Good evening Mayor, Council, and Staff,
Because of the limited time for public comments, you are missing opportunities to get to know and hear from those you represent. Please increase time for public comments or offer a monthly community engagement meeting where you hear from and speak with constituents, beginning in March.
Before any more funding decisions are made or implemented, I would like for council to host the special called meeting you previously proposed to discuss the ARPA funds during which constituents are able to hear directly from Berry Dunn representatives, including a question and answer session for residents and stakeholders.
How many members of council are providing meeting summaries to constituents with updates on city business, votes, etc?
Concerning the ethics ordinance, how many members of council have hosted a public dialogue to review and get feedback from constituents on the proposed changes? Has council requested technical support from the GMA with the proposed changes? I am asking the council NOT VOTE tonight on the proposed changes before doing both of these.
The council continues to violate the charter in not appointing members to the name-only Charter Review Committee. DeKalb Commissioners Cochran-Johnson and Ted Terry last week hosted a Charter Review Town Hall to help county constituents understand DeKalb’s Organizational Act. It is discouraging that Stonecrest, which was created to improve constituent services, is failing to honor its charter (and residents) in this way.
Concerning the “new Development Authority,before you proceed, I am asking that you publicly discuss how this impacts the dealings of the previous Development Authority, including the land transactions and tax abatements that it approved.
The Boards & Committees page on the city’s website has encouraged citizens to “check back on a regular basis” concerning updates to this page. Currently, the link to the pages for boards and committees listed has inconsistent data available. Many are missing agendas, summaries, or minutes, which makes it very difficult for constituents to understand the who, what, when, where and how of these committees. Does the city have an updated website map and guidelines so that the communications department understands the expectations for supporting the council’s efforts towards transparency? I hope you will provide the deadline by which the update for boards and committees will be complete at the March 13th City Council Work Session.