Town Hall Meetings..OR...Something else???

Having attended a town hall meeting I can't help but wonder what the actual reason for these meetings is?

Here is the stated goal for the town hall meetings.

These town hall meetings, unlike the formal project public hearings that many Texans have attended, will allow attendees to discuss the corridor and its impact to Texas with TxDOT officials. It also will allow attendees to get their questions answered about the corridor and statewide transportation policy. In short, these town hall meetings are a conversation that will lead to solutions to Texas’ current and future transportation challenges. "

Could it possibly mean this? "These town hall meetings, unlike the formal project public hearings that many Texans have attended, will allow attendees to discuss the corridor and its impact to Texas with TxDOT officials WHERE COMMENTS ARE NOT ON THE OFFICIAL RECORD."

I'm staring to believe that these town hall meetings are a way to get people to attend, voice their opinion, and then skip the formal and ON THE RECORD public hearings. This allows TXDOT to say they listened but avoid the hassle of having to document the fact that nobody likes/wants the plan.

What do you think???

My TTC Townhall Experience

Not much time to type right now so I'll make it short. A couple of things that jumped out at me during the meeting in Rosenberg were the following.

I was there for almost three hours and I didn't hear one single person say they supported the current TTC plan.

That leads me to my next observation. The TXDOT commissioner at the meeting said that he was surprised by the amount of displeasure and disgust with the plan. He stated that he hadn't gotten that feeling from the previous town halls. I almost fell out of my chair when he said that.
The entire room burst out in overwhelming sounds of disapproval and disgust. I went onto the KHOU 11 website here in Houston for the news footage of the Hempstead meeting and the same TXDOT Commissioner said the same thing at that meeting with the same crowd reaction. Amazing and revealing at the same time. Read through the public comments included in the environmental impact statement for TTC-69 and it is painfully obvious that most people want nothing to do with this road or this plan.

The first two lead me into my final point. This one really hit home. I'm not sure who else picked up on it but the TXDOT commissioner said time and time again that they were 'federally mandated' to ask for public input as part of the environmental review process. He made it painfully clear that he was fulfilling a federal mandate...nothing more. He has to do it...he doesn't want to. I don't think there is any way to sum it up better.

TXDOT IS FEDERALLY MANDATED TO SOLICIT PUBLIC INPUT BUT NOT MANDATED TO LISTEN TO IT.

...and they have shown no ability to listen as of yet!