REPORT TO COUNCIL
SUBJECT
Title
City Councilmembers' Town Hall Meetings with the Community [Council Pillar: Enhance Community Engagement and Transparency]
Report
BACKGROUND
As part of the yearly Council Priority Setting Session, the Council discussed the desire to "Enhance Community Engagement and Transparency" as a top goal. As part of the discussion, one key attribute to enhanced community engagement was providing more opportunities for the residents to discuss issues with their elected officials in their neighborhoods outside of regularly scheduled Council Meetings.
DISCUSSION
One of the challenges residents face with engaging with their elected officials in a Council Meeting is the limited opportunity and time afforded to them for items not on the official meeting agenda, in addition to the uni-directional communication resulting in a non-agendized item of discussion. Residents have little other formal avenues of engaging with their elected officials in an open and public setting for their concerns to be heard and questions to be answered.
To facilitate more opportunities for residents to engage with their elected officials, the City Clerk is proposing that Councilmembers avail themselves to the residents on a regular basis in a free-form setting unlike that of a City Council Meeting. These series of meetings would be in the form of an open-mic Town Hall, where Councilmembers would be scheduled to appear at a time convenient to residents based on a pre-determined and advertised schedule. The City Clerk would facilitate, not moderate, the discussion, allowing residents to ask questions of their elected officials and raise concerns and make their voices heard.
There are several models that the Council can explore. One possible and recommended model is the following:
* The Town Halls are held on a monthly basis.
* Each month's Town Hall would be host to 2 Councilmembers, based on district, on a rotating basis.
* Town Hall meetings are held at the 3 public ...
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