Community and Council Forum: Staff, council members, and residents gather to discuss economic vitality, September 26, 2024.
On September 26, 2024, the Boulder City Council piloted a first of its kind “Community and Council Forum,” a reimagined version of the traditional “study session.” These study sessions are official public meetings where elected officials usually learn about the complexities of specific issues slated for future public consultation, council decision-making, and eventual implementation. Typically, study sessions operate as “fishbowls,” allowing the public to observe but not actively participate or comment. This new forum, however, marks a shift towards more inclusive engagement by inviting a broader dialogue between council members and the community.
Boulder has worked closely with the Center for Democracy Innovation (CDI) since 2023 to better understand how to innovate aspects of their civic infrastructure, particularly how to better engage the public at official public meetings. CDI partnered with Boulder’s Community Engagement department and the City Council Subcommittee on Engagement and a Welcoming Council Environment to undertake a pilot starting with community engaged research leading into recommendations and implementation of democratic innovation in Boulder’s official public meetings.
CDI conducted semi-structured interviews with various local stakeholders and implemented a civic engagement scorecard at city council meetings. The former involved charting local networks and opportunities to augment community participation, and the latter offered a baseline of public evaluation of existing public meeting formats. The culmination of this research led to a final report that was presented to the community of Boulder in February of 2024.
A core recommendation of that final report was to pilot an official meeting in such a way that inserted two-way dialogue and interaction between the public and elected officials. The recommendation for the insertion of public deliberation was to address public, staff, and council member concerns around contentious public meeting interactions during public comment portions of council meetings. The solution was to host a public study session that involved learning, active listening, and dialogue between the residents and officials, including:
- An atmosphere that levelled power asymmetries by removing the dais and microphone and instead having everyone sit together around a table in council chambers.
- Inviting a total of 20 residents to participate, 10 of whom were invited from groups traditionally less heard from, and 10 randomly selected residents from the general public who showed interest in participating at the meeting.
- A learning component including a plenary presentation on the topic of economic vitality by city staff.
- A series of 5 breakout tables where two officials and randomly assigned members of the public participated in facilitated small group conversations about lived experience around the topic, things to consider moving forward, and possible opportunities.
- Regrouping to share themes and further Q&A, and then a post-event evaluation.
Two of the initial findings of this project—gathered from the scorecard responses prior to the Community and Council Forum—were that members of the public wanted an opportunity to A) feel heard and B) have constructive civil dialogue. Fast forward to the post-evaluation scorecard, and there was an increase on nearly every indicator of the scorecard, including meeting efficiency, sentiments of feeling heard, and opportunities for civil dialogue. Even the council members responded on their own scorecard evaluations that any initial skepticism was transformed into wanting to see this process become a regularly occurring process.
Quotes from staff:
“People could have a more nuanced conversation instead of rushing through a 2-3 minute public comment.”
“Hearing directly from community members. Bringing community wisdom to complement staff work early on. I appreciated the logistic support we received as facilitators and notetakers supporting the effort.”
Quotes from council members:
“Great dialog with people I might never had talked with on the subject of economic vitality.”
“The chance to listen to community member’s conversations, really listen. Not react or respond.”
Quotes from residents:
“I was skeptical of this format and pleasantly surprised. I met people I enjoyed learning from, and the information was thorough. Thank you!”
“I really enjoyed being able to have a conversation with people from different points of view and with different experiences. It was an interesting and dynamic dialogue. Listening to the final report it was good to feel heard in the quotes made by city council representatives. Thank you.”
Now that the process has culminated in a proof of concept, there is an opportunity to refine it further, ensuring a consistent throughline from the early stages of policymaking through to final decision-making. At this stage, participants will receive a summary of key themes captured by notetakers during breakout sessions, along with a community newsletter update on the process, establishing a feedback loop for continued input.
Boulder has demonstrated a commitment to innovating its democratic processes, marking a significant achievement as this initiative is the first of its kind. While there are many lessons to be gleaned from this experience, a key takeaway is that despite the inherent challenges of changing formal government structures, this intervention highlights the importance of deliberative and participatory forms of citizen engagement. Such approaches are essential for building, rebuilding, and maintaining trust and positive relationships between local leaders and community members. The positive reception of this Forum illustrates that democratic innovation can thrive within formal political institutions, but it must also be supported by efforts and channels outside of government.
The community in Boulder has had a lively discussion on this topic, here are a few local articles on the Forum:
Here’s a recording of the Forum plenary.
For more information about our Better Public Meetings process please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].
