April 27, 2008 A Request for More Openness and Taxpayer-Friendly Meeting Times

In an earlier post, I discussed the April 24 Hamblen County Commission Meeting.

I did not mention in the earlier post two suggestions that I made to the commission during the public comments portion of the meeting. In my remarks, I asked the Commissioners to consider (1) making budget data and documents for the upcoming budget process available online and (2) setting committee meetings at more "taxpayer-friendly" times.

The following is what I submitted for consideration:

1. I asked the commissioners to have budget data and documents for the upcoming 08-09 budget placed on the county's website. http://www.hamblencountygovernment.us/

The county has the capability to do this. The County Clerk has commission minutes on the county's website, and the Purchasing Department has bids and RFP's (Requests for Proposals) on the county's website. The technology is there.

With the county budget process for the 08-09 fiscal year (July 1, 2008-June 20, 2009) beginning in early May, this is the time to put the entire budget out there for the taxpayers. For those who come to budget meetings as well as for those who can not attend budget meetings, the budget documents should be accessible online.

This is an easy way to let interested citizens--who may or may not be able to attend all the budget meetings in person--see the details of where the money is coming from and where it is going.

2. Next, I asked that the commission move its committee meetings to the late afternoon. Committee meetings currently begin at 11:30 A.M. on the second Monday of each month. The purpose of moving the meetings to a much later time would be to set these meetings at a time that provides the greatest opportunity for interested citizens and taxpayers to attend.

Committee meetings are where the real discussion, if there is any, takes place. Committee meetings are a little more open to informal discussion and even letting a citizen speak up if he or she has an idea. Commission meetings are dominated by button-pushing.

The current commission which took office in September 2006 moved the starting time for committee meetings to 11:30 A.M.

When I inquired about this change, Commission Chair Stancil Ford told me that the committee times were moved to allow people to attend on their "lunch hour." I told Mr. Ford then, and I repeated on Thursday, that I don't think 11:30 A.M. meetings are for the convenience of working taxpayers or average citizens. Let's be honest. Mid-day meeting times exclude the average working citizen/taxpayer.

First of all, there really aren't that many working taxpayers who have a "lunch hour." And even if a taxpayer had a job with a "lunch hour," an 11:30 A.M. meeting would probably require at least 15 minutes travel to the Courthouse and 15 minutes back to work--and those times assume that the citizen/taxpayer works fairly close to the Courthouse.

Second, since the taxpayer would probably also want to use some of his "lunch hour" to eat lunch, he wouldn't have much time left for the committee meetings anyway.

Finally, surely commissioners realize that one's lunch break--no matter how long--would seldom coincide with the committee meeting times. In fact, only one committee has a "set" meeting time. That is the Finance Committee which begins at 11:30 A.M.

If you want to attend the Public Services Committee meeting, you still have to get there around 11:30 A.M. because Public Services has no set meeting time--it simply starts whenever the Finance Committee adjourns --and that could be 11:40 A.M. or 12:30 P.M.

In the spirit of serving the public, I hope that the commission will discuss moving committee meetings to the late afternoon hours that are convenient for most working taxpayers.

The previous commission had a policy of referring public comments issues to a committee for consideration and then either taking action or issuing a report of some kind. No commissioner said a word about either suggestion, so I don't know if these proposals will be discussed in May committee meetings during the working taxpayers' "lunch hour" or not.