Rhino5_17_12 by The Rhinoceros Times

The Rhinoceros Times

Vol. XXII No. 20

Greensboro, North Carolina

www.rhinotimes.com

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Snipping Fox’s Parachute Strings by Scott D. Yost county editor

There’s a strong movement among the Guilford County Board of Commissioners to prevent Guilford County Manager Brenda Jones Fox from receiving a payout of over $61,000 upon her retirement early next year. Fox would receive the lump sum payment as a result of the removal of a cap on benefits in a voluntary retirement plan – a change the commissioners unknowingly

approved at their Thursday, March 1 board meeting. With the cap in place, Fox, along with other employees who have 30 years with the county, would have been entitled to a maximum of $16,500 as part of the county’s early retirement plan incentives. That plan was put in place to encourage early retirement of longtime – and therefore higher-paid – county employees. (Continued on page 29)

Schools Rebuked By Kernersville by paul C. clark Staff Writer

The Kernersville Planning Board whipped Guilford County Schools like a rented mule on Monday, May 14. The Planning Board’s treatment of the school system’s request to plop its $72 million “airport area high school” in the Triad Business Park in the part of western Guilford County that has been annexed into Kernersville was nasty, brutish and short. The Planning Board members denied the Guilford County Board of Education’s request to rezone 115 acres of the business park on a unanimous, 7-to-0 vote –

Photo by Sandy Groover

This is Beach Music in the Park in Festival Park next door to Cafe Europa on Davie Street in downtown Greensboro last Thursday. We’re not sure it qualifies as beach music, but this looks suspiciously like the Wobble.

but not before Planning Board Vice Chairman Phyllis Mendel savaged the Guilford County Schools Facilities Department representatives present, Executive Director of Facilities and Construction Management Robert Melton and Director of Facilities Planning Donna Bell, for bothering Kernersville with the dopey idea in the first place. Mendel, a 15-year veteran of the Planning Board, called the Guilford County Schools request to rezone the land from business industrial (BI) to institutional and public – special use district (IP-S) (Continued on page 34)

Perkins Trumpeting Downtown Music Hall by john hammer editor

Tuesday night, May 15, the Greensboro City Council voted to move forward with a $30 million bond referendum to pay for the much ballyhooed downtown performing arts center (PAC). The vote to move forward

Rhino Rumors Photo by Sandy Groover

It looks like caterpillar riding can be a lot of fun, but if you missed the Greensboro Youth Council Carnival at the Greensboro Coliseum last week, you’ll have to wait until next year. Congratulations to the Greensboro Youth Council on its 50th annual carnival.

From staff and wire reports

The much anticipated Guilford County school salaries issue is next week, May 24. When we started printing the salaries of government employees we had people protest having their salaries in the paper. Now people realize that government salaries are a matter of public record

with the bonds was 6 to 3, with Councilmembers Trudy Wade, Dianne Bellamy-Small and Marikay Abuzuaiter casting the no votes and Mayor Robbie Perkins and Councilmembers Yvonne Johnson, Nancy Vaughan, Nancy Hoffman, Jim Kee and Zack

and, although some people don’t like it, they have come to accept it. We’ll print as many salaries as we have room for in the paper, and all the school salaries will be available at rhinotimes. com. And we are not alone: To find the salary of any federal government employee, just go to this website: php.app.com/ fed_employees11/search.php. --The News & Record seems like it has decided to leave the world of (Continued on page 38)

Matheny voting in favor of moving forward to put a $30 million bond on the ballot in November. It turns out the downtown PAC that Perkins is doing everything he can to push through may be the Achilles’ heel of his term as (Continued on page 2)

Inside this issue High Point News......... 6,7 Entertainment Guide...... 9 Uncle Orson Reviews... 10 Puzzles...............10,11,14 Yost Column................ 12 Scott’s Night Out.......... 13 Rhino Real Estate........ 15 Letters to the Editor..... 27 Editorial Cartoon.......... 38 under the hammer....... 39

Pages 15-26

Page 2

Thursday, May 17, 2012

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Perkins

(Continued from page 1)

mayor. The downtown PAC may be to Perkins what the White Street Landfill was to former Mayor Bill Knight, because right now it doesn’t look like it’s going well. In one way it is incredible that Perkins could put together six votes to move forward with a downtown PAC when there is no site, the city would be about $20 million short of the money needed even if the $30 million bond were to pass, and the city doesn’t even know within 1,700 seats how big the place will be. In short, the six members of the council voted to move forward to put a $30 million bond on the ballot for November knowing little more about the project than they did back in January. They did hear an all-roses-and-no-thorns report from AMS Planning & Research Corp. on the proposed downtown PAC. Matheny kept asking about the downside, and evidently in this report there is none. According to AMS, if Greensboro builds a PAC, more shows will come to Greensboro, the city will make more money, the economic impact will be great, spring will be long and beautiful, the winters short, and the summers warm but not hot. Actually they didn’t mention the part about the weather, but it would have fit right in with the presentation. According to AMS a downtown PAC will result in new 268 jobs in the community. Remember, they don’t know how big it will be or where it will be built, but they know it will create 268 new jobs for Greensboro. The AMS report states, “Total ticket sales are estimated at $12.0 million.” It’s a remarkable estimate when you consider what isn’t known, like whether the PAC will be 1,500 seats or 3,200 seats. Evidently increasing the size of the facility by over 100 percent doesn’t have much effect on the income. Although other figures in the report are footnoted, this one is not. The taxpayers paid about $50,000 for the AMS report. Which brings up another point: The paid coordinator for the downtown PAC effort is Ross Harris. Last year Harris’ job was running Perkins’ mayoral campaign. After Perkins was elected, Harris was hired to be the paid employee

running the volunteer downtown PAC task force. Harris was hired by the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, which is a private entity and can hire whomever it wants. But if the Community Foundation had not hired Harris that money might have been available to pay the consultants. The city paid part of the consultants’ fee and the Community Foundation paid the rest. In other words, we have another case of smoke and mirrors. Money is being moved around, and although the city is not paying Perkins’ former campaign manager directly, the city is picking up some of the expenses of the project, freeing up private money to pay Harris. In Greensboro we don’t usually have political patronage like that. Judging from the comments made by councilmembers before and after the vote, it is going to be extremely tough for Perkins to put together five votes to put a $30 million bond on the ballot in November for the downtown PAC. Matheny was not at all pleased with the everything-is-wonderful consultants’ report. Kee and Johnson both expressed reservations about going forward in the present economy, and Johnson only voted for the motion after she repeatedly made certain that the vote didn’t commit the council to anything, but simply kept the door open for a vote in November. The council has to take three steps in order to get the $30 million bond on the ballot in November, and Tuesday night was the first. So the council will have two more chances to back out of the $30 million bond deal, but if the motion on Tuesday had not passed that would have theoretically killed the bond. Although there is probably some way around it. Even if the 81 member task force that Harris runs finds the perfect site in the downtown, close to restaurants and parking, and free to boot, and the city figures out how to finagle $7 million from the Greensboro Aquatic Center, and the $30 million bond passes, the city is still $20 million short of the estimated cost of the PAC. In the federal government $20 million might not be much, but it’s a lot around here. (Continued on page 4)

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 3

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Proposed City Budget Socks It To Downtown by john hammer editor

The good news is that interim Greensboro City Manager Denise Turner Roth did not include a tax increase in the proposed $449.9 million 2012-2013 budget she presented to the Greensboro City Council late Tuesday night, May 15, at its regular meeting. The bad news is that there are water rate increases, a hazardous waste disposal fee is being implemented, and parking fees are being increased. The projection on sales tax revenue growth is 4 percent, while Guilford County’s budget is based on an estimate of 6.7 percent growth in sales tax revenue. The proposed budget includes $2.2 million in budget cuts and $936,000 in new revenue to balance at $449.9 million compared to the 2011-2012 budget of $448.1 million. The property tax rate remains at 63.25 cents per $100 valuation of property. Unfortunately for those of trying to do business downtown, much of the “enhanced

revenue” is coming from downtown. Mayor Robbie Perkins says that the downtown “is the heart and soul” of the city, but it doesn’t appear the city staff has any idea how fragile the downtown is. The budget calls for the city to raise parking rates in the city-owned parking decks from 50 cents an hour to 75 cents an hour, from $6 a day to $7 a day, and from $50 a month to $55 a month. The city also plans to raise parking tickets for an expired meter from $10 to $15. The parking decks are paid for and make a profit. The city is simply increasing the cost of doing business downtown and making not having a bunch of quarters in your pocket a lot more expensive. How does this make sense? A huge multibillion dollar international company can rent parking spaces right in front of where they want to be for $5 a day, but someone who runs into an old friend at

lunch and spends an extra five minutes at a restaurant gets hit with a $15 fine at an expired meter. If the city wants to enhance parking revenue, it could make use of some of the dozens of on-street parking spaces downtown that are never used because the legal parking time limit doesn’t make any sense considering their location. The city has known this for years but refuses to do anything about it. According to the budget presentation, the city is eliminating 9.625 employees. One would assume that if the city eliminates employees then it would have fewer employees in the 2012-1013 fiscal year than in the 2011-2012 fiscal year. One would be wrong. The city is eliminating 9.625 employees but the total number of employees is increasing from 3,081 in the current fiscal year to 3,137 in the 2012-2013 fiscal year. So by adding 56 employees the

city is eliminating 9 employees. Only in government accounting does something like that add up. Water and sewer rates for city residents will increase by 3 percent, and water and sewer rates for those outside the city will increase by 7.5 percent. The city will also begin collecting a 40 cents a month hazardous household waste fee. Despite the tight budget and tough economic times the City Council asked that a $75,000 allocation to Triad Stage be added to this proposed budget, as well as an additional $70,000 for the Greensboro Economic Development Alliance, which is part of the Greensboro Partnership. Money is in the budget for a 1.5 percent raise for all city employees, and the city is adding Veterans Day as a holiday. Even with what is called a tight budget the city still has lots of wiggle room.

our $57 million. One of the points made by AMS was that War Memorial Auditorium was in decline and had fewer shows and less attendance. Greensboro had to hire people from out of town to come up with this revelation? Coliseum Manager Matt Brown badmouths the auditorium every chance he gets. Brown has said for years that the only thing to do with the auditorium is tear it down and build a new one on the site. One of the plans that the city claimed was “renovation” left part of one wall and pretty much everything else was new. So the man in charge of renting out the auditorium has been publicly saying for years that it is dump and we need someone to come to town to tell us that use is declining? Abuzuaiter noted that the decline in attendance at War Memorial Auditorium “also reflects what our economy did during those years. A lot of people stopped going to shows and some stopped going out.” Bellamy-Small said, “If we ram this thing down their throats, I’m not sure that’s fair.”

Matheny questioned the results of the surveys and community meetings that indicated overwhelming support for a PAC. Matheny said, ”We held a District 3 meeting and one person from my district showed up and that is a concern to me.” Wade noted that the questions on the survey conducted to show support for the PAC didn’t include anything about having to pay for the PAC, just, “would you like to have one.” Wade read an email from a constituent who said that she would also like to have a Ferrari, but she wouldn’t want to pay for one. The council will receive the report from the Performing Arts Center Task Force on June 19 and will vote on putting the bonds on the ballot at a special meeting on June 26. Both the report and the vote had been scheduled for June 26, which indicates the amount of time the council is expected to spend reading the report. Perkins seems convinced he has the votes to get the $30 million bond on the ballot for November, but it sounded like some of the Perkinettes might be starting to think for themselves.

The council also heard a report from Brown on why the city needed to spend $24 million on improvements to the Coliseum. The money would be used for projects, including maintenance like replacing the roof and the seats in the arena, and spending $1 million to enhance the brand new Greensboro Aquatic Center by widening the concourse and creating more room for concessions. The council voted 8 to 1, with Wade voting no, to start the process to sell bonds to be paid for with the hotel-motel tax to make the Coliseum improvements. Wade voted no because using the money to enhance the Coliseum ties up the hotel-motel tax funds for the next 25 years. The council met in closed session to discuss buying the old YWCA property next to Festival Park and behind the Central Library and the Historical Museum. The city owns all the property around the YWCA, but the city evidently is not going to have the property appraised before making an offer. (Continued on page 32)

Perkins

(Continued from page 2)

Perkins said he didn’t see any problem with raising $20 million privately for the PAC, but no one reported any fundraising figures on Tuesday night. Perkins gave a long speech about why Greensboro needed a new performing arts center, and at the center of that speech was the fact that Greenville, South Carolina, has one. But how many times has Greenville hosted the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament? How many times has Greensville had the federal trial of a former US senator and been on the national news several times a day for week after week because of that trial? Does Greenville have an international furniture market 15 miles down the road, or a facility like the Greensboro Coliseum? Greensboro doesn’t have everything that Greenville has, but Greenville doesn’t have everything that Greensboro has. If the best reason anybody can come up with for Greensboro to build a new $57 million performing arts center is because Greenville, SC, and Durham have them, then Greensboro would be better off to save

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 5

Commissioners Facing $1.1 Billion Debt by Scott D. Yost county editor

The most important thing the Guilford County Board of Commissioners does each year is come up with and pass a county budget, and it’s that time of year again. To that end, on Thursday, May 10, the commissioners held a work session in the Blue Room of the Old Guilford County Court House where one of the major topics of discussion was whether or not now is the right time for the county to start putting away money for future construction needs. In the proposed budget for fiscal 20122013, Guilford County Manager Brenda Jones Fox has included $7.3 million to reinstate “pay as you go” financing for major capital projects the county expects to take on in coming years. At the May 10 work session, Fox made the case for stowing the money away. She said she recommends putting the $7.3 million in the 2012-2013 budget to start accumulating money for future capital needs so that Guilford County won’t have to go further into debt every time it starts a large new capital project. That’s equivalent to 1.71 cents on the tax rate. Last month Fox proposed a budget that included a 4-cent tax increase for every $100 of property value. If the Board of Commissioners decided to put off the pay as you go financing expense, that would knock the tax increase down to 2.3 cents. The final say on the budget is in the hands

of the commissioners, and, while it might be a good idea for the county to start planning for its future capital needs in the 2012-2013 budget, it’s also an election year and the theme of the board in recent years has been to pile on debt and worry about paying for it sometime down the road – perhaps when future commissioners will have to deal with the problem. Fox told the board the credit rating agencies liked to see the county put away money for construction projects and, she added, it also makes for better financial planning. “You avoid those spikes,” Fox said of the county’s recent debt numbers. Fox told the board that the 2012-2013 budget needs to include money to pay for anticipated future projects so the county doesn’t have to continue its cycle of repeatedly going into debt anytime it has a major capital project. “If you’re buying a house, you put 20 percent down,” Fox said. “It’s really important, I think, to put cash in so you are not borrowing 100 percent.” Fox said the county’s construction needs over the next few years include much-needed large projects such as new Emergency Medical Services bases, a public safety communications system upgrade, a new animal shelter and more space for juvenile detention functions and court related services.

