The Greensboro City Council will hold its public forum meeting for the month on Tuesday, Oct. 5 beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The meeting will be held virtually and those wishing to speak at the meeting are required to sign up online before Monday at 5 p.m. at https://form.jotform.com/202643500426041 .

The council generally does little actual business at the first meeting of the month but passes resolutions and a consent agenda.  The consent agenda is made up of items that are supposed to be noncontroversial housekeeping type items that are all passed with one vote.  According to council policy, if a councilmember wants to discuss a consent agenda item then the item is removed from the consent agenda placed on the general business agenda for the next meeting.

According to practice, if a councilmember other than Councilmember Sharon Hightower wants to discuss an item, it is placed on the general business agenda for the next meeting.  However, Hightower is allowed to discuss as many consent agenda items as she desires, for as long as she wants.  The other councilmembers members don’t object to this unusual practice.

It was announced at the Thursday, Sept. 30 work session that beginning in November the City Council will return to the Katie Dorsett Council Chambers in city hall for meetings.

Mayor Nancy Vaughan said that councilmembers would still be able to participate virtually at these meetings which the city calls “hybrid” meetings.

Guilford County is under a mask mandate, so if that is not lifted, the members of the City Council would be required to wear masks during the meeting. In June and July when the City Council met in person, masks were required in the council chamber but councilmembers and senior city staff did not wear masks during the meeting.

The current mask mandate is the result of action taken by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners. The City Council appeared not to have a problem violating its own mask mandate, but whether members of the City Council will do the same for a mask mandate imposed by the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is unknown.

 

About