Roch Smith Jr – Greensboro 101

Articles by Roch Smith Jr

Scheme to deceive the public could sink third attempt at GTA bus contract

News, Noteworthy, Perspective, Top Stories August 28, 2018 4:06 pm

GREENSBORO, NC — After two previous attempts to award a contract to operate the City of Greensboro buses were sunk by improprieties in the process, a third attempt may meet the same fate. A letter to the City from an attorney representing a company that bid on but did not win the contract asserts that the Greensboro Transit Authority illegally held two closed meetings to discuss the selection committee. At one of those meetings, GTA Board members and attorneys conspired to conceal the Board’s actions from public scrutiny, hatching a scheme they acknowledged would intentionally mislead the public.

Final report: Fatal Summit Avenue apartment fire ‘accidental due to unattended cooking’

News, Noteworthy, Top Stories August 27, 2018 2:19 pm

GREENSBORO, NC — The City of Greensboro released today its final report of the investigation into the cause of the fire on May 13, 2018 at 3100 Summit Avenue from which five children died. The report confirms investigators’ initial assessment that the fire was caused by a cooking pot left on a hot stove but leaves some questions unanswered about operability of smoke detectors.

City Council hoodwinks public on gun show proceeds donation; News & Record calls it ‘brilliant’

Noteworthy, Perspective, Top Stories April 8, 2018 2:06 pm

City council hoodwinked people by turning to the very reliable technique of abusing the trust and goodwill of the people of Greensboro. Donald Trump said about misleading people: “People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you.” City Council took a page from Trump’s playbook and deceived us by saying the funds donated to Gun Stoppers will come from the gun and knife show when, in truth, they will come from some other source in the taxpayers’ coffers.

City cannot produce parking analysis City Manager cited in News & Record column

News, Noteworthy, Perspective, Top Stories February 15, 2018 10:43 am

GREENSBORO, NC — Greensboro City Manager Jim Westmoreland cited a 2016 parking analysis in a guest column published in the News & Record justifying $80 million for new parking decks downtown. Despite nearly three months of requests for the analysis, neither Westmoreland nor city staff have been able to produce it.

The News & Record’s gutless parking deck editorial

Noteworthy, Perspective, Top Stories February 6, 2018 12:32 pm

The News & Record’s editorial Stacking the Deck chastises the Greensboro city council for imperiling the public trust with the city’s mishandling of the downtown parking deck projects. Unfortunately, the editorial elides the specific bad acts that are causing a loss of public trust and, instead, blames city council only for failing to manage public skepticism. It’s a gutless diversion that attempts to right the ship without rocking the boat.

Smith Report: Democratic candidates for North Carolina’s U.S. House of Representatives 13th district

Noteworthy, Perspective, Top Stories January 29, 2018 11:40 am

Three candidates have thrown their hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional district. They are Adam Coker, Kathy Manning and Beniah McMiller. How are they doing so far?

Is the N&R’s ignorance willful or has it just given up?

Noteworthy, Perspective, Top Stories December 29, 2017 10:10 am

GREENSBORO, NC — The News & Record cannot have it both ways. A pollutant in downstream Jordan Lake cannot be a concern when it comes to attacking the state legislature in an editorial while the presence of the same pollutant in upstream Greensboro’s water is not acknowledged. That is intellectually dishonest.

Too deep in debt, City Council being asked to put Performing Arts Center into hock to secure funding

News, Noteworthy, Top Stories December 19, 2017 9:37 am

GREENSBORO, NC — Because the City of Greensboro has too much debt and in order to get around voter approval of the financing for the Tanger Performing Arts Center, the city will enter into a higher interest bond agreement with PNC bank that will have the city grant a lien on the center to PNC bank:

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