“The key is how do we fund all those,” Fox told the board. Commissioner Kirk Perkins is running for reelection this year so he has more of a vested interest in preventing a large tax increase than some other commissioners. Perkins said one solution was to not do a lot of the projects. He said the county won’t have to put in any money for projects it doesn’t do. “We can stop some projects,” Perkins said. He said, for instance, that no one is more supportive of Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) than he is, but, he added, the size of those facilities had increased by 25 percent in just a few years. He said he wondered if everything planned for the GTCC expansion and other county capital projects couldn’t be put on hold until the economy improved. It’s not the first time Perkins has proposed that, but, in the past, he has found very little support for that sentiment on the board. At the May 10 work session, Commissioner Carolyn Coleman suggested Guilford County may already have a multimillion dollar pot of money to reach into. She pointed out that there would be millions left over from the new jail when that project is completed this summer. The voters approved $115 million in bond money but the finished jail is going to come in right at $100 million, thanks to

the global economic collapse that happened months after the cost of the jail construction was estimated but before construction bids were sought by the county. Coleman proposed that the county might use that money for other projects related to the county’s criminal justice needs. Guilford County Attorney Mark Payne said his office was exploring exactly how that money could and couldn’t be used. “This is a question we have put to the bond council,” Payne said. He added he would consider the matter a “homework assignment.” The county has discussed using some of that money to build a parking deck for the jail but right now those plans look dead in the water. Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said it didn’t really matter whether or not the county had access to those funds or had new bond money left over from the jail. “The bottom line,” Alston said, “is that it’s still borrowed money.” Commissioner Paul Gibson made the same point at the meeting. “It’s a line of credit,” Gibson said of the $15 million or so that will be left over from the jail. “If we’ve got $30 million left on the jail, let’s just say halleluiah and not spend it,” Perkins said. (Continued on page 28)

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

HIGH POINT

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro HIGH POINT

HIGH POINT

Consultant Plans 2 Years For 10 Day Job by paul C. clark Staff Writer

Although the High Point City Project may hire an architect who wants High Point’s zoning ordinance reduced to the point that he could build Charleston, South Carolina, in High Point, the High Point City Council has hired a consultant to rewrite the ordinance in way that may make it harder, not easier, to redevelop the city. On Thursday, May 10, the City Council met with Craig Richardson, the vice president of Clarion Associates LLC of Chapel Hill, the outside consultant for the City Council’s effort to completely rewrite the zoning ordinance. Richardson had in mind a two-year rezoning of the city, like the one recently completed in Greensboro that was such a disaster that the Greensboro City Council considered throwing it out and the planning director was given the opportunity to resign. Richardson said, “This is probably going to be a two-year process, and it might be two-and-a-half years.” The High Point city councilmembers present at Richardson’s briefing, however, seemed more concerned with removing restrictions on development than just rewriting the ordinance. Many High Point councilmembers are, or have been, involved in development, either as developers or, like Councilmember Latimer Alexander, owning

businesses that have had to build in High Point under the current zoning ordinance. High Point has large areas of empty industrial buildings, empty or underused commercial buildings and completely abandoned housing. It desperately needs capital investment. The question is whether or not the process the City Council is planning with Clarion Associates is going to make redevelopment easier and attract investment – or, by complicating development restrictions and giving city planners more power, make it harder and discourage investment. It’s not encouraging that Richardson said the process of rewriting High Point’s zoning ordinance would involve studying the zoning ordinance rewrites of Greensboro, Raleigh and other North Carolina cities. The only arguments for rewriting High Point’s zoning ordinance are that a) High Point got into land-use planning in the 1950s, decades before other North Carolina cities, and its ordinance is cluttered with a half-century of unneeded restrictions, and b) High Point’s downtown-displacing furniture market provides redevelopment hurdles not faced in any other North Carolina city. A new zoning ordinance should be short and sweet and address the problems faced by High Point, instead of being modeled on those of other cities in the state. Anything the City Council, Clarion

Associates and the High Point Planning and Development Department take two years to write is unlikely to satisfy the City Project types who want fast action on revitalizing High Point’s traditional core. Make this comparison, for example. Clarion plans to spend two years to generate a Manhattan phone book of a zoning ordinance. The New Urbanist architectural firm brought in by the City Project, Miami-based Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. (DPZ), intends to spend seven to 10 days brainstorming the redevelopment of old High Point, producing design drawings all the while, according to architect Tom Low, the director of DPZ’s Charlotte office, who outlined the firm’s process at the May 7 annual meeting of the City Project. The City Project’s involvement with DPZ began in March, when it brought in wellknown architect Andrés Duany, a founding partner of the firm and a founding member of the Congress for the New Urbanism, to assess High Point’s potential. The first thing Duany did was savage High Point’s zoning ordinance and, by implication, its planners. Duany attacked most urban planners, city planning departments and the development codes they produce as “wildly romantic” because they think that, by mandating wide property setbacks and periodic trees, they can produce old-style downtowns. He also attacked most downtown

building codes as impediments to private development and especially to the development of old-school, or New Urban, downtowns, whichever you want to call them. He called for throwing out most of the rules generated by city planners. Duany cited as an example, Charleston, South Carolina, a 300-year-old city that violates every modern land-use ordinance and yet has a popular downtown that draws residents and tourists from around the country. “My test is simple,” he said. “If it prevents me from building Charleston, it is not good. It’s a very simple test.” After sitting through the Clarion Associates presentation, it’s hard to imagine the company’s proposed rewrite of the High Point zoning ordinance producing anything that would allow the creation of a Charleston – or even Greensboro’s newly developed Southside neighborhood, which was designed by DPZ. DPZ’s process would involve a handful of rules and a lot of design drawings based on a few days of intensive input from High Point citizens. Clarion’s process would involve tinkering with the hundreds of rules that make up High Point’s current zoning ordinance. Richardson said Clarion Associates would first refresh the current High Point zoning ordinance to include the many amendments made to it over the years – you (Continued on page 28)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro HIGH POINT

HIGH POINT

Thursday, May 17, 2012 HIGH POINT

HIGH POINT

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McIntyre Named New High Point Fire Chief by paul C. clark Staff Writer

High Point City Manager Strib Boynton on Wednesday, May 16 appointed a new High Point fire chief: Rick McIntyre, now fire chief of Jacksonville, North Carolina. McIntyre will take over the High Point Fire Department on July 9, 2012. Boynton’s decision came seven months after he hired the headhunting firm Springsted Inc. of Richmond, Virginia, to find a replacement for former High Point Fire Chief David Taylor. Taylor retired in April 2011 after an 11-year tenure marred at the end by the Fire Department being fined $81,000 for 17 violations of

the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Boynton on Oct. 17, 2011 signed a contract with Springsted for up to $16,500 and up to $6,100 in expenses, for the firm to recruit, screen and evaluate candidates. Boynton said on Wednesday that Springsted considered 71 candidates from 24 states. The semifinalists were interviewed by a panel of what Boynton called “knowledgeable individuals” – the same process Boynton used to hire Taylor and former High Point Police Chief Jim Fealy. In the search that produced McIntyre, Boynton said that panel included Fealy,

Greensboro Fire Chief Greg Grayson and High Point City Councilmember Bernita Sims, the chair of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. In the past, Boynton said the panel has also included Guilford County Emergency Management Coordinator Don Campbell, and retired fire Capt. Phil Weekly. McIntyre has 32 years of government and private-sector experience, including 16 years as chief of the Jacksonville Fire Department; four-and-a-half years as fire service manager with Lockheed Martin Energy Systems in Paducah, Kentucky; and 10 years as a fire protection specialist with

Duke Energy in Charlotte. Boynton said McIntyre has effectively managed issues in Jacksonville very similar to those he will face in High Point. Under his leadership, the Jacksonville Fire Department was accredited in 2003 and reaccredited in 2008. Boynton said, in a press release, “Importantly, I believe Chief McIntyre’s experience working with the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base and his private sector experience with Lockheed Martin and Duke Energy will help us better evaluate and manage the major fire and emergency (Continued on page 34)

Ralph Racks Up Incentives In High Point by paul C. clark Staff Writer

Ralph Lauren Corp. has spent millions over the years to make its brands, particularly its Polo brand, synonymous with wealth. It has a market capitalization of more than $13 billion, revenue of $6.6 billion in its most recent fiscal year and roughly $1.2 billion in cash in hand. And yet the High Point City Council and the Guilford County Board of Commissioners have, in the last week, lined up to give the company money – at least $3.2 million in public money, plus any the state decides to kick in. The High Point City Council, at a special called meeting on Monday, May 14, voted 7 to 0 (Councilmembers A.B. Henley and Foster Douglas were absent) to give Ralph Lauren Corp. up to $2 million in economic incentives to add jobs among three company facilities already in High Point – two at 4100 Beechwood Dr. in Piedmont Centre and a fulfillment center for the ralphlauren.com internet sales site at 201 North Pendleton St., just off East Kivett Drive. The City Council runs a city with a $318 million budget, and, when its last budget was passed, $400,000 in its contingency fund.

Compared to Ralph Lauren Corp., High Point looks like that guy on the Monopoly card showing off his empty pockets. Maybe Ralph Lauren Corp., which High Point has welcomed with open arms, should be giving the City of High Point some money. That the City Council voted to shell out the money was unsurprising. A moderate council, it has long had members who opposed economic incentives – buying jobs. But almost all the councilmembers, including Councilmember and mayoral candidate Chris Whitley and former Councilmember Bill Bencini, currently a county commissioner, are now unabashedly voting for them in this economy, although they say they are doing so reluctantly. City councils in other cities, and legislatures in states, are rushing to do the same – sometimes giving away the store by coughing up more in economic incentives than they get back in revenue, or even revenue and jobs. The economic-incentives charade has become an arms race in which cities and states claim they can’t unilaterally disarm. That the Guilford County Board of Commissioners approved the $1.2 million in incentives was a little more surprising.

Only two of the commissioners, Bencini and Commissioner Bruce Davis, are from High Point, and High Point has had to go it alone in some recent incentive offerings. Ralph Lauren Corp. is telling both boards that it expects to add 500 jobs in Guilford County over five years, invest $30 million in construction or land purchases and increase the county’s personal-property tax base by $112 million. No calculations were provided to justify any of the figures. At the Board of Commissioners’ public hearing on the incentives on Thursday, May 10, the commissioners voted 6 to 3 to approve up to the $1.2 million in incentives. Commissioners Paul Gibson, Kirk Perkins and Linda Shaw voted against the incentives. Commissioners Billy Yow and Mike Winstead were absent. The public hearing was notable mostly for Davis breaking into a full-blown campaignstyle speech for the cameras – only to be slapped down by Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, who said, “Just for the record, we’re not being televised.” The commissioners and audience alike roared with laughter, but Davis subsided immediately. Before being interrupted by Alston but

after thanking enough people for an Oscar acceptance speech, Davis said he had watched Ralph Lauren Corp. grow in High Point for years, and that he, personally had done handstands over fewer than 500 jobs. “Giving incentives is one of those things, a piece of the game,” Davis said. “It’s a necessary evil, if you will.” Or if you won’t. High Point and Guilford County taxpayers are buying a pig in a poke when their elected officials promise money to private companies. However, Ralph Lauren Corp. is a more solid company than others High Point and Guilford County have offered incentives to, and will probably deliver on its promises. It presumably has so far, as incentive money is supposed to be given out in stages only after companies deliver on their promises – and smart cities, counties and states include clawback provisions in their incentive contracts that allow them to take money back if it turns out that companies haven’t done so. But a pig in a poke in a Polo shirt is still a pig in a poke. Neither Loren Hill, the president of the High Point Economic Development (Continued on page 33)

Page 8

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

More Red Flags On Allen Jay Architect by paul C. clark Staff Writer

The architecture firm causing the delay in the renovation of Allen Jay Middle School in High Point has even more red flags on its record than previously known. Millennium 3 Design Group (M3DG) of Charlotte pulled out of its $639,484 contract to design the renovation of Allen Jay Middle School in High Point, owing subcontractors about $130,000, according to Guilford County Schools and the March 16, 2012 letter from M3DG President Anthony Hunt asking for his company to be removed from the project. Hunt is M3DG’s owner and principal architect. M3DG is minority and womenowned business enterprise (MWBE), which get preference in hiring in schoolconstruction projects in North Carolina. Most of the design work on the project, however, was apparently done by M3DG subcontractor Pinnacle Architecture of Matthews, North Carolina. A May 10 article in The Rhino Times based on disciplinary information on the website of the North Carolina Board of Architecture reported that, in 2009, M3DG ran into trouble over its $1.5 million contract to design the Math and Statistics Building at North Carolina State University (NCSU). The board found, and Hunt signed a consent order acknowledging, that M3DG filed late and inadequate documents,

submitted requests for additional services without consulting its subcontractors and failed at first to meet building codes. In the consent order, M3DG did not admit to the allegations. The Board of Architecture reprimanded Hunt and ordered M3DG to pay a civil penalty of $7,500 and administrative costs. The fact that M3DG had trouble handling a large project made it seem odd that the firm was the one that the Guilford County Board of Education’s architect-selection process produced as the very best to design Allen Jay. In the NCSU case, the consent order found that M3DG had gone several months without paying subcontractors, despite having already being paid by NCSU, although M3DG eventually caught up on the payments. That is similar to the Allen Jay project, in which Hunt wrote Guilford County Schools that subcontractors on the project were owed about $130,000. Further research with the Board of Architecture makes the choice of M3DG seem even odder. Board of Architecture Executive Director Cathe Evans said that the board has not put all of its disciplinary actions online, and its complete records show that Hunt was reprimanded for M3DG’s handling of two other design projects – one a major educational institution project to provide

