December 12, 2005 Committee Meetings

Hamblen County Commission regular Committee Meetings are today (Dec. 12) beginning at 3:00 pm.

Finance is scheduled at 3:00 pm.
Construction Oversight at 3:30 pm.
Public Services at 4:00 pm.

Unfortunately, at this time commission does not publish the agendas for regular monthly meetings or for regular committee meetings in the newspaper. As a result, most citizens don't know what will be discussed, recommended, or voted on.

That means that often people find out about government discussions and important actions after they have already taken place.

Of course, even if citizens are aware of the committee agenda and have a concern or issue that they would like to speak about, many people will find it hard to attend committee meetings that start in the early afternoon at 3:00 and many people will find it just about impossible to attend special committee meetings that are scheduled at noon.

[Regular commission meetings begin at 5:00 pm on the Thursday after the 3rd Monday of each month. The regular December meeting of the Hamblen County Commission will be on December 22 at 5:00 pm.]

I know that committee meetings can't be set at a time that is convenient for all people. Commission can, however, set committee meetings, as it has done with its regular meeting, at a time that is convenient for most of the citizens.

It is my opinion that 12:00 noon meetings have a chilling effect on the ability of the public to participate in important decisions.

Having a meeting at noon with no newspaper publication of the committee agenda, you have a situation where (1) citizens often don't know what is going to be discussed or recommended; and (2) citizens who do know what is going to be discussed have difficulty coming to the meeting because it has been scheduled for noon on a workday for many people.

To address at least one of these problems, I have asked that we consider at today's Public Services meeting publication of all committee and commission agendas in the newspaper. I am hopeful that this proposal will be positively received.

Publishing the agendas won't solve the scheduling of certain committee meetings at noon or in the early afternoon---but it will at least let the public know what is being discussed at all meetings (special called noon meetings, at regular committee meetings, and at regular monthly meetings of the commission).

Frankly, I would like to see us totally eliminate noon meetings because they tend to exclude the working person, and I have expressed my position on this publicly several times.

I do not, however, expect that certain committee chairmen will voluntarily eliminate noon meetings, and I do not think that there are the necessary eight votes to pass a policy that would eliminate noon meetings.

Many commissioners are retired, self-employed, or have high-paying executive positions that allow them to leave work at any time so they themselves are not inconvenienced or unable to attend noon meetings.

It's largely a matter of political philosophy. My philosophy is that you set all your meetings--unless there is some emergency called meeting-- for a time that is best for most citizens. The citizens are then able to choose whether to attend the meeting.

If you keep scheduling meetings for noon, you've effectively taken away a citizen's ability to choose to attend that meeting because a noon meeting time just about makes it impossible for most working people to attend.

It's not a matter of whether citizens actually attend any particular committee meeting or not. It's about setting a meeting time that provides citizens the best opportunity to attend.