City council approves $1 million for Greensboro Police Department replacement cars

by Gale Melcher

During its June 6 meeting, Greensboro City Council approved a $1 million expenditure that will allow the purchase of 24 replacement police cars for the Greensboro Police Department.

The Equipment Services Division provides all city departments with a fleet of equipment and keeps a small back-up supply of police vehicles at city facilities. There is currently only one police vehicle available for replacement needs, according to city documents.

“We literally have one car in inventory right now…. One fender-bender and we’re out of police cars,” Assistant City Manager Larry Davis told councilmembers, adding that the 24 new cars will all go into service, replacing vehicles that have gone beyond their typical lifespans and need to come out of service. Council voted 8-1 in favor of the measure, with District 1 representative Sharon Hightower as the sole dissenting member.

“[O]ur order for replacement vehicles this year did not get filled,” Davis said, citing manufacturing production challenges. The city had been pursuing hybrid vehicles from Ford. However, according to Davis, Ford was unable to get the necessary parts to build them, so all hybrid vehicle orders went unfilled. Gas-powered vehicles will be purchased locally instead.

Funding for police increased over the last three years

While Hightower was the sole dissenting vote on June 6, District 2 councilmember Goldie Wells echoed Hightower’s concerns around more funding for police.

“It does make you wonder, why is it we focus just one way when there are other things that our citizens need that we need to be pushing for,” Wells said.

“It’s an unbalanced effort,” Hightower concurred.

“I know we have to do these things, but I think we should be more balanced,” Wells said.

“It’s wrong, it’s absolutely wrong that we have focused on one area,” Hightower added.

“Putting all the money on one side and be damned everybody else. It’s wrong. Transit is suffering. Field ops is suffering.”

“I understand public safety is important — it is — but you have put them on a pedestal,” Hightower argued.

At-large councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter, who is a vocal supporter of the police and was once found to be a police informant, voiced her approval of the move.

“If there is only one police vehicle available — which is the case — and two police cars have flat tires….Forget it,” she said.

Despite calls for defunding the police in 2020, the city of Greensboro has gradually increased its funding of the police department in the last few years. For the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the police department had a budget of $78,583,248 — and the year after that it went up to $83,721,688. During the 2022-23 fiscal year, the budget was $91,174,117. The upcoming recommended budget for the police department is $96,023,712, which would amount to nearly 13 percent of the city’s total recommended budget of $749.5 million.

The 2023-24 budget is still in the works and is expected to be voted on by council on June 20. The budget will go into effect on July 1.

JUNE 2 4 –JULY 2 9 | 2 0 2 3

Greensboro, North Carolina

Saturday night performances featuring:

William Wolfram, piano (July 1)

Gil Shaham, violin (July 8)

Mighty 5’s, Beethoven/Mahler (July 15)

Hélène Grimaud, piano (July 22)

Awadagin Pratt, piano (July 29)

TICKETS

Don’t make us defend Thom Tillis

Last week in Greensboro, North Carolina Republicans voted to formally censure Sen. Thom Tillis because of his work on bipartisan efforts in the Senate for modest gun control and same-sex marriage.

We’ve been watching the rise of Sen. Thom Tillis for some time.

A trip through our archives gives us the highlights that include failing upwards from a seat on the Cornelius Town Commission to the NC House, where he became speaker in 2010 and ran largely unopposed until 2014, when he defeated Kay Hagan for the US Senate seat.

In that time he has committed all manner of right-wing chicanery, including the initial denial of Medicaid expansion in NC (2014), support for the anti-trans Bathroom Bill (2016) and performing a bait-andswitch on his vote to fund Trump’s bogus border crisis (2018). In short, he’s done nothing but appease his masters and curry political favor with his backwards party from the very first day.

And this is how they pay him

back?

Seriously, Tillis made his name as one of the most conservative voices in the Senate. It was Trump who broke his back by forcing Tillis to contort himself to fit into whatever position the former president felt like taking that day. It wasn’t until after Jan. 6 that Tillis started to break away again, voting to uphold the results of the Electoral College in the wake of the disaster.

The line drawn by censuring Tillis doesn’t force him out of office, but the formal reprimand all but guarantees the GOP wants to back a primary challenger in his next re-election bid. But that’s not until 2026.

Perhaps we can take solace in the fact that if Tillis knows anything at all, it’s which way the political winds are blowing. So if he seems unconcerned about payback from the GOP ground troops, perhaps we shouldn’t be either.

But if mainstream Republicans deem Tillis — who has been a footsoldier for the GOP playbook — unworthy of their trust, then we should be worried about who’s left in the tent.

Courtesy of NC Policy Watch