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design services for a renovation and addition to Coltrane Hall at North Carolina A&T State University (A&T). In the A&T case, Hunt on Sept. 18, 1997 was reprimanded by the Board of Architecture and his company – then called Anthony V. Hunt & Associates – was fined $750 for billing and accepting payments for various phases of the Coltrane Hall project, even though it had not completed the work for those phases. Consent orders are signed by regulators or courts and respondents to avoid the expense and uncertainty of going to a trial or disciplinary hearing. The 1997 consent decree said that Hunt’s firm’s actions, as described in the consent order and not disputed by Hunt, would be violations of state law, “if supported by substantial evidence.” The history of the Coltrane Hall project, as described in the consent order, is a comedy of errors that raises the question of who messed up more, Hunt & Associates or the project managers and accounts payable departments of A&T. According to the consent order: On July 19, 1995, Hunt & Associates billed NCA&T for $40,000 – 100 percent of the contracted payment for the design development phase of the project – “even though they had not submitted final Design Development plans to the State Construction Office.” On July 31, 1995, Hunt & Associates billed A&T for part of the fee for the working document phase of the project, “despite the fact that the final Design Development plans for the earlier phase had not yet been submitted to the State Construction Office for approval.” Hunt & Associates attended a meeting with the representatives of A&T and the State Construction Office to discuss the design development drawings, which were due to the State Construction Office on August 14, 1995. On August 14, A&T paid Hunt & Associates $54,000, the full amount of the two earlier invoices. On August 25, 1995, Hunt & Associates billed A&T for additional work on the working drawings phase, despite the fact that they had not yet submitted the final plans for the design development phase, which were due on August 14 but not actually submitted until August 31. On Sept. 15, 1995, A&T paid Hunt & Associates $15,500 based on the August 25 invoice. On Sept. 29, 1995, the State Construction Office rejected the initial design plans done by Hunt & Associates, “for which the Respondents had already been fully paid, on the grounds that the plans were incomplete.” The State Construction Office finally approved the initial design development plans submitted by Hunt & Associates on Oct. 13, 1995 – apparently after the firm had already billed the university for the subsequent stage of the design process. In the consent order, Hunt & Associates

contended that they did not engage in any intentional wrongdoing. The Board of Architecture, however, included in the consent order the fact that Hunt & Associates had entered into at least 11 contracts with the state in the two years before the Coltrane Hall contract – presumably in an effort to show that Hunt & Associates could not have been ignorant of state law. The Coltrane Hall debacle has a parallel to the one at Allen Jay: a record of persistent money-management problems. In the case of Coltrane Hall, it was billing for work that hadn’t been done. In the case of Allen Jay, it was, according to Guilford County Schools, not paying subcontractors. Guilford County Schools Director of Construction Julius Monk said that, to his knowledge, M3DG owed the subcontractors the money, not Guilford County Schools. The other reprimand of Hunt in the Board of Architecture files is much smaller – some unspecified amount above $3,000 – but it raises interesting questions about the history of Hunt’s companies. The reprimand came in a 1993 case involving the design of a house. The consent order in that case was against Hunt alone, although he was listed in the body of the order as practicing through the firm “Anthony V. Hunt & Associates, Architects.” One of the things for which the Board of Architecture reprimanded Hunt was “practicing architecture through a firm name using the plural when he is the only licensed architect in the firm,” which the Board of Architecture said was a violation of the North Carolina Administrative Code. The main thing the Board of Architecture reprimanded Hunt for in the consent order, however, was being a licensed contractor, significant shareholder and officer in Progressive Planning Management Consultants Inc. (PPMC), a construction firm operating from the same office as Hunt’s architecture firm. The consent decree states that Hunt provided both architectural design services and construction services to the homeowner through the two companies, rebating the architectural fee to the client in exchange for hiring PPMC, his related construction company, which the Board of Architecture wrote was illegal. In addition to the reprimand, the consent order required Hunt to not provide architectural services through PPMC, to not provide both architectural and construction services to the same client through the two companies and to stop using the plural in his architectural firm’s name “until the number of licensed architects in the firm warrants such use.” The consent decree also ordered Hunt to pay a fine of $500 and administrative costs. The Board of Architecture also found that Hunt was providing construction administration services through a “non 55-B corporation” in violation of state law. In North Carolina, 55-B is The Professional Corporation Act, which defines and allows (Continued on page 28)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 9

Page 10

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Uncle Orson Reviews Everything Avengers and On the Set of Ender’s Game by orson scott card

OK, The Avengers made a lot of money. And it was lots of fun – I enjoyed the whole thing. I know several people who have already watched it more than once. (That’s how movies rack up those huge numbers – people come back again and again.) But please, let’s be honest. The fundamental situation in the movie is so utterly unbelievable that it boggles the mind. It has an honest history. Marvel Comics had a bunch of superheroes, and there are only so many stories you can tell. So they started having one superhero visit another superhero’s comic book. And the fans loved it. That’s because of the game of hypotheticals. The Hulk versus Iron Man! Who wins? That’s why the completely idiotic section of The Avengers, where the heroes pointlessly fight each other, is so entertaining. It’s gladiatorial combat for Americans – bloodless, imaginary, bigger than life. And there is absolutely nothing at stake. This is where movies are today. There is no earthly reason why an aerial aircraft carrier should exist. Buoyancy keeps ships afloat. But without balloons, keeping a huge heavy airship aloft takes energy. Lots of it. Which burns fuel at a frightening rate. And the fuel would weigh so much that the aircraft carrier in The Avengers could not possibly carry enough fuel to lift itself. But when you build it on a computer, you can make anything fly. So we see wonders that could not exist in the real world – that

would have no reason to exist. In fact, nothing in The Avengers makes any sense. Least of all the superheroes themselves. Thor – a Norse god from another planet, who travels through spacetime using magical means, and has a magical hammer that comes when he reaches for it – supposedly co-exists in the same universe with the Incredible Hulk, who can apparently endure any amount of physical abuse without dying? And why is there any reason for a guy to use arrows to strike at fast-flying metal objects? None of it makes sense. Maybe I’ve watched Cobie Smulders play Robin Scherbatsky on How I Met Your Mother too many times, but amid all the overwrought earnestness of most of the action in The Avengers, I couldn’t help but see, in her portrayal of the thankless character of Agent Maria Hill, just the tiniest hint of amusement at all the nonsense going on around her. I mean, sure, she did everything she was asked to do, but really – they spent this much money and this much time and this much creative brilliance for a story this utterly silly? And yet ... it worked. One time my wife looked at me and at our daughter, and all three of us were in the identical posture – leaning slightly forward, mouth open, hand covering the mouth: the pose of utterly rapt concern. Against our will, against our better judgment, we cared.

The New York Times Hyper-Sudoku sudoku_320A

Created by Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Will Shortz

2 6

8 7 9 5

3 8 4 9 7 4 3

2 2

4 9 5

8 1 (c) PZZL.com

320A

Distributed by The New York Times syndicate

Solution sudoku_320A

This sort of comic-book cast-of-dozensof-superheroes nonsense usually doesn’t work. Think of all the failures – League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Fantastic Four, Iron Man 2 (it made money, but it sucked), Cat Woman, most of the Superman movies – I’m leaving out others, but only because I have blocked them from my memory. In fact, this is hard to bring off, and I lay the entire success of this ridiculous movie at the feet of Joss Whedon. Whedon wrote it, he directed it, he cast it, and that’s 100 percent of what made The Avengers a hit. The bad movies have good actors in them – just not the right good actors, or in parts where their acting can’t compensate for bad writing. The bad movies have terrific special effects, but special effects can’t save a bad movie. Ever. Last night, I happened to tune into the last 15 minutes of the last Harry Potter movie on HBO. It was the scene where Harry is dead and meets Dumbledore in a heavenly railway station. I suppose the Harry Potter series depends on premises as fundamentally silly as any comic book’s. But the stories have characters, relationships, integrity, and they say something about the real world. I couldn’t stop watching, right to the end. The whole story washed over me and when the movie ended, I was as moved as ever. My 18-year-old walked past the family room while I was watching, and she stood in the doorway and stayed to the end. I can’t imagine ever doing that with The Avengers. Because there’s nothing in the story to engage me a second time. Don’t misunderstand – the people who go back and watch it multiple times aren’t idiots. But it’s not the story drawing them back, I believe – it’s the experience, the thrill ride. When the movie’s over, nothing made sense. We don’t know anything we didn’t already know – that bad people can be dangerous, and good people sometimes have to fight them. What else is there? That’s the miracle of Joss Whedon’s talent – he made us care about utter drivel. He does it with good dialogue (a rare thing in movies), sharp direction (everything is timed just right and we always understand what’s happening), and superb casting. Yes, even though Whedon inherited a lot of his cast from other movies that he did not direct, he wrote around the less talented ones and then made brilliant use of the ones who could make the dialogue sing. Robert Downey Jr., whom Whedon inherited, is wonderful – but he couldn’t save Iron Man 2. Still, Whedon could give him good dialogue and build strong scenes around him – so he did. Whedon also inherited Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Chris Evans as Captain America, and Tom Hiddleston as Loki, but talented as they are, Whedon-style humor is not their forte. So they have relatively little to do

except be earnest, which was well within their capabilities. But Whedon’s original casting – Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye – gave him the rest of the characters he could hang scenes on. Mark Ruffalo is wonderful – but good actors have disappeared into the character of the Incredible Hulk before. Ang Lee couldn’t do anything with the character. But Whedon could – because Whedon understood the humor in the character. And until this movie I didn’t understand the appeal of Scarlett Johansson, who always seemed more of a sleepwalker than an actor to me. But in The Avengers she was able to bring off deadpan comedy that made me actually enjoy watching her perform. Whedon is actually funny. That is so not true of most film directors – especially directors of the many, many bad comedies that curse the screen. Whedon understands how to set up a joke and then pay it off, with perfect timing through the whole thing. The gags just seem to happen. That’s a very hard thing to bring off. And in a Whedon movie, the joke is never stretched on and on to the point of impatience. So let the fans think that they actually care about the characters, or that they liked the story, or that the cool visuals carried the movie. You and I will understand that they are quite wrong. And even Joss Whedon doesn’t always succeed. What matters is that he succeeded this time. This means that for the rest of his life, Whedon can pretty much make whatever he wants. Which is a good thing. Unfortunately, it also means that we’ll see more and more and more thrown-together comic book movies with lots of characters that don’t belong together, and with stories whose stupidity staggers the imagination. Because the studios’ budgets will be poured into these crapfests, they won’t be spending money to make actual good movies with meaningful stories. But the cycle will end, when they discover that most writers and directors aren’t Joss Whedon. Meanwhile, wasn’t The Avengers a lot of fun?

....

Speaking of movies, I was on the set of Ender’s Game last week to record my one line in the movie – a voiceover of a pilot making an announcement to his passengers. Let me assure you that there is nothing exciting about being a spectator at the filming of a movie. It’s hard work, it takes hours to shoot a 30-second scene, things are done over and over, and in between shots there’s nothing but ... waiting. However, if you’re actually working, it can be intense and fascinating. I sat, off-camera, reading my sole line, which comes in the middle of a scene (Continued on page 11)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 11

The New York Times Crossword Puzzle

No. 0513

INDIES By Ben Tausig / Edited by Will Shortz

Across

1 One waiting in France

7 “ W h o ’s t h e r e ? ” response

12 Hank Aaron led the N.L. in them four times 16 British pols

19 Mark who won the 1998 Masters

2 0 A l t e r n a t i v e e n e rg y option 21 “… there ___ square” 22 Maximum

23 Slogan for medical marijuana activists? 26 Portuguese “she” 2 7 Ta t t o o s , s l a n g i l y

28 More than a quarter of academic circles? 29 Alias

30 “No surprise to me” 32 Like unworn tires

36 Persians who protect their feet?

4 0 To o k a b r e a k a r o u n d one, say 4 2 Wa s h a l t i n g

43 Plant, of a sort 44 Author

45 Not straight

48 “___ Beso” (Paul Anka hit) 49 Big twit?

50 Entitlement to cross the stream first?

For any three answers, call from a touch-tone phone: 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 each minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800814-5554.

56 Singer DiFranco

104 Lost subject of a hit Beatles song?

58 Pod-based entity

109 Disney princess

5 4 C o n d u c t o r To s c a n i n i 57 Start of a “White Album” title

1 0 8 Wo r k i n g a s a s t o r e clerk

59 People who avoid social networking, maybe

11 0 P a r t o f a n e w s p a p e r : A b b r.

6 3 M i x o l o g i s t ’s measure

6 5 M y _ _ _ , Vi e t n a m

66 It was published four years before “Moby-Dick” 68 “Snowy” bird

6 9 “ I f y o u c a n ’t b e h a v e o n t h i s t o u r, I swear you’ll be sorry!”? 75 Forerunner of euchre 76 Smack

77 ___ culpa

78 State for which a Springsteen album i s n a m e d : A b b r. 7 9 H u n t ’s c o - s t a r o n “ M a d A b o u t Yo u ” 81 Error indicator

8 2 L a rg e s t c a m p u s o f L o n g I s l a n d U n i v. 85 The title of this puzzle, e.g. 86 One + one?

88 Big part of the dairy business? 90 Like much of P i n d a r ’s w o r k 93 [Smack!] 94 Revolver

9 5 Tr a g i c E . R . s t a t u s

96 Cartoon pet of note 97 Melodic

99 Play double Dutch, say

111 J o b s c r e a t i o n 11 3 O B s , e . g .

11 4 Vi e t n a m Ve t e r a n s Memorial designer 11 5 C l o t h i n g - f r e e version of the national pastime? 122 Dark meat piece 1 2 3 F e m i n i n e s u ff i x 124 Pitch

1 2 “ To m m y, ” e . g .

13 Most inclusive

14 It has many servers 15 “___ I care!”

16 Famously temperamental court figure

17 Stout alternative 18 Salmon, at times

24 Powered in either of two ways 25 Chicago mayor Emanuel

3 1 Wo r l d l e a d e r beginning D e c e m b e r 2 0 11

33 “Kubla Khan” river

125 Simplified language form

34 On account of

127 “I’ll have what ___ having”

3 8 Ta k e a l o a d o ff

126 Pompous person

128 Itching

129 City near C l e a r w a t e r, informally Down

1 Chaperon

2 Supreme Egyptian god 3 O ff e n d e d t h e n o s e 4 “Dog”

5 Choice words?

6 “ I d o n ’t t h i n k s o ” 7 Part of a chain, maybe 8 Studio sign

9 Tr u d g e t h r o u g h w e t s n o w, s a y 10 Dallas pro baller

11 “ We ’ l l t e a c h y o u t o drink deep ___ you depart”: Hamlet

35 Make magnificent 37 French “she”

3 9 Tw o - t i m e N . L . batting champ Lefty

4 1 O b a m a ’s b i r t h p l a c e 46 Whit

47 Hardly sharp

50 Josh of “How I Met Yo u r M o t h e r ” 51 Where to conform, per an expression

5 2 J a s o n w h o ’s a f i v e time baseball AllStar 53 Deception

54 Ages and ages

55 Director Nicolas

58 Car in “Gone in 60 Seconds”

60 City down the lake f r o m B u ff a l o , N . Y.

61 Oklahoma state tree 6 2 “ Tr i s t r a m S h a n d y ” novelist

20 24

80 86 91

96 104

77 82

95 99 106

107

111

101

108 112

113

115

122

123

124

125

126

127

128

129

7 0 P r o j e c t i o n i s t ’s u n i t 71 Scrape 72 Drives

73 Big suits

74 Entered slowly

80 Steel support for concrete 81 People with reservations in Florida

117

100

114

67 Mayo, e.g.

85 89

116

103

110

64 Something you might tap in

60 68

105

109

102

49 55

75 79

58 65

41 44

118

119

120

121

83 Minute

98 Look like a creep?

106 Made whoopee

87 Swollen, as veins

100 Grammy-winning Radiohead album of 2000

107 Some blades

89 ___ avis

101 Prime years for rocking?

84 Some Camaro roofs 88 Dynasty for Confucius

90 Big maker of smoothies and e n e rg y b a r s

91 Accounts with keys? 92 Extra ones might be dramatic 94 News Corp. paper

11 2 Wi t h a s u r e h a n d 11 6 “ Yo u m e a n … what?”

