Spooky season: Some of the scariest, most controversial decisions made by Winston-Salem and Greensboro city leaders this past year

Featured photo: Protesters at Winston-Salem’s city hall on March 25. (Photo by Gale Melcher).

City leaders in Winston-Salem and Greensboro vote on hundreds of resolutions each year — whether it’s to change a city law or spend city funding. And those choices have the power to change residents’ lives in several spooky ways. Here are some of the scariest decisions (or lack thereof) made by city leaders since last Halloween.

WINSTON-SALEM

City council is made up of eight voting city councilmembers who represent different wards of the city and Mayor Allen Joines, who only votes in the case of a tie. Many of them are running for re-election this year.

New bus station rules

Last year, city leaders approved the Winston-Salem Transit Authority’s updated code of conduct for downtown’s Clark Campbell Transportation Center. Those rules have been in effect since December 2023. Now, people can’t spend more than 90 minutes at the bus station and need a valid bus ticket to remain on site, stirring concern over the welfare of unhoused people who often use the restrooms or the lobby to stay out of the elements. 

In August, one of WSTA’s North State security guards made a person sleeping at the bus station leave the property, according to a report acquired via public records request. 

“I felt it necessary to attempt to use a ‘sound pen’ to gain the gentleman’s attention,” the guard wrote in their report. “This worked rather well and was able to open dialogue between me and the gentleman enough for me to ascertain that he was not waiting for a bus, then asked him to leave the property if he was not waiting on the bus, which he complied.”

Refusal to acknowledge plight of Palestinians

Despite the months of pleading from Palestinian-American, Muslim and Jewish activists and allies calling for a ceasefire resolution — an action taken by NC municipalities such as Durham and Carrboro — Winston-Salem has yet to pass anything acknowledging the ongoing destruction of Gaza. Mayor Allen Joines told TCB that it’s out of city leaders’ purview. “We don’t see that it’s part of local governments,” he said. Forsyth County is home to nearly 3,800 Muslims according to 2020 Census data.

While not a ceasefire resolution, Greensboro offered a resolution of “peace and support,” which passed unanimously in January. Drafting the resolution was a joint effort by councilmembers Tammi Thurm and Marikay Abuzuaiter. In November, Abuzuaiter’s nephew Hassan Munir Abuzuaiter was killed in Gaza in an airstrike.

Downtown parking changes

The city is on its way to implementing paid parking downtown in all 1,400 on-street and 1,600 off-street spaces. Currently, on-street parking spaces are either free or cost as little as 25 cents an hour — many meters only accept coins. Off-street costs $1 per hour. City leaders heard the new plan during the city’s public works committee meeting on Oct. 15.

The new plan will raise prices to $1.50 per hour in on-street spots and $1 for off-street spaces. Fines will also get a hike — they’re currently $15 and will be raised to $30. Parkers will have to pay via the PayByPhone application. Three councilmembers voted in favor of the plan, while Councilmember John Larson abstained. The plan now goes to the full city council for approval in November, and will be implemented by spring 2025. 

This big change has irked many residents. And some are worried that it will drive business away from downtown. “Modernization is great, keeping up with the times is great,” resident Heidi Schwartz told TCB. But going from 25 cents to $1.50 is a big jump for businesses recovering post-pandemic, she said. “I just don’t want the stigma around it to negatively impact the business that it drives to the city,” she added.

GREENSBORO

City council is comprised of eight councilmembers —- five representing the city’s five districts and three at-large councilmembers — and Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who does vote. Greensboro city council does not have elections this year.

Granting severance to former city manager

City Manager Taiwo Jaiyeoba spent only two short years managing the city of Greensboro, while the city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle a female city employee’s claims of “unwanted touching” by Jaiyeoba, who ultimately resigned in March. Two senior-level city employees told WFDD that they had “seen documents related to an internal inquiry which found Jaiyeoba sent inappropriate messages of a sexual nature to a female employee.” Even though his contract stated that he wouldn’t receive any severance pay if he quit, he ended up receiving a $125,000 package. 

Jaiyeoba was also embroiled in a scandal that occurred on Dec. 28, when he was involved in a domestic dispute with his daughters. One of his daughters stated to a 911 dispatcher: “My dad is an abuser.” She added that Jaiyeoba was “trying to say” that she “hit him and pushed him and his arm is broken…. He’s a very powerful man.” Jaiyeoba’s daughters reported minor injuries after the incident. Jaiyeoba became the National Transit Planning Director for Lochner, a national infrastructure services provider, in July.

Interactive Resource Center influence

City leaders have involved themselves in the downtown homeless services center’s business for the last several months. After years of operating as a day center from 8 a.m.-3 p.m., in January the Interactive Resource Center started operating 24/7, save for a few hours in the afternoon for cleaning. The IRC received monetary assistance from the city and county to do so. Soon, the center began to act as an overnight shelter with many patrons sleeping on its floor. 

In the months after the increase in hours, the IRC fell under increased scrutiny as calls for service to police doubled temporarily. The calls also correlated with an overall increase in people served.

During the 2023-24 fiscal year, they served 8,520 people. During the prior fiscal year, they served 5,677. Downtown business owners complained at length via email and at city council meetings about trash and safety concerns.

In July, the city council delayed granting funding to the IRC, citing concerns and requested for a plan of action from the IRC to curb calls for service and address trash, a major complaint of nearby business owners. The council ultimately gave the IRC funding in August. 

Now, the center has announced that they will go back to its day center hours on Nov. 1, just as winter chills creep closer, leaving IRC patrons in the lurch. 

In an Oct. 7 email, Mayor Nancy Vaughan told another councilmember that she had pushed IRC leadership at an Oct. 2 meeting to “go back to being a day shelter.”

In an Oct. 14 press release, the IRC stated that they were asked to “develop a plan” at the Oct. 2 meeting. They were given two options, they added: “Scale down capacity or return to a day center model.”

“I told them that they needed to get a commitment from the county on funding,” Vaughan stated in her email, adding that she told IRC leadership that the city was “not going to fund the whole cost” and that she thought it was time for them to “right size” and “go back to doing what they did.”

City leaders fail to fully remediate Bingham Park 

Bingham Park, located in East Greensboro, which is a predominantly Black part of town, is the site of a former pre-regulatory landfill that was turned into a park in the 1970s. Until April of this year, the park was open but new guidance around acceptable lead levels in soil from the Environmental Protection Agency dropped in January, and the city rushed to close down the park three months later and put up a fence. 

The city received multiple recommendations to fully remediate the park — removal of the contaminated dirt — including from their own Parks and Recreation Commission. But to the dismay of Bingham Park residents, city leaders voted 6-2 on Oct. 22 to simply cap and cover the park, citing lack of funding. This will leave the dirt in place at the park, and a geotextile layer will be placed over the landfill waste and 12 inches of soil will be placed on top instead. The move won’t allow for trees or other things such as light poles that can penetrate the ground. Instead, the site will turn into a passive green space.

 The city received $18 million in state and federal grant funding for this project. The cap and cover project will cost the city $12.4 million, while full remediation would have cost between $41.3-43.4 million.

“Truthfully, I feel sad; I feel that they don’t care about us,” Bingham Park resident Antwuan Tysor told TCB in May. “I’m pretty sure if we were on another side [of town], this would have been fixed by now. We’re the last to get anything fixed over here.”

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