Northeast Government Seminar Held At Canstatters
A question and answer session was held last night at Canstatters in the Northeast. About 30 different state and local agencies set up tables, along with elected officials to meet with constituents and find out what is on the minds of the people that put them in office.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Sheriff Rochelle Bilal speaks at the event.
The tables were filled with trinkets like branded hand sanitizer or water bottles with the agency or politicians name. Most people wanted answers. What is going on with SEPTA. That seemed to be the biggest issue. How do I get to work or how do my kids get to school? According to Joe Hohenstein, State Rep . for the 177th District, “Democrats and Republicans are taking, which is a good sign”. SEPTA reps said if the funding comes in tomorrow it will still take about 10 days to ramp up service to before the cuts happened.
Roads are in bad condition or under construction. Crime is prevalent and people want to know how to protect themselves. City council members were on hand to talk about that.
Many people are underpaid. State Reps get a COLA increase every year. So do State Senators, yet they cannot get together to authorize a minimum wage increase above $7.25/hr. That upset a few people.
Alex Lloyd Gross Photo-Delaware Valley News.com Elected Officials hear from constituents
The event started late, with people asking questions, from slips of paper that were turned into the moderator, who would then ask the questions. If an individual’s question was not answered, they could go to a table where the agency or elected official would be after the q&a was over. That upset some people. Some folks were upset that their elected official was not there and they would have to speak with a staffer.
This is the second forum put on for the northeast and hopefully it will not be the last. It has to get started quicker. When you have questions about street repairs and the question before yours deals with someones veterans benefits, it is disheartening to have the Q&A portion closed. Start the Q&A sooner and get more questions in,that seemed to be the consensus of all those that attended.