11 7 S u r v e i l l a n c e o rg .

102 Consent form 103 Dead Sea Scrolls writer 105 Cary of “Robin Hood: Men in Ti g h t s ”

11 8 “ S t a r Tr e k :

Vo y a g e r ” a i r e r

11 9 D . J . ’s p u r c h a s e s 1 2 0 Ta n k e d 121 Economic stat

Get answers to any three clues by touch-tone phone: 1-900-285-5656 ($1.20 each minute). Uncle Orson (Continued from page 10)

between Harrison Ford as Col. Graff and Asa Butterfield as Ender Wiggin. The scene does not come from the book – very few of the scenes in this movie do – so it was amusing when others asked me how it felt to have my book brought to life. My book was already alive in the mind of every reader. This is writer-director Gavin Hood’s movie, so they were his words, and it was his scene. So what I was concentrating on was how Ford and Butterfield worked with the lines, with the director, with the camera and with each other. If you don’t understand what you’re

seeing, it could look as if they were doing nothing at all. Their line readings were flat (by stage standards) and barely audible (boom mikes picked up sounds that were barely audible 10 feet away). They had almost no facial expressions. And they were superb. Film acting, especially in closeup, is not about facial expressions. It’s about what’s going on behind the actors’ eyes. And it’s about timing. The scene got more and more minimal as the takes went on. What had been an arm grab and a shrug became a mere touch on the shoulder and a single glance at the hand. And the less they did, the better the scene

became. What mattered was the timing – when Ford put his hand on Butterfield’s shoulder, how long it took Butterfield to glance at the hand, how long before he looked away and when the hand was withdrawn. When it comes time to edit the movie, the actors will have given the editor a vast menu of choices to get just the right effect. On the set, however, it was wonderful to see how Ford and Butterfield responded to each other’s timing. It was such a delicate dance – and they worked perfectly together. Twice, I saw Ford give a tiny suggestion to Butterfield. The suggestion in both cases (Continued on page 14)

Crossword Solution A-V Club, No. 0506

E M A I L

S O U S E

T O X I N

A R I S T A

P B A C A L L P H O E E N A T V A V E E A P R I S E A S T E S L A W A H A D E E F O R M T R O T S E N S

T E E D L I A E R O M C T I T R E O U S B E E T R I A C R C O T O N S A L E S S R A A L O S A T E R O R Y

F O R G A V E J O N E S

A N Y O N E F E N C E

M A I S A S T T A C O

L C O N E D G E V E R B F E R E V O L C I D I O L O P S E R S Y S O E A R S N A L O T T I L L E M E E N D R O S N A B E F R I C A E S A R D E R

A N D R E E A A N M O I N N E T I R L O S A L V O A G T A A N R S

T E A T R O B R A C S A I L S V E N

P E A C U T E R T A S E L O P P P E E S E L A N L I Q U E T U R A M L E V I O R I C O T C U S A G S E I T A S T R A M E D I O L E N S I L E T T E

E S T E R D E N T I H E N D O T E D

Page 12

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

The Joke’s Here and Money’s in the Mail by Scott D. Yost county editor

Remember, send your entries to Scott@rhinotimes.net. I get a lot of spam, so be sure you make the subject line something I’ll be sure to open, like, “XXX Free Porn!!” or something like that. – Yost Column, April 26, 2012

Go to

www.rhinotimes.com

and click on entertainment

J. Butler’s High Point

Wed May 23 Karaoke

J. Butler’s Lewisville

Fri May 18 Live Music Sat May 19 Live Music

Riders in the Country

Fri May 18 Jimmy Shirley Sat May 19 Jimmy Shirley

Southern Lights Bistro

Tue May 22 Scott Walker Wed May 23 Bruce Piephoff

Village Tavern

Mon May 21 Brice Street Wed May 23 Second Glance

WineStyles

Fri May 18 Patrick Baxley Sat May 19 Clay Howard

A few weeks ago, we here at Yost Column kicked off a contest where we called upon you, our loyal readers, to provide the captions for some cartoons drawn up by our excellent cartoonist Geof Brooks, who comes up with and draws the hilarious cartoons in the back of The Rhinoceros Times each week. We presented you with three cartoons to come up with captions for, and we offered you a cash prize, unlike the News & Record, which gives you absolutely nothing for winning, no matter how funny your caption is. First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who entered the contest. If you didn’t win this time, let me take a moment to say that, in a way, just by playing, you are already all winners. (Legal disclaimer: In no way should this be read in part or in whole to say that The Rhinoceros Times is responsible for any monetary compensation to everyone who entered the Joke’s on the Way Contest or any of its affiliates, domestic or abroad). Anyway, it’s not whether you win or lose, but it’s actually all that other stuff they tell you all the time whenever there’s a game or a contest and you are the loser. Also, even if you didn’t have a winning entry in this The Joke’s on the Way Contest, there’s always a chance that you will be called upon in the event that the winner for any reason is unable to fulfill his or her duties. So, this week, I’m very proud to announce the winners and the big overall winner of the first annual The Joke’s on the Way Contest where we here at The Rhino act like the News & Record and put the readers to work. (I chose the name, “The Joke’s on the Way,” because the News & Record contest is called “The Joke’s on You,” and I didn’t want to copy the News & Record or be derivative in any way – so that’s why I came up with an original name for my contest.) Now, all the winners will get, in addition to their one full week of fame and notoriety, $3.22 in cold, hard cash, which I will be sending through the US mail, in cash – which of course is a serious violation of federal law. So, if you’re a winner of this contest, you don’t have to worry about the check clearing – but you do have to worry about kleptomaniac postal workers who hold letters up to the light to see if they can spot any cash in the envelope sent by unsuspecting letter mailers. Anyway, with no further to do … Moving in reverse order of how the pictures were presented in Yost Column last month, here’s the winning caption for the house picture …

After-trial Edwards’ estate. This comes to us from Jonathan Sparrow of Greensboro. Judge’s comment: Sparrow’s excellent caption brings a national story of political and sexual intrigue and nefariousness into a simple cartoon picture of a house – with a valuable lesson mixed in on how the mighty have fallen. Sparrow’s response shows sharp wit and comedic timing laced with all the irony of this local and highly topical case: the John Edwards trial in downtown Greensboro, which has taken away all of the parking for everyone except national media in satellite trucks. Sparrow thereby managed to transcend the comic form, transforming a mere cartoon into a universal lesson on virtue, vice and consequences. (Continued on page 14)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Sound of the Beep

Page 13

Scott’s Night Out

What follows has been transcribed from the answering machine tape on our comment line 273-0898. We edit out what is required by the laws of the state, of good taste and of good sense. The limit on phone calls is one minute and each caller may make up to two calls per week. If you have something to say, call our comment line at 273-0898 and start talking at The Sound of the Beep. In response to your front-page article about county manager Fox’s golden parachute, retirement which she herself orchestrated. I have one question. How greedy can one person be? She is already a multi-millionaire at the taxpayers’ expense. Does she have no shame? %%% This is the caller responding to the response from the person who thinks they can tell people who to call themselves a Christian. I don’t know what Bible you’re reading. Yes, Jesus did come to preach tolerance and love, but he’s never told us to condone anything that our father abhors. Since you don’t seem to be real familiar with the Bible, let me give you a few places you might want to read: Deuteronomy 32, Psalms 10, 11, 12, 15, 37; Proverbs 1-8, Ecclesiastes 10:11, Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 13-15, Nahum, the whole book, all three chapters, and the book of Revelation. All I can say is, may God forgive you for your intolerance, and everyone is entitled to their opinion. %%% Continuing. Name-calling is not Christian behavior. It’s also very intolerant. And as for the bigot part, my family and I had a good laugh over that, because we’re so blended we are a mix of everything. Nigerian, Scottish, Hawaiian, South African, English, French, and we accept everyone. We have homosexuals in our family that we pray for. We have members of our family who have had abortions that we pray for. I think somehow you can’t take things out of context in the Bible. You either believe the whole thing, or you don’t believe it. A wavering faith is no faith. I wish you the best of luck, or actually I wish you God’s grace. I believe you need it. Thank you all for this format. Goodbye. %%% Calling in regards to the so-called notice of a public meeting of the proposed Interstate 73 connector from 68 to Bryan Boulevard west of the Greensboro western loop, which is also alias the western loop is aka the rest of I-73 down through the middle of Battleground Park practically. Anyway, can’t help but notice in the hidden fine print of the notice that there will be not be a formal presentation. Typical North Carolina Department of Transportation procedure. Nobody wants to stand up and have a group meeting and have the group speak collectively. They want to speak to individuals individually who may or may not be informed enough to ask the right questions. %%% A blind man can see what’s going on. Individual property owners are the last to know and be informed and have any input while the big cats in commercial development, you know who they are, and public transportation officials or the North Carolina Department of Transportation officials are lining their pockets pulling a big one on putting an interstate down the middle of what is the City of Greensboro down past Battleground Park to the point there would be no way to get to the park from certain areas of the neighborhoods without going out on to Battleground and on to the interstate. It’s time we ended this tricking the public. After all, they do pay for these things, and the officials who make these foolish decisions. Thank you. %%% Editor’s Note: I can’t believe the state is going to put an interstate highway with all the noise and pollution it will create that close to a National Military Park, but no one else seems concerned about it. I think there will be a lot of concern once it’s built. %%% Yes, Beep. I was calling in reference to the availability of parking downtown that’s going on with the battle with the city. And I was just wondering, since the elected official, Skip Alston, I just wonder, does that mean his friends are going to lose three parking spaces under the courthouse where they park, or does Skip Alston go, or do his friends get to keep parking there when everybody else has to scramble looking for spaces? Thank you. (Continued on page 14)

Courtney (above, left) and Cassie were embarrassed last week when they showed up at the same party wearing the exact same outfit. That’ll teach them not to discuss wardrobe before going out together. Actually, this is in the parking lot of the Lawndale Harris Teeter after I ran into them pushing Blue Moon beer in that store. Courtney used to work for The Rhinoceros Times a while back and she called out “Scott!” when I walked by. Speaking of pretty girls, when I went to vote last week at Newlyn Street United Methodist Church, I had a particularly attractive election worker. (A lot of times election workers are old and frumpy rather than young and beautiful.) This got me thinking about pickup lines you could use on election workers. One I came up with was: “You had me at ‘Republican or Democrat?’” Also, “Are you on the ballot?” Another one I thought of was, “Hey, do you come here often?” only that gives her a comeback: “Uh, about once or twice a year, duh.” – Scott D. Yost

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Uncle Orson (Continued from page 11)

was excellent; and in both cases, Butterfield understood completely and executed perfectly. The scene may or may not work as planned; for all I know, it might not end up in the movie. But if it’s there, the audience will experience it as reality – we won’t stop and think of all the many different ways it could have played. But the actors thought of it, and almost every one of the different ways they played it worked well. The odd thing is that Harrison Ford gets little credit for the brilliance of his acting, because he’s so real that audiences think that’s just how he is. Nonsense. Ford is a very inward man; everything he does on screen is acting, it’s all very, very hard to do, and the fact that you think he’s just being himself tells you how outstanding an actor he is. And Butterfield is showing himself to be, not a child actor, but an actor who happens to be young. I’ve always said that, as a director, I’d rather have smart actors than talented ones, because your smart actors listen and change, and with those who fancy themselves talented, you have to rely on chance to get your performance. Butterfield is smart. That really helps when he’s supposed to bring off a preternaturally intelligent character. Actors can easily play dumb, but I’ve never seen an actor bring off a character that is smarter than he is. He’s convincing as Ender Wiggin, so if the movie doesn’t work, it won’t be Butterfield’s fault. Besides that intense time doing offscreen line readings while two fine actors were at work, I got a chance to explore the gorgeous sets designed and built by teams headed by production designers Sean Haworth and Ben Procter. sudoku_318B Again, they were not building anything Created Peter Ritmeester/Presented by Willmy Shortz from thebybook, so I wasn’t seeing ideas brought to life. Their job was to build the scenery dreamed up by Gavin Hood for his 2job. 1 story, and they have done a wonderful I3love looking at well-designed sets – 7 5 4 tough enough to be safe for the actors to 4 on, yet5not wasting a dime on anything work that8won’t show Haworth 3 on camera. 1 7 and Procter are a great team. 5 a few films Haworth was art director on

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you’ve heard of – Thor, TRON: Legacy, Avatar, both Transformers movies, Eagle Eye, Men in Black II, Mission Impossible III and many others. And Procter, though newer, worked with Haworth on the most recent of these. The movie Ender’s Game is going to look great. But the real challenge has always been the freefall movement of the kids in the battle room. Traditional wire work, as in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Spider-Man, simply won’t work in the battle room, because wires absolutely depend on gravity. That is, they allow actors to defy gravity, but the gravity is still there, revealed in every movement of the actors. In the battle room, with gravity nullified, there is no up or down. Bodies have to move in ways dependent on inertia, not on gravity. So I always assumed that the battle room would be filmed by animating the human figures and then pasting the actors’ face onto the result, figuratively speaking. The trouble is that there are certain fundamental problems that computer animations have not yet solved. There’s the walking problem, for instance – most animations don’t show footfalls, because it never looks real. Never. Even using motion capture, there’s something false in the way animated feet hit the ground and then flex and extend to move the person forward. So there was going to be a constant challenge in showing the characters hitting walls and rebounding. It was going to be fake, and the best we could hope for was that in the editing, the falseness would be minimized. But stunt coordinator Garrett Warren took what he learned from the weightless work he did on Avatar built on it. There is a mechanism used for training gymnasts – a wheel they wear around their waists that allows them to rotate in space while suspended from wires. Warren used this on Avatar, which allows a great deal of apparent freedom of movement in space – once the computer artists have erased the wheel rig, you can’t tell that there’s any way a wire could have been attached. But this is only the beginning. The

illusion of freefall depends on the actors’ moving correctly. Where gravity naturally draws their limbs downward, in zero-gravity the arms and legs and heads continue in the direction of the last movement, until something stops them. For the most difficult stunts, Warren brought in dancers from Cirque de Soleil. Being gymnasts by training, they tend to be small – they can bring off the illusion of children’s bodies. And they have the strength and training to do constant movements and poses that defy gravity, without ever looking as if they’re working hard. But all the children playing these roles had to do wire work themselves. Fitted with the wheel rigs, they were being moved through space like puppets – and at every moment, they had to make sure their “nonvolitional” movements followed the rules of inertia-driven rather than gravitydriven motion. It was agonizing. Human muscles aren’t meant to work like that. And Warren was watching everything, playing it back again and again, catching any false movements. Get it wrong? Then you do it again. Oh, how these kids suffered! I’m sure many of them had times when they dreaded each day’s work. But human bodies adapt, and by the end of filming, they were all in superb physical shape. They were good at these dancelike movements. They had acquired a complete skill set, along with the required musculature, to perform an art that, with any luck, they will never have to use again. Their suffering on the wires in the battle room helped them bond into a team. On the wires, there were no stars, no grunts. Everybody had to learn the same skills, do the same moves. They were equals. So filming the battle room did the same job for the cast that the battle room itself was intended to do for the young students in the fictional Battle School – form them into cohesive teams. These kids can take such pride in what they learned and what they accomplished. Everything that they were called on to do, they did – with style. Here’s the irony. Because Garrett Warren did his work so well, when you watch the movie, you won’t ever think, Wow, that was

so hard! It will simply look as if they’re moving through null-gravity space. You’ll be concentrating on the story and the people, not the techniques. But if Garrett Warren doesn’t get a special technical Oscar for his achievement on this film, then there truly ain’t no justice. I’ve seen enough of the result to know that he has brought off the miracle of filming zerogravity while still on planet Earth. And almost everything you’ll see in that battle room, real people did. The computers didn’t animate it – they merely made the wires and rigs invisible. That’s my full report on everything I did and saw during my six hours on the set of the Ender’s Game movie. During those hours I saw, to my great pleasure, that it’s a happy set – people enjoy their work and take pride in it. That’s very important to me. I’ve seen movie sets where the selfishness and stupidity of the director makes the experience hellish for everyone involved, or where casts and crews tear themselves apart with rivalries and resentments. I wanted Ender’s Game to be a joy to work on, so that the kids especially would take away good memories of their time involved in making the movie. And, from what I could see, that’s what the community of filmmakers have accomplished.

