Open Government
Forsyth BoC Public Hearing Address by Richard Ward
Editors’ note: While Mr Ward’s request for a town hall meeting on SPLOST VII was 100% on target, the BoC did not make the Splost agreement with the city readily available to the voters before the meeting. Immediately after the town hall meeting, the BOC chose to vote on the agreement without any discussion or consideration of several good voter suggestions.
Forsyth County Admin. Building
Forsyth BoC Public Hearing
Address by Richard Ward
Member Forsyth GOP Executive Committee
June 16, 2011
Mister Chairman, Commissioners,
My name is Richard Ward, as you all know I am a hard working, and very involved Republican. I believe that I share with each of you a deep appreciation for this great County that we live in.
I have no special involvement in the topic I will speak to now, other than as a citizen with a desire to make our county even better.
The detailed information regarding the proposed sales tax split and the water contract will be available to the public, but most citizens are so busy with their day to day issues that they do not have time to research this data. That is why I am proposing the following process that will make this important information easily available for everyone to review.
When the negotiations are at the point where the data is ready to present to the full Commission, I request that the details of the split and the water contract be submitted to the public for review for a period of at least two weeks. I am sure that the Forsyth County News would include this information in at least one edition. CummingHome.Com has committed to add this data to their online news.
I believe that giving our citizens the opportunity to review this information in the news media will add a level of citizen awareness that we have not experienced in the past.
At the end of the two week period I request that the Commissioners have an open meeting to receive input from the citizens of both the City of Cumming, and the Citizens of Forsyth County.
After taking this input under advisement, then the Commissioners would vote on the SPLOST and LOST split and the water contract between the City and the County.
I believe this is a reasonable request, and I would appreciate your pledge tonight to allow adequate time for input from the citizens that elected you all, before you vote on this important issue.
Additional supporters of this request include:
The Forsyth County Tea Party
Forsyth Citizens for Responsible Growth