ATLANTA AIRPORT POLITICS (PRIVATIZE TSA)

ATLANTA AIRPORT POLITICS (PRIVATIZE TSA):

Sources: AJC, Youtube

**** Is there REVERSE DISCRIMINATION being practiced by BLACK citizens against WHITE citizens who live in and visit Atlanta?

Is it time for Atlanta to elect a WHITE Mayor?

Was a packed Flight scheduled to depart Wednesday night Feb 24, from the Atlanta Airport to HOUSTON, repeatedly delayed and finally cancelled due to Partisan 2016 Politics?

Was a Thursday morning re-book Flight from Atlanta to HOUSTON repeatedly delayed in ORLANDO also due to Partisan 2016 Politics? 

Is it time to Privatize TSA at the Atlanta Hartsfield Airport?

**** Airport security lines getting worse, Hartsfield-Jackson officials consider privatizing security

Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport officials are frustrated with understaffing at security checkpoints, and are “dreading the outcome of summer 2016,” according to a letter to the Transportation Security Administration.

Wait times during peak periods often exceed 35 minutes. Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Miguel Southwell wrote to the TSA that wait times were as long as 52 minutes last Friday morning, for example.

And, with big increases in passenger traffic, “things appear to be only getting worse, he wrote. “We fear an even busier summer this year.

In the Feb. 12 letter, Southwell wrote to TSA administrator Peter Neffenger that the airport is “giving serious consideration” to privatizing the security screening at the world’s busiest airport. Commercial airports like Hartsfield-Jackson can privatize screening by applying for the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program.

“We have been conducting exhaustive research” with other airports that have privatized screening, “weighing the pros and cons,” Southwell wrote. Airports that use privatized screening include San Francisco International, Orlando Sanford and Sarasota-Bradenton.

Southwell wrote that unless there is a “dramatic shift” in staffing or new technology in the next 60 days, the airport will take steps to launch privatized screening at the airport.

TSA in a written statement responded that it is evaluating Southwell’s letter.

Hartsfield-Jackson “remains a focus airport” for Neffenger, according to the TSA. “We recognize that the issues raised in the letter are a concern, not just in Atlanta.”

“While we are working on better solutions, we believe the public will support our vital mission of ensuring safe air transportation,” TSA said in its written statement.

According to TSA, screeners in Atlanta are screening about 15 percent more passengers a day than last year, or 8,000 extra passengers a day. Yet TSA says its staffing in its current budget allocated by Congress caps screener staffing at the same level as the previous year — the lowest level in five years.

When long security lines were causing concerns at Hartsfield-Jackson last year, Neffenger said lines could get longer, not shorter, amid a TSA initiative to close gaps in security screening.

“I believe that the traveling public is willing to accept that there may be a slightly longer wait to ensure that they’re secure getting on the plane,” Neffenger said last year.

Charlotte Schools Reverse Discrimination Dilemma: White Students Neglected

CMS vs. The Suburbs

Twelve years ago, the school board declared war on the suburbs. That war would eventually break the county financially, destabilize the school system and launch middle-class flight.

Last Tuesday, the chickens finally came home to roost. At a school board meeting that at times threatened to turn violent, Minority parents accused school board members of Racism. The board closed or reconfigured a long list of schools with heavy minority and poor populations to save money. Understandably, outraged protestors believed this to be an assault on poor minorities, given that whiter, more suburban schools were left untouched.

They're right in their instinct that their children will pay the price for the fiasco school leaders created over the last decade, but not for the reasons they think.

Rewind to 1997, when white suburban parents sued to end busing for racial integration. The school system fought them bitterly in court, but lost. In retribution, the school board's majority and Superintendent Eric Smith decided to starve the then-booming suburbs of school-building dollars. The formula used to calculate where schools should be built was jiggered to show negative growth in the suburbs during a time when the county regularly ranked among America's top 10 fastest-growing places due largely to suburban growth.

Suburban schools were allowed to burst at the seams while the school system went on a billion-dollar building spree, throwing up schools in low-income areas where the bulk of the county's growing population didn't actually live. This was by design. The courts had blocked the school system from busing kids by race to achieve school diversity. They would use space to achieve it instead.

Eventually, school leaders believed, suburban schools would overflow and occupancy would violate fire codes. Suburban, mostly white children would be forced into the half-filled urban schools. Diversity could still be achieved through spite.

Waddell High School, the focus of much of the crowd's anger Tuesday night, was a classic spite school. In a contentious 5-4 vote, the school board decided to bypass desperately overcrowded suburban areas and locate Waddell just a few miles from struggling Olympic High School in a lower population west side area.

Waddell was state of the art, with science labs and a media center that most school districts would envy. Yet it opened half full in 2001 and struggled to attract students while bursting suburban schools were forced to hold classes in their gyms. Waddell was closed Tuesday as a high school and will be replaced with a magnet school.

Between 2001 and 2004, 17 new schools were built. Of those, just four were in booming suburban areas of the county. Dozens more urban schools were renovated from top to bottom. Some of this made sense. Because of the lawsuit, minority kids would be returning to neighborhood schools that were decrepit and needed to be renovated.

But the school board took its construction orgy to levels so outrageous that classes in new urban schools were half full with ratios of 15 kids to a teacher. The school board blew a billion dollars on school construction, doubling the county's debt load while the population only grew by 28 percent. By 2010, Wake County had 6,000 more students than Mecklenburg did, but 17 fewer schools.

In the process, the school board made a terrible miscalculation. It wrongly assumed that suburbanites would put their kids on buses to half-empty urban schools once suburban ones burst at the seams. Instead, parents began to bypass absurdly overcrowded schools here and moved to Union and York counties.

The board alienated an entire generation of suburban parents who could have diversified our schools, the vast majority of whom had nothing to do with the busing lawsuit. While thousands of new children a year showed up to school in neighboring counties, our schools bled middle-income white kids. In 1998, our schools were 58-percent white. Today they are 33 percent; the schools built to hold them remain partially full.

Worse yet, the county is now struggling to operate its schools and libraries while paying down its enormous school construction debt. On Tuesday, the school board took the first step in cleaning up this mess, closing down and consolidating schools so that they can get back to the business of educating kids.







Amid Racial Discrimination Questions, N.C. State Report Confirms CMS Progress For Minority Students


Even as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools faces complaints of racism over school closing plans, a recent state report confirms that CMS's Poor and Minority students are doing better Academically than most around the state.

For instance, CMS black and Hispanic students in grades 3-8 were more likely to pass reading and math exams than the same groups statewide and in Wake and Guilford counties, N.C. school report cards for 2010 show.

CMS's black, Hispanic and low-income students were more successful on high-school exams but less likely to graduate.

The report cards package information that has already been reported in different formats, and confirm trends that have been emerging for the last few years. But the easy comparison of schools and districts often provides the clearest gauge of accomplishment.

And the question is timely in Charlotte. People angered by the board's recent decision to close 10 schools serving mostly African American and impoverished students have accused officials of Racism and filed complaints alleging civil-rights violations.

Board Chair Eric Davis, Superintendent Peter Gorman and others have argued that they're closing buildings to protect academic gains in a shrinking budget. CMS has spent millions putting extra teachers, technology and other aid into schools serving the neediest students, most of whom are black, Hispanic and impoverished.

