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Wednesday, August 1,2018
dawsonnews.com I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I 3A
City council discusses public comment policy
"If approved, it will provide the residents of Dawsonville
an opportunity to be heard. Speaking on behalf of myself
as a public servant, I see it as my duty to ensure that the
residents of Dawsonville have a city government that not
only values but welcomes their input."
Mark French
Dawsonville city council
By Allie Dean
adean@dawsonnews.com
Dawsonville city coun
cil member Mark French
and Mayor Mike Eason
are spearheading an effort
to create a dedicated time
during meetings for citi
zens to address the coun
cil and other city boards
and authorities.
Currently citizens are
not provided the opportu
nity to speak in front of
the council during meet
ings except for during
public hearings in which
anyone can speak on the
specific agenda item
being addressed.
French said he drew
from other city and coun
ty public comment poli
cies, resources from the
Carl Vinson Institute of
Government at the
University of Georgia and
his own personal experi
ence of more than 20
years in local government
to draft his proposed poli
cy.
“If approved, it will
provide the residents of
Dawsonville an opportu
nity to be heard,” he said.
“Speaking on behalf of
myself as a public ser
vant, I see it as my duty to
ensure that the residents
of Dawsonville have a
city government that not
only values but welcomes
their input.”
The policy is similar to
one already in place by
the Dawson County
Board of Commissioners,
which allows public com
ment at two designated
times during voting ses
sions.
His proposal outlines
that 20 minutes would be
reserved during the coun
cil’s regular meetings
prior to the council taking
action upon items.
Comments at that time
must be specific to the
agenda, and citizens may
not speak longer than five
minutes unless permitted
additional time to speak
by the mayor.
Twenty minutes would
also be reserved prior to
adjournment of any meet
ing of the council for pub
lic comment. Comments
would not have to be spe
cific to the agenda.
French’s proposal
would also extend the
same rules to other boards
in the city including the
Historic Preservation
Commission, the planning
commission and
Downtown Development
Authority.
Mayor Mike Eason also
drafted his own proce
dures which were added
to the agenda at the start
of the July 23 meeting.
Under his proposal,
public comment would
take place during work
sessions as opposed to at
regular meetings and citi
zens wishing to speak
during public comment
would have to complete a
public comment request
form and submit it to the
city clerk no later than
two business days prior to
each work session.
If a citizen misses the
deadline they can petition
any council member to be
allowed to speak at a
meeting, and then must be
approved by vote of the
council.
Thirty minutes would
be allotted for the public
to speak at the end of the
work session agenda with
five minutes for each
speaker. The proposal
does not address other
meetings within the city.
“It can’t be involving
our personnel or staff or
anything that has to do
with pending litigation
but we do need to hear
from the public in an
open forum and I’m very
supportive of doing that,”
Eason said.
French took issue with
citizens needing to sign
up so far in advance in
order to speak at the
meetings, and stated that
agendas are frequently
amended once meetings
have been called to order,
giving citizens no time to
respond.
He stated that limiting
public comment to work
sessions would deny citi
zens the time to research
items before speaking.
Eason said he did not
want to impose public
comment on the
Historical Preservation
Commission, the planning
commission or the
Downtown Development
Authority, as proposed in
French’s policy.
“They are all groups of
professional people with
smart folks on those com
missions and authorities
and if they want public
comment they can put
that in but I don’t feel that
we should mandate they
have all this public com
ment without them having
input into it, I don’t want
to force that on people
that have volunteered
their time to help serve
the city,” he said.
The city is also wran
gling how to deal with
congested roadways in
city subdivisions, which
are often too crowded by
cars parking in the road.
Public Works
Operations Manager
Trampas Hansard brought
up his concerns about on
street parking within sub
divisions during the coun
cil’s June 4 meeting, and
stated that emergency ser
vices and law enforce
ment were having a hard
time navigating the streets
due to cars parked on
both sides of the road
ways.
He presented several
recommendations that he
wished the council to con
sider imposing on all sub
divisions in the city,
including no overnight
parking, only parking on
one side of the street,
parking permitted for a
maximum of five hours
and no parking within
150 from an intersection,
among others.
The council voted to
have City Attorney Dana
Miles draw up an ordi
nance addressing the con
cerns. The ordinance
would not apply to private
streets.
On July 23 the council
discussed the issue again,
with particular emphasis
on the street widths with
in city subdivisions. Most
are around 24 feet wide,
with a few that are wider.
With two feet subtracted
on each side for the curb,
that leaves only 20 feet
for cars to park and other
cars to navigate around
them.
Hansard said that the
average width of a car is
five feet, and if cars are
parked on both sides of
the street, that leaves only
ten feet for neighborhood
residents and emergency
services vehicles to travel.
Of the 12 subdivisions
in the city, nine have
homeowners associations
while three do not.
“Most of the HOAs
have mechanisms for
dealing with this, but the
problem is several don’t
have HOAs and we have
to deal with those individ
ually,” Eason said.
The ordinance drafted
by Miles outlines fines
that can be issued to those
who violate the parking
rules.
Eason said the city
needs to be careful about
how it develops streets in
the future.
“Twenty-four foot
streets aren’t practical,”
he said. “Some of the
concerns not just public
safety are people negoti
ating around curves, peo
ple backing out of their
driveway but can’t get out
of their driveway because
someone is parked across
from them, it causes a lot
of discomfort. Some of
these subdivisions don’t
have a lot of parking and
they don’t use their garag
es.”
Eason also referenced a
4th of July fire that
occurred in the Burt’s
Crossing subdivision,
destroying three homes
and damaging many oth
ers at the front of the sub
division
“If those fires had been
at the back of that subdi
vision, it would have been
very difficult for the fire
trucks to get back there,”
Eason said.
The council has yet to
schedule public hearings
for the proposed ordi
nance.
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