Citizens will soon have an extra opportunity to share their community concerns with the Board of County Commissioners. The BOCC is planning to begin holding Town Hall Listening Sessions. The first one is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 8 at 6 p.m.
“It’s important to allow our citizens to have a voice where we hear them and granted maybe a collective voice,” BOCC chairperson Elizabeth Narverud said during a Sept. 24 meeting. “Try it. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Then you just turn around and say, ‘OK, well, we’ve done it.’ And then the next time they come up and say, ‘We want Town Hall meetings,’ and you say, ‘Well nobody showed up, we were here,’ then you’re justified in not having them.”
These sessions could cover topics such as growth management, economic development, roadways, waterways, environmental concerns, and investing in housing and communities. There will likely be a limit of one topic per session to allow for the proper experts to be on hand to make a presentation and answer questions.
Also, a time limit for each speaker will be determined by the chairperson based on the number of speakers signed up at a given session.
One topic the BOCC would like to discuss is the one-cent sales surtax referendum that will appear on the ballot for the Nov. 5 general election. The tax is meant to help pay for law enforcement, public safety and transportation improvements.
“I do think it’s really important if you want this sales tax to pass that you have a Town Hall meeting and you get good information out there,” Narverud said. “Because you still have people running around saying that we don’t need this, it’s just more, it’s just more.
“This board had vowed that we would try to lower taxes even more by shifting to a consumption tax versus taxing all the homeowners out of their homes. So I think it’s important that we carry through and we try to finish one of things we said we wanted to start.”
Commissioner John Allocco questioned whether the Board could address this issue at the session without coming across as promoting it.
“I think the way you do that is when you’re there, you’re giving the facts as to here’s the roadway improvements we want to do and this is why we want to do it,” Narverud said. “We hear you, you’re saying these roads are congested. This is our priority list. If we don’t have the sales tax, we don’t have the funding for these things and it’s going to continue to go the way it’s going.”
Allocco felt that most people have already heard that explanation and made up their minds.
“Then you can let social media take hold of what happens in the future of this county if you don’t have conversations,” Narverud said.
“We did ask for this. We’re the one who put it on as a referendum,” Commissioner Steve Champion said. “So we should be able to explain ourselves and why we decided to put it on there. And why we need it and where does the tax revenue come from? That’s the important thing. Where does the revenue come from for these roads and how do we increase that revenue, because there’s only so much gas tax.”
The first Town Hall Listening Session will take place after the scheduled BOCC meeting that same day.
“I think it’s important to hear from the commissioners as to why we’re asking for this cent,” Narverud said. “I think everybody here on this board understands the importance of that passing in order to try to keep the property taxes lower. I think that would give us an opportunity, No. 1 to say, ‘Hey, yes we are listening to the fact that you guys want to have feedback,’ and No. 2 that you have that feedback.”
