Again, these articles were posted online before the Goldsboro News Argus started the archives in Jan 2004.

Project Homestead scandal may affect Goldsboro homes
By BARBARA ARNTSEN, staff writer

Goldsboro officials say they are not sure yet how the latest scandal relating to Project Homestead will affect Goldsboro's Harris Street Estates development.Three lawsuits were filed in Greensboro Friday against the Rev. Michael King, former president of Project Homestead. The lawsuits claim that King forced men in his employ to have sex with him.Last month King resigned from his position with the nonprofit organization amid rumors of financial misconduct.The Greensboro Daily News reported that King had been warned by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development about excessive profits, conflicts of interest, prohibited charges to home buyers and tardiness in producing records for review.Project Homestead board chairman Alton Thompson told the paper that the non-profit is selling property it owns to try to avoid bankruptcy. He said property Project Homestead owns outside of Greensboro -- in Goldsboro, Kinston and Reidsville -- is being sold first.The group's operation in Goldsboro has already been shut down and operations in Kinston will be closed shortly, Thompson said.LaTerrie Ward, the city's community affairs director, said she didn't see how the company could sell any of the Goldsboro property."The land was given to the company by the city for this project," she said. "It was my understanding that if the project wasn't completed, the land would revert back to the city."Ms. Ward said she was also surprised by the statement that operations in Goldsboro had been shut down."To my knowledge, we've never been told they aren't going to build any more houses," she said. "No one has said, to me, that it has been shut down."Ms. Ward has been working with Project Homestead for over a year, trying to resolve construction problems associated with some of the houses in the development.To date there have been close to 20 complaints, out of the 38 homes that were built.

Harris Street Estates is on land that the city donated to Project Homestead, which was to build houses for flood victims and first-time homebuyers. The homes were targeted for people who could not otherwise afford them. State and federal grants are used to help buyers make their down payments, but the homeowners pay their mortgages.

Updated on Monday, October 20, 2003 11:53:09 AM.Updated on Tuesday, October 21, 2003 12:07:29 PM. Three lawsuits were filed in Greensboro Friday against King, claiming that King forced men in his employ to have sex with him. Goldsboro Councilman Makes Good On Tax Payment
POSTED: 12:25 a.m. EDT May 23, 2003GOLDSBORO, N.C. -- A Goldsboro city councilman is back in the tax department's good graces after paying his bill. The Wayne County tax office said J.B. Rhodes, a funeral home owner, fell behind more than $1,100 in business taxes. He also was behind about $1,500 on his home. The tax department said Rhodes came in and paid his bill Thursday after his name was printed in the local paper.Posted on Sunday, May 25, 2003.

Rhodes' taxesCouncilman should pay as others are required to do

Thousands of names of delinquent taxpayers were listed in an ad in Tuesday's News-Argus. But only one name appeared the next day in a front-page news story.Why was City Councilman J.B. Rhodes singled out?Because Rhodes is a member of the board that levies city taxes.He voted to allow the city to take from everyone who owns property in Goldsboro a tax of 62 cents per $100 in value on the property. This is the primary source of revenue with which the city conducts its business.Yet, Rhodes himself had failed to pay it on time for two of his real estate parcels, the home where he lives and one of his businesses, Rhodes Funeral Home.Altogether, the delinquent taxes amounted to about $2,600. They were due Jan. 1. Rhodes paid them last week after the delinquent tax list was published.Rhodes is not believed to be a pauper. Even if he were, the tax requirements would apply to him, just as they apply to all paupers who are expected to fork over their portion on time.Like other politicians who appeal for votes for elective office, Rhodes claims to be a good citizen. That claim is diluted if he is tardy in paying the city what it is due from his own pocket.To his credit, Rhodes wasted little time in paying up after the list was published. Only by staying current on his own taxes can a person maintain the moral authority to force others to pay them.--MIKE ROUSE

City council opposes 'Northbrook' plans

Rhodes said he was not in favor of "little towns a few feet from Goldsboro. I want to see the city grow and not the little towns," he said.If the city does not grow, it will die, he added. Posted on Friday, August 23, 2002.

