Thursday, February 2, 2012

Thousands of 38th District folks tune in for lawmakers' tele-Town Hall


The vast majority of policymakers really do work hard at increasing public participation in the legislative process. Take the Telephone Town Hall staged the other night for many thousands of Snohomish County people.
True, not every single one of the 28,086 Tulalip, Marysville and Everett citizens who received a telephone call from their three state legislators actually got a chance to get their two cents in. But 5,152 folks answered the phone.  And then they stayed on the line long enough to take in at least part of this second in an ongoing series of 38th Legislative District Telephone Town Halls. State Reps. John McCoy and Mike Sells, and state Sen. Nick Harper sponsored the tele-forum to emphasize more public participation for their 38th District constituents. The legislators are always on the lookout for ways to get more people more engaged in the state-government process. They held their first tele-forum a year ago, and they'll very likely do another one sometime after the 2012 session finishes up in March.
Some people who "attended" the January 31 teleforum asked questions of their lawmakers. More than a few had a desire to give them a piece of their mind. And others decided they wanted to do both. People talked about everything from the marriage-equality legislation, to funding for schools and social services, to tax reform, to government waste, to -- well, you name it.
McCoy, Sells, Harper and their 144 legislative colleagues just recently cleared the third-of-the-way mark in the 2012 Legislature. They're endeavoring to close the Olympia books by the 12 midnight, March 8, deadline for this year's 60-day legislative get-together.

To read this story in Spanish, click here.

Apture