Communication

Last night during the council meeting … that almost broke the midnight barrier … there was an interesting discussion that came up.

 One of the delegations Michael Fox who lives in an area just north of Main Street and east of Thompson brought up some concerns about intensification and the heights of buildings to be constructed along Main.

 The main concern he brought up was the fact the residents in the area that will be affected by these changes haven’t been informed of public meetings and left in the dark.

 Town staff brought up the fact they advertise in the Champion extensively about these meetings and signs are erected as well informing residents of the potential changes.  They also advertise on the Town website as well.

 What can be done to help this?

I don’t think there is one solution to this problem but one thing that comes to mind is the 11 people surrounding the council table.  If there is something that is going on, changes to zoning, new development etc that will affect a certain area, councillors have a responsibility to get out and do what they can to inform residents and gather public opinion.

Over the past couple of months, on weekends and some week nights I have been able to knock on many doors and drop flyers for my campaign.  I don’t say it to impress people but I want to impress upon councillors that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to reach people.  Flyers can be relatively cheap to produce and possibly can be expensed and in an afternoon or over a weekend you can quickly drop these flyers to households.

You don’t even need to have flyers made, just an effort to contact people. 

“Hi my name is _______ and I’m the councillor for this area.  I don’t know if you know this but there will be a public meeting on _______ about possible changes to zoning”  or whatever it might be…

If they can’t make the meeting, ask for an email address (as most people have at least one) and say I’m setting up an email list to let everyone know what’s going on.

Using other tools like social media is just as effective.  When I ran back in 2006 there were very few candidates with websites and even fewer with blogs.  Thankfully now, the number of candidates in this election with websites and blogs has increased dramatically.  Some don’t use them as effectively as they should.  Twitter is another way of getting short messages out to the public.  I’ve found recently that “tweeting” during council meetings helps people understand the process and keeps them informed.  It’s such a good idea that even other candidates are doing it now.

The beauty of this “new” technology (it’s not really new anymore but new to some people) is that most of its free.  It’s free to get a Facebook account…its free to get a Twitter account and so on.

The town has its limitations to what they can do to inform people of upcoming meetings.  Not everyone reads the Champion from cover to cover and the local media doesn’t really do an effective job being proactive when it comes to these things.  They normally report on them after the fact and when people read it, they say “why didn’t I know about it”

I don’t want to over simplify this and I’m sure I’ll have some incumbent councillors email me and say “that’s nice to say but wait until you’re elected and you have to do it.”

To them I say “bring it on” I’ve had a lot of comments from people in Ward 6 saying “why are you out so early?”  I tell them this is something they can come to expect of me as their councillor.  I plan on direct contact throughout the term of council, not just during the election campaigns.  I can’t count the number of people who don’t know who the councillors are or who they voted for last time.

If councillors really want to represent people they have to think outside the box when it comes to how they can stay in touch.  Corporations over the last couple of years have really taken to social media as a way of advertising.  How many people who are on Facebook are “fans” of something whether it is the Milton DBIA or Chamber of Commerce or COKE or Pepsi? 

For instance, I got regular messages from the Milton DBIA about the Street Festival, how I could volunteer, when things are happening, schedule updates and everything else going on that day.  They used the tools effectively and got the message out.  In fact many candidates (including myself) have a “FAN” page on Facebook (go to www.mikecluett.ca and click on the Facebook logo on the right to join 😉 ) and this means those who are on that list get campaign updates, and comments from other fans about that particular campaign.

These things can be used as effective communication tools and combined with old fashioned “feet on the street” door knocking, websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook you can help enhance interactivity between local government and the taxpayers.

It takes a little effort to get things going and it won’t be an overnight solution.  But at least it’s a bit more than an ad in the Champion, and something posted on the Towns website.

Speaking of direct communication, I’ll see you at the doors.