As Mecklenburg County commissioners sift through the rubble of the county manager’s recommended budget, looking for places to tap cuts that could help save teachers’ jobs, there’s one data set that ought to jump screaming off the page. As of last December, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools had amassed an astounding 109 Central Administration positions that cost the […]
Can only assume that he does, or at least not like or appreciate them as much as, say, librarians or social service workers or veterans. While we’re at it, might as well add district attorneys, court clerks and sheriff deputies into the mix, as well. How else to explain Foxx’s wholly irresponsible threat to veto […]
If at first you don’t succeed, move along and hope that extra support will help you catch up. That’s the philosophy critics contend is driving a new set of grade-promotion and graduation standards at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. The new rules, which take effect next school year, strongly encourage principals to not retain a student more than […]
In a series of pricey votes Monday night, the city council approved more than $46 million worth of contracts that clear a flight path for major overhauls at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and puts the Queen City in business with tech titan Google. The council approved a nearly $700,000 change-order to a construction contract with Edison […]
After months of political machinations and public theater resulting from a sexual harassment complaint that was never really a formal complaint filed against Councilmember Warren Turner, the Charlotte City Council on Monday night unanimously adopted a code of ethics and harassment policy to govern the council and mayor. The new policy, which includes guidelines on […]
Between feasting on bites of taxpayer-funded meals at their dinner meeting tonight, city councilmembers are scheduled to take a virtual stroll on a public art gallery crawl, to include works that were completed this year and others that are on tap for the 2011 proposed public art work plan. Total cost: more than $800,000. Included […]
If anybody needed proof positive that Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s criminal justice system is little but a revolving door, this week stands as damning evidence: Five homicides in five days and in almost every case the accused killers, as well as some of their victims, have extensive criminal records. Consider the most recent killing, where the body of […]
Attorneys for accused cop killer Demeatrius Montgomery have been trying to use the so-called Racial Justice Act to further delay his trail, which has already been lingering for years. The law allows judges to consider statistical evidence and data that suggests race was a factor in prosecutors seeking the death penalty on a disproportionate number […]
Mecklenburg County employees – at least the ones who still have jobs – would go without pay hikes for the second year in a row, under the budget County Manager Harry Jones rolled out Tuesday night for the upcoming fiscal year. And while Jones cautioned that the pay freeze could put the county at risk […]
Mecklenburg County Manager Harry Jones quoted and referenced everybody and everything from Ralph Waldo Emerson and Teddy Roosevelt to the P.O.W. Stockdale Paradox, in unveiling a recommended budget that avoids a tax increase, cuts $81 million in programs and services, axes nearly 400 employees, and left Jones, in his words, standing on tippy toes, peering […]
