Public comments on city budget;
New IDR initiative pleads for funding
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Community grants, fire inspectors and
ritv wr?rker nav were
"V r ?/
among the topics at
the city budget public
hearing on Thursday,
June 9.
For two hours, the
City Council heard
public comments on
the proposed budget.
Most comments were
from nonprofits the
city supports with
erant funds. Those
community organiza
tions were chosen
based on the recom
mendations of the
Community Agency
Allocation
Committee. The com
mittee is made up of
nine citizens who
review city grant
requests.
One organization
Pollard
Williams
wnose icqucM wumi i in
the proposed budget was a new initiative
of Freedom Tree at IDR (Institute for
Dismantling Racism) called Share
Cooperative of Winston-Salem. Share
wants to open a member-owned grocery
store that will sell affordable, healthy food
in a food desert. IDR founder ftev. Willard
Bass said it was a project that reflects the
principals of unity and anti-racism he's
been championing.
Rev. Gary Williams told the council
tkat Ckam ic lAAlrino
uiai kjuaiv ia iwrui^
at sites in the south
ern part of the city,
.but needed start-up
money for feasibility
and market studies on
the locations.
"We can't do that
without some sort of
initial funding from
the city of Winston
Salem," he said.
Williamc SfliH
IT UllUill.' ?
Share is following the model of
Greensboro's Renaissance Community
Cooperative, which broke ground on its
store in March. The City of Greensboro
gave Renaissance a $250,000 grant to help
it start. Share is requesting $116,725 from
the city.
Other organizations were also turned
down in the proposed budget- like the
Josh Howard Foundation, Industries for
the Blind and Whole Man Ministries- but
Share was the only one that spoke.
A variety of groups are receiving fund
ing in the budget like The Sergie
Foundation, Which helps low income fam
ilies afford veterinary care for their pets,
and Eureka Ministry, which helps ex
offenders find housing. Other groups
included the National Black Theater
Festival, NAB VETS, HARRY Veteran
Washington
Outreach Services, Experiment in Self
Reliance, Shepherd's Center, SciWorks,
Old Salem and IDR, which will receive
$33350 in its regular city funding.
David Pollard of the Winston-Salem
"In some ways, it's like
we're having DSS
subsidize our jobs."
-Dee Washington, Neighbors for Better
Neighborhoods
Professional Fire Fighters Association
spoke in support of the first of three new
fire inspector positions in the budget that
will eventually handle all fire inspections,
a job currently done by firefighters.
"Winston-Salem is the only major city
in North Carolina that does operations
based inspections and there is a very clear
reason for that," he said. "Most cities
abandoned that years ago because of the
fact that the inspections done on the oper
ation level are just not able to be done
thoroughly enough."
He said it's hard for firefighters 10*"
enforce a 47 chapter-long fire code's on
top of their other duties like training,
hydrant maintenance, public education
and smoke detector installations. He said
firefighters will sometimes have to leave
in the middle pf an inspection to respond
to a fire alarm.
Several also spoke about city worker
pay. The budget includes a 3 percent mar
ket pay increase and a li to 3 percent
merit pay increase. But Philip Carter said
that wouldn't be enough for those making
the lowest wages.
The original proposed budget
would've increased the minimum wage
for city workers from $10.10 to $10.40.
Dee Washington of Neighbors for Better
Neighborhoods said a lot of residents are
concerned with a living wage and are
organizing around the issue. She asked
how many city workers live below the
poverty line.
"In some ways, it's like we're having
DSS subsidize our jobs," she said.
The proposed budget has how been
revised so that the minimum wage for city
workers will be $11. A plan for a central
city police district in and around down
town has been removed, which eliminates
five new positions, so the police can
devote the funds to increased recruitment
efforts. There are also three new positions
for upcoming splash parks and two new
analyst positions that have been eliminat
ed. There's now also increased funding for
the Urban League Summer Youth
Employment Program and to Successful
Outcomes After Re-entry (SOAR) grants.
The city council will vote on the budg
et in its Monday, June 20 meeting.
Discussion continues
on early voting
BY TODD LUCK
THE CHRONICLE
Several members of the
public spoke in support of
an early voting site at
Winston-Salem State
University during the
Forsyth County Board of
Elections meeting on
Tuesday, June 14.
The BOE continued its
consideration of early vot
ing sites during its canvass
meeting for the June 7 pri
mary. During the comment
session, several said the
BOE should use the
WSSU's Anderson Center,
which was an early voting
site from 2000-2012.