The report cards provide detailed data on academics, safety, discipline and faculty, broken out by school and district. They illustrate CMS's progress with minority and low-income students, even though those groups continue to trail white and non-poor students by large margins.

In the last couple of years, districts across North Carolina have seen more disadvantaged students pass exams, partly because the state now requires students who fail the first time to take the test again.

Gorman has complained that retesting inflates pass rates and provides false hope to some students and families. But because all N.C. districts are playing by the same rules, district-to-district comparisons give perspective on the gains.

Just a few years ago, such comparisons were embarrassing for CMS. Minority and low-income students trailed state averages on most measures, especially in high schools. Wake outperformed CMS by large margins.

But in recent years, CMS has surpassed Wake and the state on many measures, especially for disadvantaged students. White and nonpoor students in both districts do extremely well, with pass rates of 85 percent or higher.

CMS's edge is most pronounced on the high-school exams. But the low graduation rate counters that advantage; pass rates could be rising because weak students are dropping out, rather than staying and flunking tests.

Wake's overall proficiency rates remain above CMS's because Wake has fewer poor and minority students. Last year about a third of Wake students qualified for lunch subsidies, used to gauge school poverty, while just over half of CMS's did.





Claims Of Racial Bias Rattle Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools


As national experts laud Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' success with low-income and black students, some local families are taking to the streets, accusing officials of shortchanging those very children.

A proposal to close eight urban schools, where less than 10 percent of the total enrollment is white, has state and local NAACP leaders accusing CMS of racism while crowds stand and cheer.

School change is always tumultuous. But people are startled by recent arrests, protests and strident rhetoric in a city known for polite discourse and reticence about race.

"I don't know how widespread it is, but the people who are angry about it are extremely angry," said county commissioners' Chair Jennifer Roberts, who attended a recent NAACP meeting where leaders urged about 200 people to fight school-closing plans, going to jail if necessary.

Tasha Houston, a housekeeper, says she'd never marched for anything until she showed up for a public forum about closing J.T. Williams Middle, where she has a child. Her sense that school officials are mistreating African-American and low-income families led her to the street.

"It's like a volcano is erupting," Houston said, "and we have to deal with it."

Hundreds of parents, including many from the suburbs and affluent in-town neighborhoods, have protested recent changes in boundaries and magnet programs.

But talk of closings takes anxiety to a new level. Superintendent Peter Gorman has suggested closing eight of CMS's 176 schools. They're home to about 4,000 students, mostly black, Hispanic and low-income. The schools were tagged, he says, because they have empty classrooms and/or academic failings. And with budget cuts looming, he says, it's better to sacrifice buildings than teachers.

"We didn't target any one group," Gorman said last week. "What we're doing is targeting problems, and our problem is the financial challenge."

Historic echoes

But to some, it's the latest twist in a cycle of discrimination that dates back to Jim Crow schools, continued with urban renewal projects that razed black neighborhoods, and gathered new force when courts dismantled CMS's desegregation plan about 10 years ago.

That history makes skepticism understandable, says Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx, a West Charlotte High alum. He says CMS leaders bear the burden of persuading a wary community that proposed changes will help their children succeed.

Tension spiked at an Oct. 12 forum on westside and central schools, when the board cut off public comments from an overflow crowd. The board plans to hold a makeup session for 19 speakers on Tuesday, but some say the damage is done.

The Rev. William Barber, president of the N.C. conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, came to Charlotte last week to help plan follow-up action. He says Charlotte's national prominence and historic position as a leader in the quest for desegregation makes it the ideal place for a long-term fight against neighborhood schools isolated by race and income.

"Resegregation of schools is the enemy of educational excellence," he said Friday.

Fiery rhetoric

When the Rev. Kojo Nantambu was elected president of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's NAACP branch last fall, he promised to shake up a dormant civil-rights community.

For months, he spoke at school board meetings, denouncing Gorman and the board as racists who encourage school resegregation. Aside from a handful of fellow activists, he got little attention.

Then the school-closing plan landed, bringing out people like Houston, who says she's normally too busy working to attend meetings. Now Nantambu is getting standing ovations from dozens eager to join his fight.

Nantambu was arrested after the Oct. 12 forum, charged with disturbing the peace when he led the crowd in chants of "We want more time!"

His rhetoric in follow-up meetings has been fiery: Resegregation is evil, and CMS is perpetuating "spiritual and mental torture" of children. At an NAACP meeting on Monday, he pinned the blame squarely on Gorman, along with unspecified people controlling him: "They do not want black children and white children to go to school together. They do not want rich children and poor children to go to school together." Nantambu has not returned repeated calls from the Observer after his arrest.

Hero or Villain?

When Gorman was hired from California in 2006, he succeeded the district's first black superintendent, James Pughsley. He took over a system that had recently switched, after a long court battle, from race-based assignment to a mix of neighborhood schools and magnets.

And he was hired by a board that had seen the number and influence of black members decline as white and suburban voters mobilized around school issues. To many community and business leaders, Gorman was a refreshing face of reform. He has emerged as one of the nation's high-profile superintendents; on Monday, the Broad Foundation honored CMS as one of the country's five best urban districts. But to some in Charlotte, he symbolizes white political control of a system where about two-thirds of students are black or Hispanic.

County Commissioner Vilma Leake, who says she "reluctantly" voted to hire Gorman when she was on the school board, agrees with much of what Nantambu says about CMS. She blames Gorman for laying off hundreds of employees - including bus drivers, teacher assistants, maintenance workers and other positions dominated by African Americans - and populating his upper echelon with white administrators.

A current list of Gorman's 14-person executive staff includes three African Americans, one of whom, legal counsel George Battle, was hired by the board, rather than Gorman.

Last year's school board election brought in a new majority. Richard McElrath and Joyce Waddell, elected last November, are now the only African Americans on the nine-person board.

McElrath and Waddell attended Monday's NAACP meeting, standing and applauding for some of Nantambu's and Barber's comments. But even though they disagree with parts of Gorman's plan, both say he's not the villain.

McElrath praises Gorman for speaking up about the way housing patterns shape racial and economic isolation of schools. And Waddell notes that the board employs Gorman, so bad decisions rest on them.

Vice Chair Tom Tate, who is white and represents a district with many urban schools, agrees. He has questioned whether Gorman's plan is fair to disadvantaged kids, but "I do not think that there is anything that is motivated by racism of any sort."

CMS asks for Trust

Board Chair Eric Davis, one of the members elected last fall, touted the student-assignment review that led to the closing plan as a new era in citizen participation. Starting in July, board members and staff have spent dozens of hours in meetings with parents, educators and others interested in schools.

The process gets mixed reviews. Supporters applaud the time spent listening and Davis's willingness to respond quickly to flaws in the system. Skeptics say they can't keep up with rapidly changing proposals and crucial meetings held during work hours, and complain that CMS staff filters public comments.

Officials unveiled plans for closings and other major changes before they had estimates on savings or details on how the changes would work. They said they wanted to hear public views before delving into details - essentially asking the public to trust CMS to work out the plans before school opens in 2011-12.

No way, many parents, volunteers and educators say. They've chided CMS for trying to launch complex efforts, such as converting elementary schools to accommodate pre-kindergarten to eighth grade or launching year-round school, on a speeded-up timetable and shoestring budget.

