It was rather low key start as our newly installed commissioners held their first meeting and agreed to deal with the concept of reopening the budget, as well as time and place of their meetings.
It seems that the 911 folks will lose some state and/or federal funding if they don’t have enough local match money. It was decided the budget should be reopened to make sure they have sufficient funding as not to lose federal or state money.
Apparently there are some who are not pleased with the idea that the commissioners will be meeting at 8:30am and that they will be meeting in the Commissioners room in the Courthouse.
After some discussion, the time of meeting was agreed to be 9am at the Commissioners room.
Not much else transpired. There are various committees and and agencies which need to have members appointed, however, this was not addressed.
One thing was made clear today. Though the commissioners meetings are public of course, which allows you and I to see the workings of our government; they will not allow the freewheeling, shoot from the hip, interaction from the public which has been a part of these meetings for some years.
So far, no serious harm, no foul and no fights with and between these new folks. Lets see how they will do in their second meeting…
“One thing was made clear today. Though the commissioners meetings are public of course, which allows you and I to see the workings of our government; they will not allow the freewheeling, shoot from the hip, interaction from the public which has been a part of these meetings for some years.”
They are our servants.
We are not a “freewilling, shoot from the hip” public. We are concerned citizens who are participating in democracy. We do not watch, we participate. This is America, not a movie where we see but can not do.
Long live citizen participation. May the commissioners always have to deal with the public - they need to learn from us.
And, is the commissioners reading from that previously typed piece of paper the “workings of our government”? I think not. Democracy is not always pretty. But it is always is participatory.
Rotaryconnection, were you at the same meeting as me?My interpretation of what was addressed included the public’s input. What it did not include were those clearly inserted schills in the audience there to try to make one particular commissioner look good. Please note ‘try’ as anyone that was paying attention caught on quickly. And so, the demise of the majority party. This new administration allowed and accepted plenty of public input and participation and did so with enthusiasm I hadn’t seen in 4 years. Heck, even the vicechair’s wife had input.Not the smartest thing in my opinion but all input was taken. Those who always look for the negative will always be miserable.Long live public participation and a positive outlook on the future of this new administration.Let’s just give them a chance.
“Rotaryconnection, were you at the same meeting as me?” I don’t understand this statement, but that is ok. My previous posts concerned the original article’s saying things like: “they will not allow the freewheeling, shoot from the hip, interaction from the public”.
Interaction with the public is good, and necessary.
And as far as talking about “clearly inserted schills” in the audience, I am not so negative. I did not notice the “schills”. But then again, this two party he said/she said is way old hat. Sometimes it is best to forget about the political party, and deal with the issues.
What I don’t like are political parties being more important than the issues.
Rotaryconnection makes an extremely valid point regarding the political parties being more important than the issues. We have seen that here for too many years. Maybe, just maybe it will be a little different this time.