DRAFT COORDINATED HUMAN SERVICES TRANSPORTATION PLAN AND CALL FOR PROJECTS

The Greensboro Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) announces a public review period for the draft Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan. The MPO also announces the availability of federal funding for certain purposes related to human services transportation.
The plan focuses on transportation needs for older adults, transportation for people with disabilities, and employment transportation for low-income individuals. It sets a vision for the future and identifies key objectives based on a planning workshop held in March.
The draft plan is available for public review until May 12 at the following locations:
 
•      Online at www.guampo.org 
•      City of Greensboro Clerk's Office
•      Guilford County Commissioners’ Office
•      GDOT Office
•      NCDOT Division 7 Office
•      NC A&T Library
•      UNCG Library
•      Greensboro Public Library Branches
  
To begin implementation of this plan, the MPO is soliciting project proposals for funding under the federal Job Access and Reverse Commute and New Freedom transit programs. Approximately $542,000 is available under these programs at this time for the MPO area. Funding will be allocated using a competitive selection process described in the Coordinated Human Services Transportation Plan.

For more information, to submit comments, or to request a copy of the grant application, visit www.guampo.org or contact us. Comments and project submittals are due May 12, 2008. Comments on the public participation process are also welcome.

The Greensboro Urban Area MPO coordinates transportation planning for much of Guilford County, including the City of Greensboro and the Towns of Oak Ridge, Pleasant Garden, Sedalia, Stokesdale, and Summerfield. Burlington, Gibsonville, Whitsett, High Point, and Jamestown are outside the MPO’s planning area. The MPO’s policy board contains elected officials from Greensboro and Guilford County along with a member of the North Carolina Board of Transportation.

The first Public Hearing of the Guilford Legislative Delegation is scheduled for Monday, April 14, 6-8:00 p.m. in High Point.  It will be held in the High Point Council Chambers, 211 S. Hamilton Street, 3rd Floor. 

The second Public Hearing of the Guilford Legislative Delegation is scheduled for Monday, April 21, 6-8:00 p.m. in Greensboro.  The Hearing will be held at the Greensboro City Council Chamber in the Melvin Municipal Building on Eugene Street.
This meeting will be televised.   

Both of the hearings are open to any citizen who would like to address the delegation.  The hearing will provide an opportunity for the delegation to receive input from citizens about their concerns and issues, as well as provide opportunities to receive input from local municipalities and other entities representing Guilford County. As has been the practice for the past several years, House and Senate members who represent Guilford County hold a meeting before Session to receive input from the citizens. 

Citizens are encouraged to come to either location to share their thoughts with their elected members of the North Carolina General Assembly.  Speakers will be given limited time and are asked to come early to sign up or contact Representative Jeffus’ office.  Please be prepared to give your name, address, telephone number and organization.  Organizations and individuals who need additional information are asked to contact Representative Jeffus’ office.  Email address is maggiej@ncleg.net  or telephone is (919) 733-5191.

Greensboro Fire Chief Johnny Teeters today announced his intention to retire at the end of May this year. Teeters had previously announced a retirement date of December 15, 2008. Given that the study of the department’s operations is going out to bid, and that the department’s budget will have been submitted by the end of May, Teeters said he feels the timing is good for a May departure. “I’ve realized what others before me have also been through,” said Teeters. “Once you’ve announced that you are leaving an organization, there’s an expectation of change. I think the department should have a quicker transition and start planning its future. I’m really proud of this department, and I know that it’s not the leader that makes it great; it’s the people. They’ll be just fine, and I’ll be glad to provide any assistance they might need going forward.”

City Manager Mitchell Johnson praised Teeters’ service, saying, “I appreciate Johnny’s loyalty to the department and the great job he’s done building and maintaining one of the best fire departments in the state, if not the nation. We all wish him well in his retirement.” Mayor Yvonne Johnson added her gratitude for Teeters’ 44 years of service, thanking him “for being a part of the team that made Greensboro’s Fire Department great.”

Teeters began his career with the City of Greensboro on April 1, 1964 as a firefighter. He subsequently received numerous promotions and served stints as a captain, battalion chief, assistant chief and deputy chief before being named fire chief in 1999. Under Teeters’ leadership, the Greensboro Fire Department achieved a Class One rating from the National Insurance Services Office, making Greensboro one of only 30 cities in the nation – and the only one in North Carolina – to garner the distinction.