Earlier this month, the board voted to pull some popular magnets and suburban neighborhood schools off Gorman's list for closing or other change. That fueled suspicion that inner-city schools are getting short shrift.

As Houston, the J.T. Williams parent, put it: "They're not targeting the schools that have these giant PTAs. They're targeting our children because we are who we are."

Key meeting dates

Decisions about 2011-12 school closings will take shape on Tuesday, when Gorman's staff presents final recommendations, and Nov. 9, when the board votes.

Both meetings are likely to be packed. Parent groups are planning candlelight vigils and other strategies.

Bud Cesena, chief of CMS police, says he hopes to avoid making more arrests. If chants or disruption arise, he says, his force will get the school board into a back room, leaving the meeting chamber to protestors and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

Foxx says he has been on the phone with board members and other leaders, trying to figure out how to bring the community together in two weeks. "There's some important dialog that's got to take place between now and then," he said .

But tension isn't likely to end Nov. 9. One scenario: Some version of the current plan could be approved on a split vote, with the board's two black members on the losing end.

The question then becomes: What next?

Barber says the state NAACP and allied groups are in it for the long haul. He said he plans to bring civil-rights lawyers to Charlotte for a panel talk about legal options.

In Raleigh, Barber has led school-board sit-ins to protest school resegregation. Some wonder whether Charlotte will see similar scenes.

"This could be as fragile as Wake County, just because everybody's nervous or on edge," said Kathy Ridge, executive director of Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education, or MeckEd. "I hope it's not a tinderbox getting ready to blow."

Malachi Greene, a former Charlotte City Council member who is African American, sees other options.

"It's another one of those community problems that we've got to roll up our sleeves and do the Charlotte way: Work it out without tearing Charlotte apart," he said. "We've got to get through this without hurting what we all love, and that's our children and our community."




Complaints Filed: CMS Violated Civil Rights


The U.S. Education Department is reviewing five civil-rights complaints alleging that Charlotte-Mecklenburg's school closings and other assignment changes discriminate against black and Hispanic students.

The department, which does not reveal who files complaints, expects to decide within a couple of weeks whether the complaints merit an investigation.

In a worst-case scenario, a finding that CMS violated federal civil rights laws could block federal money or lead to a Justice Department probe. However, the Education Department tries to negotiate a resolution without resorting to those steps, according to its Web site.

Education Department spokesman Jim Bradshaw said the first complaint was filed Oct. 29, before last week's vote to close 10 schools and change programs and/or assignments at about two dozen others. Four more were filed after the vote, he said Wednesday.

Most students affected by closings and major changes are black or Hispanic and from low-income homes, prompting some to accuse Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools of racism or class discrimination. Feelings ran high: About a dozen people protested outside Superintendent Peter Gorman's house the weekend before the vote, and board members Eric Davis and Kaye McGarry received death-threat letters afterward.

Gorman and Davis, the board's chair, have repeatedly said closings and school mergers were based on empty classrooms and/or academic weakness. They note that CMS spends millions providing extra teachers, supplies and other aid to high-poverty schools serving mostly minority students, and say sacrificing buildings could help protect such aid in the face of huge projected budget cuts.

"Most of the schools we closed are in the African American community. That's factually accurate," Davis said the day after the vote. "We didn't close them because they're in the African American community."

Parents at Waddell High, which will close next school year, held a news conference the day after the vote urging parents to file complaints with the Education Department's Office of Civil Rights.

"We all need to do this together," parent DeAndra Alex said. "We need to do this proactively, and we need to do this forcefully."

The Observer has filed a request for the complaints and any other related documents. The Office of Civil Rights deletes "personally identifiable information" from any information provided, Bradshaw said.




NAACP Leader Claims "Pat McCrory Is Racist"

The President of Charlotte's NAACP chapter has called former mayor Pat McCrory "Racist" in a televised interview, after McCrory said comments by Kojo Nantambu might incite violence.

The two men's comments are the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute triggered by the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' decision to cut costs by closing a number of schools, mostly in African American and Latino communities.

In recent days, two CMS board members reportedly received threatening letters, tied to their votes to close the schools.

During interviews with at least two Charlotte media outlets Monday, McCrory said Nantambu's protest chant during last week's school board meeting could lead to violence.

After the school board voted 5-4 to approve a cost-cutting plan that included the school closings, Nantambu began leading a chant, "No justice, no peace!"

McCrory told WBTV, "This should be a man of peace who's encouraging respectful dialogue, even during disagreements -- as opposed to a mean tone and very violent words."

Nantambu, also in a WBTV interview, countered that his chant was not intended to trigger violence. "In a society or community anywhere, if there is not justice, there's not going to be peace," he said. "But it doesn't mean there's going to be violence."

Then Nantambu criticized McCrory, saying, "That's the way he perceives it. That's because he has a very distorted view of reality in himself. And because he's a racist himself."

When asked by WBTV reporter Brigida Mack if he were calling McCrory racist, Nantambu responded, "Yeah, he's a racist."

McCrory later said Nantambu "sbould be ashamed of saying that."

Nantambu said during the weekend that the NAACP had no involvement in the threatening letters received by board chairman Eric Davis and board member Kaye McGarry.






Police Investigate Threats Against School Board Members


Emotions bubbled to the surface during last week's CMS school board vote, prompting someone to put their feelings down on paper.

"In the letter it's clear and obvious they are being targeted because of the way they voted on the school issue," said Milton Harris with CMPD's Criminal Intelligence Unit.

On Friday, board member Kaye McGarry received a threatening letter. On Saturday CMS board chairman Eric Davis received one as well.

"Basically the contents of the letter would give the average person concern for their personal safety," said Harris.

Both Davis and McGarry were outspoken proponents of closing E.E. Waddell High.

"I feel that as chairman, Davis said we need to make a decision tonight," Kaye McGarry said last Tuesday night at that controversial meeting.

NewsChannel 36 contacted McGarry on the phone Monday, but she would not talk about the threat.

She did say whoever wrote it referenced Waddell in the letter.

"We have it in the lab. We're looking at the forensics. Any forensics that may apply to documents we're applying that to these documents," said Harris.

Police are taking the situation seriously given that whoever made the threat took the time to learn where the board members live.

"We don’t know who wrote the letters. We don’t know their mental status," said Harris.

Davis contacted NewsChannel 36 late Monday afternoon. He, too, declined to discuss the threat.

When asked if he was worried about it he said, "No."

Police think the same person wrote both letters, and they are confident they will learn who that person is and why they made the threats.





Waddell Students Protest Decision To Close School


Hundreds of students at E.E. Waddell High School held hands and stood outside the school Wednesday morning, refusing to go inside as a silent protest to Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools' decision to close the school.

In a Tuesday night meeting marked by split votes, angry protests and accusations of racism, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board approved a sweeping plan to close 10 schools and make other dramatic changes.

In the most controversial item, the board voted 5-4 to close Waddell High and make it the new home for Smith Language Academy, a K-8 magnet. Harding High, which had also been considered as a home for Smith, will turn into a neighborhood school housing many of Waddell's students, along with the International Baccalaureate magnet now at Harding.

Most other efforts to block or revise the plan failed, often with the board's only two black members on the losing end of votes.

"That's a racist vote," speaker John White told the board after the seven white members rejected a move by Joyce Waddell and Richard McElrath to delay a vote on all proposed changes.

