Greensboro Police Chief Tim Bellamy was chosen Best Law Enforcement Officer in Yes! Weekly’s list of the Triad’s Best.* Who else is on the list? Guilford County Sheriff B.J. (’It’s our house or your house’) Barnes, who successfully convinced voters that they need a new $114 million jail? Winston-Salem Police Chief Pat Norris doesn’t count, because she’s retired and working on contract until June 30. That only leaves the controversial Greensboro Police Lt. James Hinson.

At any rate, Greensboro City Council member Mike Barber, voted Best City Council member (in a tie with Mary Rakestraw and Zach Matheny) doesn’t think Belamy’s so great, even if the three GPD officers accused of sexual assault have been cleared by Guilford district attorney Doug Henderson:

Barber said the burden now is on the police department to handle its own officers — a responsibility he said the department hasn’t taken seriously enough.

“We have hundreds of great police officers, and we have about a dozen rotten ones,” he said. “We’ve seen too many instances in this city of officer behavior where, if this was the private sector, they’d be fired. And that’s what should happen any time they engage in behavior that’s unbecoming a police officer.”

…”All of this has happened on Chief Bellamy’s watch,” Barber said. “Something has got to change — either the continued behavior of these officers has to change, or their management has to change. And the City Council, through the city manager’s office, is willing to make that change.”

Note who rushes to Bellamy’s defense — council members Goldie Wells and Robbie Perkins who, along with Mayor Yvonne Johnson, make up the council’s PC coalition.

*I couldn’t help but notice that Yes! Weekly was chosen the Triad’s Best local publication, while Jordan Green was chosen Best local journalist. I’m not suggesting Yes! Weekly is skewing the results, but you really wouldn’t expect to see the Rhino and John Hammer on the list, would you?

The state Environmental Management Commission unanimously approved the Jordan Lake Rules, with local officials from Graham, Mebane and Burlington in attendance:

Burlington Councilman Jim Butler said the Jordan Lake Rules will punish areas for growing, putting them in the sticky position of needing a larger tax base to raise water and sewer revenues along with a high cost of adding new development.

“It’s a disincentive to grow,” Butler said. “You pay when you grow and you pay big.”

Creedmoor Commission member Daryl Moss also spoke up:

“I am certain that these eight counties and 26 municipalities will most likely view this situation as an unfunded mandate. There’s a lot of flexibility in this report, but flexibility without funding is not a new thing to local governments. We get that all the time,” Moss said. “These eight counties and 26 municipalities are going to be left holding the bag. They are going to be in a very precarious position.”

The EMC did approve $100 million to help local governments meet the rules’ requirements. A nice gesture, I reckon, but if the rules are going to cost Greensboro alone $75 million, then it might not go very far.

The editorialists at the Winston-Salem Journal are delighted that voters in Tuesday’s primary “showed Forsyth County Commissioner Bill Whiteheart the door.” Such a decision paves the way for a moderate board of commissioners:

Residents might well see a positive shift in focus, because the board will lose one of its hard-right stalwarts — and its least effective one at that. Whiteheart has made no significant accomplishments and shown no leadership during his four years on the board. And his foot-dragging about cleaning up his property behind the Northside Shopping Center in Winston-Salem was an embarrassment to the board.

Now, the board’s longstanding conservative majority will likely weaken. Whisenhunt and Linville will in all likelihood hold onto their seats in the general election. But whether Plyler or one of the Democrats wins in that election, the hard-right on the board won’t be able to call the shots as easily as it’s been doing. It will lose a key “yes-man.”

The board and the county will benefit.

The N&R was denied the opportunity to write such an editorial about Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow, who prevailed in his District 5 primary. But they’ve got $457 million in school bonds to keep them happy for a while.

Update: Let’s say Yow is a Yes! man: he was voted ‘Best County Commissioner’ in Yes! Weekly’s Triad’s Best 2008 list.