School, county boards set a good example

Hopefully the tone set by the joint meeting will be effective, productive, enduring -- and contagious. Certainly the community doesn't need any more inflammatory comments like the unfortunate one made by Goldsboro Councilman J.B. Rhodes who claimed in a recent open session that some of the school board members were racists. Updated on Thursday, June 29, 2000 1:16:16 PM. Rhodes to present case on where he lives The Wayne County Board of Elections voted to proceed with a hearing on where Goldsboro City Councilman J.B. Rhodes lives. The vote Wednesday followed testimony from Goldsboro resident Vera Parker Kirkman who said Rhodes does not live in the precinct where he is registered to vote. Rhodes has denied the allegation. The three-member Elections Board heard only from Mrs. Kirkman during a preliminary hearing. Mary Johnstone, who joined Mrs. Kirkman in the complaint, said she had no further information. The preliminary hearing determined that there is probable cause to hold a full hearing, which is scheduled for July 5 at 5 p.m. Both sides will be able to call witnesses and present their cases. "We felt in fairness to all parties that there should be a full hearing," said board Chairman Geoff Hulse. Hulse and board member Jerome Shipman voted to hold the hearing. Board member Ernestine Wooten abstained from voting. Mrs. Kirkman did not present physical evidence at the preliminary hearing. When asked where she had received information about Rhodes' address, she said, "Part of it I got from Lonnie Casey." Casey, who was seated at the back of the room, is a former candidate for mayor. He lost in 1998 to Mayor Hal Plonk. Mrs. Kirkman said that at the May 15 meeting of the City Council, Rhodes "told about the $200,000 house he built on Slocumb Street." Slocumb Street is not in District 1, which is the district Rhodes represents. Rhodes has listed his address with the Board of Elections at 404 Olive Street, which is in District 1. Mrs. Kirkman said Rhodes' house on Neuse Circle was flooded after Hurricane Fran. The house was sold through the flood-buyout program. She said Rhodes then moved to Slocumb Street. She also said that Rhodes was quoted in the newspaper as saying he "stayed at Slocumb Street." Board member Shipman said he had watched the videotape of the council meeting, and Rhodes had said he "had a home on Slocumb Street." Shipman said he voted for a full hearing because of a 1992 ruling by the board that John Sherman Best could not run for the state House of Representatives. Best had lived outside the district, but also owned a house within the district. Rhodes asked to speak but was told he would have to wait for the full hearing. He was joined Wednesday by about 15 supporters. Audience members included Mayor Hal Plonk and city councilmen Delmus Bridgers and Bill Goodman. Rhodes declined comment after the meeting, other than to say that he planned to present his case at the hearing. Rhodes has previously said that the allegations are untrue and his address is 404 Olive St. "I spend some time on Slocumb Street, and I spend some time over there," Rhodes said. He said he and his wife have been staying at Slocumb Street. At one point they were staying at his funeral home on South Slocumb Street. Mrs. Rhodes' legs were amputated, and she needs medical attention. The house is near his funeral home at 708 South Slocumb St., he said. But Rhodes said he has a car at the Olive Street address, and the house is furnished. "I can sleep where I want to," he said. Rhodes' address was previously listed with the Board of Elections as 115 Neuse Circle, which is in District 1. He received the flood-buyout money for the house in January. On May 17, Rhodes changed his address with the Elections Board to 404 Olive St. He bought the land in August of 1999, according to the county Tax Department. He won re-election in November of 1999.

Storefront churches: Councilmen disagree, will take up the issue again later

City Council members sidestepped banning storefront churches downtown during Monday's zoning ordinance review, saying the issue would be addressed later in the ordinance. Councilman Charles Williams asked if that was meant to do away with storefront churches, and Councilman William Goodman said that it was.Councilman J.B. Rhodes said he was in favor of eliminating storefront churches.Williams said that he thought the council should be "hands off" about the location of any church.Rhodes said that other churches had to build buildings and pay for parking lots. Storefront churches, he said, got to use all parking places for nothing.The council agreed to take the sentence out and to discuss the issue later.

