SUNDRE — Following a departmental report from chief administrative officer Linda Nelson about lightly attended spring and fall open houses – the former drawing out fewer than 20 people and the latter only about half a dozen – council discussed potential options to improve public participation.
“This is a valuable process as it provides our electors with an opportunity to participate in the decision-making process,” Nelson said during council's regular Sept. 26 meeting.
Coun. Jaime Marr candidly confessed that as a rookie councillor, she came into public open houses with high hopes of being “overwhelmed and bursting at the seams” by long lineups of eager and engaged citizens.
The first-term councillor added “it is a bit sad to sit there for four hours” and only have barely a handful of people ask questions or offer feedback.
“Is there another way we can possibly do this where we may see more input from the community; maybe get to where they are?” Marr asked.
Mayor Richard Warnock said this has been a point of consideration dating back at least to his first term as a councillor prior to becoming mayor, and will likely remain a hurdle for councils in the future.
“No one seems to show up,” added Coun. Chris Vardas, also a veteran member of council having served several terms.
Setting an appealing time that works for a majority of people is perhaps the biggest challenge, said Vardas, adding the open houses often run well into the evening when residents who get home from a long day at work may struggle to muster up the motivation to participate in a public open house when they haven’t even had supper yet.
Additionally, as the open houses have been hosted at the Sundre Community Centre into the evenings, which requires overtime for town staff who are also present alongside members of council to answer people’s questions, Vardas said he’d prefer to bring the open houses to the town office’s council chamber during the day.
Alternatively, he suggested setting up at a high-traffic venue such as the post office’s foyer where many people come through regularly to get their mail.
“Those are the two options that I’ve always thought,” he said. “But there’s no point in us paying overtime for staffers to be there and only have eight people show up.”
Coun. Todd Dalke, who joined the meeting remotely by phone, said that while he understood where Vardas was coming from, expressed the opinion that paying that overtime to make information available to a majority of residents – regardless of whether any even show up – is the municipality’s responsibility.
Marr followed up to ask administration if a digital approach had been considered. Nelson said that while digital strategies have been used to for example solicit feedback through surveys, such an approach has not been utilized specifically for open houses.
“It’s certainly something we could talk about,” said Nelson.
The mayor, who agreed with Vardas that open houses should be hosted at the town office in lieu of the community centre, said he would like to see the subject added as a topic of discussion before the 2023 spring workshop.
“I don’t believe it’s a fall workshop item because it’s not budget,” said Warnock. “It’s an operational discussion, and maybe we can get our heads together over the winter and come up with something.”
Council went on to unanimously carry a motion accepting administration’s report as information.
