Honorable Mayor Mueller and Council Members:
Over the years, City Council members have been able to call in when traveling out of town. It's not a perfect system, but it seems
to work well.
In that spirit, would you consider the same priviledge to members of the public? To encourage public participation and civic
engagements this service may help those that want to participate, that studies and keeps up on the agenda items and has opinions
to share, but are otherwise unable to attend for a variety of reasons, such as
1) Being out of town themselves,
2) Elderly, perhaps without a car,
3) Not able to drive at night, and
4) An ongoing need to be home with small children, etc.
This could be considered in a number of ways, such as
1) A set time during each meeting, similar to the Public Comment period,
2) For each agenda item, or
3) A similar way of your choosing.
Frankly, it only seems fair that if you are able to participate by a call-in telephone system, so should members of the public. To
have to jump in the car, fight traffic and parking, only to speak for three minutes (or lately for only two minutes), prompts one
to think whether there may be a better way.
Please think it over and perhaps at some point, discuss amongst yourselves whether this proposal is worth making a reality.
Respectfully,
Jim Lewis
