Now it gets even stranger: Rakestraw says she has no idea where the redistricting map came from; it “mysteriously showed up on her doorstep.” It remains to be seen if the plan’s supporters will bring it up for another vote.
I agree that Greensboro can do much better than this, but when 5 percent of the population shows up for municipal elections you get what you get.
