Mountlake Terrace, WA, is no stranger to trying new things to broaden civic participation. As a result of recent initiatives, residents can build their understanding of municipal government through the city’s community academy. Meanwhile, a group of volunteer “community ambassadors” work to bridge the gap between government and disconnected populations. Likewise, residents frequently convene at city hall to celebrate Mountlake Terrace’s diversity and other causes through municipal “proclamations.” Most recently, the city’s partnership with the Better Public Meetings project has community members considering a dramatic step: what could the city learn from a high schooler taking the mayor’s seat at city hall?
The path to this question starts with the city’s participation in the Better Public Meetings project throughout 2026. The project is a partnership, funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, between the National Civic League and New York-based arts working group Perfect City. Better Public Meetings has partnered now with seven different communities across the United States to make their official public meetings more inclusive, productive, and civil. This includes meetings of city councils, school boards, neighborhood councils, and any other meeting typically governed by open meeting or “sunshine” laws. In each community, the National Civic League leads a period of research to identify opportunities to innovate public meeting design and civic engagement practices more broadly.
To craft tailored recommendations for Mountlake Terrace, the National Civic League interviewed 15 community members, including elected officials, municipal staff, civic leaders, media, and ordinary residents. The League synthesized these findings with the results of a community survey completed by 167 residents as well as the League’s Civic Engagement Scorecard. The Scorecard is like a meeting report card, completed by residents after public meetings they attend, giving them an immediate opportunity to highlight what went well and what needed improvement.
The League compiled this research into a set of preliminary findings presented to city leaders and residents at a Public Forum held on October 19th, 2026, in city hall. In addition to strengths and areas of opportunity, the report outlined some of the challenges facing local civic participation. Among these is the traditional format of public comment, which places residents on one side and government on the other. This distance, and the implied power dynamic that it engenders, stifles nuanced discussion, favors performance, and fosters miscommunications.
It’s certainly not a challenge that Mountlake Terrace faces alone. This public comment format is ubiquitous in American cities. It was promoted in the late 19th century to ensure transparency – but not necessarily to encourage deliberation or enshrine participatory democracy.
With its widespread use and long history, it’s no wonder that communities usually stick to the traditional public comment format despite its shortcomings. How can a community take the leap to try something new?
Sometimes, you need a fresh perspective. That’s what Aaron Landsman, founder of Perfect City, offers. As part of the October 19th Public Forum, Landsman organized a short, participatory performance of actual city council meeting transcripts from cities across America. The performance invites participants to swap roles: residents take the council’s dais; city council members move to the audience. By framing meetings as art, Landsman invites participants to look beyond their own role, walk a mile in others’ words, and see city council meetings for what they are: nuanced, sometimes humorously absurd, and vitally important.
Landsman and Perfect City have led a variation of this performance in 10 cities, and every performance ends the same way: a new mayor, played by an audience member, takes the stage and calls on the audience to consider the different ways we can be in community with each other, even if we don’t always agree. For Mountlake Terrace, a community hoping to improve youth civic engagement, this “new mayor” was a remarkable, if surprising, candidate: a high school freshman. He had come unaccompanied and knew few, if any, of the attendees. He had seen a flyer for the event and resolved to go.
Mountlake Terrace’s young mayor may have only been a performance act, but the city’s commitment to civic innovation is real and ongoing. As part of its research, the National Civic League identified opportunities to turn celebrations into civic onramps, adjust public meetings for more deliberation, and build greater partnerships with local organizations to engage underrepresented communities. The League will now work with the city to implement promising pilot programs, learn what works, and continuously improve, all with the goal of bringing more residents into civic life. As the public forum demonstrates, if you show your community that you’re ready to try new things, you might be pleasantly surprised by who shows up.
