There was a lot of drama and discussion at the voters’ forum at CPCC last night, as well as some revelations. It was what the mainstream press calls a “lively discussion.” It was what journalists who like directness and honesty more than polite metaphors call “a shit storm.” People showed up and boy, were most of them pissed. And thank God, because if any group of lawmakers deserved to be subjected to vigorous questioning and criticism, it’s members of the GOP majority who rammed through one disastrous law after another, as you no doubt know if you’re even reading newspapers lately. Rather than recap the entire forum, which other local media have already done, let’s take a look at a few revelations yours truly had during the “lively” discussions.
1. Malcolm Graham, a Democrat, is seriously incensed at being steamrolled by the Republicans – including the quasi-hijacking of Charlotte’s airport by vengeful friends of airport director Jerry Orr. He’s also pretty effective at summing up the situation – “”In my opinion, we as a state went 20 years backward . . .Our national brand as a state has been tarnished.” So effective, in fact, I wish he had decided to run for mayor, rather than the three corporate suck-ups we’re supposed to choose from.
2. Ruth Samuelson, a Republican, is either a bald-faced liar or completely clueless. The designated next House Speaker said, with a straight face, that she did not know that much of the voter suppression law passed by the General Assembly was taken practically verbatim from model laws written by ALEC, a corporate advocacy group that “furnished” GOP-controlled state legislatures with pre-written bills and heavily influenced several states’ law-making bodies this year. Excuse me, but I have apolitical neighbors who know about ALEC’s influence on our legislature, OK? If Samuelson is telling the truth, then she is obviously living in a bubble and isn’t fit for higher office, never mind the speakership. If she boldly lied at a public forum about such an important issue, then she’s, well, she’s a politician, so what do you expect?
3. Beverly Earle’s comments, particularly regarding the airport, made it abundantly clear that the city would be better off if it had elected her to the mayor’s office in 2007 instead of handing a landslide victory to now-Governor Fratboy.
4. Bob Rucho is every bit as snarly, arrogant and unpleasant as his reputation and actions imply. Rucho is poster boy for the “My way or the highway” theory of government; a guy who can’t seem to help answering questions as if the person posing them were an irritating moron. He answered a questioner who said lawmakers were taking the airport away from Charlotte, by telling the person, “Apparently you might’ve been reading the newspaper too many times.” Yep, that’s always the danger of running roughshod over an entire city: people might respond by reading researched articles filled with facts and then disagreeing with Rucho’s wisdom. If only everyone could see that Dentist Bob is the only person qualified to make serious judgments about public property, this would be such an easier world for Bob Rucho to live in. Heck, it might even make him stop grimacing all the time.
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This article appears in Aug 28 – Sep 3, 2013.
Rucho is against having minimum-wage earners subsidize millionaire Hollywood producers via state “incentives”.
Of course you won’t read about that here.
Because the democrats and the biased media repeats a lie enough times it does not make it the truth. The State is not stealing or taking the airport from the city of Charlotte it is protecting the fiscal integrity of a very important economic asset. A fact!!!.
If you researched and listened to the issues discussed at the so called information forum you would have understood the facts on the airport, education in NC and the election law changes.You may not like or believe the truth but it is the truth non the less.
Mr. Grooms, we have never met yet you are critical of my beliefs and principles. One thing that I don’t tolerate well is your misrepresentation and lack of understanding of the facts. Your audience even though liberal still deserve honest reporting.
OK, Bob, I’ll bite. WHAT misrepresentation and lack of understanding of what facts? It’s not a “lack of understanding” to merely disagree with your interpretation of events. And, hard as it may be on your tunnel vision, others CAN research an issue and listen to explanations at a forum, and still think you’re full of it. Your post here tells me that I’m basically on target — you call your view of something, in this case the airport issue, “A fact!!!” (Sure you don’t want to make that ALL CAPS?) Hate to break it to you, but all these other people you see around you? Those are real people. And they have every right to examine your actions in public service and to disagree with those actions and/or your interpretation of what those actions mean. In other words, one man’s “protecting the fiscal integrity of an economic asset” is another man’s idea of gratuitous theft. And as for that “one thing I don’t tolerate well,” thanks for the warning – you’ve got me all nervous.
Mr. Grooms please do your research first before you start pointing your finger…it’s obvious that you get your info from the paper, which has always made its own version of the news NOT REPORT the facts…below ARE THE FACTS…if you care to read it.
The Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CDIA) is a critical component for the future economic success of our city, region and for North Carolina. Maintaining low airport operating costs is essential to keeping the American/US Airways hub in Charlotte. The population density of the Charlotte region does not, on its own merits, warrant keeping the 800 flights/day; it is the airport’s low operating cost.
