History
“There are two specific reasons Florence County Citizens In Action was formed, and they are Mamie Gray and Bill Hoffmeyer,” says Licia Stone, chairman of FCCIA. “People have thought for years that a watchdog group was needed for county government, but no one ever took the initiative to start one. Over a period of more than fifteen years, Mr. Hoffmeyer and Mrs. Gray faithfully attended almost all County Council meetings, earning the name, ‘The Council Watchers.’ As a ‘watch dog group’ of two, they often reported things to the media and government agencies. Usually they were ignored.”
“There is power in numbers,” Ms. Stone said. “People will pay attention to a group but often overlook individuals. I often helped Bill and Mamie on projects but we just didn’t have the influence to get much accomplished. We often talked about forming a watchdog group, but we never thought the interest was there.”
Hoffmeyer and Gray never gave up and then things began to change. People began to approach them with the idea of a watchdog group. According to Bill Hoffmeyer, “I think people were more open to the idea when they realized there was so little coverage of local government in the media. Things were happening that were never reported. Mamie and I talked to Licia and said it is now or never, let’s give this idea a try.”
Licia continued, “I was hoping it was an idea whose time had come. We held an organizational meeting in my living room in May, 2002, and I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the group.
“We set some ambitious short term goals that we swiftly accomplished. We have elected permanent officers and board members, we are registered with the Secretary of State, we have bylaws, a website, and are attending County Council meetings as a group. All of this has happened in less than three months.
“Everyone worked hard but a great deal of the credit goes to one of our members, Jack Nettles. Jack happens to be an attorney. We never would have progressed quite as rapidly without Jack’s assistance.”
The third meeting of the FCCIA was held June 25, 2002 at Bazen’s Restaurant in
An important area of interest is County Council. Mamie Gray chairs the group’s Monitoring Committee and is responsible for having members present at County Council meetings. She said, “We have members from throughout the county. Not only will we, as a watchdog group, be present at every council meeting, but we have reporters who will write the council meetings up and these reports will appear on our website. We want to give special attention to hot issue topics.”
When asked how she thought County Council members would respond to the presence of the FCCIA, Mrs. Gray responded, “This is a democracy and the involvement of citizens is crucial. I think the councilmen know this and should welcome the interest of concerned citizens. We hope to have members from each council district present at every meeting. The purpose of our group is to encourage this very involvement. We are interested in all aspects of county government and think all information pertaining to county government should be public information.”
One year later, we are happy to report that we now have about 100 members, representing all nine districts of Florence County Council. Ms Stone and members of the group report considerable interest in the FCCIA via at least one news conference, numerous letters to editors and responses, and a meeting earlier this year in