Sometimes it’s tough for the public to know what the Greensboro City Council is doing.

The most controversial items on a City Council meeting agenda are often added at the last minute, along with the reports that give more background on those items.

But this week the City Council has gone one step further in keeping the public in the dark.

Next week the city has meetings scheduled on Wednesday, March 23 and Thursday, March 24, at the ACC Hall of Champions boardroom in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex on Gate City Boulevard.  The March 23 meeting begins at 1 p.m. and the March 24 meeting at 9 a.m.

This is the annual retreat, which is usually held in January or February, where the City Council often discusses budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1.  This year the annual retreat is being called the “2022 Greensboro City Council Strategy Session” and titled “Building On Our Momentum.”

It will be the first annual retreat with City Manager Tai Jaiyeoba.

The official notice of the meetings was sent to the media and others on the email list on March 11.

But as of Thursday, March 17 at noon, the meetings were not listed on the “Council Meetings” webpage on the City of Greensboro website.

Under the heading “Upcoming Meetings” on the “Council Meetings” webpage, it states, “There are no upcoming meetings.”

The meetings are also not listed on the “2022 City Council Meeting Schedule” page.

The City Council traditionally meets for about a day and a half during the annual retreat, and some years major initiatives are set.  At the City Council retreat in 2012,  then Mayor Robbie Perkins convinced the council to pursue building the replacement for the old War Memorial Auditorium downtown rather than at the Coliseum Complex as had been planned.  The result of that initial discussion was the $93 million Tanger Center for the Performing Arts – not an insignificant project.

Since this is an election year, some of those who are running for City Council may want to attend the retreat, which is open to the public.  But if they are not on the email list and depend on the Council Meetings web page to keep up with City Council meetings, they could miss it all together.

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