“We’ve lost the mayor.” At anything but a virtual meeting those words from Greensboro City Clerk Angie Lord might have sparked some concern among councilmembers and those watching.

Lord, who is usually not heard from during a meeting unless there is problem, came online several times during the Tuesday, Aug. 18 Greensboro City Council work session to announce that Mayor Nancy Vaughan had lost her connection and the City Council needed to wait until she could get reconnected.

After the third time it happened, near the end of the meeting, Vaughan phoned in to report that the internet was down in her area and she would be driving to city hall for the regular City Council meeting that was to begin at 5:30 p.m.

The 5:30 p.m. meeting started a few minutes late, mainly because the work session ran longer than anticipated, but also because they had to wait for Vaughan to drive to her office in city hall and get set up for the meeting.

From city hall, Vaughan had no problems and didn’t get lost once during the meeting that adjourned at 9:22 p.m.

Just before that adjournment, during council comments, Vaughan explained that the internet had not gone down in her neighborhood, only in her house. She said, “In the interest of full disclosure, earlier I thought my cable went out. It turns out that my dog chewed through the cable wire outside. So I guess she likes me here better than at home. I knew I was having trouble with the cable. It was kind of going in and out. But they caught the culprit in the back yard with the cable in her mouth. I kind of like being here anyway, but I thought I would let everybody know the cable company was fine. It was dog error.”

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