Should be an interesting budget discussion at tonight’s Guilford County commissioners’ meeting.
Many of the proposed cuts are not surprising, but I didn’t expect the elimination of the Community and Economic Development department. As we all know, ‘economic development’ is the buzzword in local government these days, so it will be even more interesting to see if any commissioners fight to keep the department intact.
There’s another interesting item on the consent agenda. Commissioners will be asked to approve a joint resolution supporting the Heart of the Triad. It will be interesting to see if any commissioners pull that item to weigh in on that utopian vision.
Update: Guilford County Commissioner Skip Alston weighs in on the fate of the economic development department:
Also as part of the deal for Billy Yow to support the budget, he has demanded that Rob Bencini the Director of Economic Development for the County be fired and Paul and the others have agreed to do just that. To may it look smoother, Rob will be removed from his position as Director of Economic Development immediately or shortly after the budger is passed and the Manager will assign Rob to another job within the County. This will be only a temporary situation, because Billy has also asked the Manager to contact the Guilford County Partnership to see if they can find a job there for Rob, so he can be gone from Guilford County completely. For the record Rob is a White male, however Billy has made it clear that he does not care for Rob one bit. Simply because Rob will not allow Billy to bully him around, like Billy does some of the other Department heads.