Beep (Continued from page 13) %%% OK. It’s Sunday. This is my first call of two. Anybody that’s rich or a Democrat that graduated from the fifth grade, learned to read and write and make change, if he don’t have enough common sense to know Obama running around to the schools, trying to get them to vote him back in when he should be trying to get people back to work, there’s something wrong with their brain. There’s something wrong with you if you don’t know what he’s doing is wrong. You need to vote him out of office and try something else. Try anything. It’s (Continued on page 30)

Yost

(Continued from page 12)

Sparrow, whose name is interestingly a type of bird indigenous to Europe, Africa and Asia, also, by the way, sent along the nice comment with his response: “I look forward to you guys every week!” – which can only help your chances if you are entering a contest like this. So, anyway, thanks Jonathan, and look for your $3.22 in the mail. If it isn’t there within the week, then if I were you I would go online and conduct a background check of your US postal worker, but I wouldn’t let them know you are doing that because you don’t want to set them off because you

know how postal workers are. (Tick, tick, tick ...) By the way, for this cartoon, there were several entries that revolved around Geof Brooks’ extremely odd color choice for the house. Eric Martin of Burlington had the simple caption, “Repurposing slate chalkboards,” and Mike Small of Greensboro had the house saying, “Slack cartoonist. Where’s the color?! What are they going to call me - Little Drab Gray House on the Prairie?” Nice try, Mike, but houses can’t talk. Also, during the contest, I got a blast from the past when my former Grimsley

High School coach, Phil Weaver, sent in his caption for this one. Coach Phil said it has to be “House sitting.” OK, onto the next cartoon Geof created, one that has a woman walking. Now, if this had been the News & Record version of the contest, there would have been a purple giraffe standing next to the woman and she would have been riding a zebra and holding a watermelon and a seltzer bottle. However, Geof and I know that the more sophisticated Rhino Times readers don’t need all that low-brow comedic pandering (Continued on page 31)

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 27

Letters to the Editor People in need

Dear Editor, I am tired of being accused of being uncaring and unjust because I do not believe as others do. They are entitled to their opinion as I am to mine. Let us look at some of the reasons I am uncaring. I do not understand why I should have to pay for someone who loves their mama so their mama can have a phone while I have to pay for mine. The TV ad states you have to be on Medicaid or on food stamps to qualify I do not understand why I should have to pay in taxes for people who are in domestic relationships. That is their choice, not mine. I am not even looking at the biblical or moral issues. I am looking at the economic issues. I have to pay for my insurance and they want to get benefits for free. I object to this. Before you condemn me too severely, I went into the service, served for three years and was discharged honorably. I went to college on the GI bill and got a job. I then went on and got a masters degree. I got advancements because I was willing to work hard and did not have the attitude that if they paid me more, I would work harder. I believed that if I worked hard I would get more money. Because of this I have been denied benefits from the Veterans Administration because I earn too much money. I am also denied food stamps, free bus passes and assistance for house payments. Why am I denied what people who did not work hard, or did not work at all are getting free. If you think I am being unreasonable, look at the economic facts and tell me how I am wrong. It is not my responsibility to help people who do not want to work but are willing to live on the dole. People will say it is my Christian responsibility to help people in need, but when they are driving vehicles newer than mine, I think not. Donald Charters

Immoral lifestyle

Dear Editor, The vast majority of Americans do not support gay marriage. The lifestyle in general is immoral. There can only be

true love between a man and a woman. Everything else in nothing more than an illusion by those persons with a political agenda directed towards forcing somebody else’s lifestyle down people’s throats who want nothing to do with the issue. They just want to left alone to live their lives; however, they wish to live it. Many active gay people do not agree with this. Their objective is to force their lifestyles down other people’s throats whether or not the person wants to accept it as part of their lives. Gay marriage amendments have been defeated in 31 states now, which shows you that the American people do not want this type of behavior in their neighborhoods, nor do they want it to influence their children’s lives. I am proud that North Carolina said no to this amendment and hope future generations continue to fight those persons whose only desire is to force their lifestyle down other people’s throats. The vast majority of Americans do not agree with this marriage proposal, yet the gay community continues to demand their rights when, in truth, they do not have any more rights than anyone else. Steven M. Shelton

Political double-speak

Dear Editor, It is always a big deal when a president or a first lady comes to your school, especially for a commencement speech. But being the sole member of the Aggie Alumni Tea Party Club, I feel it’s my responsibility to point out the double-speak of our first lady at Saturday’s A&T graduation. Jonnelle Davis of TECNAR pointed out that Michelle Obama was encouraging the graduates to volunteer to help our local communities and for this I applaud her for this type of thinking; it’s neighbor helping neighbor, i.e. grassroots. More over, bottom up. Later, Mrs. Obama contradicts herself by stating, “Our country is counting on all of you to step forward and help us with the work that remains.” I have to ask the question, who is “us?” The federal government. So we’re supposed to help the feds help our neighbors. The federal government’s track record of helping citizens at the local level is horrendous. Just ask yourself how the

federal government’s war on poverty is going? Or the war on drugs, or the fed’s war on illiteracy? I’m sure the first lady is too busy and much too intellectual to watch too much TV, but when you see the commercials plugging these warehouse stores, they remind us of how smart it is to “cut out the middle man and save.” This is true conservatism. Let us keep more of our money and acts of charity local instead of going through Michelle Obama’s bureaucratic and collective “us.” Frank D. Knight

Spreading lies

Dear Editor, A caller to the Beep column in the May 10, 2012 Rhinoceros Times offered a purported quote from Norman Thomas in which Thomas allegedly said that America was adopting socialism under the guise of liberalism and the Democratic Party. A quick check on Snopes.com, the urban legend debunking website, reveals that, “Although these words have been attributed to [Norman Thomas] for several decades, apparently no one has ever been able to turn up a source documenting that he actually said (or wrote) them in 1944 or at any other time.” Upton Sinclair did write to Norman Thomas to say that, “I think we simply have to recognize the fact that our enemies have succeeded in spreading the Big Lie.” This is one more example of the big lie. Peter T. Hoffman

Necessary force

Dear Editor, I saw on the news this past week where someone had complained (again) about a school resource officer (SRO) for handcuffing an unruly young school student somewhere in Guilford County. After 28-plus years service on the Greensboro Police Department, I retired with (luckily) only three small scars on my hands and they came from dealing with a 14-year-old boy whose mother had called the police to help her restrain him when he was beating her and ransacking her home. Let me simply say that law officers don’t get paid (enough) to allow anyone,

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Ignoring a favorite son

Dear Editor, I, along with 200 Greensboro citizens, recently attended a wonderful event at Starmount Forest Country Club. The purpose of this gathering was to honor one of Greensboro’s favorite sons, James Dodson. Another favorite son, Bill Mangum, planned and hosted the evening. We were there to launch Jim’s new book, American Triumvirate, with proceeds going to The First Tee of the Triad. At the closing of this wonderful evening, Mayor Robbie Perkins presented to Jim the honor of The Order of the Long Leaf Pine. This honor is extended by the governor and “presented to those who have demonstrated a lifetime of service to our state.” Jim was truly blown away by the honor. The only sad thing about the evening was there was no one there from the News & Record, WFMY or the Triad Business Journal to cover this wonderful occasion. In fact, it appears that our local news outlets (other than The Rhinoceros Times) have completely ignored a favorite son and what he has done for the state and Greensboro. This favorite son has a great love for his hometown. In fact, he started and is the editor of the new Greensboro magazine, O. Henry. (Continued on page 30)

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regardless of their age or sex, to assault and injure them, or any other person in their presence. It is a policeman’s duty to stop anyone from assaulting us or another person, and to stop them from disrupting school classes as well. The age of a disruptive “child” has nothing to do with the extent of injury they can inflict on another person, including an officer of the law. Until you have to deal with a violent and disruptive child who is kicking, clawing, punching, biting, screaming, spitting in your face, etc., you won’t understand why it is sometimes necessary to use whatever force necessary at the time to gain control of a violent and potentially dangerous situation, including Tasers and mace, in addition to physical force and handcuffs. Ramon N. Bell Sergeant/Greensboro Police (Retired)

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Page 28

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Architect

(Continued from page 8)

companies providing professional services, including architects, engineers, doctors, dentists and psychologists. In that case, Hunt did not claim in the consent order not to have done anything wrong. The 1993 home design case is interesting because the consent decree shows that there was some question as to exactly what Hunt’s company, “Anthony V. Hunt & Associates, Architects,” was. And according to the decree, it was a one-architect company sharing an office with Hunt’s construction company. The corporation database of the North Carolina secretary of state’s office show several Hunt-related companies, although, like the Board of Architecture database, it

Consultant (Continued from page 6)

would think the Planning and Development Department would have been doing that as they went along – create procedures for drafting the new zoning ordinance, create new zoning districts, then write new development standards. As Richardson described it, that would involve months or years of meetings, followed by drafts of the new ordinance, followed by public hearings, followed by another draft of a new ordinance. He said, “That document should be a lot closer to a document you can adopt.” Beyond outlining the process, Richardson

seems to include data only for recent years. An August 19, 1999 listing shows a suspended Hunt company called H&M Development Ventures Inc., which had previously been named Millennium 3 Design Group Inc. Hunt is listed as the company’s agent. The company is listed as a P.A. – a professional association, the normal listing for a North Carolina architecture firm. A Feb. 5, 2001 listing shows an active company called Millennium 3 Design Group PLLC, and lists architect Timothy McMullen as the agent. M3DG, when McMullen worked for the company, handled several projects successfully for Guilford County Schools as part of the school system’s 2003 bond construction program, the Academy at Smith (the renovation of the former

Oakwood Mobile Homes headquarters) and the new Guilford Elementary and Union Hill Elementary schools. But the M3DG website still, as of Tuesday, May 15, lists McMullen, along with Hunt, as one of the company’s “Principals in Charge & Points of Contact,” complete with biography and photograph, even though McMullen severed his relationship with M3DG in 2008. In an August 25, 2008 letter to the Board of Architecture, Hunt listed himself as the principal in the company and said that, as of Feb. 15, 2008, McMullen resigned and transferred his percentage of ownership of the company to Hunt. Hunt wrote, “On February 15, 2008, Anthony V. Hunt became 100% owner of

Millennium 3 Design Group.” McMullen was not involved in the company during the Allen Jay project. He is now university architect and director of design and construction for North Carolina Central University in Durham. In a voicemail in response to a request for comment, Hunt confirmed that McMullen is no longer with the company. Contacted by phone later, Hunt said, about McMullen being on the website four years after he left the company, “We haven’t had a chance to change it.” Asked for comments about the other consent orders, and whether or not he had any other registered architects working for his firm, Hunt said, “No comment. Have a good day,” and hung up.

said the four principles of writing the new zoning ordinance would be: implementing the Core City Plan, which the City Project, a public-private partnership created by the City Council, envisions redeveloping 11 mixed commercial/residential neighborhoods; removing obstacles to revitalizing the city; adding flexibility to development restrictions; and writing development standards for each area of High Point. Two things everyone involved in redeveloping High Point agrees on is that High Point needs investment soon – now, if possible – and that regulatory predictability is necessary to generate that investment. It’s hard to see how a two-year zoning ordinance

rewrite with an uncertain outcome would create regulatory predictability. The more you consider that, the better DPZ’s crash course in redesigning High Point looks. Alexander spent the most time of any of the councilmembers critiquing both the current zoning ordinance and the proposed rewrite. Alexander, who is in the process of selling his fabric business, said he built its building at 1520 Blandwood Dr. in south High Point because he couldn’t afford to build in the Piedmont Centre area of northeast High Point – even though his building would now be worth more if he had built in Piedmont Centre. Alexander said that when High Point cut streets such as Market Center Drive

through south High Point, it bisected many neighborhoods, killing them. “There were lots of little pockets of land that really became useless there, and at some point in time, the housing has so deteriorated that it is just going to have to be swept off,” he said. “What’s happened here is that they’ve created their own desert around them. We’ve got a lot of little deserts, and in the core, we’ve inefficiently used the land we have.” Councilmember Jim Corey called High Point “sidewalk poor” – the zoning ordinance didn’t require sidewalks when it was passed. Richardson said incentives for making developments more pedestrianfriendly or installing bicycle racks would be built onto the new ordinance.

Debt

(Continued from page 5)

Before worrying about the future, the commissioners need to focus on the $88.4 million the county will have to pay next year to service its existing debt. At the meeting, Fox said that several month ago it looked as though the county would have to come up with $100 million in debt service in the upcoming budget; however, she said the actual number would be a little less than that. “Since that time, we have restructured the debt and revised the estimate to $88.4 million, which is about $3.5 million more than the current year,” Fox told the board. Fox added that the debt service would keep rising each year until fiscal 2015-2016 and then it will decline steadily until it is all paid off in 2033-2034. “That’s assuming there are no more bond referendums,” Fox said. The county’s existing debt is due largely to the May 2008 passage of bond referendums for new schools, GTCC expansion and the new jail. Some of the “restructuring” of the county’s $100 million in debt that brought down what will need to be paid next year was simply a matter of extending that debt further into the future. However, there was also some real savings by, for instance, refinancing loans at lower interest rates.

