• The City of Shelby, some say mostly run by City Manager Rick Howell, run their parallel “partnerships” with most of the entities noted above that the County is involved in. And more.
• The City of Shelby, Cleveland County and others kill the idea of restoring the Rogers Theater by partnering with the owner because the owner is of the LGBTQ persuasion and not one of the often called “Good-Ole-Boys. The owner decides to restore the old Rogers Theater himself, but puffed up Building Code Violations start popping up from all directions. At present, the Rogers Theater has not been restored and the 2018-2019 Cleveland County Budget, now deleted from the County website, has $6,000,000 in the Workforce Development and Travel-Tourism line item.
Now, along comes Mr. Willie Green. An African-American. Honest, transparent and trustworthy, but no Uncle Tom or Good-Ole-Boy. And not about to become an Uncle Tom or dishonest and not the right skin color to ever be a Shelby Good-Ole-Boy; discovers that the City of Shelby has plans for a “Sports Complex” Public-Private partnership in their official and published “10-Year Plan” that no one else appears to be interested in. So, Mr. Willie A. Green, a retired professional athlete with a desire to give back to the community becomes interested in becoming a part of this “Sports Complex.” A Sports Complex for athletes; designed, developed, financed, administered and operated by a former professional athlete who knows the whets, how’s and whys that are involved with such an undertaking. Not some Good-Ole-Boy, politically connected hack just out for some quick bucks from a hand in the taxpayer’s cookie jar.
Mr. Willie Green, as Mr. Willie Green always does-does his homework first. Facts, figures, plans, options, locations, costs financing etc. Willie Green does his due diligence and woks up his proposal for the City of Shelby as well as Cleveland County.
With all bases covered, Mr. Green first approaches the City of Shelby and Later Cleveland County with his proposals.
Both Shelby and Cleveland County “hemmed and hawed” and “beat around the bush.” With no agreement ever reached. This is where the beginnings of a lawsuit begin with the City of Shelby. What happens with Cleveland County is yet to be seen.
Since the Lawsuit by Mr. Willie Green vs. the City of Shelby and City Manager Rick Howell, individually, has already been filed; let’s have a ge4neral and brief lesson in the basics of the civil lawsuit procedures. This lesson is important in the understanding of what is presently going on between Mr. Green’s lawsuit against the City of Shelby and Rick Howell.