This idea of a mobile office is likely not going to work any more than the so-called open office door that the Mayor has used over the past few years. It does not engage the citizens in their city. It may allow for a few other disgruntled citizens to complain. It still puts the Mayor as being the gatekeeper of information and action. Many people that I talked to over the last month have been very frustrated with the lack of attentiveness or respect for their issues. Many tried but will not speak to the Mayor again for that reason.

I think that an engaged citizen is much more than just showing up every three years and putting the X in the box of their candidate of choice. I have already heard from a number of voters that they will begin to come down to the City Council meetings more often to see what is going on, first hand. Perhaps there will be more times when citizens will be speaking out against the current path of the council and suggesting change or movement in another direction. Maybe we will actually get some debate in the council chambers. Wouldn’t that be a change? It will also require a lot more face to face or small group discussion.

One necessary change needed is to televise more widely or at least webcast the committee and council meetings. With all of the technology now in place, it should be relatively easy to put forward these meetings so that there will be fewer private meetings and more scrutiny of what is happening at their City Hall.  Why not set up a screen in the gym of every high school on Council meeting night, have popcorn and have the public view and debate the council meetings together?

One focal point for fundamental engagement should be the city budget coming next spring. Departments of the city have already put in their requests for funds for the next year. Does anyone know what they are proposing? Over the past 5 years or so, the lack of information about what is in the budget has been going down each year. The draft budget has been coming out later and later. In 2009, for instance, the budget was released just over 2 weeks before it was approved. The opportunity to be engaged clearly did not occur. It is likely never to occur unless you give the citizen more time to assess the issue and discuss the options and directions in the plan.

I would further make an assumption that most people in this city haven’t got a clue about the city budget or what might be spent in the budget or whether, if given a choice, they would make different decisions. One option seen in a few cities is participatory budgeting. This is where the citizens, through their own elected community councils, would review and develop the priorities of the budget and would then submit their plans to their elected City Council for ratification. Others have given over authority of only a portion of the budget, say 1%, to the citizens to spend in the area where they thought would be their choice of action.  Both of these would demand discussion and debate across the city and between people that likely have not talked before on the budget.

The other portion of the electorate that are constantly being marginalized or not engaged is the youth of this city. Most political scientists would say that you need to engage the voter early in their life to ingrain the sense of importance of the vote and the need to be the directors of their own future. So, why not introduce a class in civics in high school?

The older youth, those in university or their first job, need empowerment as well, not just engagement. Many of those entry level jobs do not give the employee a sense of power but more likely a sense that they have to conform to the status quo and not to rock the boat. But perhaps most important is to engage the enthusiasm for life that some would be able to give to the rest of civil society. Something that I had suggested a few years back, a youth advisory committee, has not been effectively engaged or involved in the operations of this city, something again, that would encourage life long involvement of our youth in their future.

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