District A Councilor, Patrick Buffkin, has held three virtual Town Hall meetings since the pandemic has shut down in-person gatherings. The first was April 28, 2020. The second on Sept 29, 2020. And, the most recent was Feb 11, 2021.
All other councilors who have hosted Town Hall meetings have recorded them and posted those recordings on social media for those who couldn’t attend the live events. But, as we have reported before, Councilor Buffkin has NOT followed this same procedure. Although he has recorded all of his meetings, he has not posted any of them on social media. You will recall that one of the councilor’s main concerns with Citizen Advisory Councils (CACs) was that they were not easily accessible to everyone. So, it’s rather hypocritical for him not to be willing to post his recorded meetings online for everyone to have access to.
When asked after the first meeting if he would be posting the recording online he said no. According to him, there was no interest from the community. When asked during the second meeting if he would be recording and posting the video, he said yes. But, he never followed through. When asked during the most recent meeting if he would record and post the event, he once again said yes. It’s been over two weeks and there is still no posting of the recording.
In October of 2020 a Public Records Request was submitted to the City of Raleigh to obtain copies of the first two meetings. On Jan 25, 2021 the Public Records Request paid off and copies of the videos were received from the city. As a public service for the residents of District A and all of Raleigh, you can now view the recordings of Councilor Buffkin’s Town Hall meetings at the end of this post. Be assured that if necessary, we will continue to submit Public Records Requests for any public meetings held by city council members and NOT posted on social media for access by those who could not attend.