"I don't believe in apathy." is a quote from Dave Meslin, community activist in Toronto and guest speaker at the Urban Symposium held last week in Burlington. I attended this 2 day symposium and was energized by the wealth of great ideas that percolated out of the many presentations.
Dave Meslin spoke about how poorly City Hall engages its constituents. This notion is not new to me or my colleagues on Halton Hills Town Council as several of us have voiced this concern. But it was amusing to get Dave Meslin's take on the situation as it can be pretty funny. For example he showed us a typical newspaper announcement looking for public input into a proposal before City Council. Although the font was too small for anyone older than 21 to read, I knew generally what it said. However, you would need a degree in planner-speak to decypher its meaning. The format is guaranteed to reduce public input to near absolute zero.
If we were really looking for public participation the ad would be reformated by a marketting professional to include a picture of the project, and text in a large font that said " a 6 storey building is proposed in your neighbourhood. What do you think? "Then it would give the various ways people could communicate...email, facebook, phone, attend a public meeting. That is all that would be required. A real invitation that would attract attention. If it is legislated that we need to print a ton of other information then I think we should print two ads.
Meslin also posed a good question. " How many people know that anyone can make a 5 minute presentation at any council meeting on any topic?" Not many I would guess. It is a fairly well kept secret.
We send out a Recreation Guide twice a year to all residents that tells about town and regional services but it doesn't tell people this bit of information.
Meslin was concerned about the number of people who ran in the last municipal election so he did something quite creative. He ran a contest modelled on American Idol, and called it City Idol. The contestants didn't sing but rather, they gave speeches about why they would be good councillors. The winner got the help of the contest organizers in their real election campaign. This attracted about 600 contestants and is pretty good indicator that people are not really apathetic. They just haven't been engaged as yet.
Muslin also asked why municipalities don't run big ads in January of election year that say 'Help Wanted' and then give the councillor job description, expectations and salary. Although we advertise the job, we don't market it. There is a big difference.
In Halton Hills the issue of how we communicate is on the agenda and I expect that we will continue to make improvements. Do you have any suggestions?
Do you believe in apathy? I think some people are apathetic but most are interested in their community and just need the right button to be pushed to get them started.
In the meantime, the Ward 4 councillors (Bob Inglis, Ann Lawlor and myself) are going to deliver a newsletter to residents in the next couple of weeks and are hosting a drop in neighbourhood meeting Wed. May 11th from 6:30 to 9:00 pm at the Gellert Centre. ( Ward 4 is Delrex east of Sinclair/Sargent Road and all of Georgetown South). Hopefully the newsletter is eye-catching and some folks will take us up on the invitation to meet us and share their concerns and ideas.
