Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Engagement topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident presses Brookhaven board for clearer process to get answers outside agenda
Summary
At a Brookhaven meeting, resident Maxine Jones asked how citizens can get questions answered without repeatedly appearing on the agenda; the presiding official directed her to contact district aldermen or schedule a meeting and offered office hours and informal contact methods.
Maxine Jones, a resident of 735 Lipsey Street, used the public comment period at a Brookhaven meeting to ask how citizens can obtain answers from the board outside the five-minute agenda slot. "If we get on the agenda, are we gonna get our question answered?" Jones asked, saying she and others are often told the meeting is not a question-and-answer session and that they want a clear procedure for getting information from local government.
The presiding official responded that the five-minute limit applies to speakers and suggested starting with the alderman representing the resident's district. The official added that constituents can contact elected members by phone, text, Facebook Messenger or schedule office meetings, and said staff can relay district concerns to the full board if necessary. Jones said many people share her concerns and asked for more clarity so citizens do not have to keep repeatedly placing the same questions on the agenda.
The exchange underscored a recurring citizen concern about access to information and how the city handles follow-up outside the formal meeting structure. Board members suggested informal contact routes and the possibility of scheduling a separate meeting to discuss recurring concerns; no formal change to the public-comment rules was made during the session.
