Fannin County Board of Commissioners meetings will now be held later and feature multiple changes to the public commentary portion to allow for more input from Fannin County citizens.
Rather than 5:15 p.m., the meetings will now begin at 6 p.m. to allow the “working people of Fannin County” an opportunity to attend meetings after they get off work.
“We all listen, we try to anyway, and that has been one of the main things is nobody is able to attend and have the input or anything they might want to say,” Chairman Jamie Hensley, who began his term at the start of the year, said as he suggested the change during the board’s regular meeting Tuesday, January 12. “I want everybody to understand that I work for the county. I work for the citizens of Fannin County, and I never want to forget that and if that steps on any body’s toes then unfortunately we’re just going to have to mash them. I want to give every opportunity that we possibly can because I feel the taxpayers deserve that opportunity.”
Prior to the New Business portion of the meeting, during the Public Commentary portion of the meeting, Fannin resident Dixie Carter also asked the commissioners to review the start time of the meeting as it could prevent those who get off later in the day from attending meetings and making their voices heard.
As the board discussed the time change, Post One Commissioner Earl Johnson recommended starting meetings no earlier than 6 p.m. He explained that the start time of the meeting had changed multiple times in the eight years he’s been in office.
Most recently, the time was changed to 5:15 p.m. to “make it more convenient for the people who work in the courthouse.”
Johnson said, “I went over this my first year here when it was changed to 5:15 p.m. You can’t get a good pulse from the citizens if they can’t get here. If they’re still working, it’s very hard for them to be involved.”
While he said he did not object to moving it for more citizen input, Post Two Commissioner Glenn Patterson asked if the later start time would cost the county financially as they often require county employees to attend the meetings.
Johnson said it would be a minimal cost for public input, “The way I’ve always looked at it is, if I work for the county and that’s my job, I believe I could bare an hour of going to the meeting and it just be part of my job duty.”
Hensley said he could give any needed employee ample time to prepare to be at the meeting, and said, “It may cost us a little bit more. I do feel that the input we may receive from that may outweigh the costs in the long run.”
Patterson also explained that citizens may not attend the meetings after dark, and asked if the board could change the time on a trial basis to see if more citizens actually took the opportunity to come to the meetings.
“I can speak from experience, if you move it to 6 p.m., if what you’re wanting is more participation, you’re going to have it,” Johnson said.
Hensley agreed to review the time change in April.
He also opened the meeting’s public commentary portion up for discussion, suggesting that it be moved to the end of the meeting and allow more time for each citizen to speak.
Patterson felt emotions may be too high at the end of the meeting.
“I have mixed emotions on it,” Patterson said. “We deal with a lot of things up here. Some things can be very controversial. Some things can get people upset from the audience, and there may be five or six that want to jump on it. Say we had to do it in the middle of the meeting, okay, and they’re real hyped up because its something they disliked or whatever, most of the time dislike, they come up with emotions and instead of thinking about it. I think the way we do it now, we don’t feed the fire, and they come up there thinking about what they want to say.”
Johnson told the board that he preferred public commentary at the end because it allowed people to express their thoughts at the meeting and not “stew on it” for two weeks.
“It just depends on the board and where you want to go from here,” Johnson said. “We know in the past where the dissension came from, so it’s up to y’all to decide what you want to do about it. I mean most citizens feel like they should be able to say something to their elected officials. You’re going to get it here or right out there (hallway after the meeting), so you can take your pick. Do you want to hear it in here where its usually more reserved or civil? Or, you go out there and you can hear something that might really hurt your feelings.
“After people see kind of what’s happened, if they have an opportunity to speak, they usually get it off their chest. Whether they heard what they wanted after that or not, they leave here feeling a little bit better.”
The board voted, with the exception of Johnson who has chosen to abstain from all votes that do not require a tiebreaker, to move public commentary to the end of the meeting and allow speakers five minutes rather than the three previously allotted. The portion will still have a limit of 30 minutes total, however, the board can choose to extend that time if necessary.