Campbell hosts town-hall meeting

January 29, 2014 at 7:09p.m.

Campbell plans to have one town-hall meeting each month

CAMPBELL

Mayor William J. VanSuch couldn’t recall the last time, before Wednesday evening, that the city had hosted a town-hall meeting.

Per the city’s charter, however, the mayor is supposed to host one such meeting each month, with the exception of July and August when city council is in recess, to discuss with the public “the affairs of the city.”

“We haven’t held them, because turnout wasn’t that great,” VanSuch said. “But we’re going to start doing them again, and are giving it an honest shot this time.”

The city’s residents seemed to respond well to the idea, with more than 20 in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting. Members of city council, and of several of the city’s departments, were present, as well.

Beforehand, as residents filtered into council chambers, George Levendis, president of city council, explained that the town-hall meeting is an opportunity for the mayor, city officials and citizens to meet in a much less formal setting to share their ideas and concerns.

Levendis added that the meetings don’t have an agenda, as city council meetings do, so “anything [residents] want to bring to the administration’s attention” is fair game. And even if just one person attends to do so, that’s enough.

“It’s a place to air grievances and concerns — or even if they want to give us compliments,” he said.

Rick Mistovich of Campbell said he had wanted to attend the meeting simply to “find out in what direction the community is heading,” and also to hear about what city officials are doing to attract new businesses to the city.