If you've been following my posts over the last few years, you'll have read about Langley City's Citizens' Assembly.
In local governments, we have various degrees of engagement with the community. The degree or continuum of engagement is sometimes called the ladder of citizen participation. In the worst case, local governments can work to manipulate the community, but most of the time, local governments inform the community. Examples would be a notice of a public Council meeting so people can show up and observe the meeting or attend an open house to learn about what is going on at City Hall.
As you move along the continuum, there is consulting and involving the community. In Langley City, we do this when we ask you to provide feedback on a community plan such as the Urban Forest Management Strategy or Official Community Plan. With this level of engagement, local governments consider, address or incorporate community feedback, but Council and local government staff are still in the driver's seat. This type of engagement isn't bad as we live in a representative democracy, but to fully include the community as a partner in decision-making, we need to move towards the collaborate and empower part of the engagement continuum; this is where the Citizens' Assembly comes in.
Setting up a system where local governments collaborate and empower the community takes a lot of work to do right. Over the last two years, Langley City Council and staff have been laying the groundwork for our first Citizens' Assembly, which will focus on community safety and well-being. Being fully transparent, Langley City residents and business owners frequently tell us we must do better regarding community safety. This feedback has persisted for as long as I can remember, so what we've done to this point hasn't moved the needle. I believe, as does Council, that for this very complex challenge, we need to collaborate and empower our community. A Citizens' Assembly will hopefully move the needle by putting forward community-led solutions to create a city where people feel safer by addressing the root causes to improve community safety and well-being. Please read a previous blog post for more information on why and what the Citizens' Assembly will address.
On Monday, Langley City Council endorsed moving forward with the next stage of the Citizens' Assembly. The Assembly will consist of 29 members of the community who will be selected based on a demographically representative sample of our community, including people who historically do not engage with local government. The first meeting of the Citizens' Assembly will occur in February and wrap up in the summer.
The Assembly will present its recommendations to Council in the summer. Council will then work to action those recommendations. If Council chooses not to move forward with a recommendation, we will provide a very good explanation as to why. We will take these recommendations seriously. After that, Council will monitor the recommendations' implementation to ensure we are improving community safety and well-being.
Throughout the Citizens' Assembly process, the City will ensure the whole community is informed.
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