City councilman Goodman investigated for travel expenses

The state is looking into allegations that William Goodman, a training coordinator with the Department of Corrections, may have filed for travel expenses that he did not incur.Goodman, a Goldsboro city councilman, is accused of filing for reimbursement for overnight expenses while he was conducting training sessions at Fort Fischer. The expenses were related to nights spent at a condominium at Carolina Beach owned by his mother."Let me just say, for his lodging that was claimed on expense accounts, the indication is that he may not have actually paid," said Corrections Secretary Theodis Beck, according to the News & Observer in Raleigh. Goodman submitted receipts from Bullard Realty Inc. in a request for reimbursement. Beck also said that the receipts may have been provided by a Bullard employee without the real estate company's knowledge. The state's maximum reimbursement is $55.50 a night. In the past 18 months, Goodman claimed $11,000 in lodging expenses for about 200 nights.The information was turned over to the department's internal auditor, and the State Bureau of Investigations has been asked to look into the allegations.Dan Lilly, director of staff development and training for the corrections department and Goodman's supervisor, said there has been no change in Goodman's work status and it will remain the same until "the conclusion of the whole process."He said he did an in-depth investigation after the situation was called to his attention and turned the information over to his superiors. "That's the procedural guideline and that's the extent of my part in it."Corrections Secretary Theodis Beck asked the SBI to investigate after information uncovered by the internal audit indicated that Goodman's alleged conduct "may rise to the level of a criminal violation."Although Goodman's mother owns the condominium, Goodman has power of attorney over his mother's financial affairs.Goodman has been a trainer since July 1983. Prior to taking the job with the state, he was a deputy with the Wayne County Sheriff's Department for more than 10 years.He's been a city councilman for 14 years and campaigned to be appointed mayor after Hal Plonk died in December. Goodman had not returned phone calls when sought for comment this morning. He told the News & Observer that he had done nothing improper. Friday, June 28 2002                                                                         

Meeting nights spent at beach, vouchers say

By Staff Writer KARINNE YOUNG

Goldsboro City Councilman William Goodman submitted expense vouchers for some overnight lodging at Carolina Beach on nights when he attended council meetings in Goldsboro.Goodman works for the state Department of Correction as a training coordinator. The state repaid him for the overnight stays. Goodman received about $60 for each night in a condominium that he and his mother own.It is near Fort Fisher, where the Correction Department conducts training at facilities leased from the Air Force.The vouchers do not indicate whether Goodman drove to the coast after council meetings ended or stayed home in Goldsboro. The meetings usually end around 9 p.m. or shortly before.The Correction Department is auditing Goodman's expense vouchers for the last three years. It has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to determine whether any laws were violated.The investigation began after a subordinate of Goodman made allegations against him. Goodman's supervisor, director of training Dan Lilly, has said that at least one of the allegations is false. The informant had charged that Goodman lobbied to keep the Fort Fisher training under way, but Lilly said that decision was made for other reasons.Goodman has declined requests by the News-Argus to discuss the matter. In the last 18 months, Goodman claimed lodging expenses for about 200 nights.Some of the expense vouchers for nights that the council met show that he returned to Goldsboro. In some cases the vouchers show arrival times in Goldsboro that are later than the 7 p.m. meetings. Goodman usually is not late for the meetings.In one case, however, Goodman showed he drove from Fort Fisher on April 1 and arrived in Goldsboro at 7:45 p.m. On that night, several council members were chided because the meeting had to be delayed until there was a quorum. Goodman, along with Councilmen J.B. Rhodes and Delmus Bridgers arrived a few minutes after 7.The receipts for the condominium, from Bullard Realty Inc., were varied and ranged from handwritten restaurant-type checks, to formal invoices to several marked "Inter-office memo." Some were "From: Bullard Realty," some included the "Inc.," some were from Debbie Divers, an employee of the realty company.Some were marked "paid in cash." Some were never signed by anyone at Bullard. In one case, on a typed invoice for a four-night stay between May 13 and May 16th, the "Subject" line indicated billing for "2 nights rental."On another invoice, for stays in February of 2002, the receipts were written over to eliminate charges for the Monday night that the City Council met.In April, SBI Agent Gil White forwarded letters from Correction Department employees and copies of other documents to Bill Tilley, director of internal audit for the Corrections Department. He wrote that it was his understanding that, "If evidence of criminal activity is discovered, the SBI will be informed and a criminal investigation initiated."On June 14, Correction Secretary Theodis Beck sent a letter to the SBI asking the agency to investigate the possibility of criminal violations. Both the department's internal audit and the SBI probe are on-going, spokesmen for each said.Goodman's job is to schedule schools and instructors for sessions at Fort Fisher near the Carolina Beach condominium and at Greenville.The subordinate of Goodman charged that the travel expenses were not legitimate. He also claimed that Goodman used his influence to prevent the closing of the training site at Fort Fisher that cost the state $349,000 in 1999, exclusive of salaries, equipment and other expenses. The employee also said operational costs at the Greenville location are about $71,000 a year.Lilly, Goodman's boss gave a different account today. He said an initiative to cut spending led to a proposal to stop using the Fort Fisher site in February 2000. "We tried to pull out but, because of contracts with the Air Force that ran through the fall, we did not," he said. The Air Force would have lost rental income because it had booked the site for the Corrections Department, said Lilly. "In light of the circumstances, that it would have created a deficit for them, we stayed."No effort has been made to end the use of Fort Fisher as a training site since then, Lilly said, because it is convenient to many of the institutions and people who require the training. Basic training for smaller groups is still done in Greenville, but for larger classes.The subordinate also alleged that Goodman stayed at the coast on nights that the City Council were meeting. However, he said the meetings were on Tuesday while actually they are held the on first and third Mondays.

