Usually, the future of Greensboro’s downtown is the focus of the City of Greensboro, not Guilford County, however, on Thursday, Aug. 15 the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is going to hear from Downtown Greensboro Inc. (DGI) President Zack Matheny on DGI’s plans for downtown over the next decade.
That will just be one part of a jam-packed work session to be held at 3 p.m. in the Blue Room of the Old Guilford County Court House, right before the commissioners’ regular meeting.
In addition to hearing from DGI on “strategic initiatives,” the commissioners will also discuss several county capital improvement projects, proposed changes in the county’s tobacco regulations, and an employee classification and compensations study that’s nearing completion.
The discussion of that last item may be hampered somewhat by the fact that former Guilford County Human Resources Director Karen Fishel just left county government to take the lead human resources job at Furnitureland South. Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Alan Branson said this week that it’s likely going to be a little harder to hold the county’s compensation discussion without Fishel – who he said he thinks highly of – however, he added that county government marches on with its work.
In addition to the debates that will be held in public that afternoon, the commissioners also plan to go into closed session at the work session to “consult with an attorney.” The agenda for the meeting doesn’t get any more specific than that, however, one legal topic that’s a hot issue among county commissioners at the present time is a decision by the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that Guilford County must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorney fees to the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in a lawsuit that that organization brought several years ago against the Guilford County Board of Elections. The commissioners must now decide whether to appeal that decision to the US Supreme Court or try to reach a settlement with the Southern Coalition.