Race was a common theme as more than 100 people made one last attempt to sway the board on its historic decision.

The votes change life for about 25,000 students next year. It is the first time the district, which has long grappled with the challenges of growth, has faced massive closings and reassignments because of a shrinking budget.

Most speakers were critical of the plans crafted by Superintendent Peter Gorman and hashed out after five months of board meetings and public forums. Many noted that closings and other major changes would land disproportionately on schools serving minority and low-income students.

Only about 5 percent of students in the schools slated to close are white, compared with a third district-wide.

"Everyone should share the pain, including our suburban families and communities," said Adrian DeVore.

"You are about to wake a sleeping giant called the civil rights movement," said Darrell Bonapart.

Gorman, board Chair Eric Davis and other members say the changes are based on low enrollment and/or academic weakness, not on race or clout. And they say it's just the start of a quest to cut up to $100 million from next year's $1 billion budget.

Before public comments began, Waddell and McElrath argued for pulling the vote off the agenda. Waddell said by waiting until February, officials could craft a fairer plan.

Other members said they needed to vote now to be ready for the 2011 magnet lottery.

After the motion was voted down, a handful of activists began chanting "No justice, no peace." CMS and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police led them from the meeting chamber.

A gray-haired woman collapsed into the space between rows of seats. The board watched quietly as officers worked to get her to her feet.

"You knocked her down?" someone called.

"No," others said.

Another woman, whom police later identified as Niksa Karina Balbosa, 39, was led away in handcuffs. "They are voting to destroy our children," she shouted. "We won't stop until we're heard."

She was charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, CMS Police Chief Bud Cesena said.

Charlotte NAACP President Kojo Nantambu arrived 15 minutes after the meeting began and tried to get into the meeting chamber, but was turned away. He led a group of roughly 30 people, some with signs, who began chanting in the lobby, calling on the school board to push back the vote.

Even after the board voted to keep the closings plan on the agenda, many speakers urged members to start over. Sarah Stevenson, a former school board member, was among them.

"You have a golden opportunity to be fair and equitable to minority children and minority communities," Stevenson said. "You'd be the first board of education to do that in the 60-something years that I've been active in politics in this community."

The local League of Women Voters also called for a do-over, saying the current plan creates too much disruption and distrust for a relatively small savings.

"This is not the time to be penny wise and pound foolish," said co-president Janet Brinkley.

But some speakers from Smith Language Academy, which now moves to Waddell, urged members to vote.

"It's not fair to the students and the parents to delay the process any further," one said.

Joyce Waddell also made a motion to scrap a plan to close three high-poverty, mostly minority middle schools and move the students into new pre-K-8 schools. She said Gorman hasn't shown that students will benefit from the move. Her motion lost on a 5-4 vote.

Five and a half hours into the meetings, feelings were running high. Audience members shouted at board member Joe White as he spoke from the dais. He snapped back that he hadn't interrupted them when they spoke.

"No wonder we have kids who don't know how to behave," White said. He quickly added that some of the best and most civil speakers earlier in the meeting were students.





Kojo Nantambu & Some Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board Members Contribute To NAACP Legal Fund


On the eve of the controversial vote on closing and consolidating Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, CMS board members Joyce Waddell and Richard McElrath made small contributions to the NAACP's legal research fund.

Both McElrath and Waddell put cash in a bucket passed around at the end of an NAACP meeting Monday night.

Chapter president Rev. Kojo Nantambu called the meeting to encourage the African-American community to come out to fight the school district's cost-cutting proposal. Nantambu asked members to put money into buckets he called "a legal defense fund."

Asked later about the purpose of the funds, he said they are for "legal research," including both looking for more equitable solutions to the cash crunch and exploring the possibility of legal action against CMS.

Waddell has said she has concerns about the impact on poor and minority students, reiterating Monday night, "Look at it, and you can see for yourself. Minority students are the ones taking the largest burden of what's out there."

When asked about the donation, "I do not support suing CMS," Waddell said. "That money is for research."

McElrath did not return several phones calls about the donation.

A CMS spokesperson could not comment late Monday on ethics rules regarding donations and conflicts of interest. She promised more information Tuesday.




Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board Votes To Close E.E. Waddell High School & Other Segregated, Failing Schools


Tuesday night the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board voted to shut down 10 schools, expand other schools, and change boundaries.

In the most controversial vote of the night, the board voted 5-4 to shut down Waddell High school and give its building to Smith Language Academy.

That vote also means that Harding High will lose its math and science magnet program to Phillip O. Berry High, and Harding will become a partial neighborhood school instead of a full magnet school. Harding will keep its IB program.

Both Harding and Waddell parents expressed disappointment after the vote.

The four members who voted not to shut down Waddell and make the change to Harding were Tom Tate, Joyce Waddell, Richard McElrath, and Trent Merchant. Board chair Eric Davis, Joe White, Kaye McGarry, Rhonda Lennon, and Tim Morgan voted yes.

The school board also voted to make a host of other changes which are listed at the bottom of this article.

Not long after it began, the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board meeting was disrupted Tuesday night when a group of people started chanting from inside the board chambers.

Several folks began chanting, "No justice, no peace," and were led out of the room by police officers from Charlotte-Mecklenburg police.

At least two people were arrested during the meeting, including CMS parent Niksa Balbosa. She shouted, "There is a bigger plan than public knows! Fight for your children! Fight!" as she was being taken, in handcuffs, into the elevator at the Board of Education.

Police tell us that Balbosa will be charged with disorderly conduct and she was being taken to the Mecklenburg County jail. NAACP members told WBTV's Dedrick Russell that they were planning to bail Balbosa out.

The meeting interrupting lasted for several minutes. When police escorted some of the chanters outside, the chants continued in the hall.

In the lobby, NAACP President Kojo Nantambu lead a group of protests in chanting, "Push Back the Date!" referring to their demand that the board not vote on a host of controversial measures Tuesday night.

A woman fell during the chanting and an ambulance was called to check out her injuries which appeared to be minor. Its not clear how she fell.

There are 25 measures the board is scheduled to consider, which include school closures and other big changes. A crowd of close to 500 showed up, including many who had to watch in the government center lobby and two overflow rooms.

Before the disruption, board member Joyce Waddell had tried to get the board to delay voting on all the measures.

"I am asking that this be delayed until the February meeting," Waddell said.

But Waddell's motion was shot down 7-2, with only board member Richard McElrath joining Waddell.

