TRANSPARENCY A KEY TOPIC DURING BRENHAM CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES FORUM
Transparency was a central theme during KWHI’s Brenham City Council Candidates Forum on Wednesday at Brenham National Bank.
All six of the candidates in the contested city council races in May shared their thoughts on openness of city government and how they plan to involve residents in the city’s decision-making process.
Allan Colvin, challenging Clint Kolby for At-Large Position 5, said the city needs representatives that will be open and communicative with the public on important issues.
At-Large Position 6 candidate Albert Buchanan said he feels there is a divide between the city and citizens concerning open decision-making.
At-Large Position 5 incumbent Clint Kolby said he would be supportive of holding meetings later in the day to offer citizens a better opportunity to attend them.
Ward 1 challenger Shannan Canales agreed that holding later meetings and live-streaming them could help with public participation. She said she wants to modernize the city council, and believes that bettering the relationship between the city and public will go a long way toward improving transparency.
Ward 1 incumbent Keith Herring argued that the city has previously tried to hold meetings later in the day, but the change did not help much with attendance. He said the public shares responsibility in finding the answers they are looking for.
At-Large Position 6 candidate Leah Cook agreed with Herring, saying community involvement plays a large part in open communication.
A second Candidates Forum, featuring the candidates in the Brenham School Board election, is set for Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., also at Brenham National Bank.
Early voting begins April 19th, and Election Day is May 1st.
The full forum can be watched on KWHI’s Facebook page.
More public participation and city transparency are definitely imperative for good government. The public must realize that personnel matters cannot be made public due to lawsuits, liability laws, and the need for insurance companies to protect cities AND the taxpayers. What was not mentioned were the executive sessions behind closed doors. Major expenditures should never be determined in closed door meetings, and this current council knows the public would not be in agreement with this type of procedure or they would not be conducting such closed door sessions.
If the public is to share responsibility, then why didn’t my councilmember return my phone calls? I have participated in several council meetings and most of those meetings the council comes across indifferent to public “participation.” Granted the council did try to hold meetings after hours but complained nobody came to them; well it helps if the City did a better job posting a schedule of the meetings in the “brief’ time they tried the new change. The City has recently been posting these meetings on their website, a definite improvement, but at the time when they changed the hours, it was limited to the local paper (of which most people do not get) and sometimes on KWHI. The overall attitude of the City council comes across stagnant at best when it comes to public relations. The fact that they now have challengers to their positions suggests an interesting point being made by the “public,” of which has put the current members that are being challenged on the defensive. The question we have to ask now is will the new members, if they are selected by the voters, are going to honor the transparency they promised?