Moving Beyond Citizen Advisory Councils
One of the most controversial actions taken by the current City Council occurred during its February 4, 2020 meeting. With no public notice and no indication anywhere on the official City Council Agenda, a former City Councilor launched into a lengthy takedown of Citizen Advisory Councils (“CAC”) and why they no longer served the purpose for which they were originally set up in the early 1970’s. Council then voted 6-2 to stop funding and providing staff support to CAC’s. At the same time, Council agreed to retain a consultant to help develop a more effective community engagement process and to also create a new Office of Community Engagement.
While ending all support for CAC’s in this manner took many in the community by surprise, it was understandable given the failure of several past efforts to revise the CAC system, the most recent dating to May 2017. These past reform efforts were driven largely by growing concern that CACs no longer reflected the needs and desires of the City or its residents. This concern was justified given that average CAC attendance in 2019 was 24 and favored older, retired, wealthier homeowners. Acknowledging the historic shortcomings of the CAC’s and failure of past reform efforts, City Council opted for revolution over evolution.
Council started reimagining community engagement in Raleigh immediately after it voted to end support for CAC’s by creating and funding a new department dedicated solely to developing, implementing and coordinating a comprehensive approach to community engagement. While the City worked to establish the Office of Community Engagement and recruit its first Community Engagement Manager, it hired noted expert in community engagement Mickey Fearn in May 2020 to analyze the current state of community engagement in Raleigh and report back with his findings and recommendations. After months of community conversations, he delivered his final report to Council on March 16, 2021.
In September 2021, the City hired Tiesha Hinton as its first Community Engagement Manager. After several months of fact-finding and meeting with residents from across the City, Ms. Hinton recently appeared before City Council asking it to authorize a text change to formally create a new Community Engagement Board. This new Board will offer ongoing guidance and insight to help inform the City’s overall approach to community engagement. It will also be responsible for elevating the voices and needs of communities that have been underinvested and historically marginalized. Council voted 7-1 to approve Ms. Hinton’s recommendations. Be on the lookout for more information about how to apply to serve on the Community Engagement Board in the coming weeks.
Agree or disagree with the decision and underlying rationale for eliminating City support of CACs in 2020, the decision was made. The pieces are now in place to reinvent and reinvigorate community engagement in Raleigh. But as with any effort to change the culture of an organization, not to mention an entire city, success will take time and persistence. RaleighForward is ready to help reimagine community engagement so it leads to outcomes that better reflect who we are as a community.
A version of this post appeared previously in the Triangle Business Journal.