Here are the changes the board voted to make:

These are the schools that, except for one, will be closed by next school year:

* Irwin Avenue Elementary (students would be sent to Dilworth or Ashley Park elementaries; IB Primary Years magnet program at Irwin goes away; the board originally planned to turn Irwin into CMS offices, but instead decided Tuesday night that the Villa Heights Learning Immersion/Talent Development program would move into the Irwin facility)
* Lincoln Heights Elementary (Lincoln Heights students will go to Bruns Avenue Elementary)
* Oakhurst Elementary (students will be sent to either Rama Road or Billingsville elementaries; Paideia magnet program at Oakhurst will close)
* Pawtuckett Elementary School (Pawtuckett students will go to Whitewater Academy)
* Davidson IB Middle (the IB program will be relocated to Alexander Middle)
* John Taylor Williams Middle
* Bishop Spaugh Community Academy (Middle School)
* Wilson Middle School
* Waddell High School (Smith Language Academy will move into Waddell's building and take the Waddell name)
* Amay James Pre-Kindergarten (closing a pre-K does not require a board vote, so this closure was not voted on Tuesday night)
* University Park Elementary (it will not shut down until the 2012-2013 school year; at that time its creative arts magnet will be combined with First Ward Elementary's creative arts magnet)

Here are some other changes the CMS board approved Tuesday night that will start next school year:

BOUNDARY CHANGES:

* Community House Middle students who live north of 485 will now go to South Charlotte Middle
* Some Garinger High students will go to Cochrane Middle, which will eventually become a 6-12th grade school by 2014; Cochrane will not have sports but students will be allowed to play for Garinger
* Some Nathaniel Alexander and Hornets Nest elementary students will now go to Winding Springs Elementary, which without its magnet will now become a neighborhood school
* Students at Tuckaseegee Elementary School will go on to Whitewater Middle School
* Students at Barringer Elementary will go on to Sedgefield Middle School
* Students living in the Dilworth and Eastover elementary zones who formerly went to Bishop Spaugh Middle will now go to Alexander Graham Middle

NEW MAGNETS:

# Create a learning immersion/talent development partial magnet at Mallard Creek Elementary
# Create a Primary Years International Baccalaureate (PYIB) partial magnet program at Blythe Elementary School

MAGNET THAT WILL MOVE:

# Harding High's math and science magnet program will move to Phillip O. Berry High; Harding will keep its IB program and no longer be a full magnet school -- some kids will be assigned to it as a neighborhood school

SCHOOLS THAT WILL BECOME K-8TH GRADE:

* Berryhill Elementary
* Reid Park Elementary
* Druid Hills Elementary
* Byers Elementary
* Ashley Park Elementary
* Bruns Avenue Elementary
* Thomasboro Elementary
* Westerly Hills Elementary


View Larger Map


Sources: Creative Loafing, McClatchy Newspapers, WBTV, WCNC, Zimbio, Youtube, Google Maps

Anthony Foxx's "Bankers Only", Politically Motivated Small Business Plan

This particular post highlights some of the reasons why Partisan, Race-Focused City/County Governments are usually the best way to ruin a region and invite Political/ Public Corruption.

Before I proceed its important you understand the new Charlotte City Council's Political/ Racial make up:

Black Mayor (Democrat)

5 Black members

5 White members

8 Democrats

3 Republicans


Last night I observed new Mayor Anthony Foxx's first City of Charlotte Business Meeting.

Yes, the meeting's Political atmosphere and tone did remind me of other Partisan type City Council Meetings from regions like Atlanta and Detroit.

In fact the Bickering, Partisan arrogance, Disrespect, subtle signs of Reverse Discrimination and Moodiness was very noticeable.

For example why is it whenever Council members Andy Dulin, Edwin Peacock or Warren Cooksey (3 White Republicans) has something to say, everyone else on the council (except Mayor Foxx) starts talking in the background, Coughing, laughing, going to the bathroom, etc.,

That kind of behavior is extremely childish, rude and disrespectful.

Have any of you ever seen Pres. Barack Obama behave in such an insolent manner towards any Republican or White Congressional Member? No!

What are you so-called "Charlotte Leaders" teaching our youth when demonstrating such negative behavior towards your counterparts?

I'll touch on that issue more in another post.


During the course of last night's meeting Foxx introduced his "brilliant" idea of wanting to give former Charlotte Bankers No Interest Small Business Loans to help increase Charlotte's Job Growth.

In summary Foxx wants to give former Bankers/ former Banking Industry employees Taxpayer money for what appears to be good Business ideas.

This money would be given via NO INTEREST Loans, with the City of Charlotte absorbing ALL Risk involved.

Due to a previous related statement made by Foxx about his idea which was recently published in the biased, "suspect" Charlotte Observer, several Council Members raised some serious concerns.

By the way here is an excerpt from the Charlotte Observer article about Foxx's new Business program along with his "suspect", questionable statement:

Foxx said he plans to ask city staff and his colleagues on City Council to tweak a city loan program for small businesses. The program currently steers money toward fledgling businesses planning to open in economically distressed corridors of the city, such as North Tryon Street.

Foxx wants to prioritize the loans for what he calls critical businesses, such as banking. If a team of laid-off bankers have an idea for a start-up, Foxx wants them to have access to no-interest loans even if their office is in SouthPark.

"The current program is corridor-based," Foxx said. "I want it to be industry-based."

Foxx said the state has a program to retrain unemployed financial service workers, but he said there isn't a loan program to help them.


Foxx's published statements (of which he never publicly recanted nor denied) implies he trusts the Business Judgment or Business Ideas of former Bankers/ former Banking Industry employees more so than the Business Judgment or Business Ideas of Small Business experts.

Wait a minute!

In this Recession aren't Banks refusing to extend Credit or Loans to Small Businesses right now?

Didn't President Obama hold a meeting with Bank CEOs earlier this week asking them to please open up lines of Credit for Small Businesses?

Ok so....

Since Banks/ Bankers are the reason many Small Businesses are suffering, why would Mayor Anthony Foxx want to give former Bankers/ former Banking Industry employees a FREE Lifeline and a Blank Check for "Monopoly Money"??

Not just any kind of "Monopoly Money", Foxx wants to give them Taxpayer "Monopoly" money!

Another concern bought up about Foxx's proposed Small Business Plan was the probability of possible Legal Implications.

Why?

Because Foxx wants to use City and Taxpayer money to give former Bankers/ former Banking Industry employees NO INTEREST, Blank Check Small Business Loans when the City of Charlotte isn't giving any other group regardless of Race, Creed, Religion, Demographics, etc., NO INTEREST, Blank Check Small Loans.


Wait a minute!

Isn't Foxx a Civil Litigation Attorney?

Isn't he aware of Civil Rights Violations which violate the U.S. Constitution??

Isn't he aware Civil Rights Violations also apply to the Business world?

Doesn't he know that this program could open up a can of Legal worms (Lawsuits)?

Or does he think his "Legal Expertise" or crooked Legal Semantics will be able to keep Charlotte from having to pay out huge settlements?


However....

The expressed concerns of other council members especially White Charlotte City Council members (yeah I said it!), were cut short by former Charlotte City Council Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon.

Patrick Cannon had his chance to become Charlotte's 2nd Black Mayor in History but he gave up that opportunity.

It now appears Cannon wants to appoint himself as the unofficial Small Business Expert for Charlotte.

This is a man who had to straighten out his own finances for NOT paying thousands of dollars to the IRS in back taxes.

At least that's the reason he gave for dropping out of Charlotte's Mayor race several years ago in his run against former Mayor Pat McCrory.

(Patrick Cannon)

(At-large Democrat)

(From 2003 to 2008, Cannon faced a total of $193,553 in IRS liens between 2003 and 2008. He satisfied all the liens, which were eventually canceled. His issues with the IRS were detailed in Saturday's Observer.)


No one but God is perfect and all Human Beings make mistakes or mess up but with this knowledge about his past what makes Patrick Cannon think he is suddenly the "Unofficial Small Business Ambassador" for Charlotte??

Better yet why would Foxx think that just because Patrick Cannon endorses his proposed Small Business plan its a great, outstanding idea?

