The Greensboro City Council will hold a virtual work session on Thursday, Dec. 2 beginning at 2 p.m.
According to the City of Greensboro website, the meeting is being held in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber, but it isn’t.
In November, the City Council returned to holding regular meetings in the Katie Dorsett Council Chambers with a plethora of plexiglass shields. Masks are recommended but not required. These meetings are called hybrid meetings and provide councilmembers, city staff and the public the opportunity to participate in person or by Zoom. At the Wednesday, Nov. 17 meeting, Mayor Nancy Vaughan chaired the meeting remotely with the other eight members of the City Council in the Council Chamber.
However, Vaughan says that she plans to continue to hold virtual work sessions for the foreseeable future. Vaughan said that she had heard a lot of good comments about the virtual format for the work sessions. She said, “People like them and I think we will continue to hold work sessions virtually.”
Vaughan said that because the virtual work sessions are televised live, more people are watching them, and she said she thought the council got more work done at the virtual sessions than at the in-person work sessions.
Vaughan said, “I think it’s a win-win for people and for the City Council.”
Back in the days before COVID-19, City Council work sessions were usually held in the Plaza Level Conference Room with the City Council and city manager sitting at the conference table. City staff and the public sat in chairs around the room. It was often difficult for those not at the table to hear what was being said or determine exactly who was speaking, particularly when several councilmembers were speaking at the same time.
Those work sessions held in the Plaza Level Conference Room were not broadcast live and there was no video recording of the meetings. The only recording was audio and listening to the audio recordings it was not only difficult but sometimes impossible to determine who was speaking.
The virtual work sessions do provide far better access for the public as well as a more accessible public record of the meeting.
The Thursday, Dec. 2 meeting can be viewed at https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/government/city-council/council-meetings .
Please get an updated photo for referencing the GSO City Council. Michelle Kennedy is gone from this Council, fortunately, although still on the government dole.
thanks for the city council meeting time and email . Are future meetings already scheduled. If so would like to see that.
Larry Wallace
What a farce. What a distortion of open meeting laws. If folks don’t have high speed Internet or the appropriate technology or savvy they are purposefully being disenfranchised by Mandate Mayor flexing her “everyone loves it” bulldozeing of true openness.