The Greensboro City Council goes with City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s recommendations for finding $500k for GPD. Council member Mike Barber propsed an across-the-board hiring freeze through retirement and attrition, saying that would save $3 million that could be put toward the police force in the coming fiscal year, while fellow council member Trudy Wade inquired about using drug forfeiture money. Johnson explained that the forfeiture money had to be put toward “unusual circumstances” that might arise, and paying overtime for policemen already on staff does not constitute an unusual circumstance. Johnson did say he would look into it, however.

The council’s discussion of police funding was downright mellow compared to its discussion of the petition to raise Greensboro’s minimum wage to $9.36, during which confusion reigned. The trouble started last week when deputy city attorney Terry Wood recommended that the city council deny the petition. At issue is whether or not collected signatures represented “at least 25%, in number, of qualified voters who voted in the last preceding election for City Council Members.” Well, the signatures represented 25 percent of qualified voters for the 2005 election, which was the “last preceding election” when the petition was registered. Unfortunately, signatures did not represent 25 percent of qualified voters in the 2007 city election, which indeed was the “last preceding election” when the petition was filed on Dec. 3, exactly one year after it was registered, as mandated by statute.

The question debated by council was who was responsible for making sure the definition of “last preceding election” was clear. Council member Goldie Wells was practically irate, implying that the city raised the bar on petitioners at the last minute. Should the city have warned petitioners that if they filed in December, then the 2007 election would be the last preceding election? Should the Guilford County Board of Electionshave warned them? Or should petition organizers have figured it out for themselves?

At any rate, the council instructed the city clerk to accept the petition, even though Barber and fellow council member Robbie Perkins agreed with Wood that it did not meet legal standards. With the council’s action, the petition can still be approved by the council or put on a referendum. If it passes either way, it would be subject to legal challenge, Wood warned.

For what it’s worth, it was clear that Wells and Mayor Yvonne Johnson were dead set on the petition being accepted, no matter the legal implications.