On Friday, Dec. 17, the Rhino Times posted a story with the headline, “Proposed Restaurant Security Policy Not On Council Agenda.”

After that article was posted, the Greensboro city clerk reposted the agenda for the Tuesday, Dec. 21 City Council meeting with changes, but the addition of an agenda item on the “Safety Review Board,” which Mayor Nancy Vaughan said did not require council action to establish, was not one of those changes.

However, on Monday, Dec. 20, the city clerk’s office reposted the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting shortly before 1 p.m. with item “I.7 2-21-543 Resolution Supporting Adoption of City Safety Review Board.”

The agenda item has additional information that has not previously been revealed to the public, including the “City of Greensboro Safety Review Board Rules of Procedure Manual,” which states, “Adopted August 2021.”  It does not state who adopted the rules of procedure manual or how it was adopted, since the Safety Review Board at that time didn’t exist and had not been discussed or approved by the City Council.

The rules of procedure state, “There are no final determinations made by the City Safety Review Board, and there is no right of appeal to a recommendation from the City Safety Review Board.”

It also states, “These rules may be amended at any time by the City Attorney’s Office.”  The rules can also be amended by the Safety Review Board itself.  So, if the City Council passes the resolution to support the Safety Review Board, the city attorney’s office or the board itself would have the authority to amend those rules at any time without the approval or even notification of the City Council.

The rules do make it clear who appoints the Safety Review Board.  The department heads of the Engineering and Inspections Department, the Fire Department, the Neighborhood Development Department and the Police Department will each “designate an attendee on an ad hoc basis for each individual meeting.”

In other words, the Safety Review Board will have no permanent members and each meeting of the Safety Review Board could have four city employees who have never previously served on the Safety Review Board.

The current City Council often has its agendas revised numerous times before the meeting, so this might not be the final word on the Safety Review Board agenda item.