Metro Atlantans may want to pay close attention to their phones this week. They could be getting a call that might affect $8 billion in tax money.
Starting this week, the Atlanta Regional Commission will hold a series of "telephone town halls" that will reach out to more than 1 million residents for feedback on proposed projects aimed at bringing traffic relief. The ARC's effort -- the largest public outreach in the region's history -- is just one of the methods that will gauge opinions ahead of the vote.
Opinions gathered from the hourlong town halls will be taken into account when the Atlanta Regional Roundtable, a group of regional officials, chooses a final list of transportation projects for the referendum set for July 31, 2012. Metro Atlantans will then be called on to decide whether they want the projects -- and the 1 percent sales tax to pay for them.
Suggested projects range from grander undertakings such as highway projects and extending mass transit through more of the 10-county region down to the smaller details -- more bike lanes and sidewalk makeovers.
This is the first time the ARC has independently used this telephone method to reach out to residents. Kathryn Lawler, external affairs manager at the ARC, said it was chosen because it allowed for the organization to directly contact a large amount of people in a short period of time. The ARC had worked with the AARP on a previous telephone town hall with much success, she said.
Registered voters in metro Atlanta will be called at random to participate. Only households with land line phones will be eligible to receive the calls, which will be made at different days and times organized by county.
On one end of each conference call, regional representatives from each county will speak about the proposed transportation projects. On the other end, those who accept the call will get a chance to listen in, ask questions and voice concerns.
When a team of Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters interviewed dozens of people in all 10 counties for a transportation series that ran in May, the reporters found that many people had only a sketchy understanding of the referendum.
Retail worker Latasha Thorton, 29, who commutes frequently from Decatur to Alpharetta, hasn't heard of the specific projects. She said other methods of spreading the word would better serve a younger generation of tech-savvy voters.
“It’s way too old-fashioned," she said. "People have cellphones. People have email. People have iPads. Most of us don't really have land line phones anymore."
But Lawler said this is just one of many ways the organization has attempted to gather public opinion.
"We're trying to meet people where they are," she said. "Being at home, in your comfortable shoes watching TV and getting a phone call will work for some people. It'll work for some to come to a community meeting, it'll work for other folks to fill out an online survey at three in the morning and we want to make sure everybody has those opportunities."
In the recent past, the ARC has held a number of focus groups, conducted online polls and held monthly open meetings at its headquarters. Regular ARC public meetings face a history of low attendance. Generally, 20 to 25 people show up to each one, Lawler said. The ARC's most recent online poll on the projects was more successful, with 10,000 people participating in a three-week time frame.
Residents can call in to the conference via cellphones by using a toll-free number and entering a code for their area at any time during their county's session. The ARC posts those codes and other information about meetings at www.atlantaregionalroundtable.com/meetings.html.
Pollsters paid for by business and civic groups also will gauge the popularity of individual projects, and feed that information to the Atlanta Regional Roundtable.
“I’m anxious to see some good polling data,” Charlotte Nash, chairwoman of the Gwinnett County Commission, said at a meeting last month. She and other members of the roundtable agreed that they would rely on the polling data to help make their decisions, in the hopes it will provide a scientific and accurate reflection of the community’s desires.
Norcross Mayor Bucky Johnson, who chairs the roundtable, said he realizes the downsides of the telephone town halls, but sees advantages as well.
“It’s a convenient way for people to give us their input,” he said. “This is a way that we can use technology in a very productive way. To be able to reach out to that many people in that amount of time is fantastic."
Telephone town halls
June 13 -- Henry County, 6 p.m.; Douglas County, 7:15 p.m.
June 14 -- Cherokee County, 6 p.m.; Cobb County, 7:15 p.m.
June 15 -- DeKalb County, 6 p.m.
June 20 -- Fayette County, 6 p.m.; Gwinnett County, 7:15 p.m.
June 21 -- Rockdale County, 6 p.m.
June 22 -- Fulton County, 6 p.m.; Clayton County, 7:15 p.m.
Number to join town hall: 1-888-886-6603
Where to find your county's code if you want to join the call: www.atlantaregionalroundtable.com/meetings.html
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