Comments  from T. Dianne Bellamy Small Greensboro City Council

 3/04/07rev.

 

I am being painted as doing something wrong when all I have tried to do is use my office to empower and encourage. Some people do not want the powerless to have a voice that counts. The government belongs to the people and should serve, respect, protect and even provide for the people instead of creating barriers to keep from serving the people in the best way it can and this should be all the people not a chosen few. I have tried to be a voice for those who have felt they could not speak, did not know how to speak or need to be encouraged to speak regardless of race.

 

I have been an ambassador for the city giving out maps and any other promotional items that were provided for that purpose everywhere I have gone. I was never advised that there were any limits on how much you could ask for. Our city maps have been used in Adult Basic Ed Math classes at GTCC to teach adults math and how to read a map. Maps were given to schools for new parents as well as the visitors’ bureau.  Somebody’s grand nephew was thrilled to get a squeeze ball tossed to him at the Christmas parade last year. Kids rushed to get Frisbees and an internet safety comic book at A&T's homecoming where I paid for my own booth to be an ambassador for the City giving out information and talking to people for two days all day long for two years. As well as listening to the concerns of the vendors and encouraging them to give us input.  People are still asking for city calendars. I attended more National Night Out celebrations in my district every year than anyone and some don't bother to attend any. I spend my time in my comments on council to brag about my district because I am proud of my district and the people not to self promote. I have appointed young people to boards and commission whether they live in my district or not. I wanted people I represented to begin to trust the city and believe that it would do right by them with my help and that goes for the employees, too. I don’t want to talk about what I do, I just want to serve and encourage others to get involved.

 

I used the bus passes to promote using our mass transit system during our Dump the Pump Campaign. I was the only council member who was at the kick off of the South Elm connector; I gave bus passes to encourage folks to ride. I gave the passes to schools in my district for parents who had no transportation to come see about their children. I gave them to agencies that had poor people who often ask staff for money to get back home like students at GTCC. I gave the passes to homeless people to encourage them to go to Welfare Reform or Workforce Development or to DSS to get help. I gave the passes to a teenage homeless shelter to encourage the teens to be independent to go look for a job and a drug treatment center. I requested 30 passes for staff and students at the A&T High School Summer Transportation Institute so that the students could experience our transit system and take a tour of the Depot. I gave 4 to a cancer patient who needed someone to ride the bus with her because she can not ride the bus by herself after her treatment. I gave the passes to people I saw standing in the rain or the hot sun waiting for the bus just to help. I asked nothing in return I did not even identify who I was because it is not about me. These relatively few passes I have spread far and wide to promote riding our GTA buses. I wanted to help. If helping is abusing my "power" then I am guilty of caring only. Maybe the question should be asked, who else on the council does the kinds of things I have been doing?

 

I am one of the most caring and compassionate persons you will find, even to those who try to hurt me. I will not let a title stand in the way of me singing at a funeral or to school children at Washington St. School, or going on the block to talk to homeless men, or doing the homeless count, or helping an agency that wants to help people fight their drug addiction with dignity get their license to operate, or helping people and resources connect so they can serve a great good in the community. There are so many things that I do because I care and I do not try to get recognition for it. I have done resolutions in memory of everyday folks who were extraordinary folks to us in our communities. I encourage people to use my name to get the help they needed. I ask people to call me Dianne everywhere I go as a symbol of my humbleness to be a public servant and not a puffed up bureaucrat. I am respectful to people who show me no respect and do not pick fights because I want to defend what truly matters in the world: equality, love and honor. I ask the tough questions sometimes because they have to be asked even when others would rather let it pass.

 

I have been under attack and treated with disrespect by the very council member who says I am difficult. I have been told by the mayor that he did not attempt to help me learn the ropes as a new council member because he wanted to see if I was serious about what I was doing. But that did not stop me from finding my own way of getting the job done I was sent to do. I have had to endure my ideas being ignored, or, if I chose to do something differently, a new rule is made like with the GTA bus passes or informing the public about where we were in the police investigation last May. I do not need a bus pass for my personal use but there will be people now that I would not be able to help since the rules have been changed. So I went to the GTA Board and explained what I was doing and asked to purchase more passes.

