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7/16/2004 |
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Your Call Suggest a new topic for discussion and commentary. If it has merit, it will quickly get its own spot on the roll. (Ed. Note: character assasination is not a valid topic) 9:25:48 PM
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Minority Sourcing This topic came up during my interview with the Simpkins PAC. I was probably elusive because the inquisitors didn't seem to want to be clear on HOW they sought to improve the really dismal minority business sourcing record of Guilford County. It sure seemed to me we were talking about creating a new staff position in county government which if that was the case, I could not support. I have since read now that the objective is indeed a special staff position to improve the situation. Rewarding people with a larger staff when they are not performing to the expectations of the county board is something I simply would not support. I would be willing however to support eliminating the rubber stamp for budget consent items coming from staff --- until they started hitting some milestones that other commissioners would like to see met. If we were working with numbers within even an order of magnitude of what you would expect based on the number of minority owned businesses in the Guilford County area, this would not be an issue that should be within the purview of the board. As it is though, some improvement should be made to make sure we are not just sourcing on some kind of good old boy network. Not to get too meddlesome, I would also suggest trying to reassign some current staff in charge of sourcing and bring in some fresh faces to keep everyone on their toes. (This is often a good way to get better pricing that can reduce costs.) 9:25:22 PM
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PTIA / FedEX Well, they're just bulldozing away out there on Byrant Blvd. For the record, I am not against FedEX or another company looking to set up a flight hub at PTIA...as long as it is on their dime. The problem is that FedEX has been very shrewd about making sure that much of the cost (outside of their legal fees) is on anything else but their dime. When a private company works closely with governments to shift costs of a project (environmental, noise abatements, etc) to taxpayers this is not free-market capitalism. It is, best case, corporate welfare; worst case - a darker economic system popular in the 1930's. My position has not changed essentially since my campaign for State Sentate in 2002. The way the electorate has had to contend with an unelected supra-county organization like the PTAA, is another problem that needs to be fixed. Governance without accountabilty to the electorate need to end. 9:24:28 PM
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Billy Yow I'm sure sooner or later someone is going to notice that I am working as the State Coordinator for the John Birch Society and imagine that they heard somewhere that this is the type of group that Billy Yow would certainly do well in. For the record. No. You would not be correct. And, unlike the Republican Party, The John Birch Society would not allow someone to have his pee on you t-shirts and his membership too.* With the primary only a few days off, this may soon be a dead issue. *Now, if you're a Democrat and have a thing for axe handles, that would be a tougher and much longer answer. 9:23:26 PM
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Terry Grier I have never talked to Dr. Grier directly and we are on the up and up here to avoid personal attacks. I have read the work of those he promotes however and I therefore know I do not agree with his outlook about what educating students should be all about. I know it might sound harsh or insensitive but I have to be honest and report that when talking about our schools systems in Libertarian circles many like to keep things in perspective by using the terminology government schools as opposed to the more generally accepted public schools. Using this terminology helps explain why many parents find it so difficult to get the type of schooling they desire for their children. I could be off-base but the misnamed School Choice plan sure looks a lot more like government social planning than something designed to produce the deliverables that parents desire. Let's take a quick poll on what the top things parents would like schools working on and then compare... 9:23:09 PM
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Damn Yankees Someone find me the statistics on how many people in Guilford County are transplants...particularly from above the Mason-Dixon line. When I'm on the road with my job though, I like to point out, "I'm a Northerner not a Yankee." That'll keep you from getting thrown out of some homes. Would it be unfair to suggest that there is a correlation between increased taxes and greater regulations in Guilford County and the % of people living here from somewhere else? I have not seen anything so dramatic to emphasis this in a Guilford County Commissioners meeting, but in Richland County (Columbia, SC) there was this: In arguing for an element in a Smart Growth plan (where and what kind of trees you have to plant on your property.) A woman who happened to be a county librarian addressed the county commissioners, "I hear all these people talking about how expensive all this is going to be and how their taxes are so high. Well, I come from New York and let me tell you your taxes are nothing compared to what other people pay. This plan will help beautify our community and it should be passed." 9:22:18 PM
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Voter Knowledge Ask the next 10 people you meet if they know the name of their county commissioner or the district they live in. Even, when I ran for state senate two years ago, I was momentarily stumped and had to think about that one thinking, "Wait a minute, were there new district lines drawn for county commission seats as well?" It has also been my experience that the people most passionate about who the next president of the United States should be are the least knowledgeable about who their local representatives are. They're game plan seems to be, "If the guy I pick for king wins and the D or R button I just pushed gets him a Congress on his side, life will be good." The majority of us will certainly get the government we deserve. My plea though is, "If you do not know who you are voting for, skip that one and please let those who do determine the outcome." As a third party candidate, let me also make a plea to voters, "DON'T hit that straight party ticket button -- even the Libertarian one." Last year in Guilford County about half the people who voted took this option. If you run the numbers on that statistic, I need to convince enough voters to bag this old habit in order to win.
sidebar: Even skilled voters who only focus on the national elections, can get burned. I had someone confess that they didn't know as much as they probably should on the local elections but they were well versed in the national issues. I was a unfair trick question on my part but I responded, "So, have you heard about the FTAA?" My fellow voter gave me quizzed look and said, "I'm sorry, I have to admit I hadn't heard about that one." I went into a relatively short description to be helpful, "...Been in the works for 10 years, massive expansion of NAFTA, covers whole Western Hemisphere, transfers fundemental labor law regulations in our country to the UN's International Labor Union, to be voted on early next year...target implementation is no later than December 31st, 2005." TMI I know. But wouldn't you think that something 10 times the scope of NAFTA which was the buzz in the 1992 elections would get at least an honorable mention in the 2004 elections? Particularly since there are many now who are not so sure NAFTA was not the good deal it was sold as. Anyway, if anybody asks, getting the word out on the FTAA is why I took up the staff position with the John Birch Society who has made Stopping the FTAA the largest program in their 45 year history. 9:21:02 PM
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Smart Growth Folks the rain tax is just the tip of the iceberg ahead. Smart Growth and Comprehensive Plans are rolling out across the country and Guilford County is no exception. As an engineer by training my inclination is to favor design over chaos, but if you care about your property rights you need to get up to speed on these initiatives. I'd like to think I am not paranoid, so please check out the new River Basin Advisory Commissions bill that was passed just two weeks ago in our State Assembly. My read is that where we now have an unelected PTAA controlling the airspace (and necessary ground space) in our area, we are on our way to having an unelected body (through the "advisory" process) controlling all the fresh water in the county and of course the land it runs over. If we keeping going down this supra-county regionalization path, our county commissions are going to become superfluous to the process of governance. We will have come full circle back to taxation without representation. 9:20:36 PM
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