The Greensboro City Council is meeting twice this week to continue the process of selecting and hiring a new city manager.

The meetings are scheduled for 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 9 and 2 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 11.

However, where the meetings will be and what exactly the City Council will be doing, is confusing.

According to the official meeting announcement sent out on Friday, Nov. 5 both meetings will be held at the Sheraton Hotel at 3121 West Gate City Boulevard.  But according to the agendas posted on the City of Greensboro website both meetings will be held in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber at 300 West Washington St.

The agendas for both meetings list three items “A. Call to Order: B. Motion for Closed Session: C. Adjournment.”

However, the official noted states the meetings are being held “for the purpose to conduct a vote on an audio recording of these meetings.”

Voting on whether or not to record the meetings would have to be conducted in open session.  But there is no item on the agenda for either meeting to conduct a vote in open session other than voting to go into closed session.  The motion to go into closed session could include a clause that the meeting would or would not be recorded, but that is not indicated on the agenda.

The closed sessions will be held “to consider the qualifications, competence, character, fitness, and conditions of employment of prospective City Manager applicants and the amount of compensation and other materials terms of an employment contract or proposed employment contract.”

Assuming that the official announcement is correct and not the agenda, the City Council will be meeting at the Sheraton to interview candidates for the position of city manager in person. Up until this week the City Council has gone over resumes and application materials and conducted interviews with candidates in closed session via Zoom.

The last time the City Council hired a city manager from outside city government was 2009 when Councilmember Yvonne Johnson was mayor.  At that time the City Council met at the O. Henry Hotel to conduct the interviews.

Elected bodies often hold these interviews offsite to make it more difficult for the public and media to discover who the final candidates for the positions are.