BB answers City Councilman Mike Barber
Posted in Greensboro City Council
Mar. 31, 2008 at 06:00
by BrendaBee
Tony Wilkins blog:Why Wasn’t Mike Barber Included in Mediation?
March 18, 2008 – 5:26 pm
This sounds odd to me.
A News & Record article states Mayor Johnson and Sandra Anderson-Groat have been mediating the discrimination complaints filed by Greensboro police officers.
Since Mike Barber is the only attorney on the city council would it not make sense for Barber to participate in this mediation?
Maybe there is a reason such as a scheduling conflict or something of that nature. It just seems like the council would want their only attorney member present at any mediation along with the city’s legal department.
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Brenda Bowers comment: I have often wondered why Mike Barber does not speak up on issues concerning the law. So many “rulings” by the legal department he surely knew to be wrong since even I did, but he went along and didn’t say a thing. So I was not surprised that he was not in on the mediation with the Black cops and their lawyers. This reluctance of his to use his knowledge and background is the issue that keeps me from trusting Mike Barber. BB
Mike Barber answers:
Hi Tony, I’m not a frequent reader of blogs but just today read Brenda Bowers comment of March 19th. Brenda, over the past two years I have been on the losing end(8-1, 7-2) of a half-dozen votes in closed session regarding our positions on legal matters. Some very heated discussions. You may have seen some general comments I have made about our legal direction. I am obliged not to express my opinions related to pending matters publicly, as that can compromise the city’s position, right or wrong. Many council members blindly follow staff recommendations. I believe we are changing that longtime culture. I certainly want your trust and respect. I will continue to do what I believe is best for Greensboro. I have been called the most outspoken member of council, be it good or bad, but on some issues, that can’t be done publicly. I will express myself next Tuesday on the fact that I coordinated a meeting to avert a lawsuit by Roch, Sam and Joe and we blew it anyway!! Thanks for your comments. I certainly don’t object to Tony putting my email on this site so that you can email me directly.
By Mike Barber on Mar 28, 2008
Brenda speaks to Mike Barber:
Mr. Barber I have made note over the past four years that you often are the only no vote to some absurdity that the rest of the City Council votes for. This is especially true with the budgets. I know it must be very frustrating for you to sit thru these meetings and have to deal with some of these people. However Sir, you asked to be elected to the post of City Councilman, you were not dragged in kicking and screaming for the past 4 years. ( has been corrected, see comment below) That being the case I as a resident and voter merely wish that you would do your job of serving the best interests of the tax payers, all of the tax payers, of Greensboro. And if you can not do it in City Council meetings then find another way to do what you know to be right for the people who put their faith in you and put you in office.
You knew that closing White Street Landfill would be astronomically expensive. You as a rational human being also knew that the claim of “environmental racism” was bogus. It was the old stand by race card that seems to get the minority residents in this city anything they want. And, what they want is sure to cost the White and majority residents money.
I have blogged on the White Street Landfill and my reasons for having not closed it in the first place and now correcting the mistake by reopening it to our own household wastes. Chief among the reason after the enormous costs is the fact that the landfill was there when the people bought their homes so they knew the landfill was there and they could assess the situation. I am frankly tired of paying for other peoples folly Mr. Barber and I resent my governmental representatives forcing me to do so. (See my post at:Brenda
You asked the City Manager to bring you figures on the difference between using White street Landfill for our household trash and using the out of county landfill. The City Manager stated in meeting it would be no more than $3 million. Mere chump change was the implication. Mr. Barber I couldn’t believe even Mitch Johnson would make such an outrageously stupid remark! Using the landfill which the city owns right here in the city as opposed to hauling it to the transfer station and dumping it, then loading it in bigger trucks and hauling it 73 miles then paying to dump our trash in someone else’s landfill is a difference of a mere $3 million. Laughable! You might go by Mike Hammers figures in this past weeks Rhino as probably being more accurate. I do know one thing for sure: the figures that Mitch Johnson gives you will not be at all accurate because he has yet to be honest about anything he has told you to date, and you know this also.
In the suit that the City Council is now negotiating with the Black police officers to settle the charge was racism. The FBI and the SBI found no racism by David Wray, any of his command staff or in his department while he was Chief of Police. That is fact! You know it is fact. The City Council, which you were a part of, demeaned and were instrumental in the destruction of a good man, a good police officer and a good Police Chief on the basis of a very flawed in house Legal Department “investigation” and an even more outrageously flawed, and I am sure it will eventually be found, an illegal performed investigation by RMA. You were lead by a man who has been proven to be a liar again and again for the past two years. Ben Holder on his blog (Troublemaker) has the documentation to prove Mitch Johnson’s lies but you don’t read blogs you say. Perhaps you should start because the information you have been getting from our City Manager and his staff has been bad and certainly undocumented whereas bloggers are compelled to verify their facts or other bloggers will come down hard.
