City administration is proposing a new approach to how it gathers input on the annual budget plan.
In an attempt to try and engage more feedback and from a more diverse group of residents, when the 2014 budget process begins later this year staff will be trying out an e-town hall meeting.
In a presentation to the city's finance and audit committee last week, communications and citizen engagement manager Chris Bone outlined a plan for a meeting live-streamed over the Internet where residents could participate in person, via the web or over the phone.
"Last year, there was some concern on the part of council as to who was participating," said Bone.
During the 2013 budget process in February, online survey asking residents to rate their satisfaction of 28 different services generated 270 responses.
An exclusively online poll may have hindered those with limited Internet access, Coun. Albert Koehler said at the time.
In previous years, they partnered with the UNBC Institute for Social Research and Evaluation to poll a random sampling of residents or distributed both hard and online copies of the survey for residents to complete.
The in-person opportunities to comment during budget meetings only yielded a high of one resident coming forward to offer an opinion.
A 2012 communications audit suggested that the public wasn't finding the mayor and council as accessible, said Bone and that coupled with the intimidation factor of having to stand up and speak in a public forum like a regular council meeting might be keeping some people from participating.
The proposed e-town hall meeting would feature an overview of the budget process, a moderated dialogue guided by predetermined questions and an open question-and-answer period to allow participants to pose questions to members of staff or council.
The multi-media meeting is proposed to take place in late September or early October, well before the first budget deliberation meeting scheduled for Nov. 27.
Coun. Murry Krause said he liked the concept, which he said was a "great way to start talking about how [the city] was going to use technology better."
Nanaimo hosted it's own e-town hall for the first time last year and the Vancouver Island municipality saw an increase in the number and the range of demographics of participants, said Bone.
During their 90-minute session, 23 questions were answered from a total of 39 submitted either in person, on the phone, through the city of Nanaimo's website, and over Facebook and Twitter.
The city received a bronze award for Innovation Management from the Institute of Public Administration of Canada for their event.
Prince George already has the capability to live stream a meeting, with only a few minor adjustments required, according to Bone. The city of Nanaimo has also offered to "provide any other capability at no cost," she added.
