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Letting Out Some Hot Air
publication date: Apr 18, 2009
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author/source: Jonathan Copsey / STAFF
By Jonathan Copsey / STAFF
No one likes a windbag. That was the general thrust of conversation at The Alpharetta Council's work session last Monday.
Mayor Arthur Letchas proposed limiting the amount of time that council members can speak on an issue after a motion has been made. Each member of council would have five minutes to say their piece before having to allow the others to speak. Letchas said that this was to help speed up meetings.
"What we would like to do is for people to come to our meetings - families and children - and look at what we do," said Letchas. "But if we keep these meetings so long, we lose people." It is not uncommon for meetings to continue well into the night, past the time when many citizens (or their children) need to be in bed.
After a motion has been made, there would be a five minute time limit on closing comments by each councilmember. This is after council has had the chance to ask as many questions on a subject as they pleased, so as not to cut off any concerns that may be raised through discussion.
The Council has already imposed a three minute time limit on citizen comments, so that one person cannot hold up those behind him by speaking ad nauseum. When that was enacted nearly a year ago, council members also suggested limiting their own comments, saying that it was a disservice to the citizens who come to the meetings to have to potentially sit and listen to each councilmember pontificate about a subject. The measure was discarded with the thinking that, as elected representatives, council members had a duty to ask questions and speak about subjects they may be privy to.
This time, the council seemed very willing to impose time limits on themselves, although some would like to see the ability to yield their time to others. The arguments for that revolved around certain council members having certain subjects as their expertise, such as Cheryl Oakes speaking on real estate since she is a real estate agent. It only makes sense that she would speak on such issues, while other less-knowledgeable members would yield their time to her. Overall, the time spent listening to council members would be the same.
In the end, the use or flexibility of such rules lies entirely in the hands Mayor Letchas, who has the power to run the meetings as he sees fit.
Mayor Arthur Letchas has suggested limiting the amount of time Council members can speak on an issue in an effort to speed up meetings. |
SR9 Upgrades
It may seem to have been a long time coming, but Highway 9 may soon be getting some much needed upgrades, thanks to a new collaboration between the cities of North Fulton.
Sandy Springs and Roswell will join with Alpharetta in coordinating efforts along the entire length of their portions of the road, leading to all three cities putting effort into reducing the traffic congestion along Hwy 9 through the use of an adaptive traffic control system.
Adaptive traffic control, traffic-monitoring cameras and traffic count stations will be the end result of the plans along nearly the entire length of Hwy 9 in the three cities. Currently, traffic signal timing is adjusted yearly and does not change. If there is an accident on Ga 400 with traffic being rerouted onto Hwy 9, that increased traffic cannot be taken into account. With an adaptive traffic control system, the City would be able to change those signal times to reflect the new situation.
This also fits in with a previous plan presented by Councilman David Belle Isle, who had wished to see an adaptive traffic program installed at Alpharetta's busiest intersections. The council had dramatically cut back on the project, citing prohibitive cost and a number of uncertainties, such as the ARC preparing its own adaptive traffic control guidelines (such as those just announced).
The cost that Alpharetta will have to pay for the design is $95,000 (with the other cities paying as well) for a grand total of construction to be about $900,000. GDOT will reimburse Alpharetta up to 80 percent of its costs. It's expected to take about a year to complete the upgrades
"It's another piece of the puzzle and I'm glad it's happening," said Belle Isle.
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