|
CITY OF VANCOUVER ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT |
Date: |
November 24, 2003 | |
Author: |
Michael White | |
Phone No.: |
7094 | |
RTS No.: |
3821 | |
CC File No.: |
1011 | |
Meeting Date: |
January 13, 2004 |
TO: |
Vancouver City Council |
FROM: |
City Manager |
SUBJECT: |
2003 International City Management Association Program Excellence Award for Citizen Involvement: the City of Vancouver's Public Involvement Review |
INFORMATION
This report is being submitted for INFORMATION.
PURPOSE
This report informs Council that the City's Public Involvement Review has been awarded the 2003 International City Management Association (ICMA) Program Excellence Award for Citizen Involvement.
BACKGROUND
The Program Excellence Award for Citizen Involvement recognizes successful strategies designed to inform citizens about the local government services available to them and to include citizens in the process of community decision making. The award concentrates on areas such as community consensus building and citizen education.
The City's Public Involvement Review received the award at the ICMA's annual conference held this past September in Charlotte, North Carolina. Previous awards for the Review include an innovation award for the Community Web Pages from the Municipal Information Systems Association of BC (2000) and an education award for the City's Public Process Guide from the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (2001).
The Review has been guided by an inter-departmental steering committee, chaired by Jacquie Forbes Roberts, General Manager of Community Services. The Review's success has been dependent upon a partnership between all corporate service groups that deal with the public, including the City, Parks, Library, Police, and Fire Services.
DISCUSSION
The Public Involvement Review began in 1996 as part of the Better City Government initiative to review and improve citizen involvement in City programs and services. The Review consisted of three stages: a cataloguing of City processes (1996), an evaluation of City processes by an independent consultant, Context Research (1998), and implementation, which has been underway since 1999. In 2002, program responsibility was transferred to the City Clerk's Department. Improvements have been focused in a number of strategic areas. The following provides some highlights.
Public Process Resources:
The City now has a permanent Public Involvement Coordinator to coordinate and promote the public process resources and programs available to staff, including: a comprehensive intranet-based public process guide, a staff resource group in public process, a small budget for mediation and facilitation services and public process training. The position is located in the City Clerk's Office, which has assumed a corporate Public Involvement role.
Training:
Staff and Organizational Development has recently developed a course in How to Plan Effective Public Processes (based on the Public Process Guide). There are also a number of other courses now available to staff in conflict resolution and interest-based problem solving.
Civic Awareness:
The Review has created a number of specific initiatives to improve civic awareness. A Newcomer's Guide to the City has been translated and printed in Chinese, Punjabi, Vietnamese and Spanish, with sponsorship from Scotiabank, Lower Mainland TV (LMtv) and the Provincial government. Other initiatives include a civics curriculum for grade 11 Social Studies students, a revised and expanded Your City Works Brochure, and a new citizen participation page on the City's website.
Communicating with Communities:
The Review has built upon the number of programs that engage communities on a regular basis (e.g. Community Visions, Community Centres, NISTs, etc.). QuickFind is now the City's centralized database of community groups available to both staff and the public. Community Web Pages have been created for all 23 Local Areas of the City and contain information on services, recreation centre programs, community events, developments and road construction.
Multicultural Outreach and Translation:
Most City programs include some degree of outreach and translation for Vancouver's diverse population. To become more consistent Citywide, multicultural outreach and translation strategies are being developed by Social Planning, in consultation with various multicultural groups. As mentioned above, the Newcomer's Guide to the City has been completed and is available in five languages.
For more information on these and other public involvement programs and resources, please visit the Citizens Participate page on the City's website:
www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/publicprocess/citizens.htm
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