Monticello Live

To whom it may concern,

Tuesday, July 5th I became aware of your efforts to circulate numerous petitions to either enact new ordinances or repeal certain ordinances which have been adopted by the City Council over the several years.

First, I would like to apologize for not being able to attend your July 2nd meeting as I was not made aware of the meeting. I would like to further apologize for not being able to attending your next meeting on July 9th, due to a prior family engagement scheduled for that day. I would have liked to express this message in person and not via an email.

As one of my first acts in office, I issued the city’s first Open Government Directive. The directive established new principles to help guide city government’s actions intended to commit to transparency, meaningful public participation, and collaborating with the public and other governments.

In addition to providing a city website where meeting agendas, ordinances, etc. are published open to the public a week in advance to meetings, reporting weekly to the public on municipal issues, and requiring for the first time a public forum period at government meetings, one of the measures includes providing an “open door policy” to the mayor’s office.

I have always welcomed Monticellonians to bring their concerns to me about our city and community. In my time as mayor, I have received reports of concerns from citizens in the form of formal letters, emails, and person conversations in the bread aisle of the grocery. I even often answer three to four questions, or concerns, a week received via private Facebook messages.

From what I am able to gather from the media coverage of your last meeting, you have several proposals addressing various concerns, none of which, to my knowledge, have been brought directly to city, or personally to me, as concerns to this date.

Just like any Monticello resident’s concerns, I would like to review your concerns/ proposals and work to develop solutions that benefit our city. From what I can gather from media coverage, there are several proposals, that at face value, I seem supportive of the principles; and willing to work with City Council on these proposals.

I would like to request a copy of all the petitions being proposed, so the city can assist in addressing or responding to your concerns. Further, I would like the opportunity to present the proposals to the Arkansas Municipal League’s legal staff for their review of the proposals. The Arkansas Municipal Leagues has represented cities in Arkansas since 1934; and a great third party professional staff to objectively review any proposed municipal policy.

Additionally, my door is always open if your group would like to meet with me to discuss your concerns and develop plan to allow City Council and the city the opportunity to address your concerns; as we are fully interested in doing.

Please feel free to contact me at 870-367-4400.

Yours for a better Monticello,

Zackery Tucker, Mayor

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 12th, 2016 at 6:39 am and is filed under Site. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.