Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 3 p.m., the Greensboro City Council will meet virtually with the Guilford County Legislative Delegation.
The purpose of the meeting is for the City Council to present its 2021 Legislative Agenda to the Guilford delegation in hopes of winning support for the initiatives that city would like to see passed in this session.
In keeping with the current City Council policy of allowing the public to know as little about what the City Council is doing as possible, the 2021 Legislative Agenda is currently not available to the public or the press. The City Council passed the 2021 Legislative Agenda at its meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 19. Since it was an item up for discussion on the agenda, one might reasonably expect the legislative agenda to be attached to the agenda, but it is not.
Also, since the agenda for the meeting with the Guilford Legislative Delegation has been released, one might expect the 2021 Legislative Agenda the topic of the meeting to be attached to the agenda, but it is not.
Councilmember Justin Outling has complained at recent meetings that even councilmembers are not receiving information about items on the agenda with enough time to go over them.
It does raise the question of when the Guilford delegation will receive copies of the legislative agenda that they are supposed to be discussing on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
The Guilford delegation is made up of Democratic House members Cecil Brockman, Ashton Clemmons, Pricey Harrison and Amos Quick and Republican House members John Faircloth and Jon Hardister.
Representing at least a portion of Guilford County in the state Senate are Republicans David Craven and Amy Galey and Democrats Michael Garrett and Gladys Robinson.
The Guilford delegation lost a lot of its clout in the state Senate in the past year. In the last long session in 2019, Guilford was represented in the Senate by Rick Gunn and Jerry Tillman. Gunn didn’t run for reelection and Tillman retired in 2020. Galey who replaced Gunn and Craven who replaced Tillman are both serving their first full term in the state Senate.
Robinson is serving her sixth term in the state Senate, so she has a lot of seniority but is a Democrat in a Senate with a Republican majority, which as she readily admits limits her ability to get bills passed.
In the state House, which also has a Republican majority, Hardister is the majority whip, which is the third highest leadership position, and Faircloth is chair of several committees.
Faircloth has been working with Greensboro on trying to relax the law regarding the release of police body worn camera footage, but he has been fighting an uphill battle in that effort.
Mandate Mayor and her cronies don’t want any public scrutiny on any of their shenanigans. How can staff be so complicit in ignoring procedure and serving the people of Greensboro not just whoever holds a gavel. So sad Mandate Mayor refuses to allow enough information for legally required public comment.
Number one in murders in our state, vacant stores and run down neighborhoods everywhere, not to mention streets lined with trash…..need I say more ?
“In keeping with the current City Council policy of allowing the public to know as little about what the City Council is doing as possible, the 2021 Legislative Agenda is currently not available to the public or the press.”
This is absolutely difficult to understand. A public record is not a public record? Only in a world controlled by democrats can this happen. Was the legislative agenda discussed and approved in an open session of the council? If not, why not?
To all citizens of Greensboro, remember to vote ALL of the current council out of office. Maybe that will give them time to rethink why they ran for office in the first place.