Q: What do you think is the best way for constituents to contact the County Commissioners?
A: I think the most efficient way is a way that not everyone knows — the three minute general public comment that is a part of each Board of County Commissioners meeting. The general comment period is held at a time-certain 11:30 a.m. at each meeting and for those who don’t get a chance to speak then, there is another general comment period at the end of each meeting.Â
Those three minutes are a valuable time to address something that is important to you that is not already on the meeting’s agenda. It can be any topic — possibly your idea for a park that you’d like to see in your neighborhood or a complaint about traffic on your street. Sometimes these items haven’t been brought up before. The three minute comment is a rare opportunity to have the attention of all five commissioners at the same time to make your point known. We commissioners often do follow up with the commenter after the meeting on their issue. Also, there is a comment period after each agenda item if you have an opinion or something you’d like to say about the items on that day’s agenda.
Q: What are some other ways to be in touch with the county commissioners about an issue?
A: You can also set up in-person meetings with each commissioner individually. By calling the Board of County Commissioners’ office, one of our admins will schedule your meetings so that you can meet with all five commissioners in one day. Since you are in person at their office, the commissioner might be able to include some members of the county team, so you might end up also talking to the head of the Growth Management Department or Public Works. When you tell each commissioner your situation, it is very powerful.
Q: How can you view or attend the Board of County Commissioners meetings?
A: Our meetings are held the first and third Tuesday of each month at 9 a.m. in the County Auditorium at 500 San Sebastian View. You can attend in person or view the meeting livestream on GTV, which can be accessed via our website sjcfl.us. The GTV video is also archived, so you can go back and watch past meetings. This is a very valuable tool and we are lucky to have GTV provided for the taxpayers.
Remember… we work for you!
Q: What is the best way for our readers to contact you?
A: Readers can email me at bcc4kjoseph@sjcfl.us or call me at (904) 679-2620.
