Town Hall meeting schedule:
April 2: Lawrenceville. Historic Courthouse, 185 West Crogan St.
April 30: Suwanee. George Pierce Park Community Center, 55 Buford Highway
May 1: Loganville. Grayson High School, 50 Hope Hollow Rd.
May 9: To be determined
All meetings scheduled to start at 6:15 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m.
Gwinnett County commissioners are launching a listening tour next week.
The commissioners will hold a series of four town hall meetings , during which they will answer questions and listen to residents’ concerns.
The meetings were promised by Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash earlier this year, as a way for the county government to be more open since several corruption scandals have plagued the board over the past several years.
“This is one of the things we made a commitment to, in terms of accessibility to the public and giving (them) a forum,” Nash said.
The first meeting is April 2 in Lawrenceville’s historic courthouse. There will be another in April and two in May.
Each meeting will start with an “open house,” during which county department heads and staff will be available to respond to residents’ individual problems or concerns. That will be followed by a 90-minute question-and-answer session with the five commissioners.
The commission chairman is elected at large, by all county residents.
Brenda Lee, who founded the Gwinnett Neighborhood Alliance Group, said the meetings are a good idea because they will allow residents to talk to commissioners in a less formal environment than the public-comment periods during regular commission meetings. Commission meetings are sparsely attended, and there are typically few, if any, comments during the time given for them at the end of the sessions.
“I think it’s extremely effective for them to be out” in the community, Lee said of commissioners. “This is a very good opportunity for people. It will be educational.”
The last meeting in the series will be May 9, at a location to be determined.
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