VoteNoBonds.com

Helms said he believes her selection is “a done deal” but fears a community clamoring for change will be reluctant to embrace an inside candidate, especially if they believe the national search was a sham. Earlier in the process, Helms said, “I thought about calling Frances to say, `If you really want to help this community, you need to step aside.’ ”
…
Kaye McGarry, the only other board member to attend White’s announcement, denounced Haithcock’s selection to reporters. She said Grier and Gorman both rated significantly higher than Haithcock when the board did its early rankings behind closed doors, but the majority pushed to include her as a finalist.

Fellow Republicans Ken Gjertsen and Larry Gauvreau raised similar concerns this week but without giving names. George Dunlap, a Democrat, said the pair were misrepresenting a complex process.

Helms said Friday the school board “might have avoided that if they had just let the public see, let the press see. Now we have two competing versions.”

The missteps have hurt CMS’s chances of getting more county money and passing bonds this fall, Helms said. “I wouldn’t even put it on the ballot right now.”

Observer Article

In response to “Citizen panel plans fail; Haithcock is candidate” (March 15):
For shame! Frances Haithcock should send a note of apology to each member of Gov. Martin’s committee — nothing they can do will get CMS bonds passed if she is appointed superintendent.
Does Haithcock have skills so rare that it’s worth trading the trust of the voting public to have her as superintendent? The last thing this district needs is the status quo.
Tricia Brodbeck

Charlotte

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlot…n/14140580.htm

On The Soap Bov

by Lewis Guignard

March 02, 2006
Last fall, voters soundly defeated the latest bond proposal for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. In the wake of that defeat, the Board of County Commissioners, led by its self-avowed tax-and-spend chairman, Parks Helms, directed County Manager Harry Jones to form a committee whose main purpose was to convince 51 percent of residents to vote “yes” on a school bonds package this year.

As details of the organization of that committee became clear, I sent Jones an email explaining my concerns. After a few politically correct exchanges, including one from former Gov. Jim Martin, who chairs the so-called School Building Solutions Committee, Jones sent me the following on Dec. 28 in response to my decision not to serve on the committee, if asked:

“There is much we can learn from Mother Goose,” Jones’ letter read. “I am reminded of Humpty Dumpty who had a great fall and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could not put Humpty together again. Rumor has it they failed because they could not reach consensus (the inability to reach general agreement). I believe Humpty can be put together again in this great community when we stop shouting at each other and start listening to one another. I hope that you can be one of those voices of reason.”

My response was that Humpty Dumpty was probably pushed by those who expressed concern about his plight. This is what is going on in Mecklenburg County today. The voters have been pushed by their leaders, elected and otherwise, to a point where they soundly reject a CMS bond package. This is a failure of leadership, yet those in positions to change this leadership continue to support the failed policies and leaders who have brought us to this point.

Examples abound. Eight years ago, for example, former County Commissioner Joel Carter proposed a capital pay-as-you-go plan to use a short-term tax increase to bring about a long-term reduction in taxes. If it had been adopted by the Board of Commissioners, which was controlled at the time by Helms, today our taxes could be lower, while having more operational money for programs than currently exist. Helms and other leaders ignored Carter’s plan because a political opponent had proposed it. Yet last year, Helms led the vote to increase taxes, beginning a version of the Carter Plan while avoiding any reference to Carter’s leadership. Unfortunately, in addition to trying to fix the capital side of the county’s funding problems, the Democrats’ tax increase also included millions of dollars for social programs designed to appease Democrat voters.

As a result, the county still faces a capital funding and revenue problem that requires voters to approve bonds that will lead to long-term tax increases.

About six years ago, I did a regression analysis of the relationship between school age, teacher longevity, teacher degrees, parental involvement, race, socio-economic status and math and reading results.

The analysis was based on CMS’s own numbers and the results were clear. There is a strong relationship between socio-economic status and test results, and a slightly weaker one between race and test results. I presented the findings to the Board of Commissioners. In turn, the findings were roundly ignored by the liberal leadership of the county, which continued, and continues to this day, the wasteful policies of school rebuilding and renovations that do nothing to improve educational results.

