I didn’t watch much of last night’s Greensboro’s City Council meeting, but I did catch some good political back and forth between District 2 member Zack Matheny and opponent George Hartzman, who’s made a habit of showing up at council meetings for some free air time.
Hartzman spoke from the floor as the council was set to approve $10.5 million in bond money for the new aquatic center at the Greensboro Coliseum. He asked two direct questions —- how much is the center going to cost and will it pay for itself?
Matheny said it was difficult to gauge the costs right now, and fellow council member Robbie Perkins dodged the question of whether or not the center would pay for itself by saying the city is “taking advantage of an environment where we can get a swim center built at a cost 30 percent less than what you could have gotten built a year ago.”
But the most entertaining part was when council member Sandra Anderson Groat broke in and with an aggressive tone asked why the council was having to defend itself so vigorously on this issue.
“Because you’re spending money you don’t have,” Hartzman replied.
By the way council voted 9-0 to amend in the amount of $10.5 million for the aquatic center.
Update: I spoke with Zack Matheny and he said the term amend meant that the council was officially designating $10.5 million from the $20 million parks and rec bond toward the swim center.
