Baldwin’s acting mayor turned a public hearing on the city’s proposed budget into a lecture on the lack of public participation in meetings. Alice Venter expressed her frustrations during the hearing, which the council scheduled for 6:30 on a Friday evening.
Asked by Now Habersham before the meeting why the hearing was set for a Friday, Venter responded, “Friday is the only day we have to do it. It’s nothing more than that.” She added, “We’re going to be there – we have to be.” She chided those whose “priority is going to the movies or having fun on a Friday night” over talking with their elected officials about taxes.
“The people, they need to come to the damn meetings and town halls,” Venter added, expressing frustration that people “just read things online.”
It was that attitude Venter carried with her into the June 23 special called meeting to discuss the city’s fiscal year 2024 general fund budget. The proposed balanced budget is $3,617,336.
(Now Habersham has reached out to Venter to ask how people were informed of the meeting. The media was notified four days beforehand, but there appeared to be no mention of the meeting on the city’s Facebook page or website. Venter stated in a comment on social media that a meeting notice was published in the legal organ of the county as required by law.)
Taking over the live stream
Venter began the meeting by stating that she and the council had received phone calls from constituents asking questions about the budget.
“As elected officials, it is our job to help our constituents understand a very complicated, multi-faceted, multi-layered budget,” she said. “Government’s boring, and most people don’t pay attention to what’s going on until it’s something that is inflammatory or it’s something that is controversial. Unfortunately, we often don’t hear from our constituents.”
Unlike typical public hearings where the budget is discussed, highlighting budgetary increases and decreases, the acting mayor lectured those in attendance and those watching the live stream about the budget process for about 45 minutes, especially those who complained about the budget on social media but never attend meetings. She even went so far as to step down from the bench, pick up the tablet that was live-streaming the meeting and speak directly to those on social media.
After securing the tablet and showing the live stream viewers how many people were in attendance at the public hearing, she explained that nobody was at the meeting except for two citizens, the media, and a few employees.
WATCH Mayor Venter comments on the lack of public participation
Expressing her frustration, Venter stated, “Nobody wants to pay attention unless there is something that’s pissing them off. So what that means is we [council] don’t get, these folks [council] don’t get anybody up here telling them, ‘We don’t like this, and we have a different idea, or we have some suggestions, or can you explain this.’ They don’t do it, but then online – because they are too chicken to come to the meeting or whatever it is – and they go online and make comments. I will come on there [social media] and inform you of how you’re wrong. You may not like me for it, but my job is to help you understand what it is that we do and the decisions that we make.”
This was due in part to social media comments related to the 60% salary increase for Baldwin’s Chief Administrative Officer Emily Woodmaster.
“The elephant in the room is the salary for the CAO position, and we all have received numerous emails this week because of some articles written this week by the media, and it’s great. I think we need to take the moment to talk about this. It’s built into the budget,” said City Councilmember Stephanie Almagno.
RELATED Council considers 60% pay raise for top administrator
A ‘fair’ and ‘reasonable’ raise
Venter and Almagno both defended Woodmaster’s pending pay raise by explaining the results of the salary study that the city’s engineering consultant, EMI, performed in March.
“We feel like we’re making a fair and reasonable adjustment to that particular position,” said Almagno. “We’ve heard loudly from citizens that a 60% increase is not what we should be doing right now. For me, it is always the right time to do the right thing.”
Only one resident spoke during the public hearing. Tom Whitney, a prospective mayoral candidate, said, “I support it [the budget] 100%. I think it’s a great thing. I think it’s a great thing for our city.”
During the public hearing, the council discussed how they arrived at the Chief Administrative Officer’s salary but did not explain how they arrived at a $3.6 million budget.
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