Greensboro’s two remaining mayoral candidates found common ground at a forum on Wednesday. But questions about government oversight revealed some key differences.
Democratic City Council Member and current Mayor Pro Tem Marikay Abuzuaiter and former mayor, Republican Robbie Perkins, appeared to agree on several issues, including keeping taxes stable, increasing housing stock and ensuring those targeted by immigration agents receive due process.
Their differences became more apparent when this summer’s scandal at the city attorney’s office came up.
Four members of the office either resigned or were fired after it was revealed that former City Attorney Chuck Watts had conducted outside legal work during city hours. Mayor Nancy Vaughan has said Council members knew Watts was moonlighting, but not to what extent.
The city is now facing a wrongful termination lawsuit connected to the firings.
At the forum, Abuzuaiter was asked about lessons learned. She noted that city attorneys draft employment contracts, including those for positions within their own department.
“So we need to be very, very careful because it can just be one word in there ... you got to be really careful about how things are stated in that contract," she said. "Because I also thought it was something very, very minor and then we found out otherwise.”
The contract for new City Attorney Lora Cubbage more explicitly prohibits her from taking on private work.
Perkins said the city should hire a third party to review employment contracts in order to avoid conflicts of interest. And he said the council needs to keep a closer eye on the employees it supervises — the city manager and city attorney.
“We ought to know what is in those contracts, dead cold," he said. "And then we ought to be supervising those two employees on a quarterly basis to make sure that their goals are in line with the collective goals of the City Council.”
Perkins spent 16 years on the Council and two as mayor, losing his 2013 re-election bid to Nancy Vaughan. Abuzuaiter has served on the Council since 2011.
The two candidates are set to debate again at least once before Election Day on November 4.