Aden Hizkias
   Staff Writer

Last Tuesday, the Greensboro City Council held its first city council meeting of thenew year where resolutions and presentations were voted on and expressed.Among the topics covered was that of the Human Rights Campaign.

“This is an accomplishment that we are collectively very proud of, and the effort that we really put into it demonstrates how diverse and accepting Greensboro is and the work that we do in the city,” Jim Westmoreland, Greensboro city manager, said.

Connie Hammond, human resources director, stated that one of the goals for the Human Resources Department for Diversity and Inclusion Office is to ensure that the policies and practices are consistent with mandates that the council leads on.

She highlighted the process that has been made as well as the success in Greensboro such as the Nondiscrimination Ordinance that was revised just a year ago on Jan. 6, 2015.

Mayor Vaughan and the City Council members voted to make this ordinance more inclusive with gender identity and gender expression. Greensboro has had a long-standing inclusion of sexual orientation in its Equal Employment Opportunity policy.

Hammond discussed the recent scrutiny of the department and Greensboro for the lack of care in terms of diversity. She noted that this past year, however, has been the highest score achieved in both North and South Carolina on the Municipal Equality index (MEI).

The Human Rights Campaign claims to be the largest civil rights organization working to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. This campaign has over 5 million members nationwide and produces the annual MEI.

“The MEI demonstrates the ways that many cities can and do support the LGBT citizens that work and live in our community,” Maria Hicksfill, Law and Compliance office of the Human Resources Department, said.

Hicksfill talked about how the MEI examines the laws, policies and services of municipalities and rates them on the basis of their inclusivity of the LGBT people who live and work there.

The rates in 2015 included a total of 408 cities from each state, which is an increase of more than 55 cities than those rated in 2014.

Among other resolutions was one to sell the Dorothy Bardolph Human Services Center Property, a 40,000 square foot building.

The city council unanimously voted for the sale of the building to Mary Kotis, a developer.

Attorney Nathan Duggins had asked for the upset bid to re­open so that a higher bid may be accepted since the building had been appraised to be a little over $1 million yet Kotis had made an offer of $900,000.

Duggins stated that they were late to the game, but they wanted the building because it is “nice office space.”

Chuck Winfree, the attorney representing Kotis, stated that the city had marketed the building and asked for the upset bid to stay closed.

“Opening the re­bidding at this point, not only would it be unfair, I think, to my client, but it may make it not feasible for them to be a viable contender for the building,” Winfree said.

He stated that he understands that the city has an interest in obtaining the highest price for the property but that the city also has an interest in following the procedures and having the rules that were published for everyone to follow and, “Not changing the games [or] rules at the end.”

City council member Sharon Hightower agreed.

“Why would we re­open the bid, why would we have this alternate?” Hightower asked.

There had been 10 days after the Kotis bid where no one had made another offer.

Councilman Justin Outling and Councilwoman Nancy Hoffmann also stated that all the normal processes had been followed accordingly, and a number of large developers expressed interest in the property but did not put in a bid and that Kotis had done so successfully.

Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson made a motion to include an honorary plaque or marker with the sale of the building for Dorothy Bardolph’s accomplishments when she served on the city council in the 1970s. This motion passed unanimously.