Goodman, who filed for re-election last week, is still the subject of an SBI investigation.

The state agency has been investigating Goodman for almost a year regarding allegations of fraud and misconduct that occurred while he worked for the state Department of Correction.Goodman retired from his position at the end of July after the allegations first surfaced. The department called in the SBI to investigate possible criminal charges.The Correction Department report said Goodman submitted falsified travel expense reports for almost $20,000 in a two-year period. The invoices showed fraudulent lodging records, duplicate travel expenses and a misuse of state funds to attend City Council meetings.

Posted on Tuesday, April 11, 2000.  

Government by telephone

Council changed in secret what it had done in public

That is what appears to have happened in the case of Mike West. The City Council voted last week to deny extensions to West and three other property owners who had been warned for more than a year to bring their buildings up to standard. Otherwise, the city would have the buildings demolished. The effect of the vote was clear. No extensions were to be granted. That was in accord with a policy that council members had embraced during their annual retreat in February while discussing dilapidated buildings in the city. West owns a building that has been made into four apartments at 716 E. Walnut St. It is not occupied, but there is evidence that transients have been there. It is littered with garbage, old liquor bottles, bits of food. Window frames had been knocked out. And taxes totaling $1,900 were overdue. The council refused to hear West's request for an extension. But West didn't give up when the council voted to condemn his building, along with the others, and have them demolished. Councilman William Goodman was West's point man. He called the other council members by telephone and got them to agree to allow West to get a permit to repair the building within 90 days. The Planning Department was notified, and West got his permit Friday. The legality of this behind-the-scenes maneuvering is questionable. The council had voted in open session to condemn the four buildings without granting extensions. A lawyer consulted by the News-Argus says that it can rescind or amend such an action only in another open session. This is not a small matter. When a governmental body takes a vote, the public has a right to an assurance that it either will abide by that vote or will change it only in the full view of the public. --MIKE ROUSEPosted on Thursday, January 24, 2002.              

Welcome, Mr. MayorGoldsboro's City Council made a wise selection

Warm congratulations to Goldsboro's new mayor, Al King. His appointment Tuesday night was a historic occasion: He is the city's first black mayor.And congratulations to the members of the City Council. They selected an excellent person to complete what remains of the term of the late Mayor Hal Plonk.Just as important, they did a splendid job of defusing a potentially divisive racial conflict.Plonk himself, who craved an image of unity on the council and worked tirelessly at compromise, could hardly have done better. In the end, five of the six members of the council voted for King.And the dissenter was a black councilman. King was denied a unanimous appointment by William Goodman, one of the council members who wanted the job for himself........... --MIKE ROUSE