The county also extended the payment of some special, interest-free federal school construction loans out as far as possible. That wouldn’t increase the county’s future debt because there is a zero interest payment on those loans. The common statement people make these days is that “Guilford County is a billion dollars in debt,” but the truth is that it’s actually a little worse than that. After the meeting, Guilford County Budget Director Michael Halford said, “If you take everything that we have to consider when we calculate the county’s net debt limitation, we are at just under $1.1 billion.” Right now, the county commissioners seem more inclined to worry about that billion plus in debt rather than start paying down the debt for future projects. Two commissioners didn’t attend at the May 10 work session – Bill Bencini and Billy Yow. Many county staff were on hand, including Assistant County Manager Sharisse Fuller, who is always close at Fox’s side these days. The board has another work session scheduled for Thursday, May 24, and could adopt a new county budget as early as Thursday, June 7, though some years they haggle right up to the legal deadline for adopting a budget, which is June 30 each year.

PAGE 28 The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Parachute Hed here (Continued from page 1)

However, with the temporary removal of Obama’s Tourism Initiative: Easy the cap, just in time for Fox to retire, Fox Come, Not So Easy Go (a CJ parody) now stands to receive over $61,000. Fox, has Leary 42 years with Guilford By69, Macon County – for most of that time she has Travel Correspondent served as the county’s finance director. At theORLANDO Board of Commissioners March 1 meeting, the commissioners who voted President Barack Obama recently to approve athe consent agenda night unveiled new strategy to that increase approved an exception to the county’s international travel and tourism to retirement that“Iwould Fox four the Unitedpolicy States. wantgive America to months pay when she retires in February of be the top tourist destination in the next year. Fox makes $183,200 annually as world,” he said to a group of invited county manager, andDisney four months of her pay guests at the Walt World Resort is equivalent to $61,066. in Orlando on Jan. 19. The“In fact2010, that Fox could60now receiveinterover nearly million $61,000 atvisitors a time when county national helped theemployees tourism haven’t hadgenerate a raise in over over three and industry $134years billion. county citizens are struggling financially Tourism is the No. 1 service industry– not towe mention at aAnd timethat whenmeans Fox hasjobs,” been that export. preaching the need for the county to save he said. every But dime ait second can – hascomponent, outraged citizens the and commissioners traveler retentionalike. program — still bechange allow Fox the ing The crafted bythat his would administration — moneynot wasbeburied in the finewith printjet-setof the may very popular paperwork that travelers. modified the county’s ting American retirement plan policy. non-descript Exporting travelA services is and the ambiguously worded item was on the board’s technical term economists use to deconsent agenda for its March 1 meeting. Fox plays a key role in deciding how the agendas are worded and structured. Most importantly, in this case, Fox, along with Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, also decides which items are placed on the main agenda

May 17, 2012 PThursday, arting Shot and intended for a discussion of the board and which ones are relegated to the consent agenda –spending a list of items is supposed to scribe by that foreign visitors be reserved for routine non-controversial while in the United States. housekeeping matters. According to the U. S. Bureau of Items on the consent every agenda additional are grouped Economic Analysis, together for presumed approval in oneUnited vote by 65 international visitors to the the Board of Commissioners, and the board States will generate enough exports almost always passestothesupport consent agenda with (travel services) one addilittle to no discussion – though from time to tional travel and tourism-related job time the commissioners do pull an item from for one year. the consent agenda if itsaid raises redhe flags or if The president that would they simply have questions about it. announce other travel initiatives later they thisMany year,commissioners but declinedsaid to that, take ifqueshad known the removal of the pay cap was tions from reporters. included within Phase Onethe many pages of county business theytourist approvedinitiative in a quick vote with The started no discussion at the March 1 meeting, they two years ago when Obama signed certainly never would have approved the the Travel Promotion Act, a bill that move. launched a new nonprofit organization Several commissioners saidisthis named Brand USA. Its job to week prothey thought Fox intentionally orchestrated mote America as a travel destination the the removal of the the world cap on .early retirement for rest of incentives pay, USA then put it asexecute an item aondythe “Brand will consent marketing agenda and purposely namic program didn’t that alert will the board but to the fact the change was in include, not bethat limited to, a global that paperwork. advertising campaign, earned media who may now start andCommissioners, public relations strategies, a robust paying attention for a change to the details in social media outreach plan, promotheir agendas, say they therefore didn’t know tional incentive campaigns, trade show what they were voting on, allowing Fox to open up a window of time where no pay cap was in place for retirees, giving Fox a chance to exit county government through that window with a large lump sum of taxpayer money in hand. It makes you wonder what else has been slipped by the commissioners

FEBRUARY 2012 | CAROLINA JOURNAL Page 29

on their agendas in recent years. This week, Commissioners Paul Gibson, Bill and others and said educational that it was a and Bencini sales missions, travesty, pure and simple, and that, campaigns about U. S. entryadded policies,” though the board may have been fooled on Brand USA Outreach Coordinator MiMarch 1, that doesn’t mean they have to chelle Sohn told Carolina Journal. let the highly for Fox stand.to “Theunpopular averagebonus overseas visitor commissioners it was theSeveral U. S. spends $4,000 said per trip, anda conflict interest Foxoverseas to create visitors the plan, it takesofjust 35 for new sneak it past them in theU. fineS.print, and one then to support one new job for turn around and take advantage of a financial year,” she said. windfall for herself that the When CJ pointed outcommissioners that the 35 didn’t even realize they had on. In the visitors per job estimate voted differed from commissioners’ defense, they have had a lot the President’s 64 visitors per job, she on their minds lately with important tasks such said, “You’re getting picky. My impact as coming up a name forhis, just but aboutwe every numbers arewith better than all buildingtourism and meeting room the county owns. know is good.” After financialdollars meltdown fall No the taxpayer are inused 2008, Fox and Assistant County Manager to fund Brand USA. Half of the proSharisse$200 Fuller, who’sannual also the county’s gram’s million budget will human resources director, put forthThea be funded from the private sector. voluntary retirement incentives which remainder will come from a plan, $14 fee on the two said, was meant to encourage the visitors traveling to the United States. early retirement Phase Twoof some high-paid county employees order involves to fill those Phasein Two a positions traveler with lower-paid employees and save retention initiative that would thus discourthe county money in salaries each year. age Americans from traveling outside that early retirement incentives theUnder country. Federal economists say plan, the highest amount any retiring that traveler retention has the county same employee effect could asreceive was $16,500; economic travel exporting. however, the change approved in March removed the $16,500 limit on 30-year-plus employees who retire in the coming months. It allowed them to collect four months pay with no cap in place – which would mean that Fox would get the $61,000 as part of her last paycheck in February.

In light of the vote to temporarily remove the retirement plan cap, and the prospects that Fox willBureau get that of large sum, the Guilford The Economic AnalyCounty commissioners have under sis estimates that for everycome additional criticism from citizens for passing something 65 United States travelers that can be they were unaware were voting on. the discouraged fromthey traveling outside It is the commissioners job to read country, the economy will create one through the material beforetourism-related voting on it and additional travel and to ask theysector, don’t job, or questions perhaps about a job anything in another understand. Many commissioners have for one year. been lax in that responsibility on past votes. Sources told CJ that the Obama However, that said,plans in this to caseimplement the change administration would have been difficult to catch even if they traveler retention through several inhad read the entire packet of material. centive programs. The first would be Evenfeeafter The Rhinoceros Times a $250 that would be added to the discovered wouldinternational be getting theflight large ticket priceFox of every payout, it took extended research and several or cruise made by a U. S. citizen. phoneCruise calls togoers countywho officials the stop toatfind multilone sentence in the March 1 paperwork that ple ports of call would pay the fee each removed thevessel cap. crosses The change on nathe time their into was a new second page of a graph that detailed various tion’s waters. benefits for retiring one had The secondemployees programandinvolves to know exactly what he or she was looking stiff duties on souvenirs brought back for to findcitizens it – and even then itabroad. was difficult. by U.S. traveling U.S. Normally, when awould changesearch in county Customs officials the policy of this is made, the old language luggage of sort every returning traveler is included struck thru, the new and assess and a fee equal to with 200 percent language written next to the old – but there of the purchase price of souvenirs. was nothing like that done in this case. Souvenirs brought in without a receipt Also,beinconfiscated. well-run local governments, would staff calls attention to any significant changes of this sort, no matter how clearly it is stated in the written material. That way, staff can be certain the commissioners or the city councilmembers know what they’re approving. (Continued on page 32)

Visit the John Locke Foundation’s Regional Blogs In addition to our statewide blog, The Locker Room, the John Locke Foundation has five regional blogs that keep an eye on local officeholders, watch for waste of taxpayers’ money, and search for incidents of public information being kept from the public’s eye. Be sure to visit the one that covers your region.

The Triangle Blog: http://triangle.johnlocke.org/blog

The Charlotte Blog: http://charlotte.johnlocke.org/blog

The Western N.C. Blog: http://western.johnlocke.org/blog

The Triad Blog: http://triad.johnlocke.org/blog

The Wilmington Blog: http://wilmington.johnlocke.org/blog

Page 30

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Letters

(Continued from page 27)

Jim started the magazine to show his love for his hometown and to spread the word that Greensboro is a wonderful place to live and work. I feel that more recognition, from those responsible for the news, of the things Jim has done and is doing for our city would be worthwhile and good for all. Jimmy Jones

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Dear Editor, The front-page headline in last Friday’s News & Record was very disturbing to me. It read “Commissioners Upset Over Bonus.” Well, after I read the article itself, I too was very upset as a taxpayer. I thought I’d seen about every stupid stunt possible with politicians, but the sad story of the clueless Guilford County commissioners and the Brenda Jones Fox “golden parachute” really takes the cake. The county manager is scheduled to gain $44,500 additional money in her retirement simply because the commissioners failed to read their agenda. To me this is inexcusable, incompetent and untrustworthy. They were derelict in their duties and grossly irresponsible. Also, it makes me wonder in what other ways Guilford County taxpayers have been compromised because the people we elected to do the job failed us. This is malfeasance in the worst degree. Several other things jumped up at me as I read the article. One was that the commissioners were angry about the bonus; another was that some commissioners tried to excuse themselves from the situation by saying that the county manager “should have highlighted a policy shift that would increase her retirement bonus from $16,500 to $61,000 …” Then there was the quote of one commissioner who said, “I had no idea. I thought it was going to be $16,500.” No idea. OK, commissioners, quit blaming someone else for something that happened because you failed to read your agenda. That’s child’s stuff. Be mature enough to admit what is evident to us taxpayers. The county manager has violated the trust of her office on numerous occasions that are well documented. Why would commissioners think they could trust her without at least enough oversight to read their agenda? Serving as a commissioner in Guilford County is a pretty good paying job, especially considering that it’s part-time. We shouldn’t have to tolerate this kind of failure and incompetence. Personally, I think all of them should be embarrassed and should resign. Also, since this whole thing occurred because our commissioners were not doing their job in a dutiful manner, I think this should disqualify them from serving in any other elective office. I mean, the most elementary responsibility that one has in any office or on any committee is to read the agenda. That’s so basic and fundamental. Somewhere, voters should write down the names of John Parks, Paul Gibson, Bruce Davis, Billy Yow, Bill Bencini and all the other commissioners and keep them on file and never ever vote for them again should they every seek another office. By the way, this is strike three for Parks. I have never forgotten that years ago as a member of the old Guilford County Board of Education, he voted to give the outgoing school superintendent $250,000 on the heels of the school merger. Then when the commissioners successfully sued and

recovered that golden parachute, they did it without Parks’ support. He voted against the suit. I’ve never respected the man since. It has literally taken an act of Congress – the Republican led state legislature – to get rid of Parks. If we ever see his name on another ballot, we need to remember the man and remember his deeds. Finally, I hope the News & Record, High Point Enterprise and The Rhinoceros Times will have a lot to say in the future about the $61,000 county manager bonus and how it came about because our officials have let us down. Anonymous Editor’s Note: The Rhino Times broke the story about the $61,000 retirement bonus on Thursday, May 10. The other media picked the story up from us, as they often do. And Commissioners Paul Gibson, Bill Bencini and Billy Yow didn’t vote in favor of the motion.

Beep (Continued from page 14) like falling off of a boat into the river, you grab a log or anything you can to hold on to, and that’s exactly what we’re in now. We’re drowning, and we’re going down if we don’t get a change. You people, this is not your granddaddy’s Democrat Party. This is a brand new party, and it’s filled with socialists. %%% Now that we have heard all of the details of the John Edwards’ saga with his mistress, etc., etc., has anyone asked John Kerry when he first learned of the affair and what he knew of it into the campaign? And, also, has anyone asked all the big news media, networks and written, how long they knew it before it was released by the National Enquirer? Some of these people were complicit in hiding that information from the American people who was supposed to be looking for a president. Thank you. %%% I would like to know why Greensboro is in North Carolina House District 56. It does not seem to make any sense to me and needs to change. Thank you. %%% The very idea that they built the jail, then sold the parking places to the YMCA, and they’re going to take the parking out from underneath the courthouse and them that work therewill have to walk I don’t know how many blocks to get in makes absolutely no sense. That’s just how far your city leaders have come, and county in running this county. The next thing I want to comment on is Greensboro News & Record reported that Biden said it’s OK with him to have gay marriage. That’s how far the Democratic Party has gone. This is not your granddaddy’s Democratic Party.

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 31

Yost

(Continued from page 14)

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

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The change that was in the paperwork of the March 1 meeting didn’t apply to all employees who were participating in the voluntary retirement plan – only to those employees, such as Fox, who have 30 years or more of employment with Guilford County or have an equivalent amount of time in qualifying state and local government retirement plans. Caps for those employees who retire early with 20 or 25 years of county service were not removed by the March 1 motion. Gibson said it was absolutely outrageous that Fox might get the money and he added that he’s going to do everything he can to see that she doesn’t get her hands on the $61,000. Many commissioners learned about the large payout for Fox by reading it in the Thursday, May, 10 Rhinoceros Times and, that afternoon, commissioners and other county officials were buzzing about the news as word spread quickly. Gibson was just one commissioner who was irate and who stated he wanted to see the payout undone. “I’m going to make a motion to rescind if someone doesn’t beat me to it,” Gibson said. “She’s grabbing all she can grab on the way out, which is typical of who she is.” Gibson, along with Commissioners Billy Yow and Bencini voted against the consent agenda that night. The consent agenda passed 7 to 3; Commissioner Mike Winstead was absent.

