Howard Clement, NC Mutual.
City Council Member Clement's brother-in-law, George Williams, is the architect for a new stip club proposed by the owner of Diamond Girls, the club where the AV freaked out after her lap dancing tryout ...
*LINK WARNING*
http://www.stripclubnews.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1013&Itemid=2
Planned strip club draws fire
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 30 November 2005
DURHAM -- East Durham activists are criticizing plans for a strip club off U.S. 70 Business at Ashe Street, going so far as to say they'll picket the home of the man who wants to build it.
City/county planners confirmed Tuesday that they're reviewing a Nov. 10 permit application from roofing and insulation firm owner Larry Jones, who wants permission to build a 68-seat adult nightclub on a 1.5-acre parcel he controls through a firm called The Galley Inc.
City/county planners confirmed Tuesday that they're reviewing a Nov. 10 permit application from roofing and insulation firm owner Larry Jones, who wants permission to build a 68-seat adult nightclub on a 1.5-acre parcel he controls through a firm called The Galley Inc.
A local architectural firm headed by George Williams -- a former Durham County manager and the brother-in-law of City Councilman Howard Clement -- is designing the 7,223-square-foot building for Jones.
http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-732069.html
Jones already owns one strip club in the city, the Diamond Girls club on Angier Avenue. That club is closer than 1,000 feet to residential property, but regulators let it keep operating because it was in business before the present buffer requirements went into effect.
Media reports have tied Diamond Girls to the Duke lacrosse case because the woman who's accused two members of the school's lacrosse team of raping her "tried out" for a job at the club four years ago.
After the tryout, she stole a taxi cab and drove it to Raleigh. She later pleaded guilty to larceny, speeding to elude arrest, assault on a government official and driving while impaired.
http://www.newsobserver.com/114/story/383589.html
HOWARD CLEMENT, longtime Durham city councilman: Check the branches on your family tree. After you said in October that you've detected no cronyism or nepotism in Bull City government during your 22 1/2 years in office, we wondered whether you noticed brother-in-law George Williams, who was awarded a succession of city contracts (including one to survey Durham's cemetery needs soon after Williams was fired as Durham County manager), perched on one of your branches.
http://72.14.209.104/search?q=cache:FVOxBb_hidwJ:www.newsobserver.com/print/tuesday/city_state/story/2651266p-9087995c.html++%22howard+clement%22+%22George+Williams%22+&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=firefox-a
On a separate item, the board split 4-3 to overrule staff recommendations to award a $199,620 contract to design the proposed Walltown Park Recreation Center to a Charlotte company. The contract, instead, was awarded to George Williams -- a politically connected local architect who is the brother-in-law of council member Howard Clement III.
http://mobile.newsobserver.com/front/v-pda/story/2850753p-9305433c.html
James Tabron, who was forced to resign as head of the Durham Housing Authority in 2003 and who is widely blamed for leading that agency to the brink of financial collapse, signed Eagle Village's state incorporation documents in 1998. City Council member Howard Clement served on the nonprofit's board, while his brother-in-law, former Durham County Manager George Williams, performed the architectural work on Centennial Village and other projects.
Durham Mayor Bill Bell said the city is still investigating what "checks and balances" were missing in the municipal government's dealings with Eagle Village and just how taxpayers got left holding the bag.
"I would certainly have liked it better if the project had been built as planned," Bell said of the demolition. "We're still trying to determine exactly what went wrong."