Members of boards and commissions appointed by the Greensboro City Council may have to start attending meetings in person again.
At the Tuesday, July 18 meeting, the City Council voted to postpone to the Aug. 15 meeting an ordinance that required in person attendance to establish a quorum for all boards and commissions appointed by the City Council.
During the pandemic, the state government decided that nobody had to actually be present to hold a meeting. The City Council as well as the various boards and commissions met virtually, and according to the powers-that-be in the state, that was not only acceptable, but required.
People were told that on issues like zoning and rezoning requests often opposed by neighborhoods, that having a couple people speak against the request via-Zoom was as effective as having couple hundred people in opposition crowded into the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber.
Now that the pandemic is over, that is all being reconsidered.
The ordinance that was on the agenda was to only count those members who attended the meeting in person for the purpose of establishing a quorum.
For most boards and commissions, a quorum is a majority of the members. So for the board or commission to hold a meeting, a majority, or quorum, has to be present.
City Attorney Chuck Watts gave some background on the issue and said, “Now that the emergency is over, it’s kind of murky. It’s an issue we are trying to pay attention to.”
Watts said, “You see people on without their camera on, or on with their camera on as they are laying concrete, fixing pipes, in a car – I mean I think the challenges we are going to see is that people are not as willing to participate in these voluntary boards and commissions.”
Councilmember Marikay Abuzuaiter raised a concern about what she called the “smaller” boards and commissions. She said that before the pandemic it was difficult to get people to attend a meeting but now that people can attend virtually, “we have everyone there.”
Councilmember Tammi Thurm noted that the Transgender Task Force and the Participatory Budgeting board, “are 100 percent online at this point.”
Watts was asked to come back with an ordinance that dealt with boards and commissions more specifically.
Have east greensboro city council hire someone to study this major issue. I don’t think it will cost more than $200k and it should take no more than 6 months to complete.
Emergency over. Emergency rules should be gone as well. Mandate Mayor and city Attorney will go to extreme lengths to circumvent any rules they don’t care for regardless of common sense or legality. If they allow online meetings they are failing their duties to serve the citizens and actually allow in person government to function. Plenty of folks don’t have the computers or services allowing them to participate or even view what is happening at these various meetings.
Chucky, how often to you “work at home” in Durham rather than showing up at your office in the city? When do you plan to admit that you have not moved to Greensboro as required by your contract? This with the knowledge of City Council. Renting a duplex does not qualify as moving to Greensboro.
Having served on some Boards, I think attendance should be mandatory. Heck, most members don’t even look at the agenda until the meeting. They do not get a sense for the project or topic at hand unless they are in person. It’s very frustrating when you invest your time to prepare for meetings and get in your car and go downtown and most of the members are on a screen. There is no organization when that happens.