Or because current Mayor Pro Tem Susan Burgess says its ok, that he should carry this plan forward without any more research?

Susan Burgess isn't a Small Business Expert or an Economist, so how can she provide Foxx with wise counsel on Business Matters?

Just because she's a City Council Member doesn't mean she's qualified to be a Small Business Expert.

Since Foxx is Charlotte's New Mayor but possesses NO prior Small Business Experience, Anthony Foxx doesn't just need a bunch of "Yes" folks sitting around the City Council dais making him feel important.

If Foxx plans to do what's best for ALL of Charlotte's Constituents like he promised during his campaign run for Mayor, than he needs to hear all points of view.

Charlotte City Council Members including Charlotte's White Council Members and Charlotte's few Republican Council Members, have EVERY right to be concerned about Foxx's proposed "suspect" Small Business Plan.


Here are 5 reasons why:


1) Foxx's proposed Small Business model in essence duplicates some of Charlotte's Small Business programs currently already in existence.

2) Foxx's proposed Small Business model doesn't just want to give former Bankers/ former Banking Industry employees Loan money for Capital to start Small Businesses, he wants to supply this money on a NO INTEREST, Blank Check basis.

3) Foxx wants to basically take much needed funding from Charlotte's Low Income, Corridor based Small Business programs which help to lower Unemployment in Charlotte's Economically distressed areas, and give it to Bankers who will invest those funds into RISKY, Wall Street type Business Ventures ("Monopoly money").

4) Under Foxx's proposed Small Business plan if those RISKY, Wall Street type Business Ventures go bad, the City of Charlotte will eat all costs.

5) If those Business Ventures fail how will Foxx regain the lost revenue, by raising Property Taxes for Charlotte's Middle Class and Low Income citizens again?


Foxx's proposed Small Business Plan didn't need to be rushed through!

It needed to be deferred for further research.


Not one Charlotte City Council Member, nor Charlotte citizen wants to see Mayor Anthony Foxx screw up.

By the same token we DON'T want to see him throw away money to please a bunch of former Bankers or former Bank employees just to keep BOFA's headquarters in this region.

In other words during a Recession Charlotte City Officials can NO longer afford to cater to Charlotte's crumbling Banking Industry.


Anthony Foxx is trying to use precious City Capital and Taxpayer money as a carrot to convince Bank of America to keep its headquarters in Charlotte.

This is WRONG!

It will also hurt Charlotte long term.

Despite Councilman James Mitchell's comment "Mayor I appreciate your Bold Leadership", this is NOT an example of BOLD Leadership.

This is an example of RISKY, possibly Foolish leadership!

Foxx wants to use Taxpayer money for Political Purposes in the form a "Business Tax Incentive".

We're in a Recession!

At least most of Charlotte is in a Recession even if Foxx isn't feeling the effects of Charlotte's Economic downturn, most everyone else is.

There is a distinct difference between being a Visionary Leader vs a Wasteful, Presumptuous Leader.

So...everyone else in Charlotte has to feel Economic Hardship but Bankers are exempt?

Bull!

Shortchanging other Small Businesses Corridors, especially Low Income Corridors to help Charlotte Bankers pay their bills or go on vacations, is NOT a smart way to lower Charlotte's High Unemployment rate. (12%)

Foxx's proposed new Small Business plan does in fact needs further research and more scrutiny before its implemented. That is IF its implemented.


I could go on and on but my point has been well taken...I hope.

Councilman Patrick Cannon Sir you are NOT the newly elected Mayor of Charlotte!

Nor are you Charlotte's "Unofficial Small Business Ambassador".

Even though I don't agree with Anthony Foxx's proposed Small Business plan to prop up Charlotte Bankers, Foxx is still Charlotte's New Mayor.


Charlotte City Council members please get it together before 2010 arrives.

Stop using Charlotte's Middle Class and Low Income citizens to cater to Charlotte's Wealthy, Elite citizens.

Perhaps you don't think so but that Straight Ticket Voting election method will NOT be able to save you come 2011, 2012.

Peace








Anthony Foxx Says He'll Be "Laser-Focused" On Bringing In Jobs Via Loans To Former Bank Employees


After Anthony Foxx is sworn in as Charlotte's new mayor Monday night, the Democrat said he will tackle the city's biggest problem: high unemployment.

Foxx said he plans to ask city staff and his colleagues on City Council to tweak a city loan program for small businesses. The program currently steers money toward fledgling businesses planning to open in economically distressed corridors of the city, such as North Tryon Street.

Foxx wants to prioritize the loans for what he calls critical businesses, such as banking. If a team of laid-off bankers have an idea for a start-up, Foxx wants them to have access to no-interest loans even if their office is in SouthPark.

"The current program is corridor-based," Foxx said. "I want it to be industry-based."

Foxx said the state has a program to retrain unemployed financial service workers, but he said there isn't a loan program to help them.

Foxx will become the city's first new mayor in 14 years and the city's first Democratic mayor in 22 years.

When Republican Pat McCrory became mayor in 1995, Mecklenburg's unemployment rate was 3.2 percent. The city was in the midst of a long run of prosperity, much of it fueled by the expansion of its two hometown banks. In his first address as mayor, McCrory said crime was his top priority.

The situation is different today.

The Charlotte area's unemployment rate in October was 12 percent, up from 11.8 percent in September. It's higher than the state average of 11 percent.

"The economy is the single most important issue for all of us," Foxx said Thursday.

Foxx said he hopes to have the small-business loan program tweaked this month.

The current program, known as the business equity loan program, has been around since the late 1980s.

A small business may have a $100,000 loan from a bank, but still need more money. The city can offer the business a low-interest loan that's no more than 25 percent of the total amount borrowed.

The requirement today is that the business locate in a city-designated economically distressed corridor.

The challenge of improving the local economy will be difficult for a mayor and City Council whose jobs are usually focused on meat-and-potatoes issues such as paving roads, hiring police officers and building affordable housing.

"It's mostly a cheerleading role," said UNC Charlotte political science professor Ted Arrington. "That's partially because the Charlotte mayor is a weak mayor, but also because there isn't a lot that the city can do."

Foxx said he also wants to assemble a team of business leaders to brainstorm ways to strengthen the economy.

One part of that would be how to better market some of the region's lesser-known industries, such as energy and biotechnology. McCrory started to do this in the last 18 months, touting the city's expanding energy-related economy in interviews.

Foxx said Friday he wouldn't discuss whether he would work with N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue to offer Bank of America incentives to stay in Charlotte.

"I will be laser-focused on keeping jobs in Charlotte," Foxx said.

Foxx said he also will appoint a group of civilians to review the city budget and look for savings.

Foxx will take office with something no Charlotte mayor has had: one party holding eight of 11 council seats.

The new council will have an 8-3 Democratic majority - the biggest advantage by either party since the council became partisan in 1977. The current council has a 7-4 advantage for Democrats.

Democrats David Howard and Patrick Cannon are replacing at-large council members Foxx and Republican John Lassiter, whom Foxx defeated for mayor.

McCrory said he's concerned about having one party in control of the City Council, County Commission and now the mayor's office.

"The big challenge is you have one dominant party - who will be the check on spending?" McCrory said. "The mayor's office was the only political balance."







