Guarino’s all over Greensboro City Council’s decision to borrow against future hotel tax revenues to pay for the shortfall in the swim center funding. The N&R surely will follow up; in fairness, the 7-1 vote —with Trudy Wade as the lone ‘nay’ —- took place late last night.

Guarino notes “new plan adopted means that there will be a shortfall of overall city hotel tax revenues to pay for Coliseum maintenance; so maintenance will be deferred, or other taxpayer dollars will have to be used.” He also calls attention to council member Mike Barber’s call for a special meeting on Dec. 1 — mere hours before the new council is seated —– to discuss the matter. When calling for the meeting, Barber mentioned “certificates of participation,” but he did not elaborate. I also never heard COPs brought up during the discussion and debate over the swim center.

However, after Wade expressed concerns about the fact that the city is building a new swim center while War Auditorium is “falling apart,” coliseum manager Matt Brown replied that the swim center could be the driver for future discussion about funding for either coliseum maintenance or renovation of the auditorium. So it appears as though Barber’s special meeting will consider COPs for an auditorium renovation, which is highly likely since voters rejected the $50 million bond last year and certainly wouldn’t approve another one given the swim center fiasco.

I’ve often praised Barber for bringing some common sense to an often clueless City Council. But he lobbied to attach the swim center to the P&R bond and evidently is now talking COPs for something related to the coliseum complex. This isn’t a good way to end his tenure, at least in my opinion.

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