This is Viewpoints for Monday, March 27, 2017

The people’s business

The consolidated government of Macon-Bibb County has been positive and progressive for our community in multiple ways, not the least of which are its reduced size and cost. There is one area that has regressed however. Access to government by ordinary citizens has been remarkably reduced.

Committee meetings, where the substance of legislative work is conducted, are during business hours. They begin on a Tuesday morning and run sequentially until their agendas are completed. It is not predictable when any meeting other than the first will begin. As an example, I recently wished to attend a committee meeting in support of an ordinance on the agenda. I asked what time to be there, and the commission was unable to tell me. They said it depended when the committees ahead of it ended. It could be 10 a.m.; it could be later in the afternoon. To guarantee my presence I would have to miss work and “camp out.”

This is a democratic injustice to our citizenry and community. It is a departure from how the former City Council scheduled its people’s business. Committee meetings did not begin prior to 4 p.m., and they were scheduled individually and predictably rather than sequentially. It is feasible for working men and women to attend a 4 p.m. government meeting; it is not so for a meeting that might occur anywhere between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

This is also an injustice to citizens who may be interested in running for office. Again, it is feasible for working citizens to participate in a 4 p.m. committee on a bi-weekly rotation; but not for an entire business day weekly. With term limits now in effect, it is more important than ever to attract and accommodate qualified citizens to run for the commission. The pay for this part time office is not a living wage; rather it is a nice supplement. It is essential that we structure our local government so the working men and women who support it with property and sales taxes can be at the table, whether in elected office or monitoring government in action.

I hope others will join me in encouraging our mayor and commission to return its deliberations to the public it serves by scheduling meetings individually, starting no earlier than 4 p.m., on business days.

‘Leader in Me’

Everyday we receive information from the media about special programs and charities asking for donations. Some are worthy of our dollars and some are outright scams. We receive no fewer than a dozen telephone solicitations a month and my practice is to hang up on every caller unless I know him personally.

In a recent edition of The Telegraph there is a whole page of advertising by MACONTHELEADERSHIPINME.COM group asking for donations of $2.1 million from the community to begin a leadership program in the public school system of Bibb County. It was signed by 21 local business leaders. An address in New York State was listed to receive the donations.

I didn't see on the page any endorsement of this program by the Bibb County Board Of Education, our superintendent or anyone in the public school system. Also there was no mention of the program being offered to students in our county that are educated in our charter or private schools.

Scam or great project? Perhaps this announcement needs to be clarified and republished. I am sure the business people attesting to this page believe in the program they are helping to promote, but as a reader, I am not convinced to send a check by next post. A breakdown of how many of my donated dollars will see a student and how many will fall by the way and used as promotional cost will be helpful too.

The “Leader in Me” is already in four Bibb County schools. The fund raising effort is to put it in all Bibb elementary and middle schools. This could not be accomplished without the full cooperation of the superintendent and the school board. There are more than 3,000 schools using “Leader in Me” in more than 55 countries around the world.

Drug test

Is it not amazing that we must pass a test to do many things, like drive a car or fly a plane, but our government refuses to have anyone getting any form of welfare to be tested for drugs. Most businesses require drug tests. So our government gives our taxes to undocumented illegal immigrants and individuals taking drugs. What is wrong with that picture?

Illegal immigrants are ineligible to receive welfare benefits. To receive benefits the recipient must be a U.S. citizen and must have a Social Security number.

Puerto Rico status

If Puerto Rico is a part of the United States as well as citizens of the USA why did they have a team in the World Baseball Classic? I would have thought they would be part of our team. Where is their loyalty to the USA? Is the commissioner of baseball, who appeared to be the man in charge of the WBC, loyal to the USA? If he is, why did he allow Puerto Rico to have a team in the WBC? Maybe President Trump needs to evaluate the amount of money this possession cost us when obviously they are not loyal to the USA. Dang, I'm glad the USA team put a whipping on them. Puerto Rico is about to vote on becoming our 51st state. They don't want to become a state, they just want us to subsidize them.

Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States. While its citizens are U.S. citizens they cannot vote for president or vice president and they have no vote in Congress. They will hold a referendum in June to decide if they want statehood, however, no matter the outcome, Congress would have the last word on statehood for the archipelago.

Opposed to this horror

To Sens. Johnny Isakson and David Perdue, as well as my Rep. Austin Scott, I plead with you to oppose the health-care bill. Hospitals will be flooded with uninsured patients for which they will receive little to no reimbursement. As a result, hospitals will not be able to hire and retain quality staff. The end result: decreased quality of care and higher costs for all. This bill is inhumane and cruel. It is completely contradictory to Christian teaching. As a licensed health-care professional, I stand with colleagues all over the nation in opposition to this horror.

This story was originally published March 26, 2017 at 9:07 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Monday, March 27, 2017."