Mark Thursday, May 19 on your calendar. At 7 p.m., the city of Suffolk will be hosting an informational meeting at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy on the possible direct election of the mayor.

Such a switch would change the entire local government dynamic as well as possibly borough boundaries. With that being the case, public input is essential to deciding the case.

By holding the meetings – another will be held June 7 at Lakeland High School – city council is going about deciding this issue in the proper way: Soliciting public input prior to making a decision.

That is unlike the public meetings held earlier in the year on taking over road maintenance. In that situation, a decision had basically been made and the meetings were held for the purpose of selling the scheme to the citizenry. As a result, those meetings did not go off smoothly.

So far, city officials have not publicly stated whether or not they support the direct election of the mayor. So, ostensibly the meetings are for council members as well as the citizens to be educated on the subject so that informed choices can be made. That’s how the process should work.

You owe it to yourself and your community to come out and learn about this issue and then let your city council representative know where you stand on it. In general, we get the government we deserve and those who are too apathetic to take the time to educate themselves generally deserve bad government.