A Backchannel Message and an 8–1 Vote; Inside TREBIC’s Email to Greensboro Officials Before the MHSC Decision
A private email to councilmembers’ personal accounts, forwarded only by the mayor, raises new questions about influence, transparency and Greensboro’s weakening housing protections.
On November 18, 2025, hours before the Greensboro City Council voted 8–1 to restrict the powers of the Minimum Housing Standards Commission (MHSC), a lobbying letter from the Triad Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition (TREBIC) was sent not to the city’s official government email system, but to Mayor Nancy Vaughan’s personal Gmail account.
The email, written by TREBIC President Jon Hardister, urges the council to adopt changes that would end MHSC member inspections of rental properties and halt city staff studies of rental costs. Hardister wrote that allowing commissioners to conduct inspections would “negate the ability of MHSC members to be unbiased and neutral,” and suggested that TREBIC and its member organizations could supply rental data in place of city-conducted studies.
Hours later, the City Council voted in favor of the changes. The final tally was 8–1, with Councilmember Hugh Holston, the CEO of the Greensboro Housing Coalition, casting the lone dissenting vote.
TREBIC’s Political Leaders Luncheon was held four days before the vote at Grandover Resort on November 14, 2025. Hardister with incoming At-Larger Councilmember Allen Irving;
The circumstances surrounding the email and the fact that only the mayor forwarded it into the public record, raise questions about transparency, process and timing. From TREBIC’s 26th Annual Pig Poultry & Politics (PPP) before the election;
The Letter: A Direct Appeal From TREBIC
Hardister’s email states TREBIC’s support for the council’s agenda item limiting the MHSC’s ability to conduct inspections and analyze rising rents.
He wrote;
City staff should not be directed to study rental costs
MHSC members should be prohibited from performing rental property inspections
Real estate industry groups were “ready to provide data” to the city
TREBIC represents major developers, landlords, builders and real estate interests in the Triad. The organization has historically advocated for limits on proactive rental inspections, including the repeal of Greensboro’s (Rental Unit Certificate of Occupancy) RUCO program in 2013. RUCO required proactive inspections of rental units to catch safety hazards before tenants were harmed. Once the program ended, Greensboro shifted to a complaint-based enforcement system, meaning unsafe conditions were addressed only after tenants reported them, often at personal risk. The result was what TREBIC lobbied for; fewer inspections, more deteriorating housing and a system that allowed substandard properties to slip through the cracks and left negligent landlords unaccountable.
Nancy Hoffmann for voted with TREBIC and Barry Segal, who Hoffmann voted to give the Davie Street parking deck property to;
The content of the letter aligns closely with the policy changes approved later that evening.
Use of a Personal Email Account Raises Transparency Concerns
The email was not sent to the mayor’s official government address, nor to the city’s public-facing council distribution lists. Instead, it arrived at Vaughan’s private Gmail account.
In North Carolina, any communication about public business, sent to any email address, is a public record. But communications sent to private accounts are significantly harder for the public to discover unless they are voluntarily disclosed.
Mayor Vaughan appears to be the only councilmember who forwarded the TREBIC email to city staff for filing as an official public record. Because of this, it is unclear whether;
other councilmembers also received the email at personal addresses, or
whether they have disclosed it
The combination of personal email usage and a same-day vote raises questions about record-keeping practices and the completeness of the city’s public records archive regarding the MHSC decision.
The Vote: 8–1, With One Unusual Divergence
That evening, the council voted decisively to restrict the MHSC’s activities.
Eight members voted in favor of TREBIC’s recommended limitations.
The structure of the vote became more notable once the email surfaced. Holston, who heads the Greensboro Housing Coalition and has a background in housing advocacy, cast the only dissenting vote on the item, though he hadn’t taken a strong public stance until then.
Whether other councilmembers also received the email privately is not yet confirmed.
Greensboro City Council member Tammi Thurm at PPP;
Timing, Access, and the Public’s Right to Know
Hardister’s message was time-sensitive, arriving just before the council met to determine the direction of the MHSC. Its arrival on personal channels rather than government ones has raised several procedural questions;
How common is it for lobbyists or industry groups to communicate with elected officials using personal email accounts?
Were other TREBIC communications received outside the official city system?
Have all relevant emails been forwarded into the public record, as required under North Carolina law?
Has the city clerk requested copies of any personal-account messages related to the MHSC vote?
These questions center not on the policy itself, but on the transparency of the decision-making process and the accessibility of the public record.
A Vote With Lasting Effects
The MHSC vote alters how Greensboro’s volunteer housing board can operate. The commission will no longer perform property inspections, and will no longer request rental-market analyses from staff.’
Incoming Council Member Crystal Black with Jon Hardister days before the vote;
TREBIC has offered to supply rental information itself.
What Happens Next
Whether additional communications exist, and whether they were sent through personal or official channels remains an open question.
Incoming Council Member April Parker days before the vote;
At minimum, the episode highlighted how backchannel communication, timing and personal-device correspondence can intersect in ways that complicate public transparency, particularly during contentious votes involving influential industry stakeholders.
Incoming Mayor Marikay Abuzuaiter at PPP;
This isn’t just about one email or one vote. It’s about who gets heard when Greensboro decides how safe its housing will be, and who doesn’t. TREBIC and its affiliates had direct, private access to councilmembers’ personal inboxes. The public did not. Their message was clear, and the council’s 8–1 vote echoed it almost perfectly. Greensboro has already lived through the consequences of dismantling proactive oversight once before, when the end of RUCO left tenants with fewer protections and more unsafe homes.
The question now is whether Greensboro’s residents will accept policymaking shaped in the shadows, or demand a system where public safety, not private influence, sets the agenda.
Incoming Councilman and TREBIC member Adam Marshall and Crystal Black;
John Hardister’s letter to a Council Candidate after TREBIC and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce Forum;
