Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston had a lot of questions for county staff at the board’s afternoon work session on Thursday, Oct. 19 as to why it was taking so long to demolish the old jail in downtown Greensboro to make way for the Sheriff’s Department’s new headquarters.
County staff have now pushed the estimated opening date for the headquarters back to the fall of 2025 – even though the sheriff and his top staff have been waiting years for their new home.
Alston is a big advocate for Guilford County Sheriff Danny Rogers – who, like many top administrators in the Sheriff’s Department, is anxious to get out of the dilapidated headquarters in the Otto Zenke building and move in to a shiny new facility.
At the afternoon work session on Thursday, held in the third-floor conference room of the county-owned Truist Bank building, Alston pressed staff as to why all work on the project had apparently stopped.
“I drive by there four or five times a day,” Alston said. “The sheriff keeps asking ‘What’s going on with the jail? What’s going on with the jail?’”
Alston added that, after the Board of Commissioners pulled out of a contract with Samet Corp in February, which was doing the work, the job of demolishing the old jail went on hold, but added that the county had entered into a new agreement with another company four months ago and still nothing was happening. Alston added that if it was going to be February 2024 before the demolition begins, then the building would have sat there for a whole year without any work being done on it.
Guilford County Facilities, Parks and Property Management Eric Hilton said that one major factor in the delay was the implementation of the county’s new MWBE plan and procedures.
In early 2023, the county adopted a new stringent MWBE policy which meant that staff had to make extra effort to comply.
“To dive a little deeper into the MWBE outreach,” Hilton told the board at the work session, “that’s where a lot of our time has been spent in the last few months. We initiated a significant effort to build a prequalification process and outreach program that complies with the board’s goals and policies.”
He said the county had held two MWBE events related to the project and there were two more planned. He said those had been successful in creating prequalified companies and in engaging the MWBE subcontractor pool.
Hilton said that county staff had spent a “tremendous amount of time,” on the project and Frank L. Blum Construction, the project manager at risk, had “devoted an amazing amount of time” – including huge efforts to recruit MWBE participants.
Alston said he wished staff had come back to him and the board and let them know that the new MWBE rules would hold the project up.
Guilford County Manager Mike Halford also said that the county’s major new MWBE initiative was taking time and said that he would take responsibility if anyone wanted to complain that the board was not told about the MWBE initiative causing a delay.
“That’s on me,” Halford,” Halford told the board.
The two county administrators could not say it but the board has really put them in an impossible position because the board – Alston in particular – is simultaneously pushing staff to move as fast as possible on a number of projects, all while implementing a new powerful MWBE initiative that extends thw timeline of those projects.
An MWBE issue was at the heart of the midstream cancellation by the county of the contract with Samet, and county staff certainly do not want to see the board pull out of a new agreement again for similar reasons.
Stay tuned. More misery will come.
Racist mf,skip needs to move to gaza.
Racism at its best. Citizens and their tax dollars whizzed away in the wind. Pitiful. Guess you’ll never build your racist jail with Skip and his black requirements . Keep on voting these clowns into office.
Sad when decisions are based on race, creed and color instead of doing what is needed to build Sheriffs HQ. County had excellent contractors including those of color. Skip and the county commissioners placed this business in jeopardy.
Until Skippy and the county commissioner’s see on what can be done by proven, reputable contractors with excellent work history, we the citizens of Guilford County are at the Mercy of these racial, racist, ignorant commissioners lead by Skippy.
Wow, who cares who is the most efficient or best qualified contractor available? SO much more important to meet MWBE goals. Thanks, Skippy!!!
Skip this bullsh$$ is all on your RACIST attitude. Don’t question others just look in the mirror. Just as the SAMET rep. told you
“This is RACIST bullsh$$
Can’t wait to see how much more money your ego is going to cost the taxpayers
Stupid jerk.
Oops, another example of well intentioned programs resulting in costly “unintended consequences”.
Spending a lot of time with the MWBE is a make-work-excuse project that this govt does. Greensboro is now a destination for the homeless. No matter on which side of the fence you stand, you are paying for it. Cash extorted from the citizens. And it IS extorted. Your tax bill comes with a threat – don’t pay your tax, and your property is taken.
Fire Eric today! Not Monday, today! How In the hades could this be holding up the project I would fire everyone involved go to GA find a contractor and get it done. Their dragging their feet and complaining I own a general service company and I could of been then tore it down with sledgehammers and sawzalls this is incompetence and has nothing to do with the MWBE standards they where waiting on that question and to assign blame fire them today
The MWBE policies are reverse discrimination, and should be challenged… They are costing the taxpayers money and time, and some cases projects qualities are being questioned. When a company bids on a project with the state, city or county, the paper is white the ink is black. When you bid you bid that you will do a job for a particular price in a particular timeline. your bid is then compared with other like companies. Not getting a contract because you don’t have enough, Spanish or black painters in your company is discrimination . If I’m not mistaken, we hired four administrators to review every company to make sure they have the right racial balance. In some cases we go out of state to find such a Company.