As a part of the Greensboro Bicentennial Torch Run (a four-day event taking place March 25-28), there will be an unveiling a new statue of General Greene:

Location: Roundabout at Greene and McGee Streets
Time:    Wednesday, March 26
Music by the Guilford Courthouse Fife & Drum Corps beginning around 6:00 pm
Program and end of torch run around 6:30 pm
Event ends around 7:05 pm
Event:   Includes music, ceremonial end of that day’s torch run, musket firing by the Kirkwood Delaware Regiment re-enactors, pledge of allegiance, remarks and Official Unveiling by Mayor Johnson and Shirley Frye.
Parking:  Best place is probably the Greene Street Deck, but anywhere downtown.  Greene and McGee in the immediate area of the roundabout will be blocked off from 3:00-8:00pm.
We believe General Nathanael Greene has been unjustly under-adored during the last 200 years and that there’s no time like the present to remedy the situation.  Accordingly, this bronze statute, built to last by artist Jim Barnhill of Greensboro, is 11.5 feet tall and the granite pedestal it stands on adds yet another 10 feet (and weighs 30,000 pounds).  Like the redcoats, cars will either learn not to tangle with this guy or run yelping off to Yorktown.  Don’t miss a minute of the drama!
For more information  contact Judy Morton, Office & Communications Manager
Action Greensboro
317 South Elm Street
Greensboro, NC  27401
Main:  336-379-0821 Direct: 336-387-8351Fax:  336-379-9719 http://www.actiongreensboro.org

 

The voice of the people should be heard on this matter of the realignment of the City Council Districts due to annexations that took place last November. The Neighborhood Congress has responded. They have been a strong voice for all communities in Greensboro. Here is their letter to the Justice Department since Greensboro and North Carolina are under Section 5 of the Voting Right Act. It is my understanding that the City's legal department has not submitted the plan that was approved on at the February 5  council meeting to the U.S. Justice Dept. as of yet. No action can be taken by the Justice Dept. until they get the plans from the city.

My position is that there is an economic and wealth imbalance in the City. This has existed possible by design for a long time. Economic generators are needed in east Greensboro to spur on economic growth which would mean jobs and retail services coming directly into east Greensboro. District realignment Plan B would only move 3 precincts, but it would give the poorest district, District 1, the priming of its economic pump to promote the economic growth that is suppose to happen, but yet we still wait. There are those who believe some of the social ills that seem to plague some sections of Greensboro would decrease with more opportunities for jobs and services being made available where people live and can more easily access them along with paying a livable wage.

The biggest excuses for a lack of growth in east Greensboro are that we do not have adequate infrastructure, wealth to encourage investors to come and there are not enough households. Yet east Greensboro is more densely populated that other areas and east Greensboro is majority African American. In a 2006 report by NC Institute of Minority Economic Development on minority buying power in North Carolina, it says in North Carolina nationally based on size ranks 8th, market share 9th and growth rate 33rd, North Carolina is one of the nation's most important African American markets. In 2006, African American purchases accounted for 1 out of every 7 dollars that is spent in NC. The report further states that in 2006, African American buying power in Greensboro MSA approached $3.3 billion, by 2011 it is projected to be $4.2 billion and Greensboro is the 3rd largest MSA level African American consumer market in the state. My point is we do have people with money and needs. (www.ncimed.com)

By putting one precinct in District 1 that includes the Four Seasons part of High Point Rd,  it could mean close to over $500 million in economic boost to an area that should have retail services in it just like the abundance in west Greensboro. Plan B would also not move so many people and precincts including taking the Cardinal out of District 4 and taking more wealth from Districts 1 and 2 as well as moving a former city council member in District 5 to District 4. And there are some politically obvious reasons for plan Q that does this. Plan Q was never discussed with the entire council and especially District 1& 2. Yet based on the rush to move plan Q and vote not to support plan B, others on the council had a heads up.

We hear some members of council talking about transparency but they work under a cloud of secrecy, lack of respect and non inclusion. We need to talk more about equity; for Greensboro will never be greater than its weakest link whether it is a city district or the actions of the city council to keep power within a certain social, economic or ethnic group. Plan Q demonstrates this while plan B starts a new day in equity for the whole city. Greensboro will struggle with being the great city it wants to be in the 21st century if its leadership does not truly embrace change, equity and fairness.
Thanks for stepping up GNC.

March 12, 2008

Don Jacobsen
Voting Section
Civil Rights Division
Room 7254 - NWB
Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, DC   20530

Re: City of Greensboro, NC Council Districts

Dear Mr. Jacobsen:

We are writing as Co-Chairs of the Greensboro Neighborhood Congress (GNC), at the direction of the GNC membership, to express the GNC’s strong displeasure concerning the City of Greensboro’s recently adopted City Council redistricting plan that is currently under review by you and other United States Department of Justice personnel. The GNC is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization comprised of neighborhood organizations representing neighborhoods located throughout Greensboro. We currently have 43 member neighborhood organizations that include more than 16,000 households. These neighborhoods are located throughout Greensboro’s five City Council districts, making the GNC one of the most socio-economically and racially diverse organizations in Greensboro. The mission of the GNC is to address issues of citywide concern to neighborhoods and to empower neighborhood leaders to address their specific neighborhoods’ own issues of concern. We focus on advocacy for the improvement of the quality of life in Greensboro neighborhoods and on the education of neighborhood leaders.

