People trickled into the Bridge Theatre Tuesday to the sound of jazz music to take part in Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier’s Deputy Senator Information meeting, in which the first woman senator elected to represent District 23 was calling on the community to get involved in the legislative process.

The point of the meeting was to recruit motivated citizens to assist in crafting the senator’s agenda for the 2019 legislative session by taking part in community activities, conducting research and generally lending their ideas to Sanders-Fortier’s policy aims.

Dallas County Commissioner Valerie Reubin, the first woman elected to the commission, welcomed those in attendance as the meeting got underway on the 90th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“If it hadn’t been for Dr. King, I would not be standing here,” Reubin said. “If it had not been for Dr. King, Mrs. Sanders-Fortier would not be standing here.”

Sanders-Fortier began her comments by discussing the way the political process generally plays out for citizens.

“A lot of times, when we elect somebody, that’s it,” Sanders-Fortier said. “Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work. We have a lot of needs in our community.”

In the absence of money, Sanders-Fortier urged the people of District 23 to use their time and energy to promote their ideas to better the district.

“We have so much in Dallas County, but if we don’t work together it just doesn’t go anywhere,” Sanders-Fortier said.

Unity and the construction of the “beloved community,” an ideal pulled from the Civil Rights Movement, were central to the senator’s call for local citizens to get involved in the political process by becoming deputy senators.

A folder handed out by the senator at the beginning of the meeting described the roles of deputy senators as follows:

• to create spaces where citizens can inform one another about community issues

• to create spaces for citizens to be part of a visioning process and set a community agenda

• to create contexts where citizens ask elected officials to specifically work for their community based on information and vision

• to develop community-based systems where citizens keep elected officials accountable to the community agenda and the vision of building the “beloved community”

“I want to be able to learn from your vision, from your skills, from your ideas,” Sanders-Fortier said. “I want to be accountable. I don’t want to go to Montgomery and be wooed by lobbyists to their agenda and forget about your agenda.”

Sanders-Fortier said she has already seen how state legislators become distracted, as lobbyists have already been on the scene handing out gifts.

Among the tasks for deputy senators will be learning the legislative process and getting an in-depth education on the issues facing the community.

“I’m still new to the actual process,” Sanders-Fortier said. “I think for far too long we’ve been too distant from the process. This is going to take come work.”

During a question and answer session, Sanders-Fortier said that she hopes to be able to push for a new state constitution and involve a wide range of people in her deputy senator initiative.

“We want to make sure that we’re a diverse group,” Sanders-Fortier said.

Another person, citing 16 murders last year and already one this year, asked if resources could be allocated to fight crime and provide more opportunities for people in Selma.

“I think we’re at a place where we don’t need to wait for resources,” Sanders-Fortier said. “Once we finally take responsibility for our community, we’ll be able to organize them. We need to bring in resources, but we also have a lot of resources that we’re not using.”

Later in the evening, a dinner was held at the theatre and Sanders-Fortier held an informal swearing-in ceremony.

The next meeting for potential deputy senators will be Feb. 11 at 5 p.m. at the Bridge Theatre, located at 11 Highway 80 East.

For more information, contact Sanders-Fortier at malikafortier@gmail.com.