Candidates push culture change to engage with ‘disconnected’ residents
Civic election candidates are bringing new solutions to the table when it comes to Edmonton residents feeling cut out of decisions made by city hall.
Residents often complain they feel officials make decisions before asking their opinion, and any feedback residents give falls in a black box.
“They’re disconnected. There’s this emotional anger,” said Eli Schrader, a professional mediator and Ward 8 candidate who is testing out a new technology-based solution during his campaign.
He partnered with Australiabased company Bang The Table. Now, every time someone enters a comment on his website, a computer analyzes the text, assigns a subject, and even determines the person’s position on the issue.
That allows him to say, for example, that 65 per cent of the first 500 people who left a message have new development in the neighbourhood on their mind. Fifteen per cent of those think the new infill is good, leading to increased diversity and neighbourhood renewal — 85 per cent are angry, worried developments are poor quality and will overstretch neighbourhood parking and sewer capacity.
That was all analyzed by computer, with no one pre-writing a potentially skewed question or taking days to read and tabulate responses.
He hopes to have 4,000 responses by Monday, pledging to share the analysis publicly and with whoever wins Monday’s election.
If every councillor, every department, uses this technology, Schrader said, work can start with issues the community identifies, not always come from the top down.
Several candidates made better consultation a key part of their platform. Ward 3 candidate Jon Dziadyk and mayoral candidate Neil Stephens both pledge regular office hours in the community, with Stephens promising an eyecatching “mayor mobile” or retrofitted ambulance.
Ward 4 candidate Beatrice Ghettuba wants to empower community leagues to better assess needs from the ground up.
Fahad Mughal, running for mayor, wants regular, non-binding electronic plebiscites on all major council issues, not to polarize debate but to make community input more transparent. Those who can’t go online could vote at a community hall kiosk.
“That’s how we start a conversation,” said Mughal, suggesting voters can give their email address to let the city send more information if it’s clear there’s a misunderstanding.
“You serve the community, you ask them what they want ... Engagement leads to ownership,” he said, suggesting a more transparent and accountable process will let residents finally know they’ve been heard.
Incumbent mayor Don Iveson isn’t a fan of that idea. He is worried that asking a direct question in a voting situation will polarize the issues.
“I would not want to see the complexity of delivering services and infrastructure reduced to polarization. That’s what happens when you come down to yes or no questions,” he said, suggesting council can make better decisions when they have expert advice and the traditional engagement tools of surveys, open houses and focus groups.
He also said the Edmonton Insight Community is giving good public feedback.
That’s a self-selected group of at least 6,970 Edmonton residents who have signed up to answer city surveys. At least 1,164 of those people are city employees.
City officials have been trying to improve public engagement. Ward 5 candidate Miranda Jimmy said her top priority would be getting reforms implemented.
In the new policy, officials promise to report back to residents on what they heard, include information on what public engagement was held and how it affected the decision in every report to council, and establish an advisory committee to help the city keep improving.
As a community member, Jimmy helped develop that strategy. It will take a culture change but developing the new policy gave her hope, she said. “I felt (the attitude) change, the language change, the openness change ... I hope it will combat the cynicism.”