Charlotte leaders working to keep Bank of America's headquarters


As Bank of America's directors search for a chief to replace Ken Lewis, local leaders wonder if the new CEO will have any ties to the Carolinas - and what it will mean for Charlotte if not.

Some bank insiders worry that the new commander might be less committed to keeping the base here. They fear that the corporate offices could be uprooted to New York or Boston or another city, perhaps because the new CEO wants to make a dramatic statement of change - or because the person simply doesn't want to live here.

Charlotte and state leaders say they're determined to keep the hometown bank in its hometown, especially after losing Wachovia's headquarters last year. Gov. Bev Perdue has been talking with bank officials, shareholders and community leaders about the bank's future since Lewis announced two weeks ago that he plans to retire by year's end, Perdue spokeswoman Chrissy Pearson said.

Perdue has "let it be known that North Carolina will welcome its new leader with open arms," Pearson said.

Bank of America is one of the most important engines driving Charlotte's economy, employing 15,000 workers and supporting a raft of smaller businesses. It is the sole reason that Charlotte can still claim to be the country's No. 2 banking center, a title that has defined it for years.

If the headquarters were to shift, experts expect that the bank would keep a substantial presence and number of workers here, and that just a handful of top executives would move to the new base. But the city would lose prestige and decision-making power.

U.S. Rep. Mel Watt, a Charlotte Democrat and member of the House Financial Services Committee, said he hasn't heard anything about Bank of America leaving beyond the concerns of local city leaders - worries he attributed to insecurities from the Queen City.

He said the concerns might say more about Charlotte than about Bank of America.

"It's a reflection of how we sometimes view ourselves as a city - the poor little Southern victim," he said. "We forget the advantages Charlotte has. ... We just have to get over the victim mentality."

For most of this decade, Charlotte has worried that the bank would move to New York, the home to most of its big-bank peers. In 1998, the concern was over a switch to the West Coast, when the bank - then called NationsBank - bought BankAmerica in San Francisco.

CEO Lewis, born in Mississippi and educated in Georgia, has said multiple times that the headquarters wouldn't move under his watch - including the day last fall when he bought New York-based Merrill Lynch.

In 2006, when he unveiled plans for the bank's new tower across the street from its 60-story corporate center, he said the building would make it "much harder for the next CEO to move the headquarters."

At the start of Lewis' tenure as CEO in 2001, he took steps to bring a number of top lieutenants to Charlotte, but that management team has spread out again in recent months. In the latest structure, five of 11 top executives are based in Charlotte, including Lewis. Before the Merrill deal, five of nine were here.

Some experts said that a new Bank of America CEO might want to move the headquarters to make a statement - perhaps to signal that the bank is shutting the door on a troubled year and a half. Or the new leader might want to signal that the bank is not just a consumer bank, but a bona fide Wall Street firm, especially after its Jan. 1 purchase of Merrill Lynch.

The question now is whether the headquarters location is even an issue for the board of directors.

Recently revamped under the government's watch, the board has more financial expertise and no members with strong Carolinas ties except Lewis. Three of the current 15 are holdovers from Boston-based FleetBoston Financial, which the bank bought in 2004.

Directors have not returned calls for comment.

Boston could be in the running because one of the front-runners for the CEO job, Brian Moynihan, is based there, and came to Bank of America when it bought FleetBoston. In August, when he was named head of the bank's consumer banking unit, he stayed in Boston even though the unit is based in Charlotte.

But New York, where the bank's One Bryant Park tower looms near Times Square, is also a possibility. Some observers say the bank will have to go there to find the talent to run such a large and complex financial firm.

"There's only a few places you can go to find people with the breadth and depth of experience that the board may be looking for," said James Post, who teaches corporate governance at Boston University. "...You have to go to New York."

On Tuesday night, The Wall Street Journal reported that the bank had hired search firm Russell Reynolds Associates Inc. to assist in the CEO search - which could be a signal that the new leader is more likely to come from outside the bank.

From her conversations with bank and community leaders, Perdue has heard that the four items the bank is focused on are searching for a new leader, boosting profitability, repaying the federal government $45 billion in aid and "focusing on its enterprise," Pearson said.

Bank of America spokesman Bob Stickler said last week, "As of now, it's here and there are no plans to move," noting the bank's just-opened Ritz-Carlton hotel and other commercial developments.

"The people here are very proud of the fact that we grew up a Southern bank," Stickler said. "The hotel just opened. Our new office building and the new Founders Hall will be opened in the next year."

But if the new CEO did want to move, the paperwork wouldn't be too onerous. The bank would probably notify the N.C. Secretary of State that it had changed its "principal office street address" at the time of its next annual report. It would also have to change the address listed on its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but wouldn't need to make a special filing about the move.

Behind-the-scenes campaign

There's been no public campaign to keep the bank headquarters here. But local officials say they're working hard behind the scenes, and state leaders say they've been brainstorming the issue since the financial meltdown struck last year.

Everyone's main objective: Make it as easy as possible to do business in Charlotte, they said.

"We've got a good team of people working together to ensure that we're supporting Bank of America," Mayor Pat McCrory said. He declined to provide further details, other than to describe it as a public-private effort that involves a combination of strategies.

McCrory said officials would be in contact with the bank's new CEO as soon as the new leader is announced, and that they would "strive for continuing investment" from the bank.

In the meantime, he said, local leaders are trying to give Bank of America time to work through the process. McCrory said he feels confident that the bank will remain a strong presence in Charlotte.

N.C. Sen. Bob Rucho of Matthews said he's worried that other states could try to lure Bank of America with tax incentives and other breaks. When it comes time to make a decision about headquarters, Rucho said he hopes the bank will approach legislators with any concerns and give them a chance to address them.

"In essence, we need to be brought up to speed," he said. "We need them to let us know what their status is."

Congressman Watt, asked about the possibility the bank could move to Boston, said he didn't think there was "any rationale for them moving to Boston."

"I'd be more concerned about them evaluating the merits of New York than Boston," he added.

Job losses insignificant

It's difficult to predict the effects of such a move, because there aren't a lot of exact comparisons. But most examples indicate that the effect on rank-and-file workers is negligible.

When Charlotte lost Wachovia's headquarters last year, it was a slap in the face to a city that defines itself by banking. The job cuts, however, have netted about 500, leaving about 19,500 Charlotte positions. Wells Fargo, which bought the bank, has even said it expects to add jobs here.

But that change wasn't strictly a headquarters move; that was one company being bought by another.

One of the best-known examples of uprooting headquarters is Boeing, which moved from Seattle to Chicago in 2001. The company wanted to make a statement about how it had expanded beyond just building airplanes and into fields like aerospace. It also wanted to be in a location that was more central to all of its divisions, after spreading across the country.

A net of about 150 employees, all in corporate functions, were moved, said spokesman John Dern. An additional 70,000 remained in the Seattle area.

Another manufacturer, Goodrich, decided to move its headquarters from Richfield, Ohio, to Charlotte in 1998, though that decision came only after Goodrich bought a Charlotte-based company. At the time, Goodrich said that about 150 jobs would be lost as the companies consolidated headquarters - a tiny fraction of the combined 27,000 total workers at the time. The Ohio-based manufacturing employees were not affected.

