The Greensboro City Council has two “hybrid” meetings scheduled for Tuesday, May 4.

The first is a hybrid work session beginning at 3 p.m.  According to the city, at a hybrid meeting the City Council and city staff are in the council chambers, but the public is not allowed to attend except virtually.

The second meeting is the regular first meeting of the month scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.  The first meeting of the month is the only meeting where the City Council holds a public forum and invites people to speak on the topic of their choosing for three minutes each.

The notice states that the work session will be a hybrid meeting, but at the last hybrid work session scheduled for Tuesday, April 27, Vaughan was in a car, not in the council chambers.  It appeared the councilmembers were at home or in their offices and City Manager David Parrish was in his office.  The meeting was, according to the city’s definitions, a “virtual” meeting not a “hybrid” meeting.

That meeting had to be canceled because it was not being broadcast live on the city’s website as the official notice stated.  The meeting was in fact not being broadcast live anywhere the general public could view it – a violation of the state open meetings law.

So the work session on May 4 has some of the items that were scheduled to be covered at the work session that was canceled on April 27.  The City Council rarely completes a work session agenda and, with the regular meeting of the City Council beginning at 5:30, the agenda for this work session is aggressive.

Included on the work session agenda are American Rescue Plan Overview, Bond Package Discussions, Budget Cycle Update/Overview, Water Resources Budget Update/Overview and Closed Session.

For those who are interested in hearing the City Council discuss one of those items, it is also worth noting that as well as not finishing the work session agendas, the City Council often does not take the agenda items in order.

According to the official announcement, those who would like to watch the meeting can do so at https://greensboro.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx . The meeting also might be available on the Greensboro Television Network (GTN) and Roku at http://greensboro.granicus.com/player/camera/3?publish_id=99&autostart=1&redirect=true.

The agenda states “and/or” GTN and Roku.  Work sessions are rarely broadcast on GTN and at the last work session Parrish said the city did not have the ability to broadcast that work session on GTN.

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