Our 2007 Fall Town Hall Meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday night, November 27. The Town Hall meeting will begin at 7:00 pm. It will be held at the City’s newest fire station – Fire Station #4 – which is located near the intersection of Dell Road and Highway 312. This photo was taken at the City’s 2006 Fall Town Hall Meeting. It was held in the auditorium at Summitt Place Senior Living Center. It was a very nice venue, with a very nice audience. We even had the chance to dine with the Summitt Place residents prior to the event.
In 2004 and 2005, we held off-site Council meetings at the Eden Prairie Library, Eden Prairie Center mall, and the Riley Jacques Barn. The logistics of holding formal off-site Council meetings became formidable, so we decided to adapt our goals and practices into the Town Hall Meeting format. We have been holding two Town Hall meetings each year for the past two years. We have been holding one in mid spring and one in mid fall. The Town Hall meetings are always held “off-site” – meaning they are held outside of the City Council Chambers in City Center. We’ve held previous Town Hall meetings at Forest Hills Elementary School (spring 2006) and Hennepin Technical College (spring 2007).
The purpose of the Town Hall Meeting is to give residents a chance to share their ideas, thoughts, complaints and commendations directly with the City Council. Residents may share whatever is on their mind, as long as it can be (at least) loosely connected to city government. We like to hold our Town Hall Meetings off-site because the City Council Chambers are “our turf”. The Chambers can be an intimidating place for residents to address the Council. We think the off-site locations provide a more neutral venue and a lower key atmosphere for citizens to share what’s on their minds.
We ask residents to fill out a comment/question card when they arrive at the venue. We then send those cards up to the Mayor, who facilitates the event. The Mayor then calls on people to come to the microphone and address the Council. The format of our Town Meetings is meant to provide a chance for residents to speak to the City Council, not for the City Council to speak to the residents. The City Council speaks to the residents in our standard formal Council Meetings during the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of every month. That’s what makes our Town Hall Meetings are great opportunity for residents. Our format requires Council Members, and senior City staff members, to listen to you speak.
What’s more, not only do we listen to you speak, we respond to what you tell us. That response may be a piece of information. It may be a change in the way we do something. It may be a commitment to have a Council conversation about your concern in the future. It may be a polite rejection of your idea. If you share something with us that asks for a reply, you’ll get one. I can’t guarantee it will be the reply that you want, but I can guarantee you a reply.
The microphone will be open next Tuesday, November 27 at Fire Station #4. There’s nothing else on the agenda that night, except the most important thing a local government can do for its citizens: listen to them.