Yow almost always votes against the consent agenda on principle, and he did so at the March 1 meeting as well. Yow has said in the past that the reason he doesn’t vote for the consent agenda is because it’s difficult if not impossible to know exactly what’s being voted on, and it’s too easy, Yow has said, for county staff to sneak items past the Board of Commissioners using that agenda. “This is Nancy Pelosi politics,” Yow said this week, referring to a now famous 2010 statement by the minority leader of the US House of Representatives: “We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it.” Gibson and Bencini also voted against the consent agenda at the March 1 meeting for similar reasons – though both Gibson and Bencini said they had no idea there was an item on the consent agenda that would allow Fox to grab $61,000 on her way out the county door. They both said they were relieved that they happened to vote against that consent agenda. At first, Gibson was distraught because, he said, he thought he had deviated from his usual practice and had voted for that consent agenda. However, Gibson called the clerk to the board and was relieved to find out that he was one of three commissioners who voted no. Many commissioners said this week that, if the board had been aware of, and had discussed, a proposed $61,000 payout to Fox, the idea would have been shot down as soon as it was suggested. However, since they hadn’t caught the change by reading their agenda packets in detail, they didn’t know. Like Gibson, Bencini was also outraged at the idea Fox could get the money through what he said was subterfuge. Bencini served for 11 years on the High Point City Council before becoming a commissioner in 2010 and, according to

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Bencini, the difference between agendas for Guilford County and High Point City Council meetings is the difference between night and day – with the county’s agenda, of course, being the night part of that analogy because it’s often unclear what the commissioners are voting on. Bencini said High Point city staff would never do something like this. He said that, in his years on the City Council, High Point staff always went out of its way to make clear what the council was voting on. He said the agenda language was crystal clear at council meetings, and if there were important items that could be considered controversial, Bencini said, those were specifically identified. He added that if a High Point manager tried something like this then he or she would be fired in no time. Bencini said that, if the Guilford County commissioners had known it was on the agenda it would have unquestionably been voted down. Bencini added that there’s no way Fox should be allowed to benefit from this type of subterfuge and chicanery. Guilford County Attorney Mark Payne said that, in his opinion, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners could vote to undo what it did at the March 1 meeting. Payne said no county employee has actually retired yet as a result of any change in the retirement incentives plan made in March, and, even if they had notified human resources that they planned to retire as a result of removal of the cap for 30-year employees, those employees could still simply alter their plans if the board votes to put the cap back in place. “They could always choose not to retire,” Payne said. Guilford County has just under 2,500 employees, and 45 of those have 30 years employment with the county, or the equivalent amount of time working in a (Continued on page 33)

Perkins

(Continued from page 4)

The council also heard a report on the Request for Proposals issued for the transportation and disposal of Greensboro’s garbage. The garbage is currently being disposed of by Republic Services in the Uwharrie landfill, but according to the statements made at the meeting Waste Connections had the low bid and if Greensboro accepts the Waste Connections bid according to a representative of the company the city will save about $2 million a year.

Waste Connections has a landfill in Anson County which is further south than the Uwharrie landfill, but representatives of the company seemed certain they could beat Republics price and at least on Tuesday night it appeared they had. Joe Redling of HDR Engineering gave a typically incomprehensible report to the City Council where he basically said the city had received the proposals from different companies, but he did not say who was the low bidder or provide any useful information.

Yost

(Continued from page 31)

McLamb, mentioned earlier, had the first guy saying, “I cannot disclose that information,” and the second man saying, “Me either. Geof forgot to give us a mouth.” Anyway, the overall winner for the first annual Joke’s on the Way Contest was Brian Curtis. He was clearly the star performer and Brian even submitted a pretty good caption for this last picture in which he

gave political reference to Mitt Romney. Guy with red tie says, “Which of us is the most fiscally responsible?” Guy in blue tie says, “I’ll bet you 10,000 bucks it’s me.” OK, that’s a wrap. As always, thanks for playing, everyone. And remember, until next time, if it’s not funny yet, it will be soon – because, though the joke’s not here yet, The Joke’s on the Way!

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Parachute (Continued from page 32)

qualifying state or local government plan, which entitles them to attractive retirement benefits. On Friday, March 30, the 45 county employees who have 30 or more years in county service or other qualifying years were sent a letter saying that they would be entitled to the four months pay – with no $16,500 cap – if they notified the county’s Human Resources Department by Tuesday, May 1 of their intent to retire by Feb. 1 of next year; and 22 employees notified the county they were interested in taking advantage of the early retirement plan. However, that number probably isn’t a good indicator of how many employees actually plan to retire because they are free to change their mind at any time – and there was absolutely no downside to notifying human resources. Payne agreed there was no reason, under the terms of the change in the plan, for a county employee who had 30 years with the county not to notify human resources. He said that the county did derive some information from the response – namely, Payne said, the county now knew that those employees who didn’t submit their names had no intention of retiring anytime soon. Fuller said neither Fox nor other qualifying employees had to notify the county in writing of plans to retire in order to get the payouts. She said they just had to notify the Human Resources Department verbally. Fuller also said there was no stipulation that the employee notify her – the director of human resources – and Fuller added that she didn’t even know the names of all the employees who planned to take advantage of the temporary removal of the pay cap. “I could find out if I wanted to,” Fuller acknowledged. When Payne was asked if it wasn’t unusual for something as important as large retirement bonuses to be granted based on nothing other than a verbal notification, he said that, as an attorney, he would prefer a requirement of this sort be put in writing. As it is now, if an employee says that they notified human resources before the May 1 deadline, and there is a dispute, it would be

Thursday, May 17, 2012

the word of the retiring employee against whatever human resources worker he or she supposedly told of an intent to retire. Also, that announcement of intent is nonbinding, and there’s absolutely no downside for an employee to inform the county he or she plans to retire. One county official who asked not to be identified said it appeared to her that Fox had set up the retirement plan modifications so that Fox could change her decision about retiring if the new Board of Commissioners, which will be in place after the election this year, was willing to keep her on in December. That way Fox would have the best of both worlds, and there wouldn’t be even so much as a written statement of her intent to resign. Alston, Fox’s big supporter on the current board, chose not to run for reelection this year, and he will not be on the board to watch Fox’s back after the first Monday in December when the new board is sworn in. Alston has been a constant defender of Fox since she became interim county manager in December 2008 and county manager a few months later. This latest scandal is no exception. After the news of the payout for Fox spread to county commissioners, Alston said that he knew perfectly well what he was voting on and the other commissioners were falling down on the job if they didn’t. “If they didn’t read their material then shame on them,” Alston said. When asked if he was aware of the change, when the vote was taken on March 1, he said absolutely. “Of course I knew” Alston said. “I do my homework. As chairman I read through everything.” Commissioners Linda Shaw and Bruce Davis said Thursday, May 10 after a budget work session that they didn’t know they had voted to remove the cap and give Fox the $61,000. They had not yet seen The Rhino Times that day and they were informed of the payout by reporters who were trying to get their reaction to the fact that Fox would be getting that much money. After hearing the news, and asking reporters if they really had voted to approve

Ralph (Continued from page 7) Corp., the public-private entity set up by the City Council to handle incentives, nor Ralph Lauren Corp. executives, listed jobs to be added. They didn’t list real property improvements or explain the $112 million personal-property figure. And a company can easily send a representative to another city to fool officials there into thinking they’re under consideration. Most critically, no one involved made any effort to prove to the taxpayers that there was any need to give Ralph Lauren Corp. the money to add the jobs in High Point. Hill said the company was considering locating in another city – the same thing Hill and companies who want incentives always say – but Hill said the name of that city was a secret.

A scan of the newswires shows no other cities, counties or states publicly deliberating over giving Ralph Lauren Corp. incentives. Taxpayers have to take Hill’s word for it that another city is under serious consideration. And considering the history of such assurances, that argument is a pig in a poke in a Polo shirt with lipstick on – which still doesn’t hide the fact that it’s a pig in a poke. The High Point City Council has taken to offering incentives to companies that are already in High Point, including Ralph Lauren. Although Ralph Lauren may have plentiful options as to where to put new jobs, some of the companies that have gotten incentives didn’t, and seemed almost certain to settle in High Point anyway, including Stanley Furniture and Solstas Lab Partners.

that, and taking a moment to absorb the information, Shaw and Davis – who were standing together in the commissioners meeting room of the Old Guilford County Court House – both said they felt Fox was entitled to the $61,000. However, other commissioners had a reaction of alarm along the lines of Bencini and Gibson. Commissioner Kirk Perkins, for instance, asked how any Guilford County commissioner expected to justify paying out $61,000 to Fox at a time when the county is in dire straights, and with a budget coming up that fails to fund many vital county interests. Of course, Perkins did vote to do just that. “That’s a lot of money,” Perkins said. “You could fund the Gibsonville library with that money.” Well, they could have if Perkins and the six other commissioners hadn’t vote to give Fox the money. Gibson represents much of eastern Guilford County and each year the library in Gibsonville requests some county funding to cover some of its operating costs. In the 2012-2013 budget Fox proposed, she cut out all money for the Gibsonville library – something area residents say is a vital community resource – while including money in the budget for the $61,000 payout to herself. Perkins said Fox and county staff failed the commissioners by not informing them of the details of the consent agenda that night. The only reference on the agenda, listed under “Miscellaneous,” was “Modify fiscal year 2012/2013 Voluntary Enhanced

Page 33

Retirement Resolution (previously approved) to offer incentive for 30-year employees to provide early notification of intent to retire.” “They didn’t give us enough information,” Perkins said. Perkins said the county has a lot more pressing priorities than making sure that Fox gets a giant lump sum to start off her golden years. Commissioners Carolyn Coleman and John Parks also said they had serious questions about what had transpired without their knowledge at the March 1 meeting, and they added that they had grave reservations about Fox getting the $61,000 that the change allowed. Coleman and Parks said it would be very hard to justify giving Fox that large lump sum at a time when the county is struggling to such a degree – but, again, the two voted to do just that. Alston said that Fox deserves the money and has been the object of highly unfair criticism. Alston said that Fox was probably the best county manager that Guilford County had ever had, and he added that the criticism of her over the last two years had been the result of complaints by a few commissioners who don’t like Fox – and, to a large extent, Alston added, the media creating smoke where there was no fire. The next meeting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is on Thursday, June 7, where the matter of Fox’s $61,000 lump sum payout is expected to be reconsidered by the board.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

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School SalarieS - May 24 GreenSboro SalarieS - May 31 Guilford county SalarieS - June 7 hiGh Point SalarieS - June 14 -

(Continued from page 1) “by far the worst request I’ve ever seen in that time.” The idea was dopey because Kernersville, Guilford County and the State of North Carolina all invested money in the business park, which is anchored by a FedEx Ground Package System Inc. package-sorting facility, and expect a return on that investment in the form of property taxes and jobs. The proposed high school would be untaxable and wouldn’t hire many Kernersville residents, except perhaps in low-paying, menial jobs. The idea was dopey for other reasons, which Mendel and Kernersville Community Development Director Jeff Hatling delighted in making clear. Mendel not only attacked the rezoning request for land-use reasons, but seized the high moral ground and attacked it as a failure based on what the school board is supposed to consider most – the safety of Guilford County Schools students. “This was such an awful petition,” she said. “I cannot imagine putting a school where there are school buses, where there are students who are just learning to drive, and having them compete with industrial traffic and a railroad.” Mendel followed that jab with an uppercut, saying the tax money the school would deny Kernersville was a secondary consideration. She said, “You may be in favor of this, but I’m going to take the position of the safety of the children and vote against it.” Several other Planning Board members mumbled concurrences. The school board proposed putting the high school on a collection of properties owned by TDO Land Holding LLC that add up to about 148 acres in a sort-of-triangle formed by West Market Street, Bunker Hill Road and I-40 Business. The land is immediately to the east of the 127-acre FedEx parcel that contains the sorting facility. FedEx brought that property from TDO Land Holding in 2008 for $13.2 million, and the FedEx property is now valued for tax purposes at $20.3 million. Colfax resident Garland Stack, whose property adjoins the TDO land, organized a protest petition against the rezoning request. Hatling said that 23 of 29 qualifying property owners, or 79 percent, signed the protest petition – far more than needed for the petition to succeed. Stack said he isn’t even done getting signatures. A successful protest petition requires a three-quarters supermajority of the Kernersville Board of Aldermen to

approve the rezoning request when the aldermen consider the Planning Board’s recommendation. There are five aldermen, so four aldermen would have to vote in favor of the rezoning request. When school board Chairman Alan Duncan and school board member Ed Price presented the Triad Business Park plan at an August 31, 2011 meeting of the Board of Aldermen, some aldermen seemed sympathetic to the school board. But in the November 2011 election for Board of Aldermen seats, the proposed school became a major campaign issue, and Kernersville Mayor Dawn Morgan now says the board is solidly against the school. Morgan this week reiterated her opposition to the Triad Business Park site. “I think the development pattern is in place there for industrial development and the creation of jobs,” she said. “The school would shift that to a pattern of residential.” Not only do the alderman want to fill their carefully crafted business park with businesses, they’re convinced that the school board tried to do an end run around Kernersville last year by trying to convince state legislators to file a local bill to forcibly de-annex the TDO land. TDO Land Holding did propose deannexing the property last year, in return for a $1,175,000 reduction in the amount the Town of Kernersville owes TDO for doing site work on the business park. No bill was never filed, and such a bill would have gone nowhere in the Republican-dominated North Carolina General Assembly, but opponents of the proposed school still resent the legislative arm-twisting they say occurred. Hatfield, who was visibly enjoying himself, had other arrows in his quiver, including a May 9 memo from the office of Municipal and School Transportation Assistance (MSTA) of the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The memo is a preliminary traffic-impact analysis of the TDO land, and is starkly critical of the high school proposal. The MSTA analysis mirrors the objections of Mendel, Stack, Morgan and other opponents of siting the school in the business park. It predicts noise and heavy truck traffic problems from the proximity to the FedEx facility, limited road access to the school because of the railroad line, poor connectivity to residential developments (“This places additional demands on the local roadway systems for many years to come.”), and needed improvements to nearby intersections and school traffic (Continued on page 37)

Chief

(Continued from page 7)

management risks that we have associated with our four major electric delivery facilities and 13 electric substations.” High Point owns and operates its own electric company, High Point Electric. Boynton said McIntyre’s experience has also prepared him for other hazards in High Point, including the two major gas and

diesel transmission lines under High Point’s neighborhoods and the risks that come from having 25 major freight trains running daily thorough the High Point’s furniture market district downtown. Boynton and Springsted in January 2012 launched a national search by advertising in numerous national publications and websites for a fire chief to replace Taylor.