County Commissioner and former Board of Education member Jim Puckett, along with school board members Kaye McGarry and Larry Gauvreau, cite the need for building more schools in the suburbs, where there is tremendous growth and overcrowding. Those in control – specifically the Democrat majorities of the Board of Education and the Board of Commissioners – have steadfastly refused to listen.

Former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt and Bank of America executive Cathy Bessant co-chaired a task force focused on changing the way CMS is organized and administered with the intention of gaining public support for a new and improved CMS. Their report, although wide ranging, could not cover everything, but focused on major items. There are many good ideas in their recommendations. The acceptance of those task force recommendations, however, has been weak among those who would be expected to implement its changes – in effect, the Democrats and liberals who control the Board of Education and want to stay in power for their benefits.

The majority of the school board is opposed to Charter Schools, which are public schools whose purpose is to offer parents an opportunity to educate their children outside of CMS. CMS is required by law to fund these schools at a per pupil level equivalent to its own funding. To the detriment of charter school students, the school board voted with the support of CMS staff to under-fund the charter schools. This is an attack on children just because they do not attend CMS.

Puckett has talked about finding ways to enable low-income families to have their children attend schools outside CMS, if they wished: a voucher system of sorts. It is a proposal that would give parents direct control over where their children could attend school and the education they would receive. Yet because such a policy would wrest control, not to mention funding, from CMS and the county, his proposals have fallen on deaf ears.

These are only a few examples of why Humpty Dumpty fell down and broke when voters overwhelming rejected the school bonds last November. Many of you have your own and similar stories – the arena, light rail, business subsidies – of how “leadership” has either ignored those of us who offer legitimate ways to make this a better county, or called us naysayers.

Then, when things fall apart or results aren’t exactly right, the complaints start. But by continuing to support those who follow the policies of the past, which have been shown not to work, by refusing to listen to new ideas and accepting the fact that parents have a legitimate and proprietary interest in the wellbeing of their children; by raising taxes just because they can; in general, by ignoring the interests of the average people of the county, our leaders, self-appointed and otherwise, have caused Humpty Dumpty to fall down.

It’s important to remember that those in positions of leadership continue to support the people and ideas that have brought us to this point. Downtown and its cheerleaders only interest is 51 percent of the vote on the next bond.

Then those in opposition are told we must learn to listen to each other, to build consensus. I say that I have listened; it is those who have brought us to this point who have refused. Show me, that I might believe you know how to lead us out of where we find ourselves; because I don’t believe you can. Look to yourself to see why Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

It is not the fault of those who voted against a wrong-headed and excessive school bond; it is the result of those who convinced us, through their actions and policies, past and present, to vote “No.”

Are you proud of the results?

Lewis Guignard is president of Citizens For Effective Government

http://charlotte.rhinotimes.com/
Charlotte, North Carolina • Volume XV No. 9

by Brian Gott

February 23, 2006

It’s amazing how complicated and costly things get when government bureaucrats get involved.

Take, for example, the cumbersome, 35-member School Building Solutions Committee. The committee could wind up spending nearly $180,000 – about a third of it tax dollars – to tell, in large part, the community what it already knows: That Mecklenburg County needs new schools and, particularly, needs them desperately and quickly in the suburbs.

The committee, chaired by former Gov. Jim Martin, is charged with studying ways to build and pay for schools and crafting a bond package that will be able to convince at least 51 percent of the public to support it.

For its part, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday night unanimously approved a spending plan for the committee that includes $10,000 to promote public hearings for the committee, $25,000 for a community poll, $45,000 for televising weekly, four-hour committee meetings and hiring a consultant to work with the committee, and $28,000 for facilitation, among other things.

The estimated budget for the committee’s work is $177,500, but county officials say taxpayers will only pay around $75,000; the rest of the money will come from private businesses and a $25,000 grant for the community poll from Advantage Carolina that commissioners approved on Tuesday night.