But the move to Charlotte was "very emotional," spokeswoman Laurie Tardif said. Goodrich was founded in nearby Akron, Ohio, in 1870 and was "a source of pride."

There was also an effect on company philanthropy in the Akron/Richfield area.

"With our headquarters moving here, our community involvement was now focused here as well," Tardif said.

Tax hit would be small

Although the bank contributes a major portion of local property tax revenues, Mecklenburg County tax officials say they're not that worried. Even if Bank of America declared a new home base, it would still contribute millions in property taxes because its buildings would still be here.

A chorus of local officials see Bank of America entrenched here because of its vast business operations, deep talent pool and relatively low cost of doing business

The bank occupies about 5.5million square feet of office space in the Charlotte area, predominantly in buildings it owns, said Peter Conway, managing partner at Trinity Partners, which handles leasing for Bank of America Plaza.

For the year ending June 30, the bank paid about $8.3 million in property taxes, making it the county's No. 2 taxpayer behind Duke Energy, whose taxes come to is $14.6 million, county tax collector Neal Dixon said.

The buildings Bank of America owns, valued at $979 million, could be assessed for less if they sat vacant, which is unlikely, Dixon said. The county could lose some revenue from business personal property if the bank moves some employees, although that isn't likely to be significant, Dixon said.

He said not much has changed since Charlotte lost the Wachovia headquarters last year. That bank was still the No. 3 taxpayer last fiscal year at $7.3 million, Dixon said.

The financial-services sector accounts for the largest chunk of Mecklenburg's private-sector payroll, paying nearly $5.2 billion to almost 52,000 employees last year, government data show.

Bank of America makes up almost 30 percent of the sector's workforce. It's unclear how much of the payroll the bank dominates, but if it's proportional, it would be almost $1.5 billion.

Bank of America also pays corporate income taxes, state taxes based on how much a company earns. The N.C. Department of Revenue declined to disclose the amount the bank pays.




Blemishes dot candidates' pasts -- liens, bankruptcies, spotty voting records



One candidate nearly lost his home last month after filing for bankruptcy a year ago.

Two have run into trouble with city code enforcers.

And another never votes – not even for himself.

Those are among the findings from a check of state and federal records on the criminal, civil, bankruptcy and voting histories of the 31 candidates in Charlotte's Sept. 15 primaries and Nov. 3 general elections.

Most candidates had clean slates. Others had minor blemishes such as an occasional speeding ticket. Here's a look at the more notable findings.

Raphael Basisa

At-large Democrat

The real estate broker and landlord blames bad luck and a bad economy for a series of financial setbacks.

A native of Congo, he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 1998 after the shipment of clothing he'd taken back there to sell was stolen. And in 2007, he paid $12,472 in back property taxes and fees to avoid foreclosure on at least two tracts off West Boulevard.

“You do the best you can and things hit you in the face,” he says. “You just have to be the kind of person who brushes off and keeps on going.”

Basisa, 48, owns rental properties. He has a pair of outstanding city citations, including one for allowing a single-family home to be used as a boarding house. The city also has threatened to demolish one house. And he has twounpaid liens with the city totaling more than $500.

“The tenants play a game,” he says, “if you go to evict them they call the city inspector.”

Martin Davis

GOP mayoral candidate

In 2003, the District Court canceled a 12-year-old judgment involving a credit card bill after Davis finished paying $3,950.

“I wasn't making any money,” says Davis, 52. “I had to pay them off monthly.”

In the late 1980s, he was arrested four times while picketing abortion clinics.

Tariq Bokhari

At-large Republican

As a student at Virginia's Radford University, he pleaded guilty in 1999 and 2000 to underage possession of alcohol, and in 2000, to failing to obey a court order. A year later, while lead singer and guitar player in a local band, he pleaded guilty to violating a noise ordinance.

“I definitely take full responsibility,” says Bokhari, 29. “Nothing like that has ever happened after college.”

Darrell Bonapart

District 5 Democrat

He filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in June 2008, with liabilities of nearly $124,000. The case remains open. But even before the bankruptcy, records show he'd had to stave off efforts to foreclose on his single-story home near Eastland Mall.

The mortgage holder began four attempts to foreclose, first in 2006 and most recently this summer. Attorneys who filed a “Notice of Sale” in July say it has since been canceled.

“My home is completely intact,” Bonapart says. “I have no issues with my home whatsoever right now.”

In March 2007, a Superior Court judge ordered him to pay CitiFinancial $7,767 to resolve a loan dispute. Bonapart, 40, says he'd borrowed the money “trying to help other people.”

A disabled veteran, Bonapart says his setbacks would not impede his ability to serve.

“My sacrifice of working hard on East Charlotte hasn't changed … and it's not going to change,” he says, adding that the problems have “no bearing on my leadership as far as the community is concerned.”

Patrick Cannon

At-large Democrat

From 2003 to 2008, Cannon faced a total of $193,553 in IRS liens between 2003 and 2008. He satisfied all the liens, which were eventually canceled. His issues with the IRS were detailed in Saturday's Observer.

Darrin Rankin

At-large Democrat

In March, the city filed a lien against him for $125 after it cut grass and weeds on rental property he owns on Sheringham Way.

Rankin, 37, says the city sent notices to the tenant, not to him. He says when he finally got the bill, he promptly paid.

He also has two outstanding citations from the city involving a broken roll-out container at a rental property on LaSalle Street. He says the city failed to respond to calls to fix it.

Jack Stratton

GOP mayoral candidate

For more than four years, Stratton and his wife were at the center of a much-publicized controversy when social workers, citing neglect, took custody of their 10 children.

He lost a series of battles in state and federal courts and in 2002 was jailed for violating a gag order.

Records show an IRS lien for $5,045 filed in 2003 remains unpaid.

“I didn't know about it,” says Stratton, 54. “I don't believe I owe them that money.”

Voting records

Three years of N.C. voting history are available online, so the Observer checked candidates records back to 2006. Most voted fairly regularly in the off- and presidential-year elections of 2006 and 2008 and the local elections of 2007.

Others did not. Some lived out of state, but some were here and for a variety of reasons didn't always go to the polls.

Georgia Belk

At-large Republican

Since 2006, voted only in the 2008 general election. She says she was often out of the country on business related to a telecom company she worked for and tending to family property issues in the Caribbean.

“Due to business obligations I was out of the country for extended periods of time,” she says. “… Career demands do not always accommodate election dates.”

Anthony Castrillon

At-large Democrat

Voted twice in 2008, but not at all in 2006 or 2007.

“I'm not going to make any excuses,” he says. “I feel bad I haven't engaged as much as I should have.”

Jack Stratton

GOP mayoral candidate

Despite running for county commissioner in 2004 and for Congress last November, has not voted.

“There's nobody worth voting for,” he says. “Every politician I've seen is corrupt. I didn't even vote for myself.”

Owen Sutkowski

District 1 Democrat

Since moving to Charlotte in mid-2006, has voted only in 2008 primary and general elections.

“At that point I did not know enough about the candidates and chose not to vote,” he says. “Voting is not the only way you can get involved in the community.”

Bob Williams

At-large Democrat

Voted only in 2008 primary and general elections.

“I don't know why I didn't vote,” he says. “I was probably working too hard.”



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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, Whitehouse.gov, Charmeck.org, Bank of America, Anthony Foxx.com, Youtube, Google Maps