In a surprise move during council comments, Greensboro City Council member Mary Rakestraw made a motion to fire City Manager Mitchell Johnson. In response, fellow council member Dianne Bellamy-Small made a substitute motion to not consider Rakestraw’s motion, calling it an ‘ambush.’
Throughout the whole confusing discussion, during which council member Trudy Wade made a second substitute motion to place Johnson in another position with the city, you got the feeling that the votes weren’t there to dismiss Johnson. Much of the focus was on the council’s closed session prior to the meeting where Johnson’s job performance was discussed. Rakestraw maintained that Johnson’s job performance had adequately been discussed and now was the time to put it to a public vote.
Most interesting, though, were council member Mike Barber’s comments.
Barber was careful to temper his comments in order not to violate rules involving personnel issues, but (if I interpreted his comments correctly) he pretty much said it was time for Johnson to go:
“I don’t think there’s a city in America better positioned than Greensboro to succeed over the next few years, with HondaJet and FedEx and all those other things that are very positive for this community, In a very difficult economic time, I think we’re positioned fantastically. If I were traveling the country, I would attempt to find someone from a Phoenix, from a Las Vegas, someone that’s been through a significant growth period in the United States. I think that brings a lot to the table. I think that also brings someone with a fresh start. We continue to struggle with communication…..We’ve had a tough two years, and one thing I think we can agree on is, one way or another, we need closure. Somehow we need to mark a moment in time and get a fresh start. The one person that is weary of having this issue come up is Mitch, but there are nine others who are very weary of this, too. As I said, I’m going to vote consistently with my comments in the back and hopefully move forward.”
Barber’s comments came before Bellamy-Small’s substitute motion, yet Barber went on to vote for that motion. Again, I got the feeling that Barber would have voted to remove Johnson based on his comments, but maybe he felt like the discussion needed to continue. All this said, I would not be surprised if another motion was made to relieve Johnson of his duties as city manager. Let me know if anyone sees anything different.
An interesting sidebar to the discussion was a debate between Barber and Deputy City Attorney Becky Jo Peterson-Buie, Sheet provided to council members says calling question requires a second and a two-thirds majority Becky-Jo Peterson over parliamentary procedure when Bellamy-Small called the question. Barber argued that the sheet city attorneys provided council member stated that calling the question required a second and a two-thirds vote, but Peterson-Buie stood him down that calling the question shuts off debate.
Then you need to change the sheet, Barber told Peterson-Buie.