The committee will start meeting March 10 and will present its recommendations to commissioners and the Board of Education by July 1. Mecklenburg County General Manager John McGillicuddy presented an overview of the so-called Martin Commission to commissioners Tuesday night.

“It is focused on the immediate needs that must be met in the next three years,” McGillicuddy said. “Whatever the next capital package is, it must be supported by the county.”

McGillicuddy also warned that the only way the public would have faith in the committee is if it is fully supported by all members of the Board of Education and commissioners.

“The design team strongly believes that the credibility of the SBS Committee, the process, the information considered, the quality of the recommendations and the coherence and level of consensus of the committee will have to be high for the recommendations to carry weight and garner support of elected leadership,” McGillicuddy said.

Of course, a lot of people said the same thing about the task force that was charged with reviewing CMS, and look how well things are going with the recommendations it made, what with half of the school board all but saying if task force members want to set school policy, they should run for public office.

In any event, “Elected officials must support the SBS Committee process from the beginning,” McGillicuddy said.

In other words, Republicans should keep their traps shut about wanting to pursue Certificates of Participation (COPs) construction funding to immediately begin to reduce school overcrowding in the suburbs.

Republicans who even question the SBS committee’s intent or the committee’s work will likely be lashed by Democrats, as was evidenced Tuesday night.

Commissioner Jim Puckett, a Republican, asked how the group would determine its definition of “consensus.”

“This group will decide how it’s going to conduct its business,” McGillicuddy answered curtly.

Puckett also said the company contracted with to facilitate the SBS Committee meetings should be a company that has not worked with the county or CMS before, because it could have biases one way or another. After a few follow up questions from Puckett, Commissioner Norman Mitchell, a Democrat, started to criticize Puckett’s attempts to make sure the committee would be all it’s supposed to be and not just another super-sized committee designed to provide cover for the status quo.

“We don’t want to leave any cracks or loopholes for you to squeeze through,” Mitchell barked at Puckett, only to be silenced in return by Commissioners Chairman Parks Helms, a Democrat.

Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, got a hand slapping of sorts for suggesting that a Republican spokesman be able to attend one committee meeting to tell the group why Republicans on the Board of Commissioners and Board of Education opposed the $427 million bond package that was defeated last fall. Those same Republicans wanted, instead, to build schools using COPs, which are a bond-like funding tool that don’t require voter approval but allow for more direct control than bonds of how the money is spent.

“I am doing my best not to let this become a political issue,” Helms told James, adding commissioners such as James should “stay out of the way.”

James also wanted to make sure the $25,000 community poll that is conducted doesn’t ask leading questions. The purpose of the poll is to determine the reasons why voters rejected the $427 million school bond. Even an insinuation that the poll would be anything but legitamate seemed to frustrate Helms.

“It will serve no interest to have a poll that is biased,” Helms said. “Even if it’s ‘no,’ we need to know it.”

According to a county report, Mecklenburg Planning and Evaluation Director Leslie Johnson will oversee the poll and data will be available in late March.

Rhino Times
Charlotte, North Carolina • Volume XV No. 9

Cash Crazy Committee
by Brian Gott
write the author
February 23, 2006
It’s amazing how complicated and costly things get when government bureaucrats get involved.

Take, for example, the cumbersome, 35-member School Building Solutions Committee. The committee could wind up spending nearly $180,000 – about a third of it tax dollars – to tell, in large part, the community what it already knows: That Mecklenburg County needs new schools and, particularly, needs them desperately and quickly in the suburbs.

The committee, chaired by former Gov. Jim Martin, is charged with studying ways to build and pay for schools and crafting a bond package that will be able to convince at least 51 percent of the public to support it.

For its part, the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday night unanimously approved a spending plan for the committee that includes $10,000 to promote public hearings for the committee, $25,000 for a community poll, $45,000 for televising weekly, four-hour committee meetings and hiring a consultant to work with the committee, and $28,000 for facilitation, among other things.

The estimated budget for the committee’s work is $177,500, but county officials say taxpayers will only pay around $75,000; the rest of the money will come from private businesses and a $25,000 grant for the community poll from Advantage Carolina that commissioners approved on Tuesday night.

