George Dunlap for Mecklenburg County Commission

Is it ethics or is it politics?

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:25:44 +0000

At least one County commissioner expressed concerns about accepting tickets to the upcoming CIAA tournament and says he plans to sell the tickets and donate the proceeds to charity.

Commissioner Bill James did in fact have questions about this at last years budget talks, but not because he believed it poses ethical questions. Bill was simply trying to reduce the county budget and thought that the $200,000 each year to support the CIAA tournament would not be a good use of tax payer dollars.

If you have followed reports of the benefits that the CIAA tournament brings to this community, you would know that the economic impact of this investment is $32,000,000. Where else can you invest $200,000 and get a $32,000,000 return on your investment for the citizens of Mecklenburg County. In addition to the money coming back in the form of tax revenue from rented hotel rooms and the taxes generated from the more that 125,000 people who visit the city to attend the tournament, lots of businesses thrive during the tournament and a lot of our citizens get work because of the tournament.

The county has invested a lot more money by providing Business Incentive Grants, which help businesses relocate to our community and receives far less of a return on our investment.

The majority of the commissioners get it, which is why this item remains a part of our county budget.

Additionally, the County Attorney; Marvin Bethune has said “In my opinion the current county ethics policy does not prohibit county commissioners from receiving the tickets distributed by the county manager,” and sees no reason why commissioners cannot accept tickets if they are offered to them.

This is an election year.

Is it possible that Bill is doing what he has always done? Getting the media to tell his story for him, which I’m sure he sees as helping out his campaign, or are their other possible reasons as to why this became an issue. I would be interested in hearing from you about what you think is the real story behind the county’s investment of the $200,000.

To text or not text. Is that the real question?

gdunlap — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:38:46 +0000


	Recently a commissioner questioned why other elected officials text-ed, responded to email or tweeted during commission meetings and stated that the elected officials could not possibly be paying attention to the citizens. Lets just lay out a few of the issues. Quite a few of the elected officials have pushed to have paperless meetings, which could save our government lots of money and save lots of trees as well. The problem is that some of the elected officials have refused to move forward on this issue. Is it because they can’t use or do not understand the technology? You be the judge. Send them all an email; tell them why; and ask them all to respond via email and see who does and who does not respond. The fact is that their are those elected officials who just don’t know how to use email and some that have never sent nor responded to an email. An additional concern expressed was the fact that some commissioners use social media as a means of communication during meeting and it was thought to be disrespectful. Doing meetings, officials often get up to go talk to another official. Would it be more or less distracting to send a text to the other official? Not everyone is good at multitasking. I tweet during meetings as a way of providing followers real time information about things that are going on in this community that they may not otherwise have access too. I use the computers as a means of responding to citizens complaints. Often times it is more timely, yet I still find the time to pick up the phone to respond to other citizens complaints. I just don’t believe that one source of communication with our citizens trumps all of the rest. I would be interested in knowing how you feel about this issue.

Recently a commissioner questioned why other elected officials text-ed, responded to email or tweeted during commission meetings and stated that the elected officials could not possibly be paying attention to the citizens. Lets just lay out a few of the issues.

Quite a few of the elected officials have pushed to have paperless meetings, which could save our government lots of money and save lots of trees as well. The problem is that some of the elected officials have refused to move forward on this issue. Is it because they can’t use or do not understand the technology? You be the judge. Send them all an email; tell them why; and ask them all to respond via email and see who does and who does not respond. The fact is that their are those elected officials who just don’t know how to use email and some that have never sent nor responded to an email.

An additional concern expressed was the fact that some commissioners use social media as a means of communication during meeting and it was thought to be disrespectful. Doing meetings, officials often get up to go talk to another official. Would it be more or less distracting to send a text to the other official? Not everyone is good at multitasking.

I tweet during meetings as a way of providing followers real time information about things that are going on in this community that they may not otherwise have access too. I use the computers as a means of responding to citizens complaints. Often times it is more timely, yet I still find the time to pick up the phone to respond to other citizens complaints. I just don’t believe that one source of communication with our citizens trumps all of the rest.

I would be interested in knowing how you feel about this issue.

Campaign Fundraiser

admin — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:37:14 +0000

The Honor of Your Presense

is requested at a

fundraiser in support of

George Dunlap

For

County Commission

2930 Heathmoor Lane

Charlotte, NC 28269

Friday, February 19, 2010

6 pm – 7:30 pm

RSVP 704-597-5980 to confirm your attendance

Suggested donation $100.00

Sponsorship Levels

$1,000, $500, $250

Contributions can be mailed to

Dunlap for County Commission

4728 Garvis Drive

Charlotte, N.C. 28269