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Franklin City Council voted unanimously on March 10 to hold a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, March 31, with the hope of hosting it at Camp Community College’s Regional Workforce Development Center.

Franklin Mayor Paul Kaplan confirmed Monday, March 17, that the location has not been confirmed yet.

The vote to hold a town hall meeting came at the urging of Ward 3 Councilman Gregory McLemore, who was supported by his fellow council members.

“I would like to remind my colleagues as well as the citizens in the audience and at home, I am requesting as diligently as I can for us to begin having town hall meetings,” he said during the Council Comments portion of the council’s March 10 meeting. “Give the citizens an opportunity to have interaction with their council.”

He stated that it has been more than two years since the council has held a town hall meeting, noting that the last one took place when Frank Rabil was mayor.

“So I can’t express strongly enough how I think the citizens deserve, at least biannually if not quarterly, a town hall meeting so things like this School Board situation can be addressed in a town hall environment so that we can act on what the people want,” he said.

The School Board situation he was referencing pertained to Franklin City Public Schools’ decision, announced on Feb. 10, to move Travis Felts out of his longtime role as Franklin High School principal to an FCPS director position that will operate out of Central Office. Council and community members have expressed strong concerns about the decision at City Council meetings in February and March, and community members spoke out at a Franklin City School Board meeting on Feb. 27.

Kaplan indicated that he did not disagree with McLemore’s call for town hall meetings.

Ward 2 Councilman Richard Grizzard said, “I again would also agree with Mr. McLemore that we do need to have these town hall meetings, and I think the sooner the better.”

Kaplan later added, “From Mr. McLemore’s comment about town hall meetings, I think they’re an excellent idea.”

He said Ward 5 Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Wynndolyn H. Copeland and Ward 1 Councilman Mark R. Kitchen hold gatherings similar to town hall meetings with their neighborhood watch meetings in their respective wards.

“Ward by ward, we’re all doing things in our wards, but we need to get advertised and set an agenda for town hall meetings whether we decide to do them ward by ward or for the whole city at one time,” Kaplan said. “I don’t know the best way to do that.”

McLemore said, “In regards to the ward meetings versus the town hall meetings, being here (on council) close to 14 years, there were times in my first two, three years I used to have ward meetings. But I’ll challenge anyone who has had one since then to say they’ve got 20% of their registered voters to come to a meeting. You might have 15, 20 people from a ward that show up to those meetings, you might even have 30. But how many people are in your ward?

“So that’s why I call for town hall meetings, when you get citywide, when you get people from every ward together,” he added. “They may bring up points that the other person says, ‘I didn’t think about that, but you’re right.’ So ward meetings are fine, but I think we need town hall meetings where everybody has an opportunity because we live in different parts of this city, and what we vote on up here affects the entire city and not just our wards.”

He encouraged citizens to participate in the town hall meetings when the council holds them.

“Those town hall meetings, they give you a chance to become educated citizens,” he said. “You know what’s going on.”

He indicated that people’s votes can sometimes essentially be for whoever is most popular.

“That vote doesn’t guarantee you’re going to get the best person for the position,” he said. “It just means that more people voted for that individual.”

The council had suspended Robert’s Rules of Order during its March 10 meeting to vote during the Council Comments agenda item on a matter.

“I think this is something also we might want to suspend them on and take a motion or a vote that we’re going to have a town hall meeting instead of letting it get swept down the road,” McLemore said.

Ward 4 Councilman Dr. Linwood Johnson said, “I agree with Mr. McLemore about the town hall meeting, but before we do that, council needs to have a retreat. The City Council has not had a retreat in two years, basically. And a retreat is the City Council getting together, getting on one page to get some things done, looking at the Comprehensive Plan of the city that needs to be done.”

Ward 6 Councilwoman Jessica G. Banks indicated she would like to reverse the order of those events.

“I think that we need to hear what the citizens have to say so that we can come up with a Comprehensive Plan,” she said.

Johnson expressed openness to that and simply agreed with Kaplan that both events are needed.

Kaplan said, “I think if we could have the town hall meeting and then maybe have another one a few months out based on our Comprehensive Plan and so forth… But I think we have a couple issues right now that need people to have the opportunity to speak and be able to speak freely and not in a constrained situation like we have here.”

When March 31 was suggested as a day for the town hall meeting, City Manager Rosylen Oglesby told the council, “You adopted the calendar which had up there for the 31st for me to do the budget presentation.”

McLemore said, “Well, you know what, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have that budget presentation as a part of the town hall meeting.”

Oglesby indicated the budget presentation would take about 30 minutes and could be set for 6:30 p.m. on March 31, provided that the venue had recording capabilities. The town hall question-and-answer session could follow at 7 p.m.

Reacting to the note about recording capabilities, McLemore said, “The problem with TV is less people will come out, I think, if we have it on TV.”

Oglesby said, “The only piece that needs to be recorded is the presentation of the budget. That’s it.”

Banks suggested the Regional Workforce Development Center as a venue for the meeting because it is a neutral location, and McLemore agreed.

Kaplan said, “If it’s available, I’m in favor of that, that’s fine.”

McLemore said, “So the motion is modified to have the first town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. on March 31, hopefully at the Workforce Development Center, but the location to be announced.”

The unanimous vote followed shortly thereafter.