Tuesday, March 25, 2008

2ND OPEN GOVT. FORUM STIMULATES CITIZEN INITIATIVES

Salisbury City Council members Debbie Campbell and Terry Cohen held their second public input meeting Tuesday night on the topic of increasing transparency in city government. After a brief recap of developments from the previous such forum held in February, participants were introduced to citizen-driven initiatives on budget oversight and governmental accountability taking place in other locales.

Following the presentations, attendees were given an opportunity to toss out questions about a wide variety of topics. Then they broke into work groups where they defined projects of interest. These included collection of public safety data, a spending affordability analysis for short- and long-term planning, and access to line item financial data of the city, to name a few.

“We were pleased to see a number of new faces during this meeting,” Campbell said, noting that some previous participants also came while others who could not attend noted their desire to stay involved. “These citizens are ready to roll up their sleeves and make a positive contribution,” Campbell added.

Further details from the meeting will be forthcoming on this website within the next day or two. For more information, contact council members Debbie Campbell at 410-860-0893 or Terry Cohen at 410-845-0296.