Correspondence from Drew Coleman Re: Advisory Committees
Email expressing full support for adding advisory committees to increase community engagement.
From: Drew Coleman Sent: November 7, 2022 10:26 PM To: Info Address info@viewroyal.ca; Mayor And Council Email mayorandcouncil@viewroyal.ca Subject: Advisory Committees
Dear staff, Mayor and Council of View Royal,
I am emailing as I understand there will be discussion regarding our current and proposed Advisory Committees at the meeting tomorrow. While I will not be able to attend the meeting, I want to express my voice.
I am in full support of adding committees and giving the committees an opportunity to have a voice.
When I approached the municipal election and connected with everyone who was running, what I was looking for was a council that supported engaging with the community. I see the Advisory Committees as an opportunity to increase engagement. Through this, I think we have an opportunity to reflect on how the committees engage with the public and the system that allows them the avenue to truly advise the mayor and council.
While I understand I do not know all the potential challenges, something that I have heard voiced is a lack of participation in the past with these committees. We need to look at this as a moment of change. A change in how we engage with our community when seeking participation. If we are seeing a lack of participation, we need to consider how we seek participants, not removing the participatory spots. How are we advertising it? How easy is it to apply? How clearly does it state the commitment and how flexible are we being with making it work for those volunteering. I believe we need to seize the opportunity in front of us and find new ways of drawing volunteers in to be connected with our town.
If having more committees is going to be more work for the town staff, we need to work to accommodate that. I believe that town staff are there to serve the public within View Royal and this will help them keep those they serve involved.
When discussing the Advisory Committees, please consider your commitment to public engagement. Please know that the public would like to be involved but we need to hear from you that each and every one of our voices are important. Show us that you value our voices when you are presented with a vote to support this. Please vote to increase the available options to be involved with our town.
Thank you very much,
Drew Coleman 136 Conard St.