Frankenstein's bill
Published June 26, 2015
Editorial by Greensboro News-Record, June 25, 2015.
She blinded us with science. Or at least she’s tried to.
In a last-ditch effort to save an unpopular bill, state Sen. Trudy Wade has grafted it to another piece of legislation that has nothing to do with it.
SB 36, which would restructure the Greensboro City Council, has been surgically attached to a separate bill that restructures the City Council in Trinity.In creating the two-headed monster, Wade hopes to avoid public discussion and to force lawmakers to approve both bills or neither. The combined legislation is now called HB 263.
The Greensboro half of the bill would reduce the size of the council to seven from nine, eliminate at-large members and strip the mayor of her vote. These are changes nearly no one in Greensboro seems to support, including state Reps. Jon Hardister and John Blust of Greensboro, both of whom, like Wade, are Republicans. They’re not alone.
A prominent Republican developer in Greensboro, Roy Carroll, opposes it. A second Republican businessman, Marty Kotis, has run billboards against Wade’s bill.
And North Carolina’s Republican governor, Pat McCrory, has said he opposes any case in which the legislature intrudes on local matters.
One of the few vocal proponents of Wade’s bill, Andrew Stevens, said in a letter to lawmakers that Wade’s bill is so desperately needed because the current council is “dysfunctional, unaccountable, arrogant, wasteful and incestuous.” His fails to mention that he doesn’t live in Greensboro.
Meanwhile, HB 263’s original sponsor, Republican Rep. Pat Hurley of Trinity, keeps putting off House consideration of it. Most recently, the bill was scheduled again for a vote Wednesday, then postponed for the second time in five days, apparently for lack of support.
In her efforts to lobby fellow lawmakers via email, Hurley also has mangled the facts involving Greensboro’s portion of the bill (as if it’s her business anyway). For instance, she has repeated the dubious claim that the city’s business community supports Wade’s bill but is afraid to speak up.
Blust retorted in his own email to colleagues: “This information is deceptive because much of it contains a kernel of truth but is either embellished or important facts are left out. I am not accusing Rep. Hurley of this as I believe she is simply being fed the incorrect information.”
Be all that as it may, The Thing That Came from Raleigh just won’t die.
Ideally, Wade would give up the ghost and withdraw this legislation. Short of that, the two bills should be separated and judged on their individual merits. It would be more than reasonable to allow Greensboro residents to vote the bill up or down. But Wade fears a referendum.
With the filing for the next election less than two weeks away, the festering uncertainty is starting to be a practical issue as well. It’s time to get on with this. Change it. Or kill it. But do something. Wade seems intent on holding an entire city hostage in an effort to win at any cost. Her colleagues should stop her. Now.
