PART 4: A Radical Restructuring of Jonesboro and the Surrounding Area
Jonesboro – the Greensboro/Greensborough Village Town Center Plan MUST be STOPPED completely! NO part of it should be salvaged. NO COMPROMISES. Period! This appears to be a federal takeover of local government.
HIGH ALERT: PART 4 – More information to be submitted to the Jonesboro City Council for their consideration BEFORE their meeting on Tues, Sept. 16, 2014
If this Greensboro Village Town Center plan is implemented, will it be an entity unto itself and have its own jurisdiction? If implemented, there could be NO public input because UNelected appointed bureaucrats would be in charge.
Why has their town center plan been spelled two different ways: “Greensboro” and “Greensborough”? Are they trying to hide something?
Click here to read Part 1: A Radical Restructuring of Jonesboro and the Surrounding Area (in case you haven’t read it yet). It consists of information regarding current Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin.
Click here to read Part 2: A Radical Restructuring of Jonesboro and the Surrounding Area (in case you haven’t read it yet). It questions whether there is a possible conflict of interest between individuals on the Jonesboro Comprehensive Planning Advisory Committee (CPAC) – such as Mark Young, Sherry Stringer, Jerry Halsey Jr, Roddy Thrasher, and Gary Harpole – and Jonesboro Vision 2030 and the Greensboro Village plan.
Click here to read Part 3: A Radical Restructuring of Jonesboro and the Surrounding Area (in case you haven’t read it yet). It consists of important information about the history of Regionalism, Council of Governments (COG), Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs), property tax information, Arkansas code, and an interesting (highlighted portion) snippet about the prohibition of commissioners or employees being involved in a development project or property. This is interesting because several people who are Metropolitan Area Planning Commission (MAPC) members are ALSO involved with the Greensboro Village plan in Jonesboro. (Could there be a conflict of interest between MAPC members and the Greensboro Village Plan? Read that article and draw your own conclusions.)
If there IS a conflict of interest after looking at all the people involved and companies they control, it may warrant an investigation by the Ethics Commission, the State Police, and the F.B.I. Follow the money! If this Greensboro Village Town Center plan isn’t stopped, should we look into campaign funds which have been donated to various elected officials by various players?? Wake up, elected officials!
As always, be sure to hang in there with us for this entire article because this is another long one. As always, click the links we’ve made available throughout. They’re important for your understanding. This should open your eyes as to how Jonesboro seems to be implementing U.N. Agenda 21 locally!
Last Minute Reminder:
Please attend the Jonesboro City Council meeting on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, at 5:30 p.m. at the Jonesboro Municipal Center, and also call and email all the Jonesboro City Council and voice your opposition to the Jonesboro Vision 2030 and the Greensboro Village Plan. The FINAL VOTE will be taken that night regarding the Greensboro Village Plan!
Redevelopment, Metropolitan Planning Organization, Regionalism, Sustainability are all part of the U.N. Agenda 21 projects, which are designed to strip the property owners of all their use and control.
Redevelopment is defined as any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses.
Regional Government is a totally separate government made up of appointed officials. The appointed officials are now controlling our elected officials.
The following is a quote by by Robert C. Weaver, former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development: “Regional government means absolute federal control over all property and its development regardless of location, anywhere in the United States, to be administered on the federal officials’ determination. It (regional government) would supersede state and local laws… Through this authority we seek to recapture control of the use of land….”
The end game plan of Redevelopment or Metropolitan Planning Organizations, is the silencing of the voter and our local elected officials so that the unelected regional bureaucrats can dictate what happens in your local area.
Representative government is being bypassed by the creation of unelected, unaccountable, non-transparent regional planning bodies that serve the interests of their so-called stakeholders rather than those of the People. This is done by usurping the policy-making authority of legitimate government. The politically correct term for this is governance, as contrasted to government.
With Redevelopment, the developers are allowed to use eminent domain for redevelopment which will allow the taking of private property by the developers thus allowing the taken property to be put to a more profitable uses and thus increases the revenue flow to the local municipality.
Redevelopment Districts can be created without a vote of the people affected. It can incur bonded indebtedness without voter approval. It can use the power of eminent domain to benefit private interests. Redevelopment Districts can be created without a vote of the property owners affected, the Districts can incur bonded indebtedness without voter approval, the Districts can use the power of eminent domain to benefit private interests. The Districts provides no public services. These Districts create a big drain on city, county and state public resources with little oversight.
Regionalism Silences YOU by putting Bureaucrats in Control!
