Top priority is the safety of our community
and to minimize the spread of COVID-19
while conducting City business
The Asheville City Council Public Safety Committee will hold a remote meeting at 3:30 p.m. June 25. The agenda is posted to the City website here.
There are three options for providing public comment and several ways to listen or view the meeting live online or via phone.
Voicemail
All voicemail public comments must be received by 5 p.m. June 24 by calling the City’s Toll-Free Public Input Line at 855-925-2801, meeting code: 9483. Before commenting, please state your name, City of residence and the item you are commenting on (Examples: Open Public Comment).
Comments will be limited to three minutes per person per item. All comments must conform to City Council rules of decorum. Those comments that do not may be excluded. The Public Safety Committee will receive the transcribed voicemail comments and the comments will be posted, but they will not be heard during the Committee meeting.
Live call-in
Public comment will also be taken from a live speaker queue. For this option, community members should listen to the meeting by phone by calling 855-925-2801, meeting code: 9483. Your phone will be muted and you will hear the meeting live. At this point callers will hear, “for more options please press *.” Pressing * will allow callers to continue to listen live and join a speaker queue. Callers should only join the speaker queue during the time the agenda item on which they would like to speak is being discussed.
Calls will be played during the committee meeting in the order received for up to an hour for the public comment portion of the agenda. All comments will be limited to 3 minutes per person per item. All comments must conform to City Council rules of decorum. Those comments that do not may be muted.
Comments can also be submitted by emailing PublicSafetyJune252020@PublicInput.com. For the public hearing items, emails will be accepted for up to 24 hours after the close of each public hearing. Council committee members will receive the emailed comments electronically and the comments will be posted, but they will not be read during the committee meeting.
How to follow the live meeting
- Call toll-free to listen to the meeting on your phone: 855-925-2801, meeting code: 9483. Your phone will be muted but you will be able to hear what is happening in the meeting.
- Watch the live stream through the City of Asheville Public Engagement Hub at www.publicinput.com/hub/88.
- In addition to the stream on the Virtual Engagement Hub, a live stream of the meeting is also available on the City’s YouTube Channel at youtube.com/cityofasheville. All who want to view the meeting without engaging are encouraged to view through this channel.
All City Council Committee meetings were cancelled starting in March due to the declared state of emergency for COVID-19, in order to follow public health guidance for public health guidance. This decision was made by City management in consultation with the Mayor and City Council.
City staff began working on plans to implement remote meetings. However, this required implementation and testing of various technologies. In addition, it was not until May 4 that Gov. Cooper signed into law new legislation allowing remote meetings for public bodies. This new law also provided the first legal framework for such meetings.
North Carolina General Statute § 166A-19.24(f) is the law that allows for remote meetings. This specific provision is found on page 61 under the heading “Remote meetings under certain declarations of emergency.”
This is a temporary measure for the health and safety of everyone, as we collectively work through social distancing techniques to prevent the spread of COVID-19, taking into consideration guidance from the CDC, N.C. Department of Health and Human Service and Buncombe County Health and Human Services.
Please be aware that this guidance could change, as this is a rapidly evolving national and local health emergency.
The top priorities are the safety of our community and to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Keep up with future meeting announcements on the City Council Committee webpage as well as the City’s new Engagement Hub.