Another Promise Kept: More Access to City Hall

In last fall’s campaign I committed to make citizen involvement easier, so residents have more access to local decision-makers and information. 

I’m really proud of the ‘Councillor Open Door’ sessions I’ve been running at the community centres in my liaison neighbourhoods, Oaklands and Vic West. Neighbourhood residents can just walk in without an appointment and ask for my help on their issues, or talk with me about their ideas.  In these last eleven months I’ve met with hundreds of people, responded to just as many phone inquiries, and tried to solve as many problems.  And where there have been conflicting views at the table, I’ve done my best to find the common ground on which to build the best possible solution.

And I am extremely excited to have presented a package of open government initiatives to city council that will empower citizen engagement and create a new environment of ‘open data’ policies to make a whole new range of city information and data available to anyone.  Council’s committee of the whole unanimously recommended adoption of my Open Data Motions, which were approved by the full Council October 13th.  Open data is just the first step – coming soon are fully recorded Council votes, live video streaming of Council meetings, and a host of other activities to bring greater transparency to city government operations.  You can read the details in a full note on my Facebook page.

Just a couple of quick examples of how I have acted on my campaign commitments.  Check back again for more!