“Metro or Regionalism is the governing of an area or region by a central body of ‘experts’—planners who are usually appointed and vested with great powers, and who are not directly accountable to the people.
“The purpose is to place all power in the hands of the federal government and to turn State, county, and city governments into administrative cogs [Councils of Government] in one big bureaucratic machine.”
When Regionalism is fully achieved, there will only be two levels of government—federal and regional. All elected officials will be gone, and once these bureaucrats are in place instead, it’s hard to get them out because the elite who hold higher power must have their loyalty.
(ie. When a mayor terms out of office, she/he moves on to be Director of Transportation)
Article IV, Section 3, of the U.S. Constitution says “a state is not to be formed by the junction of two or more states, without the consent of the legislatures of the States concerned and the Congress.” Regionalism restructures government.
“Metro” The Metropolitan Government Network
The Metro network chart below shows how most of the government actions that go on behind the scenes are done without any public awareness. It shows the METRO history and associations, and it references “PACH” which stands for Public Administration Clearing House. Click the link above to see the METRO network in a larger, separate web page.
In reply to all the people who asked how Regionalism will affect them living in Jonesboro, we are giving you more information and history on Metro planning. We’ll be referring to this Metro network in the future.
Examples of how Regionalism affects us now: Council of State Governments (CSG), American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and the National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL ). We have referenced these organizations in our previous emails. (Go to SecureArkansas.com and use the Search box.)
Sue Ellen Christian, Tribune Suburban Affairs Writer, wrote this about Chicago on May 8, 1995 – but it could relate to Jonesboro right now. Remember as you read that Metro planners have been attempting to force this idea onto the public for at least a century.
“Imagine a metropolitan Chicago [or Jonesboro… or any metro city over 50,000 people] in which the city and its struggling inner-ring communities got a cut of the tax revenues from new development on the suburban fringes.”
“Imagine that all new housing developments in the region had to provide affordable and public housing.”
“And imagine that the area’s hundreds of political jurisdictions all were subject to statewide regulations aimed at saving open space and redeveloping vacant industrial sites.”
[bracketed information ours]
Our elected officials have overcrowded these metropolitan areas, and now we’re facing problems of crime-ridden, drug-ridden cities AND suburbs, and they’ve been doing it incrementally with Section 8 Housing! Look at the problems we’re facing: if people do not want to work, then they’re subsidized. We are at a point where our American jobs have been exported to foreign countries, like China and Mexico.
Look what we’ve found so far. Here are some frauds that have occurred in the past with Redevelopment projects across the country:
- State Looking for Redevelopment Fraud. Suggestion: Grantville, CA
- California’s Redevelopment Nightmare Coming To An End
- Real Estate Developer Arrested for Misappropriating Funds Intended for Redevelopment
- Redevelopment: The Unknown Government
Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) (23 CFR 450.310)
An Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is an agency created by federal law (23 CFR 450.310) to provide local input for urban transportation planning and allocating federal transportation funds to cities with populations of greater than 50,000. MPOs are responsible for approving significant expenditures of federal dollars.
Taxation without representation
There are plenty of concerns with how MPOs are governed. Only elected officials should have voting powers on MPOs. Since MPOs have the power to allocate billions in tax money, to allow unelected bureaucrats voting powers is equivalent to taxation without representation. The Jonesboro MPO lacks representation of taxpayers’ interests in this way with many of its members being un-elected bureaucrats. Though the federal law creating MPOs allows ArDOT and transit officials to be a part of MPOs, it should be limited to an advisory capacity only.
Not only is there a conflict of interest in voting for its own projects and to vote itself more money, it already possesses the power to approve all projects through the Arkansas Transportation Commission, which already results in most MPOs deferring to ArDOT in formulating and voting on MPO plans. For all the talk of “local control,” ARDOT steers and often controls MPOs, not the local officials who sit on these local transportation planning boards.
Jonesboro Metropolitan Planning Organization – Public Participation Plan
Public participation is required by the prevailing federal legislation. The federal legislation requiring public participation is the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) (Pub. L. 109-59, 119 Stat. 1144; as amended) The other requirements of public participation is covered in the Jonesboro MPO – Public Participation Plan.
Don’t be fooled by the public participation. The method that is being used is the Delphi Technique. The Delphi Technique is very effective with parents, teachers, school children, and community groups. The “targets” rarely, if ever, realize that they are being manipulated. If they do suspect what is happening, they do not know how to end the process. The facilitator seeks to polarize the group in order to become an accepted member of the group and of the process. The desired idea is then placed on the table, and individual opinions are sought during discussion. Soon, associates from the divided group begin to adopt the idea as if it were their own, and they pressure the entire group to accept their proposition. The Delphi method is being used at all levels of government to move meetings to present conclusions. Never let the Delphi facilitator to split the committee or group into small groups. The whole group needs to hear everything being said at the meeting.
