Speaking to people in our community, we’ve gathered some great ideas where we can bring more transparency and involvement to our local government. With help from many of our community leaders, we were able to isolate and condense all the ideas into 10 ways. These ideas took a lot of thought and great effort to put together but won’t mean anything if you, the people, don’t get involved.
Ten ways to improve Greenfield city government and make it more accessible to voters:
■Make Charter Review Committee members elected positions, rather than appointed by the mayor and the City Council president. (The first Charter Commission in 2000 was all elected.)
■Require the City Council to hold quarterly “constituent conversations,” in which voters are asked to tell councilors what their issues are that local government could address, and councilors respond to their issues/concerns.
■Separate from business meetings of the council, hold council sessions at which they take testimony from the public about issues that are coming before the council, and ask questions of the public. Encourage greater interaction between voters and their elected councilors.
■Require council subcommittees and the Planning Board, Zoning Board and Conservation Commission to publish their agendas seven days in advance, not two days, and post on the city’s website not only the full agenda for each meeting but give the voters access to all the documents in their packet so voters can follow along and see what a board or council member is seeing.
■Post on the city website a complete list of the public comments received by each city councilor, by date, on a month-by-month basis, so these comments become part of the public record and are posted online for all voters to see the nature and volume of email message from constituents.
■Before any final deliberation process takes place, allow the public to make comments during the agenda of all committee and board meetings, like Planning Board, Zoning Board, Conservation Committee, School Committee, DPW, Police, where the public, or a legal counsel representing the public, can ask questions of an applicant for a permit, superintendent, chief, developer, lawyer, or any person who submits a proposal to one of these committees or boards. Give citizens an opportunity to ask questions that a board or committee might not think of.
■Encourage the council to use section 7-9 of the city charter to put before voters, on its own motion, at biennial elections, any controversial issue or policy that allows all voters to express their support or opposition on major controversial issues.
■Require all councilors to post a “Report to the Voters” on the city website, on a quarterly basis, that explains how they voted over the past quarter, and why.
■Most legislative bodies have some staff who can do research on issues that arise. The Greenfield City Council should have an independent research director, full or part-time, who investigates issues, at the request of the council, and is not reliant on reports generated by the executive branch, or any other city department.
■Allow voters to elect all 13 councilors by making all members of the City Council at-large seats, and reduce their term to two years to encourage councilors to keep in touch with the voters.
Mike Corona lives in Greenfield.