The final scheduled Greensboro City Council meeting of 2019 will be held beginning at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
But the meeting begins with a closed session to do a six-month review of City Attorney Chuck Watts, so unless you want to sit and wait for 90 minutes, the real show time is 5:30 p.m.
Watts was hired by a unanimous vote of the City Council on May 21 to replace Tom Carruthers, who resigned as city attorney in Oct. 2018. Watt’s salary is $190,000 a year plus executive compensation of $6,000. This is Watts’ six-month review. During reviews, employees often receive a salary adjustment, which means a raise, since nobody’s salary is ever reduced.
Watts and City Manager David Parrish are the only two city employees who work directly for the City Council, which means they are the only two employees who were hired by and can be fired by the City Council.
Speakers at the monthly town hall meetings have frequently called for the City Council to fire Police Chief Wayne Scott, but the City Council doesn’t have the authority to fire the police chief. Only the city manager can do that.
This meeting will be the last under the current meeting format where the City Council only has one business meeting and one town hall meeting a month. This format has been tried for two full years and the majority of the City Council decided they didn’t like it.
In November, the City Council voted to go back to doing business at both meetings of the month in 2020, but only hear speakers from the floor on non-agenda items at the first meeting. So in 2020, the first meeting of the month should be longer because the City Council will conduct business as well as hear from speakers, and the second meeting shorter since some of the city’s business will be done at the first meeting. The public at both meetings will be able to speak on agenda items, but only at the first meeting of the month will they be able to speak on non-agenda items.