"I would just like to
point out that this is part of
a broader concern with
people at schools and uni
versities who may not have
vehicles, particularly
schools that have a large
residential population,
should be taken into con
sideration to make sure that
those people have easy
access to the polls," said
(Catherine McGinnis.
Freshmen at WSSU
cannot park on campus and
the nearest early voting site
would be more than a 30
miriute walk from campus.
Other large local universi
ties either let freshmen
park on campus or shuttle
them to and from an off
campus lot.
Forsyth County
Democratic Party Chair
Eric Ellison said the con
cern BOE Chair Ken
Raymond voiced publicly
about a WSSU professor
giving extra credit for early
voting wasn't a valid rea
son to take away early vot
ing from the site after he
became chair in 2013.
"I really ask that you i
reconsider," Ellison said. <
"If there's a more substan- i
tive reason for denying the i
Anderson Center, please I
share that with the commu- !
nity and the public; they 1
would like to know."
Raymond, then a poll i
worker, filed a complaint
about the alleged incident
in 2010, but couldn't find
the professor who suppos
edly gave the extra credit, i
The Forsyth BOE at the
time dismissed the com
plaint because nothing of
value was exchanged for
voting for a particular can
didate or party. x
"I think that you're
hearing a lot of voices from
colleges that do have good
access and hearing about i
all the concerns about the
Winston-Salem State com
munity, I think it's very <
important to take that into
consideration," said Wake
Forest Student Zachary
Bynum.
BOE member Stuart i
Russell said that it wasn't
the 2010 incident that kept 1
it from being included in
2014 early voting. He said
he didn't recall the incident
coming up when they dis
cussed the early voting
plan back then, which
passed unanimously.
The sole Democrat on
the board, Fleming El
Amin, has said he was try
ing to reach census at the
time. That changed during
the discussion for March ?
primary early voting when
two petitions with a total of
10,000 signatures were
presented to the board in
support of the site.
Raymond assured
attendees no one was try
ing to make it harder for
college students to vote
and that "we will see how
that turns . out" on the
Anderson site.
"Access to voting for
college students through
out the county will be fair
and equal," he said.
Of the three board
members, El-Amin is the
anly one with Anderson
and Sunday voting on his
sarly voting plan. El-Amin
has said he'll appeal to the
state if WSSU is not in the
final plan.
Sites that all the board
members agree on are the
BOE office, Mazie
Woodruff Center, Polo
Park Recreation Center, St.
Paul United Methodist
Church, Kernersville
Senior Center/Library
along With the Clemmons,
Southside, Walkertown,
Lewisville and Rural Hall
Libraries. All members
also want to look into sites
at Reynolds and Hanes
Hosiery recreation centers.
Staff said they were still
trying to get in touch with
Industries for the Blind on
its request for a possible
early voting site.
One site that's attempt
ing to get off the early vot
ing list is South Fork
Recreation Center.
Recreation and Parks
Director Tim Grant told the
board that it has conflicts
with two shows, the
Gingerbread Festival and
the Holly Jolly Crafts
Show, happening simulta
neously during early vot
ing. When it was used in
2014, it had only one craft
show during early voting
and was able to eventually
make accommodations. He
said canceling the shows
would be an $80j000 rev
enue loss for the center.
"We would respectfully
ask for this board to con
sider another location for
early voting," said Grant.
Raymond and Russell
were still interested in the
site, asking staff to contin
ue to see if a solution can _
be found. Russell said
since it's a public facility,
they could compel it to
host early voting, if need
ed. El-Amin said consider
ing the revenue at stake for
the center, he could no
longer support an early
voting site there.
Also on Tuesday, the BOE completed its canvass of the
June 7 primary and released the final official results:
I mmmmagmj/immmjm. mm ,,. ?>
Fifth District House of
Representatives (Republicans)
Virginia Foxx 6,26061 34%
Pattie Cunari 3,94538 66%
? Fifth District House of
Representatives (Democrats)
Josh Brannon 5,150 52 32%
Charlie Wallin ' 2/W6 25 26%
Jim Roberts 2,20722 42%
South Ward City Council
(Democrats)
I
John Larson ?7062 99%
Carolyn Highsmith 570 37 01%
NC Supreme Court (bipartisan)
Bob Edmunds 9331 47.46%
MikeMoigan 6309 33.11%
Sabra Jean Faires 2y490 12.67%
Daniel Robertson 1329 6.76%
Total ballots cast: 20,602
Voter turnout: 831%
'? A
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