The committee will start meeting March 10 and will present its recommendations to commissioners and the Board of Education by July 1. Mecklenburg County General Manager John McGillicuddy presented an overview of the so-called Martin Commission to commissioners Tuesday night.

“It is focused on the immediate needs that must be met in the next three years,” McGillicuddy said. “Whatever the next capital package is, it must be supported by the county.”

McGillicuddy also warned that the only way the public would have faith in the committee is if it is fully supported by all members of the Board of Education and commissioners.

“The design team strongly believes that the credibility of the SBS Committee, the process, the information considered, the quality of the recommendations and the coherence and level of consensus of the committee will have to be high for the recommendations to carry weight and garner support of elected leadership,” McGillicuddy said.

Of course, a lot of people said the same thing about the task force that was charged with reviewing CMS, and look how well things are going with the recommendations it made, what with half of the school board all but saying if task force members want to set school policy, they should run for public office.

In any event, “Elected officials must support the SBS Committee process from the beginning,” McGillicuddy said.

In other words, Republicans should keep their traps shut about wanting to pursue Certificates of Participation (COPs) construction funding to immediately begin to reduce school overcrowding in the suburbs.

Republicans who even question the SBS committee’s intent or the committee’s work will likely be lashed by Democrats, as was evidenced Tuesday night.

Commissioner Jim Puckett, a Republican, asked how the group would determine its definition of “consensus.”

“This group will decide how it’s going to conduct its business,” McGillicuddy answered curtly.

Puckett also said the company contracted with to facilitate the SBS Committee meetings should be a company that has not worked with the county or CMS before, because it could have biases one way or another. After a few follow up questions from Puckett, Commissioner Norman Mitchell, a Democrat, started to criticize Puckett’s attempts to make sure the committee would be all it’s supposed to be and not just another super-sized committee designed to provide cover for the status quo.

“We don’t want to leave any cracks or loopholes for you to squeeze through,” Mitchell barked at Puckett, only to be silenced in return by Commissioners Chairman Parks Helms, a Democrat.

Commissioner Bill James, a Republican, got a hand slapping of sorts for suggesting that a Republican spokesman be able to attend one committee meeting to tell the group why Republicans on the Board of Commissioners and Board of Education opposed the $427 million bond package that was defeated last fall. Those same Republicans wanted, instead, to build schools using COPs, which are a bond-like funding tool that don’t require voter approval but allow for more direct control than bonds of how the money is spent.

“I am doing my best not to let this become a political issue,” Helms told James, adding commissioners such as James should “stay out of the way.”

James also wanted to make sure the $25,000 community poll that is conducted doesn’t ask leading questions. The purpose of the poll is to determine the reasons why voters rejected the $427 million school bond. Even an insinuation that the poll would be anything but legitamate seemed to frustrate Helms.

“It will serve no interest to have a poll that is biased,” Helms said. “Even if it’s ‘no,’ we need to know it.”

According to a county report, Mecklenburg Planning and Evaluation Director Leslie Johnson will oversee the poll and data will be available in late March.

Rhino Times Volume XV No. 9

Merchandise Mart eyes new location
Updated: 2/9/2006 7:34 AM
By: Adam Shub, News 14 Carolina

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The Charlotte Merchandise Mart, which recently agreed to sell its facility on Independence Boulevard, wants to partner up with the public sector and build a new exhibition center off Wilkinson Boulevard.

All the revenue would go to the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department, which owns the proposed site along the Catawba River. Private developers would turn their profit from a hotel, residential units and retail shops.

“You have a synergy, located on Wilkinson Boulevard, that wouldn’t be there otherwise,” said Edna Chirico, who represents the Merchandise Mart.

Most of the site would be green space, though.
…
Parks Helms, the chairman of the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners, likes the concept.

“I think it would be a major benefit to the citizens of this county if it’s done right and if we can do it at the right price,” he said Wednesday.

