WWDGID?

Let's say you are about to extend an employement offer to someone and then comes time for the required and routine background check..

Let's now say that the potential employee refuses to consent to a criminal record background check and objects to the required and routine employement and education  verification...

As a " non profit" employer who's sole source of funds comes from tax payers, do you...

1. Ignore the red flag, put the public at risk and hire the candidate?

2. Follow common sense, fullfill your civic imperative and keep looking?

Now, as an informed elected official ... What will you do?

Dear Councilman Matheny...

Did you ever get an answer from DGI regarding Jason Cannon's resume or is DGI blatantly and defiantly ignoring your request? 

Just curious as I especially liked this two sentences from this TCB article:

" It's something to me that seems could be pretty easily cleared up if it is true or is not true...Matheny added that, since the city funds DGI, he would like an answer..."

Is anyone else on city council curious about this?

Is DGI truly held to a higher standard?

 From TCB's article:

“I sent an email to Jason asking for information and he hasn’t responded,” Matheny said, adding that he has sent the question several times to no avail. “I was not on the hiring committee so the only resume I’ve seen is one that is posted online. It certainly is something that probably needs to be answered and addressed. It’s something to me that seems could be pretty easily cleared up if it is true or is not true.”

Matheny added that, since the city funds DGI, he would like an answer.

I don't think so,  otherwise  Mr. Matheny would have gotten his answer by now... 

Oh Gary!

Gary, Gary, Gary...! What are you saying?

In today's Triad City Beat article, Gary Brame, DGI's new chairman made some comments that are worthy of a little more scrutiny.

1. "The comments about diversity were totally unfounded"

 TCB's earlier article revealed the following:

" Several board members, including ex-officio member Mayor Nancy Vaughan, raised concerns about the lack of racial diversity among those proposed, sending the process back to the drawing board.

“When I looked at the proposed slate, there was very little diversity, and there is very little diversity on the board right now so I felt like we needed to do better outreach,” Vaughan said.

Gary Brame, then acknowledged the lack of diversity as he had to go back to the drawing board.

2. "Two of the six new board members are Black" ... a racist is never a racist because he has a Black friend... 

Worth noting that even with the two additional Black sympathizers, DGI is still 88% white with only 3 Black members. MWBE participation anyone? 

Greensboro 's population is 43% Black, 10 % Latino.

 3. Gary then "offended a friend" after rescinding an offer...really???
Did the board nominate the "friend"or did Gary simply make up his own slate? Is that the same friend he vehemently argued for during the " non confrontational nominating process". 

Did Gary nominate his black friend?

4. "Brame also said that he had been surprised to read about McClinton and Robert's concerns about the board's lack of diversity"

A quick review of a few board meeting minutes will reveal that the issue was mentioned more than a few times times. Of course the minutes are redacted by the very submissive and afraid DGI staff and not recorded as they should be.

5. Now for my dear friend Teresa Yon... Gary Brame says that Sam Simpson should have booted her out, but yet he had no problems reappointing her as her year long vacation must have come to an end...

Lies , lies and more lies... let' face it, no amount of lies, cover up or truth manipulation will help DGI this time around.

Greensboro deserves Better!

Dishonesty over Diversity.

Yesterday, DGI  decided to amend its recent bylaws in order to bypass last year's council imposed term limits of two consecutive 3 year terms for a maximum of 6 years... No vote took place but Dawn Chaney, was the recipient of this extra love (with council approval)  and will remain on the board for a seventh year... Afterall the first six were so memorable. 
Worth noting that there was obsolutely no one else, in the entire city of Greensboro, remotely capable of filling the void that would have been left by her not so sudden departure...not one soul!

But never mind all that...Based upon our Mayor's suggestion,  DGI 's executive committee delayed last month meeting and tried hard  to summon additional, desirable black folks to join and go along... the appearance of diversity had to be maintained at all cost.

With a new board make up of 80% White members, (and with a 100% White nominating committee) you would think it was almost an impossible task as DGI's elite could only come up with 2 new Black directors for a grand total of three. 
In a city with 43% Black constituents, the results leave me a little perplex but not surprised... Frankie Jones must not have been available as he is already serving on every other board and commission throughout the city. 

So while the nominating committee was devouring the "Who's Who" directory looking for trained, acceptable Black members, it unanimously reappointed my favorite Bourgeoise wannabe, Teresa Yon. Teresa remained on the board even though she only attended two meetings all years... her contribution must have been very valuable outside of the board room as it certainly was non existent inside. 
According to the DGI bylaws Ms Yon should have been removed from the board a while back due to her deplorable attendance, but, as noted in the first paragraph, bylaws seem to be flexible when convenient.

