Allen Johnson: Bad look: In a surprising move, bullying from the City Council’s bully pulpit
February 9, 2025, Source: Greensboro News & Record – Allen Johnson, Executive Editorial Page Editor
The surprising and gratuitous roughing-up of a City Council candidate on Jan. 28 has come back to bite the mayor and two sitting council members squarely in the middle of their, uh, credibility.
Council members Nancy Hoffmann and Sharon Hightower and Mayor Nancy Vaughan took turns sharply criticizing Nicky Smith on a variety of issues.
Smith had applied to fill the 10 months remaining on the term at-large seat council member Yvonne Johnson, who died in December.
Smith also plans to run in the fall for the soon-to-be-open seat in District 4, where Hoffmann will not seek reelection.
Like 18 other finalists for Johnson’s seat, Smith made his pitch to the council on Jan. 28.
Unlike the other 18 finalists, Smith was thoroughly skewered after he spoke. (You can watch it for yourself online.)
Hoffmann alleged that he took too much credit for the effort to prevent unwanted development on Friendly Avenue.
The mayor accused him and some employees in the digital phone business he runs of defying a mask mandate during the height of the COVID pandemic and “fake coughing” to show his disdain for COVID safety measures.
And all three lectured him over his spotty voting record. Smith voted in only two of the past five city elections and provided a flimsy defense for it.
Hoffmann called voting “our most fundamental civic responsibility” as she dressed down Smith on Jan. 28.
“We want somebody who shows up 100% of the time, not 40%,” Hoffmann added.
The mayor followed, saying, “I don’t want to appear to be piling on” … before piling on with her criticism of Smith’s alleged flouting of local COVID rules.
Vaughan’s points were valid, but their manner and timing were inappropriate, disrespectful and, frankly, out of character.
Then, of course, Hightower followed with a lecture about the importance of voting.
To his credit, Smith asked politely to respond and was allowed only brief comments before he was rushed away from the lectern.
“I really think we’re taking time from other speakers,” said Hoffmann, which made no sense, given that all other speakers were still guaranteed three minutes apiece for their statements.
I have my own questions about Smith as a candidate but singling him out like that by triple-teaming him from the dais was overkill.
If anything, it also helped his campaign by casting Smith as a victim.
And it cast an unnecessary shadow over the applicant who was ultimately chosen to finish Yvonne Johnson’s term.
As it turns out, Jamilla Pinder has an even thinner local voting record than Smith, having voted in only one city election, though she has regularly voted in state and federal elections.
“Voting is personal to me,” Pinder told the News & Record in a curious nonanswer when asked about her record.
When confronted with the inconvenient arithmetic (which they should have been well aware of before haranguing Smith), Hoffmann and Vaughan scurried to Pinder’s defense.
“When you look at what (Pinder) has done for this community in totality I think that she was by far the strongest candidate,” Vaughan told the News & Record’s Kevin Griffin, adding that Pinder’s service in the community “far exceeds anything that Mr. Smith has ever done.”
Yeah, but … after making voting records sound like a make-or-break proposition, Hightower, Vaughan and Hoffmann still sounded like hypocrites and did Pinder no favors.
Ironically, they also may have helped Smith’s cause by making him appear sympathetic.
I get it. In particular, the two Nancys, Vaughan and Hoffmann, have nothing to lose.
Neither is running for reelection.
That can be very liberating. They can say things now that they might not have said with an election approaching.
But letting their personal animosity bubble over like this was unseemly and unbecoming.
It’s not as if they don’t have years of practice between them hearing speakers from the floor say things they don’t like.
Moreover, their words and actions still have consequences, setting a bad example for the 19 people who sought to join them on the council.
Both should be careful not to break any more furniture on their way out.
# # #
