Would it not be advantageous if there was a means to have an opportunity for real time, two-way conversation to communicate back and forth between the good folks that manage the City of Vernon and the citizens that live here?
I am absolutely not talking about a complaint department.
The process would need to be a congenial, controlled and meaningful method to have an opportunity for citizens to ask questions or offer appropriate information not available on the city’s current website.
At the same time, it would provide the opportunity for the city to do the same thing.
The city already has an information management function and the resources there could perhaps be the pivot point to manage this two-way flow of information.
The current opportunities to help the people that manage our city hear us, the citizens, and vice versa, for us to hear them, could and should be improved.
On the City of Vernon website we currently have, Connect with Us, Report On Issues and Engage Vernon.
None of these tools, nor all three together are the system that I propose.
The key to what I am suggesting is that there would be a convenient opportunity for all to raise questions or comments for all to see as they are received.
Many residents would like to know more about, and perhaps even contribute to, the management of the city we live in.
The public information currently released by the city is fine but there could be more of a two-way opportunity for communication in a public forum other than at public meetings which are often not well attended by the public.
With such an opportunity the city could speak to all of the citizenry directly, hear the citizenry and likely reduce the number of calls or letters to the city departments or elected officials.
It would also provide a permanent, partial record of communications regarding management of our city.
Certainly, the city should and would have the right to reject communications that have inappropriate content or demeanour.
It seems that with all of the opportunities and means to communicate these days, we could very easily have an online system that would be far more efficient and effective to accomplish this goal of building a superior information flow.
The one-way discourse that we currently have through local media only permits a one-sided and stale dated conversation which is seldom totally satisfying or effective.
Ultimately the city administration and council have the right and responsibility to manage our city. We hired and elected them to do just that.
A collaborative, real-time, two-way approach for discussion between the City of Vernon and its citizens could only help to improve the limited information exchange that we currently operate with.
After all, we all live here and want the best for our community.
Who knows, if this were to be successful perhaps other local governments would adopt a similar method of communicating.
Jeff Moore
