Usually, the regular schedule of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners is pretty much clockwork.
The board meetings take place twice a month, on the first and third Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. in the Commissioners Meeting Room on the second floor of the Old Guilford County Court House in downtown Greensboro.
At the end of October, however, the county announced a rare change to the 2023 meeting calendar that the board adopted in December of 2022.
The board announced that the second meeting in November, which had been scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 16, will not take place. Instead, after the board meets on Thursday, Nov. 2, there won’t be another regular meeting until the first meeting in December when the commissioners will make the all-important choice of selecting the next chairman or chairwoman to lead them into and through 2024.
By state law, the board must meet at least once a month in Guilford County.
The notice sent out by the county regarding the cancelled meeting, simply stated that “The Guilford County Board of Commissioners have amended their adopted regular meeting calendar by canceling their November 16, 2023 regular meeting. Please find below the Guilford County Board of Commissioners’ AMENDED regular meeting schedule for the remainder of the 2023 calendar year.”
That calendar has the board meeting twice more this year – on December 7 and December 21.
Though no official reason was given for the cancellation, a confluence of factors led to the decision. There was a lack of pressing business that the board had to decide on before December, the commissioners have met a great deal in recent months in order to catch up on county business, and November 16 is nudging up against the Thanksgiving holiday so the commissioners feel like Christmas shopping and buying turkey rather than working, just like the rest of us.
The less they meet, the less damage they can do.
Amen to that!