Councillor Adam Veri wants to make sure the true voice of Norfolk residents is being heard at council.
He has put forwards a motion requesting staff obtain a minimum engagement standard when they are seeking input from the community.
He notes that shortly after he was elected, there was a survey sent out regarding the budget and hearing public input.
Council was told about what the community wanted – but Veri doesn’t believe the roughly 150 people who filled in the survey is an accurate number to represent thousands of residents.
He believes more needs to be done to get community feedback and also business feedback depending on the issue
The county will hold open house style settings to get feedback on an issue, with Veri speaking of the county holding one regarding business licenses that only say three people show up.
Veri says in the end, the current system of the county putting out a survey or holding an open house and saying “show up or don’t” just isn’t cutting it.
The motion he is after can be found below:
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT staff be directed to prepare a report that outlines recommendations for improving community engagement, including setting minimum engagement standards. These standards will ensure that public engagement efforts meet a statistically significant sample size, appropriate to the group being engaged, in order to ensure relevant and actionable results.
FURTHER, BE IT RESOLVED THAT this report be presented to Council for review and consideration as part of its ongoing commitment to meaningful public engagement.