On February 19, 2008, our City Council voted to adopt what is known as redistricting “Plan Q” over other redistricting plans, including a “Plan B” that had been recommended by City staff. (We believe that you have been asked to review both the adopted “Plan Q” and the alternative “Plan B.”) At a meeting on March 8, the GNC membership in attendance voted unanimously to comment to the United States Department of Justice to protest the procedural deficiencies involved in the adoption of Plan Q, as well as the substantive deficiencies in Plan Q relative to Plan B. We are writing this letter to you in accord with that mandate.

The GNC membership is particularly dismayed with the manner in which Plan Q was adopted. Unlike Plan B and most of the other plans that were made available for public review and comment well ahead of the Council’s February 19 meeting, Plan Q was unleashed on the public for the first time during the Council’s meeting, by its sponsor, Council Member Zack Matheny, who is the District 3 representative. (In fact, The GNC has been informed that some of the Council Members themselves had only 24 hours or less to review Plan Q prior to the Council meeting.) The public had no opportunity to review any maps depicting the impact of Plan Q before (or even during) the Council’s meeting at which Plan Q was adopted. It is hard to imagine a decision more fundamental to our Country’s democratic processes than a redistricting that will deprive some voters of representation by the candidates they voted into office. For our Council to have made such a decision by adopting an alternative that the public was denied access to until after the fact is simply repugnant. We urge you to reject Plan Q for that reason alone.

We also want to make sure that you are aware of the substantive inferiority of Plan Q relative to Plan B. Plan Q results in 26 voting precincts being shifted from one district to another, whereas Plan B would have shifted 3 precincts. This means that, absent your intervention, voters residing in 26 of Greensboro’s precincts (about one third of the total precincts in the City) will find themselves represented on July 1, 2008 by a candidate whom they did not have the opportunity to vote for in the general election on November 6, 2007. To deprive this many voters of the opportunity for representation by a candidate they had the opportunity to vote for (or against) is a serious usurpation of democratic processes. Plan Q also will split 11 neighborhoods whereas Plan B would split only 5, and the current districting splits 6 neighborhoods. Plan B would therefore result in one less split neighborhood than the status quo, compared to Plan Q, which will double the number of split neighborhoods.

Moreover, Plan Q has a more insidious impact. Under the current districting, Districts 1 and 2 are “majority minority” and Districts 3 and 4 are “majority majority,” whereas District 5 is almost balanced with 47.5% minority population. What this means is that our City’s most likely opportunity to have a third district represented by a minority candidate is in District 5. But Plan Q would dilute the minority population in District 5 down to 41.3%, undermining the prospect of a minority candidate being elected in District 5, and making it unlikely that minority representation on our Council will have any prospect of increasing in the foreseeable future. This is a serious impact, and although some of it is inevitable given that the areas recently annexed by the City have a primarily white population in District 5, Plan Q’s magnification of that dilution relative to Plan B constitutes another serious substantive flaw in Plan Q.

Because Plan Q is flawed substantively compared to Plan B in so many respects, it renders  the procedural deficiencies attendant to Plan Q’s adoption all the more suspect, and begs the question of whether Plan Q’s conception and 11th hour unveiling was engineered by special interests. Plan Q has obvious political benefits for certain elected representatives and less obvious impacts for some business interests.

For the reasons set out above, the GNC strongly urges the United States Department of Justice to give Plan Q the strictest scrutiny, and to reject it in favor of Plan B.

Sincerely,

Kathleen Sullivan, Co-Chair                  
Art Davis, Co-Chair                      
Greensboro Neighborhood Congress           

c/o Greensboro Neighborhood Congress
1 Gwyn Lane
Greensboro, NC 27403
(336) 851-2748
bdnewt@yahoo.com

Effective immediately, the City of Greensboro is altering its mandatory water restrictions based on improving water supply conditions.  Water restrictions will go from Mandatory Stage IIB to Mandatory Stage IIA.  A full description of these stages can be found in Chapter 29.5 of the Greensboro Code of Ordinances and customers can find a summary of the current stage at   http://www.greensboro-nc.gov/departments/Water ; the basic difference is that broadcast irrigation (sprinkler systems and hose end sprinklers) will be allowed one day per week, and home car washing is allowed.  The one day per week that Greensboro residents can use sprinklers is the day of garbage service; commercial and customers outside the city may use sprinklers on Wednesday.
Much of the Southeast remains in a drought of varying severity and the vulnerability of different city’s water supplies depends on many factors.  The La Nina effect that is responsible for the dry winter is likely to remain in place for several months and the long period of extremely dry conditions has depressed streamflows well below normal at all times between rain events.  However, recent rains, reduced consumption, purchased water from other cities, and the ability to augment the City’s supply with transfer from the Haw River have lifted lake volumes to over 90% of full and streamflow is continuing to raise levels.  Based on the experience of the City during the drought of 2001-2002, and the connection to Burlington and the augmentation with the Haw River, Water Resources staff has recommended the relaxation as safe at this time. 

