I just caught a rerun of Tuesday’s night’s Greensboro City Council meeting. The marathon debate over the land development ordinance had just concluded —–no doubt John Hammer will weigh in when today’s Rhino hits the streets —–when another very interesting item came before the council.
The item was to allocate Neighborhood Stabilization funds for a public housing project to be located near the corner of N. Elm and Pisgah Church Road. The city housing planner told the council that the 20-unit project had a total cost of $2 million, $800,000 of which would be provided by the city.
Before the discussion, council member Robbie Perkins said he had to abstain from the discussion and the vote because one of his brokers found the property for the developer an thusd he had a “direct financial interest.”
I’m not sure who’s providing Perkins’ brokering fee, but an average citizen would look at this and say a public official is profiting from a project that is receiving taxpayer funds. That never looks good.
By the way, the item passed with an 8-0 vote with practically no discussion or debate, something I like to call a ‘City Council special.’
