City Making Huge Push to Engage Locals in City's Future
By Cole Goodwin
The City of The Dalles is set to host a virtual town hall on March 9th that will decide the fate of millions of dollars of City investments for the next eighteen years.
But does anyone care?
Not many so far.
Only 2.8% of The Dalles citizens participated in the first survey.
The City received 439 responses of which 5 were in Spanish and 434 were in English.
View full survey results here.
Some community advocates called this “concerning” and urged community members to weigh in on City plans.
But why are so few people participating in their local government?
CCC News asked a few community members and government officials to share their thoughts.
The Dalles City Councilor, Darcy Long had some thoughts on the issue.
“My thought is that people have seen us do these surveys and town halls before and felt that they were not listened to or that they were perfunctory, or that we just did them to check the box” said Long-Curtis.
The Dalles City Councilor Darcy Long
Long-Curtis also wanted to be clear that garnering public input for the 2040 Vision Project was not just ‘checking the box’.
“I know that’s not true this time around. We’re really making an effort, but most people have no reason to be aware of that effort or believe us when we tell them that we are, because of the long history of the government just going through the motions,” said Long.
Mayor Rich Mays also affirmed that the City was taking the project seriously.
“We’re taking the whole idea of visioning our future very seriously,” said Mays “And I don’t think it can be considered a success unless people perceive that they’re being taken seriously. So, we’re going to have focus groups concentrated on each of the six subjects and we’re going to have a city council member present in each group,” said Mays. “We also have a consultant who’s managing the entire event.”
Rich Mays
Robbie Denning, two time National Association of Development Organizations Economic Development award winner also had some thoughts on the subject.
“People are strapped for time, money and inspiration to engage in these topics,” said Denning.
Ms. Denning noted that due to the socio-economic demographics of The Dalles, “Many community members face significant barriers to participation in local government such as a lack of resources, unmet basic needs like shelter, and food, poor work-life balance, a lack of affordable childcare, and varying education levels on how local government functions.”
Robbie Denning
So what motivates people to participate in local government?
“They have to feel that they will be heard and then see the action being taken towards initiating that change as a result of their participation,” said Denning. “Seeing that direct impact occur increases the likelihood that they will engage again. Either that or the issue has to hit close to home.”
Councilor Long had something similar to say on the subject.
“The two motivating factors are: That people need to feel like they can have an impact. And the second one, which we sometimes see more often, is anger and frustration about things being bad,” said Long. “But with this Town Hall, there’s no strong anger emotion tied to it. A lot of people are neutral.”
In addition, Long said that consistency was key to building trust and participation.
Data from a Gallup Poll shows that confidence in local government has remained fairly consistent over the decades.
“There has to be consistency in how often the City asks for public input. Input has to happen often and the output has to show that the government listens to them,” said Long. “The more a government reaches out to people and shows that their input is guiding their decisions, the more people are going to want to participate.”
Denning concurred saying that survey’s needed to be a regular occurrence, easy to engage with, be sure to target underserved groups, have opportunities to provide quality feedback, and be actionable on the part of government.
City Made Effort
For their part, The City said they had done outreach to garner participation in the survey and the Town Hall.
“The first survey, like the Town Hall, was heavily promoted with social media and with traditional media outlets. A social media video, featuring Mayor Rich Mays for the English-language version; and Jose Barragan for the Spanish-language version, attracted more than 1,000 views,” said Alice Cannon, The Dalles Community Development Director.
The current Population in The Dalles is estimated at around 16,000, according to the US Census.
The Dalles Vision 2040 community survey began accepting responses in November of 2021 and closed in December of 2021.
The City promoted the survey in an email to 550 citizens promoting both the first community survey, flyers, Facebook posts, two radio announcements and press releases to CCC News and Columbia Gorge News. CCC News also published a story about the survey back in November.
And yet, the survey drew just 439 responses.
Another Chance to Participate
If you’re one of the 97.2% of The Dalles citizens who missed your chance to contribute to the survey, you’ve got another chance.
On March 9, 2022, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. the City of The Dalles will host a virtual community town hall to share highlights from The Dalles Vision 2040 community survey and invite public input to help refine and prioritize initial vision ideas.
There will also be a second public input survey that will launch mid-March following the Town Hall.
“This is to ensure that people can weigh in on ideas captured at the town hall,” said Cannon.
“The City Council wants to attract a broad range of participants in the 2022 Community Vision project,” said Cannon. “The City offers Spanish-language translation services for Town Hall participants. One registrant has requested those services, as of this morning. The City is hoping to attract more Spanish-language participants for the March 9th Town Hall.”
““This is your chance to impact how your city will grow in the next eighteen years,” said Mays “We’re inviting community members to help us create a shared vision of our future and help make The Dalles even better. We want to collect input and big ideas from as many local voices as possible. We hope you can join us!”
Wasco County Commissioner Kathy Schwartz also encouraged citizens to participate in the Town Hall.
“I think people generally underestimate the power of community member participation in local government,” said Schwartz “Without it, we elected officials do our best to understand the issues but when community memebers show up they can often give us a perspective that we haven’t thought of. It helps us do our job better.”
ZOOM Meeting
To register for the town hall zoom meeting on March 9th from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. click here.
For more information, visit thedalles.org or contact Alice Cannon City of The Dalles Community Development Director at acannon@ci.the-dalles.or.us or call (541) 296-5481 ext. 1151.
Read more about political participation in The Dalles by checking out last Saturday’s Question of the Week: Do you get involved in local government?.
