A whopping 170 Snellville residents showed up at the meeting, which apparently was meant to be a presentation to a captive audience rather than allow citizens to have a voice.
Read it yourself and come to your own conclusion. My opinion is that every citizen should be allowed to speak. The engineers and everyone who has the chance for monetary gain got all the time they wanted!
At this point, who cares about the money...the bigger issue is, why does Snellville City government seem to have this "my way or the highway" approach to everything?
It's like they had already decided what they wanted to do, and just had the 'meeting' because they had to, not because they wanted to hear what citizens had to say about things. You 170 who showed up were a fly in the ointment.
Excerpt from Atlanta Journal Constitution article,
'Snellville residents fear new city fee after tax hike'
After several residents spoke, Oberholtzer tried to close the public hearing even though a woman had stood up to address the council.
"We've been at this for more than two hours," the mayor said.
The majority of that time was spent on a consulting firm's presentation and council members discussions — not on public comments.
In response to the mayor, several residents scoffed and Snellville newcomer Steve Grindle shouted from the back of the room: "It's our tax money."
The mayor conceded, allowing the woman to ask questions.
Darla,
ReplyDeleteCouldn't make the meeting, but just read the AJC account...I love Auld's comment there at the end...what a politician!
I really don't think the AJC does unbiased reporting. To read all their accounts, Mayor Oberholtzer seems 100% evil and Warren Auld is a savior. Neither extreme can be accurate, you know? It just makes for a better story for the AJC.
ReplyDelete