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Save Fayette; make government openTue, 09/02/2008 - 3:28pm
By: Letters to the ...
I read with interest the letter from T. Morris of Peachtree City concerning the use of fees to block access to county public records. Is this an example of our elected representatives’ concern for open government? While I can understand that the county must recover reasonable costs associated with such requests, what constitutes reasonable is open to question. Besides, why is it that an attorney is giving a cost estimate that Ms. Berry-Dreisbach should have simply given to citizen Morris? Using excessive fees to block access to public records is certainly a violation of our right to know and understand public policy. I would assume that if a group of citizens wanted to go over to the Fayette County School System and look through the public records, it would certainly be within their rights to do so. Or can [school board attorney] Hartley think of a legal reason to stop them? If so, do you really think it would be constitutional? Doesn’t the government work for us? What would you do if you found out that a new road was being built right behind your home? Or that someone down the road had rented part of their land to set up a number of new billboards? Or that someone unexpectedly sent you a bill that you had no idea that you even owed? Now what if there was nothing you could do about it because these decisions had already been made without your knowledge or input? The elected representatives of your county make these quality of life decisions everyday. The government makes decisions that not only hit your pocketbook in these tough times, but they impact your quality of life in other ways. By promoting and supporting unbridled development, they can impact the value of your home and property. Empty storefronts, billboards, increased crime, for-sale signs, and rental property are all symptoms of a county going in the wrong direction. I have recently joined with a number of other citizens in promoting a more open government within Fayette County. We believe that our citizens are not well informed about what is going on in our county government. Wouldn’t you like to be informed about the kind of decisions outlined in this letter? Our aim is to work together to improve county government communication with its citizens. I would like to know if you too would like to support our efforts? If so, please let me know by return email to the address below. The first step in the process of developing open government will be to get you to send out a copy of this letter to five, 10, or 20 people that you know that may have an interest in this cause. You can use this letter as a method of communicating to your friends; just copy and paste it into your contact list. Have them contact savefayette@gmail.com directly, and you will be put on an email listing that will update everyone on what you can do to promote open government in Fayette County. It’s your community; please do your family and community a favor. Join our group to promote and encourage our government to be more open with its citizens. Thank you in advance for getting involved in our wonderful community. James Wingo Peachtree City, Ga. login to post comments |