Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 16, 1990 TAG: 9007160281
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER MUNICIPAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Harvey, who returned to council July 1 after a two-year absence, called for a resumption of the neighborhood meetings during his campaign last spring.
Harvey, who originally proposed the sessions when they were started nearly a decade ago, said council has lost touch with city residents in the past two years.
"During the past two years, I have seen our council gradually move away from the trust and mutual understanding we developed with our citizens during the '80s," he said.
"Four times a year, council used to come off its perch and go out into the neighborhoods to hold night meetings where the average citizen could come before us, without missing work, to express his or her concerns," Harvey said. "We need to re-establish this practice."
But Councilwoman Elizabeth Bowles thinks the meetings are too sparsely attended to justify their cost. She said she hasn't heard city residents clamoring for them.
Bowles wants council to get residents' views before it resumes the sessions that were started in the early 1980s, but discontinued two years year ago when Harvey left council.
"I'd like to see some figures on the cost," she said.
Council hired an electronics sound company to set up microphones and a sound system when the meetings were held in school gymnasiums. The city clerk and other administrative officials attend the meetings.
"I think we need some input from our citizens," Bowles said, citing low attendance at the meetings.
She said some neighborhood groups used to complain to her that they had to recruit people to attend the meetings because they didn't want their neighborhood to "look bad because nobody showed up for council."
But Harvey said he has gotten a different impression when he has talked with city residents about the meetings.
"I must have been talking to different people," he told Bowles. "The people I talk to like them because it is convenient and they don't have to miss work."
Council has asked City Manager Robert Herbert for a report on possible dates and locations for meetings. Bowles also asked the city manager to provide information on the costs.
Under the format that was used when the neighborhood meetings were held, council met once in each quadrant of the city during the fall and winter months. The night meetings replaced the regular sessions at the Municipal Building in the weeks they were held.
by CNB