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Televising M&C Work
Sessions Appeals to
Some Commissioners
For 10 years now, Athens-Clarke County
commissioners' twice-monthly meetings at
City Hall have been broadcast live on local
cable Channel 7 (they are also streamed on
the Internet, and can be viewed later both on
television and online). And people do watch
them.
"Very much so," Commissioner Harry Sims
told Flagpole. '"I watch you all religiously,'"
people have told him. "I tease them some
times," he said—"you guys really don't have a
life if we are what you are really entertained
by."
The programs are produced on the fly in a
small City Hall control room, with remotely-
controlled cameras mounted unobtrusively in
the commission chamber (equipment was sup
plied free by Charter Communications). ACC's
public information office (which televises
the meetings) estimates the county's costs
at $500 per meeting.
County school board
meetings are also view
able live (on Channel
16) or later on the
Internet.
But one regular
meeting that's not tele
vised is the monthly
Commission work session
(at which county staff
ers give presentations
on upcoming issues, and
commissioners discuss them). Items like the
Classic Center expansion, electoral reappor
tionment and the proposed "Blue Heron" dis
trict for downtown were vetted in some detail
at work sessions before being discussed at the
televised meetings; when commissioners meet
with state legislators in November, it will be
at a work session.
Why shouldn't work sessions be televised?
"Cameras are intimidating," Mayor Nancy
Denson told Flagpole, and commissioners may
need the "comfort level" of informal discus
sions without their glare (work sessions are
open to the public and are sometimes well-
attended).
"I really don't have a problem with it,"
Commissioner Doug Lowry told Flagpole. Sims
is in favor of televising work sessions, as
well—"as long as [commissioners] do it for
the right reasons," he said, not just to "have
another shot at showing how proficient they
are in terms of talking and really not getting
something done."
Commissioner Kathy Hoard thinks it's "a
great idea"—one worth discussing at an
upcoming commission retreat.
John Huie
Commissioners Hesitant
to Limit Licenses for
Downtown Alcohol Sales
Despite concerns that downtown bars are
driving out daytime retailers, safety concerns
alone won't justify limiting the numbers of
bars, ACC Police Chief Jack Lumpkin told
county commissioners on the Legislative
Review Committee last week. "Our calls are
down," he said. "You
could not, in the last
three or four years, jus
tify a public purpose [in
limiting bar licenses]
with our statistics.
"Some of that may be
associated with the way
we've played football the
last three or four years,"
he added. "We need
another Herschel." The
standing committee of
five commissioners is reviewing local alcohol
ordinances; it has already decided to recom
mend dropping the distance requirements that
prevent package stores or grocery stores from
selling alcohol near churches, schools or other
package stores.
The committee's interest in limiting bar
licenses—basically "on-premises" liquor con
sumption licenses, which could affect some
restaurants, too—grows out of a persistent
concern that proliferating bars are driving out
daytime retail stores from downtown. "Large
spaces of downtown are basically abandoned
during the day," said Commissioner Andy
Herod.
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"With rents so high, you're going to go
for a higher-margin business," Commissioner
Alice Kinman speculated. "You see a lot of
abandoned storefronts that light up at night.
There's a wish that downtown Athens had
more of a day-and-night mix." But, Kinman
added, "we don't want to create these arti
ficial barriers to entry [for new businesses]
unless there's some
really good reasons."
Instead of try
ing to be like Austin,
TX or Princeton, NJ,
"why can't we just be
Athens?" Commissioner
George Maxwell wanted
to know. Lacking data,
committee members
asked county staffers
to check whether bars pay higher rents than
retail—and how fast their numbers have been
growing—for discussion at the committee's
next meeting on Oct. 18.
The growth of bars has not been a con
cern of the Athens Downtown Development
Authority, ADDA Director Kathryn Lookofsky
told Flagpole. "The board hasn't discussed it."
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Nonetheless, "I know we'd all like to see more
thriving retail downtown," she said. "We do
seem to be losing retail downtown, and what's
opening in its place seems to be bars and
restaurants."
But Athens' bars "are major draws to down
town" she added; a common complaint of
convention visitors is not that there are too
many bars, but that
retail stores are closed
at night. "They see
all these great stores
downtown, and the
doors are locked."
And a lot of people
who would like a quiet
meal downtown don't
realize, Lookofsky
points out, that the
crush of the bar crowd doesn't begin until 11
p.m. or later. "There's not this big party scene;
that doesn't happen until late night." Neither
is crime the problem that some perceive it to
be. "It's really a pleasant envi.onment," she
said.
John Huie
“Cameras are intimidating,”
Mayor Nancy Denson said,
and commissioners may
need the “comfort level”
of informal discussions
without their glare.
“You see a lot of abandoned
storefronts that light up at
night. There’s a wish that
downtown Athens had more
of a day-and-night mix ”
Republic
salon
312 E. BROAD ST. • 3RD FLOOR • 706.200.5222 • FRIGIDAIRE BUILDING • ENTRANCE ON JACKSON ST. • WWW.REPUBLICSALON.COM
SEPTEMBER 28, 2011- FLAGPOLE.COM 5
