CANA, in place of a meeting, encouraged everyone to go out into the community, attend a meeting, engage an elected official and learn more about conditions affecting our community.
Having identified several events through reading a local newspaper, I decided to attend an event presented by our recently elected Commissioner, Richard Boykin. There were several scheduled in one week.
I missed being present to hear him report on his activity and accomplishments in his first 100 days. Over the last five years, my tenure in Austin, I could not recall another report on the first 100 days in office by another elected official.
I was able to attend a meeting of faith based community leaders which took place a few days after the 100 days report. I wanted to obtain the information I might have missed at the earlier meeting.
Commissioner Boykin introduced himself as a public servant and not a politician. He encouraged participation of the community in developing his work going forward and stressed his availability. He is forming several taskforces and encourages his constituents to apply.
He called the county the “government of last resource”. He is advocating for prioritization of county resource allocation first to communities with high crime, high unemployment and high poverty.
In response to issues expressed by those in attendance, he announced actions that he could take to provide assistance. Among them were the development of a grant-writing workshop and a resource fair.
If you’d like to find out more about our commissioner, he has at least one more event scheduled this month. He opens his new office at 7221 W. Madison in Forest Park on Saturday March 28th, starting at 9:00am. All are welcome and refreshments will be served. Here is a link to the invitation.
I encourage you to seek information about the actions, or failures to act, of those elected to represent us. We can’t hold them accountable without knowledge of their actions or failures to act.