….from Guilford County Schools chief operations officer Leo Bobadilla, discussing the fast-track process of building the new Jamestown Middle School, which was on the recently-approved $412 miilion school bond:

“What we don’t want to do is not be doing things that we could be doing,” Bobadilla told the board.

This is the man in charge of the money.

Where does Bev Perdue stand on the issue of illegal immigrants attending community college, a policy her governor supports?

Here:

BEV PERDUE

NEW BERN

What she says:

* Give law enforcement resources they need to participate in federal 287(g) program.

* Opposed to allowing illegal immigrants to attend community colleges or to get in-state tuition at state universities.

* Wants federal government to secure the border, adopt a more comprehensive immigration reform package and enforce current immigration laws with employers who hire illegal workers.

It appears to me that she sides with her attorney general.

A lingering story that’s been on the backburner for a while.

The cities of Burlington, Graham and Mebane lawyer up in an effort to fight the Jordan Lake Rules:

Hiring the lawyers is money well-spent, they believe. Municipalities up and down the Haw River Basin fear the rules could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in retrofitting waste water systems and existing development to reduce phosphorous and nitrogen flowing downstream. Even more troubling, they aren’t sure the measures will fix the elevated nutrient levels in the lake.

If this issue has gotten recent coverage in the N&R, I’ve missed it (let me know if I have). Almost a year ago, Greensboro water resources director Allan Williams told the City Council that the Jordan Lake Rules would cost the region $1 billion and Greensboro $75 million, adding:

“I cannot in good conscience, after 30 years of being in this business and in this position, sit here and tell you that what this bill is going to do is going to achieve anything near the benefit that the state proposes,” Williams concluded. “They’re making no guarantees that any of this billion dollars will achieve what they say the desired effect is.”

Note the rules have been revised, and the Piedmont Triad Council of Governments will sponsor a briefing on those rules on May 20. Hopefully we’ll get appropriate coverage.

…says State Sen. Richard Stevens about the N.C. Attorney General’s advisory that public colleges should not admit illegal immigrants.

First you have the City of Winston Salem taking out two-thirds bonds for road improvements. Next you have the City of Greensboro, in a noble effort to trim its budget, putting $2 million in road improvements on the chopping block.

At the same time, the City Council agreed to keep a total of $1.3 million intact for housing and community development, nonprofit funding and neighborhood grants.

Maybe me, but it doesn’t seem like the city has its priorities straight. And we’ll all wonder why a transportation bond will be on the November ballot.

Lexington and Thomasville city schools are flying flags to match the air quality index:

“It’s to educate everybody: parents, students, teachers and the general public,” said John Hendron, an environmental health supervisor with the Davidson County Health Department who is also the co-chair of Davidson County Asthma Coalition.

Lexington and Thomasville city schools have been informing everyone about the Air Quality Index for the day with hopes of cutting down unnecessary trips to the hospital and limiting doctor visits as the weather gets warmer.

More analysis of Tuesday’s election, focusing on the $412 million school bond that passed with 55 percent of the vote.

Local political guru Bill Burckley speculates that a high female turnout was a major factor because female voters generally support bonds. Funny, that’s in line with my father-in-law’s theory about bond supporters down in Charlotte —- housewives who need something to do while their husbands are killing themselves in the banking industry to pay property taxes.

Guilford County Commissioner Billy Yow has another theory in this (unposted) N&R story:

Yow, who supported the jail bond but not the others, said many of the primary voters consisted of college students who might not live here and won’t ultimately have to foot the bill for the bonds in the form of higher taxes.

“They’re going to go back home and we’re going to feel the pain,” he said.

That bothers Yow, who said that perhaps those who aren’t long-term residents of the county shouldn’t be allowed to participate in those kinds of decisions.

In the end, though, the decision has been made, and the county will have to cover the cost.

“It is what it is,” Yow said. “The cost is coming.”

What kills me is the fact that, two days after the bonds passed, the Guilford County is already complaining that money is tight, while the school board will spend more money on property insurance, in case another school burns down.