 

Though I was not the source of the leak to the newspaper, I believe we should have kept the public updated on the progress of the investigation along the way and not because a weekly paper was doing their version of telling all.

 

As far as being a team player on council, of the approximately 600 agenda items that have to be voted on annually, I have voted with the majority of council about than 95% of the time since I got on council. According to media sources and the council members themselves, I did the best district presentation at our annual retreat in 2006 and the only one in 2007.

 

 I am proud to be a servant, I am proud to be African American and a woman. King said one day we would be judge by the “content of our character” and not by our color or the way we wear our hair or clothes we have on. I am disappointed that in Greensboro some of our leadership truly does not honor differences, diversity and equality unless it prescribes to a certain way of thinking. I will not stoop to undignified levels to defend who I am, who I represent and who sent me to serve. The mayor has told me several times that in his tenure on the council that I am by far the hardest working council member he has ever seen. And even he gave me very little help to make that happen and yes, I did ask. My efforts have been recognized by current and past council members such as Mrs. Carmany and Mr. Perkins. I am the only council member that does an annual report to inform and encourage the people in my district. I send out thank you letters to everyone who serves on boards and commissions in District 1. I communicate with the community leadership in District 1 at least 3 times a year by mail. I attend many events sponsored by the city and the community in and outside of my district. I feel the problem is because I have raised the bar of active public service to the rich, poor and the in between not just in my district but in the city. If I am late to a meeting it is because I may have 3 or 4 meeting at the same time and I try to get to them all and many times I do. People want you to show up even if you can not stay. I went to greet and thank 300 catholic students for their 7400 hours of community service they did in our community last summer on 2 different days. I have gone all over Greensboro attending events, to represent even when I had personal challenges such as illness or death in my family.

 

The police officer, who stopped me, made the decision not to issue me a ticket after he returned to his patrol car with my documentation and conferred with another officer by email about the stop. I asked him to give me a ticket if he felt I was speeding. It was his decision only to take the action he took. I never told him I was on council or asked for a favor. My concern was with the abrasive way he spoke to me during his exchange with me. I never made a complaint. I simply voiced my concerns to his superiors. I have spent more time than any one at my desk working down at the city even when I shared it with another council member. Yet around $40,000 was spent to redo the offices to give the council individual desk that most use less than 20 hours a month at the request of one council member. If his request cost $40,000, surely I could have the right to identify which desk I wanted to work from without a new rule being put in place. And we also can’t have someone who shows respect to staff, offers suggestions for improvements, meet with staff to explain and help plan for the needs of my district. There are many other things I could give as examples but as the song says, “may the works I've done speak for me”. I take my public service seriously and always have given much more that I have ever gotten. And I am certainly undeserving of what I have gone through for the last year.  I want government to work, that is why I have been in this fight all of my adult life. In order to make life better for others you have to be a doer and that is what I am and that's all. The times we are in now requires someone who is willing not to just go along to get along but will firmly advocate for the needs of the people who have waited so long already for this government to do right by them.

 

I want to thank the collective body of people and groups that have indicated their concern for me and the situations that have occurred over the past year. If I have disappointed or offended anyone, I am very sorry. This is, after all, an imperfect world and we are imperfect people but I know that I have tried with all my heart to serve to be best of my ability and I want to continue to represent the people in District 1 and the city of Greensboro. I hope we will truly take our focus to the real issues we are facing in Greensboro; the serious problems within the police department, jobs, education, crime, taxes and lack of true harmony and respect of each others. Greensboro is not a city for a few but belongs to us all. We need to continue to demand that this government provide quality service to everyone in the city with respect and timeliness. We need to request our media do a fairer job of reporting the news and respect an individual’s right to speak or not speak. And we need to encourage all of our citizens to take an active role in their communities to help find the solutions to problems and encourage positive interaction with this government to create and maintain a great quality of life for everybody.

 

This has been an unpleasant ordeal for me. I hope I have in some way shared a glimpse into my side of this unfortunate and unnecessary situation. Thank you.