Fedex Sides Give Board An Earful In Packed Debate

December 5, 2001 - Source: Alex Wayne, Staff Writer

Armed with competing PowerPoint presentations, competing statistics and competing rhetoric, the two sides in the FedEx controversy debated Tuesday night before the Guilford County commissioners.

Long sought by opponents of FedEx's planned Triad cargo hub, the commissioners' public forum was long on jargon and emotion but short of any tangible result.

The commissioners passed no resolutions to support or oppose the hub. Four commissioners - Republicans Mary Rakestraw and Linda Shaw and Democrats Jeff Thigpen and Mike Barber - each delivered a five-minute speech on the issue and made clear their positions on the hub (Barber, Thigpen and Rakestraw: for; Shaw: against.)

The rest of the commissioners hardly spoke, though Democrat Skip Alston said he supported the hub "110 percent."

A partisan crowd filled nearly every seat in the commissioners' meeting room in the Old County Courthouse. When hub opponents spoke, they were loudly applauded - no matter what they said. The audience was mostly polite to hub proponents, but they were occasionally quietly jeered, and under-the-breath muttering was rampant.

Representatives of the two sides sat opposite each other in front of the commissioners' dais. The center of the debate rested before Ron Goga, one of the foremost hub opponents: a foot-high pile of binders, the Federal Aviation Administration's Environmental Impact Statement.

The proponents, led by Andy Burke, president of Forward Greensboro, went first. Their argument, divided among a half-dozen economic development officials and prominent local citizens, concentrated on the jobs the hub is projected to add to the area.

"As we are all painfully aware, Guilford County needs jobs," Burke told commissioners as a slide flashed on the overhead projector showing headlines from news articles about local layoffs.

After 32 minutes - commissioners Chairman Bob Landreth gave former Greensboro mayor Carolyn Allen an extra two minutes to speak - it was the opponents' turn.

Where the proponents had spoken in measured tones, sometimes veering into jargon like "day-night sound level 65 dB contour," the opponents spoke with emotion.

"We do need jobs, we all agree on that," Laura Pollak, vice president of the Piedmont Quality of Life Coalition, told the commissioners. "We don't need them by stealing from our neighbors. And we certainly don't need a $20 billion bully in our community."

The opponents challenged the commissioners to ask "tough questions" of FedEx, whose officials declined an invitation to attend the meeting. An attorney representing the opponents, Jeffrey Peraldo, gave the commissioners a list of questions to ask. Commissioners Barber, Thigpen and Rakestraw promised to have them answered.

Interspersed in their argument, the opponents appealed to the audience to give money for a potential legal fight against the hub.

After a 10-minute recess, audience members for and against the hub shared their opinions, two minutes at a time, with the commissioners.

Proponents, mostly a lineup of local politicians and prominent citizens, tended to be succinct.

"I'm not a developer making millions of dollars off this project," Richard Beard, an economic developer, told the commissioners. "I'm a father of two and lifelong resident of Greensboro. It's a critical time in the Triad's economy. This region is desperate for a win."

Opponents, on the other hand, were mostly citizens unfamiliar with public speaking. They tended to take their full two minutes and were occasionally outrageous.

One man, whose name was unavailable, whistled loudly into the microphones at the podium, attempting to emulate the sound level of a jet engine. Roch Smith, who unsuccessfully challenged Mayor Keith Holliday in the city's elections this fall, aggressively questioned a noise consultant hired by the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority.

The tension at the forum was predictable, as the event was mired in controversy from the start.

Rather than hold the forum at the Greensboro Coliseum, as they had originally planned in the summer, the commissioners scheduled it for their meeting room.

The room holds 264 and was so full that county security officials acted as ushers, finding people open seats.

Hub opponents had been looking forward to questioning FedEx officials on live TV, but a company spokeswoman said last week that FedEx officials didn't think it would be appropriate to attend.

Until late last week, it was thought that the forum would be shown on TV only on tape-delay. The commissioners had scheduled it for the same time, 6:30 p.m., as a Greensboro City Council meeting. The local government station is run by the city, so the council meeting took precedence.

The council wrapped up at 7:30, and the channel was immediately switched to the commissioners' forum.

Memo: WANT TO GO?

The Guilford County commissioners' public forum on FedEx will be rebroadcast on Channel 13 in Greensboro, Channel 8 in High Point and Channel 21 in other parts of Guilford County on the following schedule: 1 p.m. today, 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday.


Copyright (c) 2001 Greensboro News & Record

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