But Helms said any deal would have to clear several hurdles first. After all, taxpayers would have to sign a bond referendum to pay for the center’s construction.

Read the article here.

By BRIAN GOTT - STAFF WRITER

In the wake of voters rejecting the $427 million school bonds package, there has been a general call from politicians for consensus building and cooperation. The general theme: Let’s all get along and move forward in a positive direction.
The reality hasn’t been so positive, and if local politicos are trying to lead by example, we’re all in for a rough ride. Consider the consensus building comments of Commissioner Norman Mitchell, delivered at last week’s Board of Commissioners meeting when the board voted down a proposal to fund $254 million in school construction to relieve overcrowding in the suburbs using Certificates of Participation (COPs).
Mitchell, a Democrat, went on a tirade, blaming the school bonds’ defeat on everything from the media to a vast right-wing conspiracy hatched by Republican commissioners and school board members.
“To the citizens of Mecklenburg County who supported my colleagues, my Republican colleagues, in that if you go out and vote against these bonds that COPs will placed, we will use COPs instead – you were either hoodwinked, lied to, bamboozled, any other thing,” Mitchell said. “But you were misled; you were misled.”
Mitchell went on to blast residents who campaigned against the school bonds, along with the media, after imploring “some of us who continue to try to work to hold this community together, we’re trying to make this a livable place.”
“And it is just so hurtful,” Mitchell said, “that all this rhetoric that is moving throughout Mecklenburg County, by some citizens, some of our elected officials, even some talk show hosts, particularly WBT. I guess we’ll call some of them Rush Limbaugh wannabes. They reek a foul odor of separatism, classism and racism.”
So much for consensus building, but Mitchell wasn’t alone. Take this exchange between school board members Kaye McGarry, a Republican who backed the COPs school construction plan, and George Dunlap, a Democrat bond supporter.
“Kaye, you just don’t get it,” Dunlap wrote in an email to McGarry last week. “You supported candidates to run against each of us in hopes that you would get the change that you wanted in hopes of becoming board chair. You knocked on 400 doors I,m (sic) told, to ask people not to support the bonds.
“You gave financially to some candidates and worked all day at the polls for a losing candidate. You gambled and you lost,” Dunlap continued. “You don’t have any social capital. You don’t have the power to negotiate anything.”
Dunlap also told McGarry in the email to just stop talking to him.
“Don’t waste you (sic) time with me unless you say something that makes sense and it’s been a long time since you’ve done that, so I won’t hold my breath,” Dunlap wrote.
“Thank you for sharing your opinions with me,” McGarry replied, somewhat sarcastically, in a return email. “I appreciate. On November 9th, 2005, I congratulated you on your victory in District 3. I plan to again work with the people God gave me on this board, and try to bring this board together.”

Rhino Times Article

…
In 2002, the bonds passed 63-to-37 percent, a substantial change from the previous two margins. Yet again, those on the winning side expressed no concern for those on the losing side. They had won and that’s all they cared about. If they cared about consensus and those who had voted against the bonds they would have gone into Coulwood, Oakdale, Mint Hill, Berryhill and the other precincts where a majority of the voters had said “no” and asked about their concerns. They did not.

Which leads us to November of this year, when the “no” voters gained 20 percent in the polls and defeated the school bonds. This is extraordinary and cries out about the problems the voters have with CMS.

The bond supporters are stunned. Having never cared about those who expressed concern about issues personal to themselves, because all they wanted was 51 percent of the vote, they are surprised their arrogance has caused such wreckage.

Suddenly, bond supporters, on the losing side for a change, say they care about those opposing the bonds, who are on the winning side for a change. The supporters want consensus, compromise, yet the naysayers can leave the county if they don’t like the higher taxes. There is consensus only in their arrogance.

Let me assure you all. Board of Education Chairman Joe White does not care about consensus or resolving the issues, his is a mantra from coaching that has only to do with winning. His words upon learning of the failed bond vote indicate his position. White, and others of the same ilk, only care about winning. They are only interested in 51 percent; when they get it, talk of consensus and compromise disappear.

