Before the City Council work session on Tuesday, Feb. 16, the majority of the City Council held a meeting to discuss the Airport Authority Overlay District, commonly called the noise cone, which was not in compliance the North Carolina open meetings law.
The official virtual work session meeting began at 3:30 p.m., and before the virtual meetings begin there is usually some chatting among councilmembers as they sign on, which is to be expected.
However, on Tuesday, before the meeting started, Mayor Nancy Vaughan brought up an item on the agenda for the 5:30 p.m. virtual meeting – the Airport Overlay District Amendment. Vaughan said she wanted to have the item continued and explained why. Vaughan said that she had talked with Planning Department Director Sue Schwartz and Tom Terrell, an attorney with Fox Rothschild representing the airport in this matter.
Vaughan said, “Staff thought they were in agreement with the airport and obviously they weren’t because we did get a revision from Tom Terrell’s office.”
Vaughan said she planned to ask that the item be postponed until the City Council could hold a work session on it.
Councilmember Tammi Thurm asked if it was time sensitive.
Vaughan said that it didn’t appear to be, but they wanted it to be done quickly.
Councilmember Goldie Wells asked if they had talked to all councilmembers and said that she and Councilmember Sharon Hightower had attended the meeting together about the noise cone.
Thurm said that she and Councilmember Nancy Hoffmann also were briefed on it together.
Hoffmann said that the meeting had been three or four months ago.
Wells said, “I thought everything was okay.”
Vaughan said, “The resolution that we have from staff differs from the one we got from the [airport] authority.”
No vote was taken, but the seven councilmembers present seemed to reach consensus on continuing the item after their questions were answered. At work sessions, City Council business is usually handled by consensus rather than a vote.
This was City Council business and happens to be City Council business that will have a significant impact on development of the airport area and the airport itself, which the City Council considers a major economic development driver for the area.
By law, council business can only be discussed by a majority of the City Council at a properly noticed public meeting. Additionally, two councilmembers, Justin Outling and Michelle Kennedy, had not yet joined the virtual meeting so were not present and couldn’t take part in the discussion or the decision.
The Tuesday work session had one agenda item and lasted less than an hour. There was plenty of time for this discussion to take place after the one agenda item had been handled.
The virtual meeting was being televised, so the discussion was open to the public, except those interested in the topic would have no reason to think the discussion would take place with only seven councilmembers present before the officially noticed time of the meeting.
The comments by Wells, Thurm and Hoffmann also revealed that the City Council has gone back to doing business in small group meetings, which are meetings held with less than a majority of the City Council present so the North Carolina open meetings law doesn’t apply. Previous City Councils had discontinued small group meetings in an effort to be more transparent.
That MAYOR NEEDS TO BE REPLACED NOW… SHE HAS NO VISION !
Please conduct all Meetings of Public Bodies, Chapter 33C “Wheras the public bodies that administer the legislative, policy-making, quasi-judicial, administrative, and advisory functions of North Carolina and its political subdivisions exit solely to conduct the people’s business. It is the public policy of North Carolina that the hearings, deliberations, and actions of these bodies be conducted openly.”
It is taxpayer money and public business and public facilities.
Noise cone is a joke- look at the FAA study and graphs- surprising how the cone is not extended equally on the the north side of the airport. Airport should purchase sound proofing for ALL homes within a 5 mile radius.
Laws are for suckers, as they obviously don’t apply to those who govern the lost city of Greensboro. They got away for most of 2020 for closing meetings to the public, in violation of the law. They weren’t even threatened with punishment, so why would it be different now? Dems don’t eat their own. Governor Dictator and his protege activist Josh Stein aren’t going to do jack.
The loudest noise cone(head) is around the City Council, in all directions, but mostly to the left.