If you have a question about what’s going on with the City of Greensboro government, you will most likely be directed to Greensboro’s website, https://www.Greensboro-nc.gov
If you take the bait and go to the website, you will find a wealth of information and also a surprising lack of information.
Take the Greensboro “City Calendar (Meetings)” as an example. The city has some kind of public meeting, not every day, but about ten weekdays during the month.
For example, the City Council has at least two scheduled meetings every month. The schedule for these meetings for 2020 was set at a meeting in Nov. 19, 2019. It isn’t set in stone, but the vast majority of the meetings will take place on the day they are scheduled. So why isn’t the Tuesday, Feb. 18 meeting of the City Council on the “City Calendar (Meetings)” page?
Most people who keep up with the City Council know that the City Council usually meets on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, but not everyone knows and some months are different.
There are two contested rezoning cases on the agenda for the Feb. 18 City Council meeting. These rezoning cases most likely will attract a large number of people who have never been to a City Council meeting, or haven’t been since the last time they opposed a rezoning, which may have been years ago, and have no reason to keep up with the City Council meeting calendar.
If they depend on the City Calendar to make sure that Tuesday, Feb. 18 is the correct night to be at city hall, they’ll miss the meeting.
Then there is the Monday, Feb. 24 City Council retreat. It is held at the ACC Hall of Champions at the Greensboro Coliseum and is theoretically the meeting where the City Council sets its goals for the year. The yearly retreat is variable. In different years it is held in different months and at different locations. But if someone has an interest in what their City Council plans to do in the next year, it is a good meeting to attend. If that someone depends on the City Calendar, they would miss it all together.
“Java with Justin” is an informal meeting that City Councilmember Justin Outling holds on the Friday before the City Council business meeting on the third Tuesday of the month. It’s a little confusing – although not nearly as confusing as figuring out when Easter is going to be every year – but Outling always announces his meeting and the city sends out a press release on it every month, so it isn’t a secret.
The District 2 community forum held by City Councilmember Goldie Wells on Thursday, Jan. 16 did make the City Calendar, but Java with Justin didn’t for January or February.
The City Calendar does have the “Landscape Ordinance Committee Meeting” at 3 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 17, for what that’s worth.