Skip the mwbe is nothing more than reparations. Just like affirmative action it will be found unconstitutional. It’s RACIST against WHITE people
If Alston and his minions expect to fully satisfy the MWBE policy in order to complete this project then the current sheriff will be retired and long gone before this project is ever finished. This is about the most ridiculous thing that has come down the pike lately. When will the citizens of Guilford County ever learn to get off their behinds and elect responsible county government leaders? These kinds of shenanigans need to stop.
Until citizens get off their duffs to get out and vote we will continue to have a liberal, kowtow to special interest, don’t care about the County citizens bunch on the County Board just like the school board.
MWBE needs to be eliminated. What contractors, big and small, will band together to sue Guilford County and the state of NC to end MWBE? The MWBE program allows inferior and inadequate individuals and contractors to be awarded contracts. Tax money should not be used to reward anyone based on sex and skin color.
Just wait until you try to build the building…how about the best trades based on your work?
MWBE needs to be 100% scrapped. It costs taxpayers extra tine and money.
It is a huge waste.
The county as well as the city suffer from a simpleton view of commercial contracting and it shows. I would suggest that all the problems and any frustrated or angry “racial” comments made during discussions were a DIRECT result of certain members of the council trying to manipulate subcontractors on the project. I am wondering just exactly how this all came about. Someone, somewhere knows, and it seems strange to me that that reason has not been leaked….coverup?
Jerry you are right about someone trying to manipulate the contractors and it was because someone’s relative didn’t get the part of the project that they bid on. That’s being kept quiet
How many ways can you spell malfeasance?
“MWBE”…… “Multiculturalism”…… “Diversity”….. these are all innocent sounding terms for anti-white racism.
You never hear of such concepts in majority brown or black countries, do you?
Skip and his crew of racists, City Council and their crew of racists all sit back and laugh, laugh, laugh at the taxpayers in Greensboro and Guilford County who pay for all their pet projects but reap very few benefits for all the high taxes! When college students are allowed to vote for people and bonds that they have nothing to do with (or pay for) this puts a burden on any town and results in liberal voices counted but not held accountable for the actions or funds. The only way Greensboro can rid itself of these leaches who steal and waste (can you say MWBE, Stop the Violence, Civil Rights Museum, homeless from around the state, etc.) taxpayer money for their own personal use and projects, is for every voter to turn out and vote them all out!! Until this is a priority the liberal crooks will continue to ruin this city and county!
If contractors were required to have total transparency in the bid process, any concerns over MWBE firms being cheated out of an opportunity would be easy to spot. The process should be something like this: All Bidding General Contractors would have a “locked bin” clearly marked for that project, and that specific General Contractor, as well as one for the county. They would be in a public room supervised by the county. All subcontractors would be required to place their bids in each GC’s box no later than 48 hours before the final bid date. A copy of each bid they submitted would also be placed in the county’s “locked bin”. Then, 48 hours before the final bid, the General Contractors would pick up their bins and access all subcontractor bids at the same time and the city would have a copy of all bids received as well to assure a fair process. No subcontractor would be allowed to be changed, however, they could be withdrawn by notifying the county in writing and then the General Contractors. The General Contractors would then have 48 hours to work with the subcontractor bids and then place their final bid to the county. A public opening would be held for the General Contractor Bids. At the same time or soon thereafter, subcontractor bids would be made publicly available for subcontractors to review. Everyone gets a fair shot, the General Contractors could not play games, the subcontractors could not play games, and the county could not play games, plus have a transparent process protecting MWBE subcontractors.
Every one of the above letters are on the point. Welcome to Blacksboro.
Greensboro City and Guilford County governments will never voluntarily stop the MWBE programs and any other blatant programs that provide special treatment for Blacks. Attempt is made to try to make the programs more palatable by including “minorities.” Make no mistake, these special treatments are for Blacks. Skip Alston knows it, Nancy Vaughn knows it, City Council, and all people near and far know it. Tax money has been given to Blacks for so long, their lives are built around handouts. That is why Skippy is so successful with donations to his boondoggle of a museum. He expects and receives special treatment because he is Black. What is really sad is contributions come from The Kate B. Reynolds Foundation, Wells Fargo, Truist, Food Lion, Proctor & Gamble, and the City of Greensboro to name a few. What is a kick in the gut is that Whites are now the minority in Greensboro. Where are our handouts? The only way to rid society of MWBE and such programs is to sue, sue and sue again. If someone does not want to be associated with the lawsuit, then fund it.
The problem is there are not enough MWBE construction companies in our area. The process to become a MWBE is lengthy and filled with copious amounts of paperwork. You don’t just walk up and say, I’m a minority and I can do the work. Then you have to pre-qualify to work for these large project which is more extensive paperwork. Small companies do not have the luxury of full time office staff to handle the paperwork, so they just don’t do it. If they are good at what they do, they do not need to become certified MWBE in order to get work. The GC’s know who they are.
Maybe if the MWBE staff was actually working in their new home ( The Nussbaum), it would be companies that are qualified
But it’s hard to work on things when your not in your offices