Charleston City Council Meeting

The Charleston City Council meeting could've been mistaken Monday night for a live auction.

I contacted a member of city council before attending the meeting, and good thing I did because every proposal that was brought forth at the city council meeting was discussed in depth at the budget meeting before hand.

The speaker read through each proposal in less than a minute, making the whole council meeting last about twenty minutes. All the proposals passed, and most were renewal agreements with companies that Charleston had worked with in the previous year. Other proposals were as simple as new equiptment for the Juvenile Justice processing area.

One issue that was discussed for more than a minute, I would say even possibly two, was the low voter turnout for the recent election on March 8. Every member of council was dissapointed in the low numbers, especially Mayor Danny Jones. He said the election was "embarrassing". One member of council spoke out to Jones and asked what can the city do to enhance elections and make people feel more a part of the government. He said that the citizens aren't to blame for the low turnout, tha tit was up to the council to improve conditions.

For the amount of people who attended both the budget meeting and the council meeting afterwards, it was suprising that they didn't spend more time even just explaining each proposal. It sounded as if I had walked onto an auction site.