Jonesboro Metropolitan Transportation Plan
The Metropolitan Transportation Plan outlines a vision for the development of the regional transportation system and prioritizes transportation investments in the MPO area over a period of 25 years;
Jonesboro Transportation Improvement Program
This Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is prepared in compliance with the Metropolitan and Statewide Planning Rules jointly issued by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) (23 CFR Part 450) and the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) (49 CFR Part 613).
Jonesboro Unified Planning Work Program FT 2014
The Unified Planning Work Program describes the planning activities that the MPO intends to undertake.
A Guide to Federal-Aid Programs and Projects
The guide is intended to provide basic information for FHWA and State personnel involved in the administration of the Federal-Aid Highway Program.
Jonesboro City Ordinances
Here is an Jonesboro ordinance where the City Council may attempt to pass to make it legal for a city council member to have a conflict of interest.
ORD-14:048 is on the agenda to be voted on at the September 16, 2014, Jonesboro City Council meeting to allow current Councilman Rennell Woods who is owner or owns an interest in Whole Youth Services, Inc. and Kingdom Management, LLC, to be allowed to provide services for the City of Jonesboro.
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ORD-14:048
Title: AN ORDINANCE AUTHORIZING A CITY COUNCIL MEMBER TO DO BUSINESS WITH THE CITY OF JONESBORO
Arkansas Code Annotated 14-42-107 et seq provides that interest in office or contracts is
prohibited by any aldermen, council member, official or municipal employee.
Current Councilman, Rennell Woods, is the owner or owns an interest in Whole Youth Services, Inc. and Kingdom Management, LLC d/b/a Next Level Training located at 3916 Brandywine, Jonesboro, Arkansas 72404,
Section 1: The City Council for the City of Jonesboro gives special permission for Rennell Woods owner of Whole Youth Services, Inc. and Kingdom Management, LLC d/b/a Next Level Training to be allowed to provide services for the City of Jonesboro.
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At present no alderman, council member, official, or municipal employee shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the profits of any contract for furnishing supplies, equipment, or services to the municipality. For the City of Jonesboro to get around the Conflict of Interest Law, an ordinance must be passed to make it legal to have a conflict of interest. Ordinance 14-048 is based on Arkansas Code 14-42-107 (b)(1)
(b) (1) No alderman, council member, official, or municipal employee shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in the profits of any contract for furnishing supplies, equipment, or services to the municipality unless the governing body of the city has enacted an ordinance specifically permitting aldermen, council members, officials, or municipal employees to conduct business with the city and prescribing the extent of this authority.
Again, could this whole Greensboro plan of the developers and the Jonesboro City Council be deceptive?
CALL TO ACTION: Good people of Jonesboro and from all over America, PLEASE help us STOP these Jonesboro Vision 2030 and Greensboro Village Town Center plans (mentioned in our previous emails and posted on our SecureArkansas.com website). Call these city council members immediately and let them know how serious implementing these highly-restrictive plans can be. This isn’t about multi-family housing; it’s about a takeover by UNelected officials. These projects must be destroyed completely. Don’t be fooled: they’re hoping to SALVAGE this to bring it back on another date.
Remember: the city council is meeting TOMORROW – Tuesday, Sept. 16 at 5:30 pm, so they must hear from you ASAP! Their telephone area code (for the chart below) is 870. 
Here are their email addresses if you’d just like to copy and paste them into your “To” box in your email server, then separate by either a comma or semicolon:
gene.vance@vanceconstructionsolutions.com
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
— James Madison, address to the Virginia Convention, June 16, 1788.
In COUNT DOWN Newsletter of March 1973, Virginia R. Wilson, Editor and Publisher, had this to say:
“To understand Regional Government, it is necessary to know, what
Metropolitan Government (Metro) involves, because Metro and Regional
Government are the same: government of an area or region by a central
body of appointed officials who have unlimited and unconstitutional power.
Promoters of regional government claim it is a new form of government,
but it is the oldest form in history — dictatorship.”
It looks like Regionalism is the vehicle that will remove state and local authority and place our lives under the surveillance of federal bureaucrats. Please take action against Regionalism by calling the city council members today!
Please forward this email to your family and friends!
Securing the blessings of liberty,
Secure Arkansas
securetherepublic.com/arkansas
info@securetherepublic.com
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