By Amanda Raymond

amanda.raymond@salisburypost.com

The city manager of Salisbury will now be holding an office hour every month.

At the Salisbury City Council meeting on Tuesday, City Manager Lane Bailey announced that he would hold a “Meet with the Manager” open office hour. Community members will be able to go to the first floor conference room of City Hall, at 217 S. Main St., to discuss any ideas or concerns they may have.

“We’re making him accessible,” Mayor Karen Alexander said at the meeting.

Alexander said the idea came from Clyde, a local antique collector and artist.

Bailey said he will hold the office hour on the first Wednesday of every month. The first session will be on April 6 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.

In other council business, the council:

• Approved the consent agenda, which included authorizing AT&T to place 8,963 feet of innerduct within public rights-of-way in the Reserve and Country Club Hills, subject to the current fee structure.
• Opened public comment and received presentations from special community organizations submitting their 2016-2017 budget requests.
• Held a public hearing about the closing of an alley in the 400 block of North Lee Street. No one spoke. The council adopted a resolution accepting the offer of dedication for the alley right of way and then adopted an order to close the alley.
• Awarded a $32,000 auditing contract for the 2016 fiscal year to Elliot Davis Decosimo, with an option for years 2017-2019.
• Awarded an asphalt bid to Carolina Siteworks Inc., which bid $400,801.25, for street paving in Salisbury.
• Heard an update on off-premise signs (billboards) in the city’s zoning jurisdiction.
• Made appointments to various boards and commissions.
• Went into closed session to discuss a personnel matter and an economic development matter.

In public comments:

• As the city looks for a permanent police chief, Geoffrey Hoy asked the council to look into the possibility of setting up a citizen review board to improve the level of trust between citizens and the police department. He also said basing municipal elections on five different geographic areas of the city might increase participation. Instead of appointing the mayor based off of the council member who won the most votes, Hoy said it “would be nice” if the citizens could elect the mayor directly.
• Dee Dee Wright announced a West End Community Organization meeting to discuss the transformation of the West End.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.