A very bad mistake was made Mr. Barber and the City Council members are not so out of touch with reality as not to know full well that a mistake was made. Again I repeat the two legal and qualified investigative organizations, the FBI and the SBI found no signs of racism from David Wray, his command staff or his department. All the City Council has to do is be honest enough to step up and admit a mistake was made and use these two investigations to prove it. This admission would make the negotiations that are now going on between the city and the Black Police Officers go away. You could then apologize to David Wray and the other harmed police officers for the grave harm you have done them and allow them to get on with their life.
But you 9 people are too overbearing and pig headed to admit you were wrong. Instead you are willing to cost the tax payers of the city $18 million or more. Tell me how this is looking out for the good of district 4 and the people of Greensboro Mr. Barber? There are so many things that could be done with that money. And besides that you know you are forcing David Wray to take this to court to clear his record and his name and he will win. He has the FBI and the SBI reports behind him. So that will cost the tax payers more. Because 9 people refused to do the right thing.
And, I am not yet sure as I am looking into it, but if you settle with these Black police officers on their bogus charge of racism I believe the council members are each putting themselves in jeopardy and personal liability if you approve or allow these payments or “gifts” to Black police officers to be made with tax payer (my) money.
I am using this ruling as the basis of my advice to you:
H. P. BROWN v. THE BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS OF RICHMOND COUNTY, G. C. CADELL, CHAIRMAN; JAMES HAMER, JOHN C. MATHESON, PAUL A. BROWN AND ARTHUR CAPELL, MEMBERS.
There is a specific constitutional prohibition against gifts of public money, and the Legislature has no power to compel or even to authorize a municipal corporation to pay a gratuity to an individual to adjust a claim which the municipality is under no legal obligation to pay. N. C. Const., Art. I, sec. 7.
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It is a can of worms Mr. Barber and high time you all start digging yourselves out of it. All you have to do is be honest and decent human beings. And unless and until you and the others do this I can neither approve of you as City Council members nor respect you as human beings.
It concerned me greatly when you asked in open meeting “who does the legal department work for”. After 4 years you have not read and understood the City Charter and Ordinances? The City Manager hires and fires and therefore “employs” all of the employees of Greensboro. The City Council only employs the City Manager. This City Council/Manager form of government is the worst of the bad. It does in fact make one man whom no one elected and who is not answerable to the people who pay his salary in any way and yet he is a virtual dictator. His staff answers to him and he decides what to tell the City Council. (But, I guess you know this by now.) It is a form of government put over by people who want power behind the scenes and I suspect that is why Greensboro has it.
Now as to what you can do to bring trust and decency back to the City Council and Greensboro.
1) If you can not act within the meetings with other council members to do what is right then go outside of the council. You are first a citizen of this city Mr. Barber and that takes precedents over being a city council member. You wished to be elected to be a leader, then lead. Take the case to the people and lead a revolt against the mismanagement in the past and currently that will harm the city if not stopped.
2) What you are doing now is going along. Yes you may be putting up a fight behind closed doors but it isn’t getting the job done. If you truly mean what you say then join with the three or four who will stand with you and bring it all out in the open. When the council votes to go behind closed doors come out of the meeting and tell all. You don’t have to name names if you don’t want to, but let the council members and Mitch Johnson understand by your actions that you will no longer stand for irresponsible government and political correctness or the race card being used as a big stick to beat the residents of the city with.
3) You have tried again and again to do the right thing in the courteous way and it isn’t working. Just as you arranged the meeting between the City Legal Staff and Roch to get the documents he and Sam and Joe asked for you see that the nice way isn’t getting it done. The city staff under orders of Mitch Johnson and Linda Miles blew you off over the mediation process and made a fool out of you over the documents issue. You see Mr. Barber they have no respect for you either. You or any of the elected City Council members. You are not their employer. Would you stand back and allow and employee to get away with passing off a load of junk mail when you have told them as an elected city council member to provide the documents requested as the law demands?
I do not wish to offend you Mr. Barber, or any of the others, but lame excuses of “well I tried but it takes five votes” just doesn’t get it either. When you know you are right it is your duty to get those five votes in any way you can. Just say the word and my district 3 council member will get e-mails and phone calls until the cows come home. From the election results and the mood of the city I would guess this would be the case towards all the other council members also. Sincerely, Brenda Bowers
Http://triadblogs.com/BrendaFayBowers and brendafay2410@yahoo.com
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Apr. 1, 2008 - Untitled Comment
A reader brought this mistake to my attention and therefore I have made the correction from 14 years to 4 years.I apologize for the mistake. It was a typo I failed to catch. My comment stands however whether it has been 14 years or 4 years I can not understand how any one can run for an office where they assure the voters that they are qualified to govern without knowing the laws they will be required to uphold. I suspect however that this not knowing the city government organization, codes and ordinances is quite common among our elected officials given the blunders they so often make. BB
Posted by BrendaFayBowers