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 35

Thursday, May 17, 2012

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Page 36

Thursday, May 17, 2012

3 Easy Ways to Place Your Ad: Call Melissa @ 336-544-1952 Fax: 336-273-0821 Email: melissa@rhinotimes.net

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

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The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Page 37

Rebuked

(Continued from page 34)

congestion on South Bunker Hill Road. The MSTA wrote, “NOTE: This list should not be considered all-inclusive.” On the Guilford County School road design for the land, the MSTA memo states, “This design is expected to fail.” On traffic expected on the school’s driveways, the memo states, “These driveways are expected to fail.” Stack addressed the Planning Board at length, complaining that Guilford County Schools has tried to put the proposed high school in High Point and in Kernersville, but not in west Greensboro. “TDO is more than willing to accept a nearly $10 million windfall and therefore reserve all its entities’ speculative holdings near the [NC] 68 corridor,” Stack said. “Eloquent Guilford County government speakers want to make it known that we must educate the kids at any cost, while large speculative acreage sits there awaiting a hoped-for future expansion of the regional airport. The Guilford County school board should put aside their business and government compromises and seriously put the more attractive proposals on the table in the Greensboro and High Point tax base areas that better serve the school need.” In October 2010, the school board tried to buy land south of I-40, on a site near Boylston Road between the High Point city limits and the interstate, just east of Bunker Hill Road. High Point officials plan to use that area for industrial development, and High Point Mayor Becky Smothers and High Point City Manager Strib Boynton flatly refused to provide sewer service to the

school on the Boylston Road site. That explains why the school board started poking around Triad Business Park. The business park already has High Point sewer service and Winston-Salem/Forsyth County water. The Guilford County Board of Commissioners handed the school board an unexpected win on Dec. 1, 2011, when it voted 7 to 4 to approve spending $86,500 an acre for up to 125 acres in the business park for the proposed high school and a yetto-be-funded middle school. Whoever the eloquent Guilford County Schools speakers to whom Stack referred were, they weren’t present at the Planning Board meeting. Stack was probably referring to Duncan, a trial attorney for Smith Moore Leatherwood, who had his hands full this week trying to keep Johnny Reid Edwards out of jail, and didn’t show. Guilford County Schools Chief Operations Officer Andy LaRowe was expected to show, but didn’t. Instead, the school board sent Melton and Bell, their B team, to the Planning Board meeting. Melton is new to Guilford County, and Bell’s job is to choose ideal places for schools based on attendance zones and the like, not to make political pitches to angry planning boards. Quite possibly, the fact that Guilford County Schools didn’t bring any school board members or other heavy hitters is a sign that it has given up on the Kernersville site. It didn’t help that Guilford County Schools was behind the curve on most of the issues raised at the meeting. Hatfield

said Bell, in an earlier letter, said the school system was trying to organize a meeting with neighbors of the TDO land – after most of them had signed the protest petition. Hatfield said, “We don’t very often see that many opposed to a rezoning when they’re adjacent to it.” On the traffic issue, too, the school system was unprepared. Bell said that the school system hadn’t talked to the Department of Transportation before its preliminary report. She said, “We acknowledge that there are improvements that need to be made.” TDO Land Holding is a partnership of developers Arthur Samet of Samet Corp. of Greensboro, David Griffin of D.H. Griffin Construction of Greensboro and Grover Shugart Jr. of Shugart Enterprises of Winston-Salem, who are all contractors.

Brian Hall, a pre-construction project manager for Samet Corp., addressed the Planning Board but didn’t waste much time doing so. Hall said merely that Samet was proud of the Triad Business Park but supported the school board’s request. The Planning Board’s recommendation against the project was a done deal before the meeting. Immediately after the speakers addressed the board, Planning Board member Margaret Burks, like a judge waking in mid-trial shouting, “Guilty!” tried to make a motion to deny the request before Melton had even finished speaking at the end of the hearing. The other planning board members told Burks that, no, she had to give them time to discuss the proposal – although they spent little time doing so.

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Page 38

Rumors

Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

(Continued from page 1)

---

hard news behind and move into comedy. As a source of news it may not be much, but many people laughed out loud on Friday, May 11, at the front page above the fold story with the headline, “Commissioners upset over bonus.” The article is about how upset a majority of commissioners are about County Manager Brenda Jones Fox’s $61,000 golden parachute. What the N&R fails to mention in the article is how those commissioners found out about this enormous bonus. They found out the same way the N&R found out, and that was by reading The Rhinoceros Times on Thursday, May 10. ---

Our office cat, Mr. James James, occasionally tries his paw at typing. Usually the results are nothing to write home about, but on Monday night this week, left alone with a computer and keyboard, JJ, as he is commonly known, typed a word. Not speaking cat we are not sure what it means, but we thought one of our alert readers might be able to help us out. This is what JJ typed: “poooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooooooooooki.” We think he could have done with a few less Os, but evidently he felt each one was needed. ---

Rick Murphy of the Rick Murphy Golf Academy in Greensboro will be on The Golf Fix on the Golf Channel on Monday, May 21 at 7 p.m. to promote Welcome to Golf Month. Murphy won the 2011 PGA Free Lesson Month contest by having the most validated PGA Free Lesson Month cards. Murphy and his staff won the contest by providing free 10-minute golf lessons to the 7,561 attendees at a Grasshoppers game. This is the second time he has won the contest and been rewarded with an appearance on national TV. If you’d like to learn more about the Rick Murphy Golf Academy you can go to www.rickmurphygolf.com or call (336) 605-0052.

It used to be that everybody who was anybody was up at the Old Guilford County Court House to watch the election returns come in. It was where you could get the information first. Now that you can watch the same thing at home, the crowd is dwindling, but you still run into folks you haven’t seen in a while. For instance, I got a chance to talk to Bill Ashe, who is a retired city employee and worked at the Davie Street Parking Deck where I parked. For years I saw him several times on the average workday, but I hadn’t seen him since we moved into our new office. It was great to be able to catch up, in the middle of an election.

Former News & Record Editor John Robinson is now in charge of Elon University Poll. So it is no surprise that five weeks before the May 8 primary, Elon University Poll released the results of its poll stating, “The Elon University Poll results released today show that 61 percent of North Carolinians say they oppose an amendment that would prevent any same sex marriage, domestic partnerships or civil unions.” Most of the time you can argue about whether a poll is right or wrong, but with an election you know. The amazing thing about Robinson’s poll is how exactly wrong it was. In fact 61 percent of voters voted in favor of the marriage amendment, or the exact opposite of what the Robinson poll showed. It sure looks like Elon University Poll is going to provide the area with lots of entertainment. ---

One of the great things about the English language is how quickly it changes. People all over the world use English phrases for new technologies, in part because we incorporate them into the vernacular so quickly. Having said that, words still have meanings and we have to agree on those meanings to communicate. The phrase “to beg the question” does not, for instance, mean to ask the question. The meaning is closer to avoiding the question. Begging the question is giving an answer that restates the question without any new information, but people have decided to start using it to mean to ask the question, and no doubt in a couple of years only a few luddites will know what it used to mean. ---

One more election note: I haven’t seen the official stats, but the early voting totals that they put up first on election night are usually right on the money. With an increasing percentage of the votes being casts early, it is a great poll, and seems to be extremely accurate. In a close race, the winner may change as precincts report in, but it is an awfully good indication of how the race is going to go.

The Part Time Party Time Band will perform at the final Party on the Plank concert of the year on Friday, May 18 at 1529 N. Main St. in Uptowne High Point. The concert will run from 6:30 to 9 p.m. Admission is $7 per person. Visit www. partyontheplank.com for details. --Uptowne Market, an outdoor market, is now open in Main Street Square in High Point on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. The market features fresh produce, art and retail at 819 N. Main St. at the intersection of Montlieu Avenue and Main Street.

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

It is incredible that The Washington Post would devote nearly 5,000 words to something that may or may not have happened when Mitt Romney was in high school, but mainstream media show absolutely no curiosity about President Barack Hussein Obama’s past. Was Obama officially adopted by his stepfather Lolo Soetoro, the one who fed him dog meat, or did they just put Soetoro’s name on documents so that Obama could go to school in Indonesia? If Obama was officially adopted, does he hold dual citizenship? Did he ever have an Indonesian passport? Or maybe someone should find a few people who knew him in college and could explain how he got from Occidental College to Columbia University. Also during his college career – when was evidently borrowing money to go to school because he has talked about having student loans to pay back – how did he afford to go on a trip to Pakistan with his friends? Did they pay for the trip? Did his mother put up the money? Maybe his grandparents paid, but someone had to pay for what sounds like a pretty expensive trip for a guy who you would expect to be working to pay for the next semester. The Washington Post could find out who wrote his first book, because it wasn’t Obama. It might even be interesting to know if Obama’s parents were ever legally married. Obama Sr. had a wife back in Kenya; does that count? How about what his grades were at some point in his college career. He must have done pretty well in college to transfer from Occidental to Columbia and then get accepted at Harvard Law School. Why not release some of his grades, and how about a paper or two? If what Romney did in high school is important, isn’t what Obama did in high school and college important. The Los Angeles Times reported that Obama played junior varsity basketball at Occidental; is that true? It’s amazing the mainstream media have absolutely no curiosity about Obama before he started running for president. In fact, if you ask questions about Obama’s life before he started running for president you are branded a “birther” – some sort of weirdo who sees black helicopters overhead and a conspiracy on every corner. But here’s a more recent question: Obama is a Harvard Law School graduate and it doesn’t appear he had a full-time job until he was elected to the US Senate. He was an Illinois state senator, but that is a part-time job, only meeting from January to May and two weeks in the fall. He was also a part-time law school instructor, but he was never a professor. And he did some work at a law firm, but according to the reports he was not full time. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and he just goes back to Chicago and hangs out until he can get elected to the Senate? It appears to be an incredible story. It seems like the voters have a right to know what the story is.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

,,, The Obama campaign committee has a tough job this year. Obama ran in 2008 as the candidate of “hope” and “change.” He defined change as “Change you can believe in,” and that was enough for the adoring masses. So under the current election scenario Obama is going to lose votes every time he takes a stand on any issue. Take the gay marriage issue. When Obama ran in 2008, people who were in favor of gay marriage being legal and recognized by the states and people who believe that marriage is between one man and one woman all voted for Obama because he was in favor of hope and change, and they all assumed that he was really on their side on the definition of marriage issue. Now we know differently. Obama is in favor of legalizing gay marriage, which will cost him a lot of votes in North Carolina. But if he had come out in favor of traditional marriage that would have lost him a lot of votes also. It’s the same on just about every issue because Obama didn’t take too many stands in 2008.

,,, OK, at this point in the election cycle it appears that either the Obama campaign is being run by a double agent who wants to do everything possible to keep Obama from being elected, or there is some bizarre strategy that is counterintuitive. Obama comes out in favor of making gay marriage legal right after an amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman passes in North Carolina with 61 percent of the vote. A landslide is often defined as over 60 percent of the vote, so the pro-marriage amendment win qualifies as a landslide. Obama evidently really wanted to shore up that 39 percent that voted against the amendment. Many people said they were voting against the amendment because, although they didn’t believe that gay marriage should be legally recognized, they also didn’t think marriage should be governed by a constitutional. It seemed a lot of people agreed with that sentiment, which would mean the 39 percent was not just made up of people in favor of gay marriage being legally recognized. Even 5 percent against the constitutional amendment but not the law would lower that to 34 percent, and these folks are going to vote for Obama no matter what. So why in the world in an election year does Obama flip-flop on the issue and come out in favor of legally recognizing gay marriage? Politically it just doesn’t make sense because North Carolina is the 31st state to pass such an amendment, and it passed overwhelmingly here as it has in other states. Every state where the amendment has been on the ballot has passed it. So has the Obama campaign given up on anyone with any conservative sentiments? It would seem so because earlier Obama took on the Roman Catholic Church, and

Page 39

he made the Catholic bishops realize that if they sat around silent as they have so many times in the past that they were going to be closing schools and hospitals or become abortion providers, and the latter was not going to happen. So Obama took on the Roman Catholic Church and decided that he could tell it what to do, which is a mistake any way you look at it. In the 2008 election a majority of Roman Catholics voted for Obama despite the fact that Obama is not just in favor of abortion, he is in favor of partial birth abortion, which is so gruesome and cruel it is hard to believe that a civilized society allows it. In partial birth abortion, a late term baby – who would most likely live if delivered normally – is instead delivered feet first and while the head of the baby is still inside the birth canal, the baby’s head is punctured and, the baby’s brains are suctioned out. It is gross and cruel and all the evidence is that a baby undergoing that type of abortion can and does feel pain. Our president supports this activity because a mother who has been pregnant for seven or eight months and has suddenly decided that she does not want this child to come into the world has every right to kill that baby. According to Obama, the mother, up until the moment of birth, has the right to kill that child. It is a horrible belief. But many people who know how horrible and wrong this procedure is voted for Obama because he was going to do so many great things. He didn’t do those great things and he attacked the church. Some Catholics will vote for Romney because the Catholic bishops have come out against Obama’s insistence that the Catholic Church provide abortions. But many more will vote against Obama because they don’t like their church being bullied by the federal government.

,,, What possible good does it do for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to pat down a former secretary of state? Does Secretary of State Hillary Clinton get patted down before she gets on her government issued jet and flies to wherever in the world she chooses to go?

Extreme Machines Get Hosed by the Best!

By John Hammer I hope not. It is a ridiculous waste of resources to have the TSA patting down senators such as Rand Paul and former secretaries of state like Henry Kissinger. It really makes you wonder if this organization has any lists at all. It makes you think that were he alive today, Osama bin Laden could fly around the country on commercial flights under his own name because the TSA would be too busy searching 3-year-olds and former Cabinet members. No American should be subjected to the degrading searches that the TSA is now conducting, but certainly some people should be exempt. I don’t think the country would be in any danger if former secretaries of state were allowed to board planes with just the normal routine search. In fact, I would be willing to put all former members of the Cabinet on that list. If you are willing to run a department of the federal government then I think you should get a pass on the enhanced searches. I would even let them bypass the search process all together, but that might be too radical. The idea that the former secretary of defense should be allowed to get on a plane and fly without at least being scanned is today a radical thought. I think some congressional committee should look into how many bombs the TSA has found in the past 11 years. It is amazingly convenient that when the TSA is under fire they suddenly find gun parts in a stuffed Mickey Mouse. Knowing that a stuffed animal is going through the scanner, why would anyone in their right mind put gun parts in one? It is far too convenient and the TSA has far too cloudy a history to believe that piece of theater. The nation, which is heavily in debt, is spending billions of dollars on security for air travel. If the TSA isn’t picking up a couple of bombs a week, then we have built the Maginot Line of security. We are well prepared to stop the al Qaeda attack of Sept. 11, 2001, but we are ill prepared to stop the attack of 2012, 2013 or 2020. If the Republicans get control of the federal government in 2013, they should abolish the Department of Homeland Security altogether and get rid of the TSA.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Rhinoceros Times Greensboro

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