By Pepper Parr
January 3rd, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
In 2013 city council approved a Community Engagement Charter
Purpose and function of the charter was to have a citizen’s voice at the table and make public involvement part of everyday practice within the City of Burlington. The ChAT team provides pre-consultation advice on public involvement issues or opportunities prior to launching a formal public involvement plan or activity.
Shortly after the Charter was approved the General Manager of Community Services assigned a task force of residents who had been involved in developing the Engagement Charter, as well as city staff responsible for coordinating engagement activities in the city to form ChAT. The team’s role is to ensure that community engagement is part of everyday practice at the City of Burlington.
In April 2014 City Council received the Charter Action Plan developed by ChAT which was to serve as a guide, created with input from staff and residents, which translated the Community Engagement Charter into a series of actions.
As ChAT continues its work in community engagement, staff is, at the same time, engaging in public involvement opportunities as part of everyday practice. This report reflects the work in which ChAT has had a direct involvement or influence.
Portions of community feedback on a city commissioned survey.
Council adopted the 2015-2040 Strategic Plan, a blueprint for city-building. To support and deliver the promise of true community engagement, the city, in 2016 created two new positions: Michelle Dwyer as the Corporate Public Involvement Lead, dedicated to community engagement, and Kwab Ako-Adjei a Senior Manager of Government Relations and Strategic Communications.
ChAT describes itself as an integral part of changing how city staff involve the community in important issues, projects and policy. The group has undergone a year of significant transition. Two citizen members left ChAT at the end of 2015 and a third citizen member left in late 2016. These members left due to personal commitments and relocation.
Chris Walker, an original member of SHAPE Burlington and Shaping Burlington and Bob Elliot, a new resident of Burlington are now citizen representatives on ChAT
There has been some delay in the 2016 work plan. ChAT has identified some new goals, including creating a standardized tool for public involvement and creating a larger, community-based group to help build community capacity.
This all really good stuff – what causes genuine concern is when three Council members worked as a committee and brought forward a motion to reduce the amount of time a citizen would have to delegate at a Standing Committee from ten minutes to five minutes.
John Searles, a citizen ChAT member delegated to a council meeting recently and advised them that if they did pass such a motion they would be violating the intent and purpose of the Engagement Charter.
If ChAT had real clout that motion would never have gotten on the agenda. But it did and it was heavily debated.
ChAT in principal is a nice document – in practice – don’t bet much more than the cost of a cup of coffee on it and expect them to really defend your rights. The current council, for the most part, takes the position that they were elected to run the city and they will do as they see fit and as long as the decisions they make serve their interests. Getting re-elected is in their best interests so from time to time they go along with a delegation.
The ChAT report makes mention of the first ever virtual meeting with the media (press conference) on July 6, 2016. I was part of that event and was the only media person involved in the conference call – there was one other person representing a media outlet but not a reporter. He was just taking notes.
The media seldom hears anything about ChAT – which is because they don’t say very much.
Then look at the people who sit on the ChAT representing the city and then count the number of citizen’s there to represent your interests.
Portion of citizen feedback on a city commissioned survey. Link to the full report at the end of this article.
The following summarizes ChAT’s work plan and accomplishments in 2016:
Increase the number of people participating on the insight Burlington panel and Let’s Talk Burlington, our online survey tools.
Participation in both survey platforms was stable in 2016 and a third survey tool (iSurvey) was also used. It should be noted that Let’s Talk Burlington (MindMixer) contract will be completed as of December 31, 2016. The Insight Burlington (Vision Critical) contract will be completed as of February 28, 2017. Securing a successor online survey platform is a priority for 2017. Until then, our iSurvey tool will be used to engage with residents online.
Should there be agreement in 2017 to continue with the Community Survey (statistically valid telephone survey that asked residents their opinion on a number of topics including public involvement), we will be better able to gauge or benchmark movement in this area.
The community engagement plaques have been produced and are being installed in public buildings across the City.
There is going to be a community engagement checklist for staff to use in preparing community engagement plans for city projects and initiatives.
A terms of reference has been completed for the core group.
The 2017 workplan for the ChAT team is:
Finalize and roll out the staff checklist for community engagement no later than Q2 of 2017.
Recruit an additional citizen member for the ChAT core team, with an emphasis on reflecting Burlington’s diversity no later than Q1 of 2017. Following this, expand ChAT by recruiting and creating a larger, community-based group to help build community capacity.
Using ChAT’s leadership and in consultation with staff and residents, secure a new online survey platform no later than Q3 of 2017.
Meet with the appropriate citizen advisory committees to bring awareness of the community engagement charter and its’ associated rights and responsibilities throughout the year.
