Mayor Fleisch and City Manager Pennington: Your decision not to change the venue for the April 16th City Council meeting is troublesome, and promulgates an adversarial relationship between you and the people you are paid to serve.
More importantly, it approaches a blatant infringement on the rights of the citizens to participate in local governmental issues. Why would you want to do that?
As you would agree, citizens are afforded the right to attend, listen, and make public comments on issues that come before the council. That involvement is a founding principle of how our government works. This public interaction is perhaps the best manifestation of the principle of checks and balances between elected officials and the citizens who voted for them and pay their salaries.
If it is known in advance that the number of citizens who want to exercise that right on a particular issue exceeds the capacity of the venue, it is your obligation to provide one that will accommodate. In my humble opinion, it would be a travesty if even one citizen who wants to participate is excluded.
To date there have been two meetings regarding the Great Wolf Lodge: The Planning Commission meeting of February 9th and the City Council meeting of March 19th. In both instances there were people in the foyer who could not get into the meeting area. Countless others never made it that far due to lack of parking and the obvious overflow crowd evidenced at the door.
The interest in this issue isn’t waning; in fact, the passion is growing exponentially every day. A conservative number of people who will want to attend the next council meeting approaches 500. Putting an extra 25 chairs or so in the council meeting room isn’t a solution. Making folks sit in the foyer area to watch it streaming is an insult.
McIntosh High School (as one example) has the capacity to hold this meeting. They have technological capabilities that exceed anything council has. Yes, it would take some work and planning but I am sure students who are learning about this technology would be grateful for the opportunity to practice their skills in setting up the audio-visual equipment necessary. I for one would gladly volunteer my time and promise to gather at least a half dozen others who would be willing to come in the weekend before and help with “the heavy lifting.”
And let’s be honest here, after the March 19th debacle (e.g., “Council to 100+ Citizens: Shut up and Go Home”), it would be a step in the right direction to show that you do respect the citizens’ opinions on this matter and their right to be heard.
This isn’t an “I win, you lose” proposition. I will be the first one to publicly applaud you for stepping outside the box and listening to the cries of the citizens. Come on guys, do the right thing.
Mike LaTella
Peachtree City, Ga.
