I watched with interest last night’s Greensboro City Council discussion on the proposed $200,000 homeless day shelter.
For starters, let me say that no one on the council, not even budget hawks Mike Barber and Trudy Wade, were suggesting that the day shelter was a bad idea. But it was like pulling teeth to get details on the project from fellow council member Dianne Bellamy-Small, who’s spearheading this effort. Bellamy-Small said a private business wanted to donate a building to for the shelter, but she simply refused to provide its location, citing the privacy of the donor. When Mayor Yvonne Johnson asked Bellamy-Small if she would “be comfortable” amending her motion to state that any expenditures from the $200k had to be approved by the council, she looked in the direction of housing and community development director Andy Scott and said she’d think about it. Eventually Bellamy-Small amended the motion.
But the funny part was when council member Zack Matheny tried to get a dig in on Barber by comparing this situation to the controversy surrounding the $20 million parks & rec bond, which includes $12 million for Barber’s pet project, a regional aquatic center.
Matheny should know there’s a slight difference between the two projects. Greensboro citizens get to vote on the parks & rec bond, unlike the homeless shelter. Again, that’s not dismissing homelessness, just highlighting the fact that citizens should always have a right to say how their tax money is spent, accompanied by the appropriate information.
