My wife and sister-in-law love to watch the “Gilmore Girls” on the tube.

The show is about a woman and her family who live in a little New England community called “Stars Hollow.” It’s run by an autocratic mayor who has wonderful ideas about making their little community bigger and better. When Mayor Taylor Doose is trying to convince his constituents to get on board with his latest improvement to the town they have a “Town Hall Meeting.”

The mayor and his small group of minions pull out all the stops showing the town folk what he’s trying to do for the town and why it would make Stars Hollow better. The town folk are often skeptical about the mayor’s plans, asking him tons of questions. And these fictional folk are often quite insightful in their questions and sometimes their suggestions lead to improvements in Doose’s projects.

The plans often-times get adopted and the town moves forward. Everyone lives happily ever after.

Life imitates art, right? Could it happen in East Ridge?

In recent weeks, I’ve had several conversations with elected officials and staff in our fair city about the idea of having some good old-fashioned town hall meetings. Sound corny? Maybe.

Our two new council members, Esther Helton and Brian Williams, advocated the concept of town hall meetings in their winning campaigns. Everyone I’ve spoken to thus far about the idea shows a fair amount of interest … at least in the concept. 

Here’s why I would like to see a series of town hall meetings. 

East Ridge has a lot going on. The City holds council meetings twice a month (at least through most of the year) where the board conducts city business in public. Much of these meetings are pro forma, where the council adopts resolutions about accepting grants,  approves minutes of past meetings, gives people pats on the back for doing good in our city, grapples with mowing Exit 1 around the interstate, etc., etc.

Then there are the times in which the mayor or a council person rolls out a plan. Let’s take over the athletic facilities at the high school! Let’s re-invent Camp Jordan as a regional sports complex! Let’s build a new animal shelter! Let’s start a rental inspection program! Let’s institute design standards for new buildings! Let’s put a limit on “extended stay” motels! Let’s put medians on Ringgold Road and landscape it!  Let’s make the old McBrien School a business incubator! Let’s re-brand our city by renaming Ringgold Road! Let’s go as big as we can with the Border Region Act and re-invent East Ridge!

All these ideas have merit and could help the city move forward.

But how do city leaders want to accomplish this? How are we going to pay for it? Can we afford to go in debt? How will these things improve the quality of life of residents in the city? Will any of these projects increase my taxes? What’s it mean to existing small businesses? Will this mean more traffic congestion? Will we have to hire more police and firefighters? Will motels in East Ridge sue the city? What kind of effect will these things have on my property values? Will the city have to hire more employees? 

City leaders may not have all the answers to these questions. But, can’t we have a frank and honest dialogue about the concepts? Can we at least talk about the positives and the potential negatives which may come from such projects as those mentioned above?

I’m in a somewhat unique position to interact on a sporadic basis with city leaders. I run into them at City Hall and take that opportunity to just talk, simply talk about some of the plans that have been rolled out and others which are just ideas. I’ve got to say, in these casual, chance encounters I’ve gotten to know my elected officials much better. They have fleshed out and explained their ideas about some of their plans and proposals.

In these conversations details emerge about projects. Also, I’ve been told about potential stumbling blocks to implementing whatever plan is being discussed. In short, it’s given me a much better understanding of where the city is and where it might be able to go.

Here’s a challenge: Mayor and Council, in the not too distant future, announce a town hall meeting at some convenient time when anyone who is interested can attend. Don’t go up on the dais; no sit down in the audience or mill around at the podium, being accessible. Let folks in close and talk about what’s going on. Let folks ask you the tough questions. If you don’t know the answer, maybe residents _ your constituents _ could help find the answers.

Let’s see if life can, indeed, imitate art. What do you say?