I just watched a replay of last night’s Greensboro City Council meeting. Something really strange as the council engaged in yet another confusing discussion about what to do with the White Street landfill. The N&R didn’t touch it, but the Rhino will probably have it in tomorrow’s edition.

During the ‘speakers from the floor’ agenda item, none other than Carl E. Lebby Jr, president of the Winston-Salem company that wants to turn White Street’s garbage into gold, came to the floor and read a follow-up to the July 24 ‘special meeting’ called by Mayor Yvonne Johnson.

When Lebby finished, council member Dianne Bellamy-Small asked him what he ‘needed from the council.’ Lebby replied that the council ‘could bring it to a vote.’ Note that council member Goldie Wells was not at the meeting and would attend by phone if anything important came up. All of a sudden you hear a dial tone and Goldie’s number being hammered out. Something important was coming up.

That’s when council member Mike Barber stepped in and asked if the council was really going to vote on this issue. Barber noted the city already had an RFP from another company, but I didn’t hear where Lebby’s company —-known as Ulturnagen Inc.—- had ever submitted an RFP, and Zack Matheny confirmed that there was no contract with the city.

But the weird part was when Barber asked Lebby if anyone had been showing him around the landfill recently. Barber suggested that Mayor Johnson had been showing him around, which she vehemently denied. Then Barber asked “what about Jim Kee?”

Lebby denied that anyone had been showing him around the landfill. Cooler heads prevailed, and the council instructed City Manager Rashad Young to get back to them on the matter. But you get the feeling that Johnson, Wells and Dianne Bellamy-Small might try to push for a vote to grant Ulturnagen a request for proposal.

So here’s the question: Exactly why did Barber ask if Jim Kee was showing a guy who wants to build a $500 million waste power plant around the landfill?