There is a similar attitude in the people who support the bonds and the losers on the arena vote, because they are the same people. They don’t really care what the voters say; they care only about taking the voters’ money.

My prediction is there will be much talk and nothing will change, which has been the history of CMS since 1970. In no uncertain terms, education is not the purpose of the CMS bureaucracy, as the culture of bureaucracy in control there is concerned only with self-preservation. As this culture is perpetuated through quiet approval by the Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners, there is no reason to change.

A “no” vote is only a bump in the road to them – much as the arena vote was. Expect higher taxes and no real change in policy.

Rhino Times

Ex-governor Martin to seek schools solution
Will lead unity-building panel
CARRIE LEVINE
clevine@charlotteobserver.com

Former N.C. Gov. Jim Martin has agreed to chair a citizens committee that would design a school-construction package for voters to consider in November.

If Mecklenburg commissioners approve, Martin, a Republican who once chaired the county board, will head a 35-member group and appoint nine seats. The group could begin meeting by March.
…
School board members immediately split over the need for the committee.

Republican Ken Gjertsen, newly elected to represent the south suburban District 6, said CMS needs to revamp student assignment to send students to their closest schools before his constituents will back bonds.

Republicans Larry Gauvreau and Kaye McGarry, who have both introduced alternative plans for building new schools, said CMS needs to act quickly on those plans.

Republican commissioner Jim Puckett, who opposed November’s bond package, said Martin is a good choice to chair the process. Allowing mayors of the suburban towns to make appointments, he said, will help balance the committee. “I think the fact of the matter is, the biggest distrust and disconnect lies in the suburban areas.”

Democrats Molly Griffin and Tom Tate voiced support for the proces

Charlotte Observer Article...

Last week’s defeat of the $427 million Charlotte-Mecklenburg School bonds moves the district one step closer to a meltdown of epic proportions.

As a show of frustration with how the Board of Education handles spending, management and pupil assignment, voters overwhelmingly turned back the package, which would have built new schools that would relieve overcrowding while renovating inner city campuses that have fallen behind on maintenance. A strong push by conservatives helped fan the flames, but the school board’s ineptitude and a massive case of sticker shock were likely enough to sink the referendum. The fallout, however, could portend serious ramifications for the county, CMS and students alike.

For the county, Republican commissioners Bill James and Dan Bishop argue that Mecklenburg can alleviate overcrowding by issuing Certificates of Participation, or COPs, to build schools in the suburbs. The Republicans, who demanded CMS hold the line on spending when they were in the majority two years ago, should be applauded for their change of heart. But issuing COPs is riskier for the county financially and doesn’t address renovation issues in areas that sorely need them.
Democratic commissioners, on the other hand, pledged to help public schools find the money to ease overcrowding and maintain equity. Although the referendum went down in flames, they’ve been painted into a corner: issue COPs or face criticism for doing nothing. Democrats, most notably Dumont Clarke and Norman Mitchell, have publicly opposed COPs after a resounding public decision on the bonds, using Charlotte City Council’s reversal of the failed arts and entertainment referendum of 2001 as a cautionary tale of abiding by voters’ wishes. The Democrats won that skirmish Tuesday by defeating the COPs proposal.
So what will happen next? We suggest that public input be allowed to go forward with the new school board, which returns many of the same characters that put the district into this mess. They should hammer out a new proposal that takes into account Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s overall needs, which requires a centrist, mature study of issues facing the district. Then offer it to commissioners for a referendum.
One thing is sure: Suburban schools will continue to overflow without new construction. Older campuses will continue to deteriorate without renovation and upgrades. And communities will continue to balkanize based on geography, economics and politics. If Mecklenburg citizens are determined to send a message to the school district and elect representatives who share that view, it should be consistent. If it’s fiscal restraint, so be it. If it’s aggressive spending, we should be ready to live with it. Staying this confusing course only leaves everyone railing for top-flight education without the assets - or courage - to make anything of consequence happen.

Volume 31, No. 09

http://www.thecharlottepost.com/editorials.html