Allan Williams, Director of Water Resources, said “Our customers have paid for many improvements to their water system that have and will continue to provide safety and reserves that our department manages.  We feel it creates an undue hardship to residents to not allow the one day per week irrigation that will help in spring planting.”  However, he goes on to caution customers that irrigation should only be employed when necessary so as to keep demand down.  The drought is not over and should demands increase or natural conditions deteriorate the change in stages can be altered.  Williams goes on to add, “We understand customers’ desire to use irrigation water but will always keep the safety of the City’s water supply as a first priority.” City Manager Mitchell Johnson said “We are very pleased to offer this change and we sincerely appreciate the outstanding cooperation we have received from customers in this and past drought events.”

Allan Williams, Director of Water Resources (373-2050) or Steve Drew, Water Supply Manager (373-5855) will be available as a contact.  Lavelle Donnell, Water Education Program Coordinator (373-4601) will also be available to offer details of water conservation methods citizens and businesses can use.  

Greensboro City Manager Mitchell Johnson today announced two staff changes in the City Manager’s office that move forward with a reorganization plan announced in February.
    The staff changes announced today are:
•    Assistant City Manager Bob Morgan has been promoted to the role of Deputy City Manager. This position was previously held by Johnson and has been vacant since October 2005 when Johnson was selected as City Manager.
•    Transportation Department director Jim Westmoreland has been selected as the Acting Assistant City Manager of Economic Development Services.
    In announcing the selection of Morgan to the role of Deputy City Manager, Johnson said, “Bob brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this role. As a result, I have complete faith in his ability to guide the work of a number of City departments, many of whom previously were under my direct supervision.”
The City Manager said his decision to dedicate one of the two vacant Assistant City Manager positions to focus on economic development demonstrates his recognition of the importance of economic development and his adherence to the guidance of City Council.
“There is an immediate need for us to pursue economic development,” Johnson said, “and in recognition of that fact, I offered a temporary opportunity to a member of the City’s executive team to serve in this important role. I interviewed several excellent applicants and eventually selected Jim Westmoreland for the position. Jim is a proven leader in our organization and willingly agreed to step up and make a difference at this critical time.”
Johnson said he intends to start a national search process within the next 30 to 45 days to fill the position on a permanent basis. The process to fill the position is expected to take about 90 days.

In this new role, Westmoreland will be asked to address a number of key strategic initiatives to help support City Council, the City Manager’s office, and the City organization, including:
•    Review the state of economic development in Greensboro and develop a summary report in 60 days that details economic development opportunities and provides specific recommendations for City Council to consider regarding needed tools and/or public-private partnership possibilities.
•    Review the state of the City’s economic development services and develop a summary report in 90 days that outlines key issues affecting service delivery and offers recommendations and strategies to help improve them.
•    Provide key organizational and strategic support to the City Manager’s office to help advance the important work of the City Council and the City organization.

Westmoreland said he welcomes the opportunity to serve in the new role.
“I am very excited to be asked to serve in this most important role for our organization, and I look forward to working with the City Manager and the City Council on these key strategic initiatives,” he said. “I am very passionate about Greensboro’s future and will commit to do my best to make our community the best place in the Triad, and in North Carolina, to live, work, play, and do business. In addition, I will continue to solicit and rely upon key input from residents, community leaders, experts from our local institutions of higher learning, and the development community to help me best understand our issues, to develop the best plans and options for Greensboro, and to help ensure the future success of our community.”   

While Westmoreland serves in this role, the day-to-day direction for the Transportation Department (GDOT) will be handled by Adam Fischer, who will serve as Acting Director of Transportation. In this role, Fischer will be responsible for all GDOT operations, including Engineering, Planning, Public Transportation, and Business and Operations. Fischer has been a City employee since 1987 and has served as the manager of GDOT’s Engineering Division for the past nine years.  Johnson further noted, “This restructuring of the City Manager’s office allows me to more effectively address the goals set forth by the Greensboro City Council. By delegating day-to-day management responsibilities to the Deputy City Manager and by allowing a key staff member to focus on economic development, I will have more time to address external issues and to work with Council on their specific needs.”