Borough Council Committees

Enhance Civic/Public Engagement

Propose, develop, and begin to implement a strategy and associated policies and procedures to enhance civic/public engagement

Why:

Constituent interaction transforms government from an abstract entity into a responsive service provider, ensuring policies and actions align with the community's actual needs and creating a true partnership for a better-functioning town.

Local officials must interact with constituents to build trust, ensure accountability, gather vital information for informed decision-making, advocate for community needs, and foster civic engagement, all of which directly impact service delivery and make government more responsive to real-world issues, such as public safety and infrastructure, thereby strengthening democracy.

Link to the WC Borough Comprehensive Plan

Throughout the WC Borough Comprehensive Plan, you will find references to the borough needing to reach out to various organizations or resident groups to gather input on specific projects. This clearly shows the borough recognizes the need for meaningful interactions between the borough and its residents/community.

SMART framework/
Specific, measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely

To successfully meet this goal:

The ACT committee will provide staff with the overarching goal to develop and propose a strategy to enhance civic/public engagement. That strategy should include possible, specific targets to achieve the goal.
The ACT committee will then work with staff to review and approve the overall strategy and identify at least 4 of the proposed targets to tackle first.
Staff will then develop associated policies and procedures that the borough can begin to implement.

Possible targets to enhance civic/public engagement include, but are not limited to:

Identify ways to increase engagement with underrepresented constituents and organizations
Create comprehensive procedures to record and track-to-completion public concerns (regardless of how those concerns are received)
- Develop centralized tracking of concerns raised at Council meetings and concerns received via phone, text, etc
- Propose standardized procedures for handling emails sent to the Council group email address
Identify ways we can engage with a greater number of public organizations and encourage individual members of Council to meet with organization leadership
Offer public education opportunities to the community on relevant topics (E.g.: What is the borough of West Chester? What is council and what does it do? What departments does the borough have and what services do they provide?)
Host listening sessions and townhalls
Propose other targets to enhance civic/public engagement

Staff is encouraged to suggest other methods their departments or the borough as a whole can use to communicate and interact more extensively and effectively with the public with particular emphasis on under-