Friday, July 1, 2005

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Thompson wants town hall meetings

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Peachtree City mayoral candidate Dar Thompson wants to make city government more citizen-oriented by holding a town hall meeting every 30-45 days in various parts of the city so citizens can share their ideas and issues with him.

“I want to hear how people feel about the city and what happening in their environment and their neighborhood,” said Thompson, who wants to make it a relaxed forum. Admitting he won’t know the answers to all the questions he’ll get, he plans to respond to the questions at a later time. The main focus during the town hall meetings, he said, “is listening.”

“You can’t learn anything if you don’t listen,” Thompson said. “They’ll come up with ideas I never thought about.”

He also wants to lower the dais in council chambers to get council on an eye level with the citizens who address it.

“When you go into that type of environment, it’s very intimidating,” Thompson said of City Council meetings. “As mayor you’re not better than anyone else.”

Thompson also pledged to bring a more civil tone to office and refrain from battling over the issues in various letters to the editor. If he’s elected and fails to keep that promise, he will work for free, he added.

Thompson argues that all the negativity in the letters and other forums discourages people and businesses from wanting to come to Peachtree City. Plus, all the distractions, which he said are strictly “political,” provide a lack of focus for the city, he added.

“There’s too much time spent on blaming somebody else for problems,” Thompson said, adding that he’d prefer to spend that time constructively working on solutions instead.