With the city now assuming the cleaning of our streets and the maintenance of Roy's park, DGI has very little to accomplish or aspire to, except maybe, for the allocation of $180,000 streetscape plan that has NO CHANCE of ever being implemented, but don't take my word for it...ask any council member !

With now a staff of 6, and salaries approaching $400,000+ (not counting benefits), it is legitimately impossible to justify DGI's existence or reason for being as it is obvious that the leadership does not possess the integrity or economic development expertise needed to move us forward. 

THINK ABOUT IT... how does anyone honestly justify the salaries? 

Dishonest - Greedy - Incurable! What s my name?

I have been in the belly of the beast as a DGI board member, and i can now affirm that the cancer is terminal! ... What I thought was bad, was actually worst than anyone could ever imagine.

The old guard or legacy made all decisions and hid numerous things from the greater board and therefore from the tax payers and constituents it was supposed to represent...only yesterday did I find out about a potential $20,000 additional payout to Ed Wolverton... Who? What? Ed Wolverton...really?

Incompetent and socially awkward, Ed  Wolverton will soon be $20,000 richer thanks to the world champions who negotiated his departure...$20,000 is a large expenditure and should be put to the board...even our own city manager has to ask for permission to spent more than $10,000.

But forget Ed Wolverton for now,  i certainly had up until yesterday... I still resent the fact that my money is going towards his further enrichment, but i despise the fact that our tax dollars are now going to pay the salary of his deceitful and similarly incompetent successor.

That's right...it is rumored that DGI's hand picked golden boy, President and CEO, Jason Cannon had been a little less than honest and forthcoming during his interview process... It has been uncovered and confirmed that he modified the truth about his education on his resume... (hat tip Billy Jones). One would think that as board members we would have been informed of the deception before Billy Jones made us aware of it.

We later found out that not only did he ambiguously represent his education, he also managed to seal only part of his academic records to prevent anyone from finding out about the potential misrepresentation.
His original resume stated :
 2001  NC State University  Master of Public Administration Program
 1999  UNCG Bachelor of Arts- Political science and sociology programs

Worth noting that Mr Cannon completed the Master's program in late 2014.

One would think that his refusal to authorize a background check during the interview process would have alarmed Mark Prince, the person in charge of the search committee. Not sure why Mr Prince of the Guilford Merchant Association did not let anyone know about such obvious red flag...or did he???

"Time to pull back the kimono"

Adieu DGI !

Today was my last  meeting as a member of the DGI board of directors... I must say that I harbor mixed feelings... I am a little sad that Sam Simpson had to resign as he was determined to better the organization but finally realized that "a better downtown " was an impossible dream considering the upcoming DGI chair and current President...

I am disappointed that I did not get the chance to finish the implementation of the Marketing plan that I created, and I fear what DGI's  incapable hands will do with it going forward...and , finally,
I am very much pissed off that my friend Simone McClinton got caught in the mix and was also removed from the board even though she had 4 years left to go... Mark Gibbs of Gibbs Brewery was selected and a little too eager to replace her as the restaurant representative. Gibbs does not own a restaurant but he is a partisan and seems stuck onto Gary's power moob.

Simone's only faults were that she questioned the questionable, sat next to me during every meeting and was of the same mindset that Downtown Greensboro deserved better.

While most people know my feelings for Downtown Greensboro Inc, most people do not know that i went in as a determined  board member who was going to walk the walk and contribute all that I could in an attempt to better the organization I spent so much time criticizing...

As Sam Simpson and Nancy Vaughan had to fight to get me on, I was not going to let them down and wanted to demonstrate that we are simply better together!
I went in wanting to be part of the solution and contributed my time, my resources, my talent and available favors to assist in creating a better Downtown, a Downtown that I am all invested in!

By July, I found myself in the bizarro world of having to defend DGI in the press against comments made by former board members. By September, I had created a sustainable and credible branding platform, a marketing strategy , and, today, was credited for having been the instigator of moving the ice skating rink down to Lewis St...BUT,  I voted against Gary's idiotic idea of spending $180,000 on a street scape plan... a plan that many council members have already agreed could not be funded. I opted  to create something cool, memorable and tangible for our center city instead.

As my last board meeting came to a close,  I accepted that the organization waited me out determined to vote me off regardless of my contributions as they were determined to reject me almost from the beginning.