Past mayors (Knox, Gantt, Vinroot, Myrick and McCrory) and their city council members have had a “hands off” approach to the airport operations. For the past 25 years, strategic and operational decisions have been made by Jerry Orr. Jerry’s success earned him recognition as one of the top airport directors in the country. All of the past mayors, councils and city managers since 1975, recognized they had little knowledge or experience in operating one of the busiest airports in the world and left the decisions up to professional airport management, like Jerry Orr. The airport’s past and present success was achieved precisely because the Mayor and City Council did not try to micromanagement the airport operations.
So what has changed? Well, the free-spending ex-mayor of Charlotte, Anthony Foxx, needed more money for his streetcar and other dubious projects despite three straight years of raising property taxes. Today, CDIA has $450 million in cash; this fact has not gone unnoticed by the former mayor, the city council, and city management. Unfortunately for them, under federal law the airport revenue can only be spent on projects necessary for the airport operation and expansion. One example of raiding the piggy bank was the city leadership’s recommendation to locate the streetcar storage and maintenance facilities inside the airport fence as an excuse to charge the airport and misuse airport funds. When discovered in city documents, this idea was quickly labeled a “mistake” by the city and supposedly dropped. I am sure that plan was a “mistake” as the city maintained…i.e., a “mistake” they didn’t want anybody to learn about.
Other critical points in this debate that have been trampled by the city and ignored by the press:
1. The City of Charlotte spends NO city tax dollars on the airport. The airport is self-funded through revenues gained from landing/gate fees, concessions, and parking.
2. Airport bonds are NOT guaranteed in ANY way by the City of Charlotte or the city taxpayers. The bonds are GUARANTEED solely from the revenues generated by the users of the airport, both airlines and passengers. For the city council and the former mayor to even hint that the airport bonds were guaranteed by the City of Charlotte and/or the city taxpayers was both dishonest and misleading.
3. All of the City of Charlotte’s previous governments, until this current mayor, manager, and city council, have allowed the airport to be professionally managed under Jerry Orr’s leadership. During that time period, the lack of bureaucratic interference allowed the airport to thrive and grow along with it… the Charlotte business community.
4. The FAA airport certification process is normally handled by the FAA regional office in Atlanta, for some unexplained reason, the final decision has NOW been moved to Washington. I wonder if USDOT Secretary Foxx would explain the change since he recused himself from the decision.
For the past three years, it has been a different story. Then new Mayor Foxx, the city council members and city staff have made some airport financial and operational management decisions, particularly decisions that transferred costs and obligations from the city to the airport. Federal law doesn’t allow the city politicians and bureaucrats to directly use airport revenues for city operations, this was evident when the mayor was told that he could not raise the cost of airport parking fees to fund city transportation projects like his pet project…“The Trolley/Streetcar”. The new administration has found a way around the law by charging the airport for services like police/security, human resources, finance, and IT to name a few incursions. All of theses airport operational expenses are billed at a higher cost to the airport, with potentially less quality, than those that could be determined by private competitive bids. A perfect example was when the city unilaterally decided to replace airport police/security services with the Charlotte Police Department at an increased cost to the airport of 3.6 millions dollars per year. Coincidentally, this airport police service transfer occurred approximately at the same time as the three-year federal stimulus grant expired and the city would have been required to absorb the additional cost in order to maintain the recently hired forty police officers. So the city politicians and bureaucrats finally found a plausible way to use the airport revenue stream as a “piggy bank” to fund city operations and pet political projects. The repeated actions taken by city officials puts in jeopardy our low cost hub due to the increased costs charged to the airlines, and risk losing the airport hub as our most important economic engine.
The legislative action does not take the Airport away from the people of Charlotte nor does the State take ONE PENNY from the airport. The CDIA Commission and its powers is a model of what was recommended by the city-funded consultant in the Airport Governance Study Report. The city, after paying $150,000.for the study, criticized their consultants report because it was not the answer they wanted. The City of Charlotte has 7 of the 13 board appointments giving the city a majority. The regional commission is required to be composed of members from the Charlotte region with expertise in airport operations, logistics, bond finance, business, etc. which will provide responsible and experienced leadership to assure future airport growth. As a matter of fact, the bill helps guarantee CDIA’s future economic success by keeping the city politician’s hands out of the airport till.
The fact is, the Regional Authority/Commission, passed by the NC Legislature, aims to eliminate politics/patronage from airport operations and protects the financial integrity of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport and the new Intermodal Freight Terminal.
You can verify these facts directly from Mr. Orr, as soon as the city employee gag order is lifted and he is no longer prevented from speaking the truth.
I hope this gives you and your readers a better understanding of the FACTS surrounding the Charlotte airport.