The town of Erin has adopted a citizen engagement charter to attempt to improve local public engagement.
Communications officer Jessica Spina presented the charter to Erin council on July 10, stating it is a living document that has been in the works “for quite some time now.”
Spina said the charter is part of a broader communications plan.
“Our goal with this charter is to achieve an enhanced level of meaningful engagement with the public, while consistently ensuring that we are communicating in the most effective way,” she said.
The goals of the charter are to:
– improve public participation in town initiatives and decisions;
– create an open dialogue in which the public can constructively voice thoughts and concerns; and
– improve how easily the public can access town information.
The charter explains the town’s core values include transparency, trust and accountability. It also affirms the town’s commitment to: opening lines of communication between council, staff and the public; providing accurate information and updates in a timely manner to the public in as many “places” as possible; hosting public engagement sessions; ensuring open access to information and more.
Councillor Rob Smith said the policy was a long time coming, adding part of the onus is on the public to engage with the town.
Mayor Allan Alls said he is “glad” the town is implementing the charter.
“It will be a challenge, and it will be a challenge for the next council to get the public more involved,” he said. “We’ve made an initial step of that when we first started as a council, but it didn’t turn out the way we expected it would,” he said, referring to attempts to engage the public during council sessions.
In September 2015, council added 15 minutes to the council agenda to allow residents to ask questions.
“It turned into more of a, well lets put it this way, a bitch session, rather than a two-way conversation back and forth,” said Alls.
By March, the public question period was suspended and in April it was replaced by written letters.
The process included an option for the public to write a letter to council, which would be reviewed and included in the correspondence section of the agenda, where it could be debated and answered by council. The process is rarely used by the public.
Council unanimously adopted the citizen engagement charter.
Councillor Matt Sammut was absent.
