At 7:30 Monday morning, many Pittsylvania County residents will be readying for work, or preparing their children for the first day of school.
Others will be waiting to ask Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, a question.
Perriello stops in Robert Hurt’s hometown of Chatham on Monday for an early town hall meeting — one of 20 throughout the district during this month’s recess and a repeat of last year’s efforts. But a handful of recent letters to the editor in various district newspapers have expressed concern about the early meetings being inconvenient for most people, although not all meetings are in the morning.
Brenda Bowman, chairwoman of the Pittsylvania County Republican Committee, said Chatham’s 7:30 a.m. town hall might work for those used to having breakfast meetings, but not for others — especially on the first day of school for many families.
“For the average working person,” Bowman said, “it means they’d have to take leave time to go and voice their concerns … To me, I just don’t think it’s convenient. I think he’s kind of out of touch if he thinks he’s gonna draw the average constituent. If he wants to draw the average, grassroots people, he needs to do another time.”
Perriello will hold the next town hall meeting the following day in Danville at 6 p.m. His press secretary, Michael Kelly, said that based on feedback from last year’s meetings, Perriello’s staff wanted to offer more times, including in the morning, midday and at night.
They also took geography into account, Kelly said, so if someone is not able to go to the Chatham meeting, the Danville meeting is at a different time of day.
“We decided to offer a little bit of diversity with the times throughout the region,” Kelly said. “…We were just trying to give people options — as many chances as we can to make it work for them.”
Those interested in attending any town hall meetings should be aware that unlike last year’s colorfully vitriolic town halls, signs or any campaign material is not permitted inside the meetings — although people may hold signs outside. Kelly said that because the events are congressional town halls and not campaign rallies, they “wanted to make sure everyone felt comfortable” talking to Perriello about issues and concerns, regardless of their views.
He said the policy has not been a problem so far this year.
“We wanted to be fair to everybody and be consistent,” Kelly said. “Some folks (last year) were uncomfortable having signs waved in their face while they were trying to ask a question.”
Perriello’s local town hall meetings
Chatham: Aug. 16, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m.
Danville: Aug. 17, 6 to 8 p.m.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement