I’ve made attempts to contact the Lee County Commission with questions, but other than Commissioner LaGrand and former Commissioner Brown I’ve yet to receive any other communication. Some of the questions the commission might not know or might be answered by others connected with the commission. I’ve witnessed Judge English on multiple occasions setting up Zoom meetings for the Planning Commission, as well as mention other tech information at other meetings when discussing software upgrades/updates the probate office needs. I was told email was the best way to contact the commission, and I’ve also attempted to contact my commissioner (Robert Ham) by the number provided and goes to a voicemail that is full. Before I purchase an ad in the paper, I thought maybe they would read something from media that attend their meetings.
Hey Commission!
As a citizen of Lee County I’m shocked to find out the county commission isn’t airing public comments during their broadcast of their meetings. From whomever is operating the Lee County Commission Facebook page, the person said it was a discussion made at the July 12th meeting. Judge English mentioned it was a request from several of the county commissioners for restructuring the agenda.
Where is the draft for this on any site?
What was the motivation behind changing the structure of the meeting and why were the public comments removed?
I also had other questions I addressed in another email a few weeks later.
Does Lee County Emergency Management have someone dedicated to running their social media?
Why is the commission not utilizing this media more?
Where do the funds for the operation of the leeco.us website come from and is the server owned by Lee County?
I was at the county commission meeting on Aug. 9 where I spoke in front of all of you and said you needed to be more transparent with the community. Also during that meeting I mentioned other options to inform the public yet in this particular case the commission has elected to stop showing public comments. The meeting on the 8th of November I also informed you of the same information, as well as mentioned how important Lee County Emergency Management is to people in the community. They have over 21,000 people who follow them on their official Facebook page, and depend on them for information like siren testing, public works projects and other important information the citizens rely on. You have 348 folks that hope one day you decide to also use this free media more than just for broadcasts of your meetings that you have a verified profile for.
You have to take the bad with the good. You might not like someone or agree with them, but you represent them just the same. If the meetings allow for public comments on they should be made available to the public as well. Not everyone has the ability to come down to the meetings twice a month to hold you all accountable for your actions. I’m sure you can see by the attendance that representation from the county is lacking. It is left up to you as an elected official to make sure your constituents know what’s going on.
I hope to not keep making your lack of response a public issue.
Rudy McCumsey
Lee County