Committee Composition – Citizen Members
John Searles, Yvette Dhillon (until October 2016), Gloria Reid (until December 2015), Chris Walker (started March, 2016) and Bob Elliot (started May, 2016)
Centre: City manager James Ridge with Corporate Public Involvement Lead Michelle Dwyer talking to the KPMG consultant who helped the city draft the 25 year Strategic Plan
Staff Members: Michelle Dwyer (City Manager’s Office), Donna Kell (City Manager’s Office), Sean Kenny (Planning and Building), Doug Pladsen (Parks and Recreation), James Ridge, (City Manager – team champion), 2016), Wanda Tolone/Roxanne Gosse (admin support). Jeff Crowder, Kwab Ako-Adjei (October, 2016), Carla Marshall and Sharon Will (ad hoc members).
Donna Kell, Manager Public Affairs. She directs a staff of 2.5 people plus a summer intern.
ChAT sets out the following list of changes made to public policy due to community engagement and public involvement:
Survey Topics that were posted online through Insight Burlington, Let’s Talk Burlington or iSurvey:
1. Downtown Streetscapes (Insight Burlington: 314 responses/Let’s Talk: 37 participants)
2. Parking Signs (Insight Burlington 356: responses/Let’s Talk)
3. Art Gallery of Burlington – use and satisfaction (Insight Burlington: 343 responses)
4. Strategic Plan (draft stage) (Insight Burlington: 181 responses)
5. Burlington Public Library (Insight Burlington: 275 responses)
6. Burlington Inclusivity Advisory Committee (Let’s Talk: 5 participants)
7. Events Strategy (Insight Burlington: 413 responses)
8. Townhouse Development (Insight Burlington: 424 responses)
9. Official Plan Visuals and Tagline (Insight Burlington: 428 responses)
10. Insight Burlington Member Satisfaction (Insight Burlington: 277 responses)
11. 2017 Budget part 1 (Insight Burlington: 405 responses/Let’s Talk: 23 participants)
12. Canada 150 Mosaic Mural (Let’s Talk Burlington: 19 participants)
13. 2017 Budget – follow up survey (Insight Burlington: 316 responses)
14. City Apps – Survey live until November 21, 2016. As of November 15th, 303 surveys have been completed.
Portions of the community feedback on a city commissioned survey.
The following are some of the topics in 2016 that the public provided feedback using the iSurvey platform:
1. Burlington Transit South Service Road survey – 101 responses
2. Mapping youth friendly locations in Burlington – 6 responses
3. BurlingtonTransit.ca post launch survey – 35 responses
4. Yardstick survey – gauging park use and satisfaction survey – 33 responses
5. Parks & Recreation program surveys (skating, music lessons, golf, 55+ etc) surveys may still be open – 3,000 + responses
6. Carving a new path in Downtown Burlington – 40 responses
7. Space allocation in city recreation facilities – 23 responses
8. Canada 150 mosaic mural theme – 839 unique responses
9. Post delegation survey (still open) – 20 responses
10. Fire safety – school programs survey – 21 responses
11. Live and Play guide (vote for the cover) – 11 responses
12. Love your Playground survey – 1,229 responses
13. Sports field user – maintenance survey – 23 responses
14. Lakeside Vision Survey – 52 responses
Delegations: 171 people delegated (spoke to committee or council about an item on the agenda) to committees of council/council between November 2015 and November 2016.
Citizens delegate to Council when they are unhappy with what is taking place. Expect members of the current council to mention the number of delegations to show how accessible they have been.
Twitter is monitored by the city and responded to 7 days a week
ChAT communicates with the following city advisory committees:
Burlington Cycling Committee
Burlington Accessibility Advisory Committee
Sustainable Development Committee
Burlington Inclusivity Advisory Committee
Burlington Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee
Heritage Advisory Committee
Burlington Mundialization Committee
Committee of Adjustment
Audit Standing Committee
One can only wonder how the conversation with the Cycling Committee went – there is a reported 2000 plus signatures on a petition to put an end to the New Street road diet.
Background links:
Details on a research report commissioned by the city
The Engagement Charter – complete document.
The stats presented in this report are a damning indictment of the success which this mayor & council have had in engaging the public/residents in Burlington. And the results are likely worse than this when one considers that only a fraction of the population–those that are seeking some response, actually participated. Of course, the likely purpose of this “Community Engagement Charter” is purely window-dressing so that the mayor & council can self-righteously proclaim that they are seeking public input.
My experience in the past year supports the view that this Charter is here for purely cosmetic purposes. Initially, 6 of the 7 members of this council voted in favour of limiting presentation time by members of the public down to 5 minutes; even after the final vote, Craven still was not interested in giving the public fair input. The New Street fiasco, mentioned at the end of tbe article, is another case in point–Jack Dennison NEVER consulted with local residents prior to the decision despite the fact that the lane reductions impacted his constituents the most; the final “public” meeting on the issue at Robert Bateman HS was again “window dressing”–a fait accompli before the meeting ever started. As my old grandfather used to preach, “I may doubt what you say but I believe what you do!”