The reports for the Greensboro City Council work session at 2 p.m. on Thursday, June 30 are available on the City of Greensboro website.
This is a radical departure from the city’s practice over the past several months.
For years, the reports for work sessions and meetings were posted on the website days before the scheduled meetings.
Then the reports were posted hours before the meetings, and councilmembers, including District 3 City Councilmember and mayoral candidate Justin Outling, complained that they weren’t being given enough time to go over the reports prior to the meeting.
Then the reports were made available to councilmembers before the meeting but not posted on the website for the public until after the meeting.
And finally, in the past couple of months, after City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba was hired as city manager in February, the reports were not posted on the city website at all.
The reports are public records and have always been available to people who requested them, but going through the city’s needlessly complex and often time consuming Public Information Request Tracking (PIRT) system for a report was cumbersome.
So now the city, at least for the June 30 work session, has returned to its old policy of providing the reports to the public prior to the meeting, so the public as well as councilmembers can easily access the information.
The June 30 work session has two reports for the City Council to discuss. One is on the Minority and Women’s Business Enterprise (MWBE) program and in particular what constitutes a “good faith effort.”
Companies bidding on a city contract are required to either meet the MWBE participation goals for the contract or make a “good faith effort” to meet those goals.
Councilmember Sharon Hightower has repeatedly complained that the good faith effort requirements were not strict enough and has routinely voted against contracts that were being awarded based on the bidder making the legally required good faith effort, but not meeting the MWBE goals.
The other report is an update on the Field Services Department, which is best known for handling garbage and recycling for the city.
The city may delay, delay and delay requests for public records until the person gives up or the request is so innocuous to the city that the request is granted. The requests go through the legal department. That should tell you all you need to know. The state legislature writes the rules regarding public record requests but the city legal department is the gatekeeper for Greensboro. Make no mistake, if the request is a “troublesome” request, City Council knows about it. Charles Watts, Jr. reports to City Council. When a PIRT request such as Eric Robert’s request is made, City Council is aware. Eric Robert was a mayoral candidate. What did Chuck Watts discuss with City Council, if anything, about Mr. Robert’s request?
The oxymorons are meeting again.