Calexico to invite public input
CALEXICO – Starting this month, the city will host open forums where the citizenry can meet with city o cials to ask questions and express their concerns.
The practice had been implemented intermittently in the past by di erent elected council members, and this time around had been championed by Mayor Lewis Pacheco.
“We’re not inventing the wheel,” Pacheco said. “It’s been done before.”
The open forums will fall on the last Wednesday of each month, allowing further discussion of matters stemming from the month’s two preceding regular City Council meetings.
Plans call for the initial meeting to take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. July 25, at City Council Chambers. Dates and times for subsequent meetings will also posted on the city’s website, www.calexico.ca.gov
The open forums will likely have at least two council members and a city administrator, such as the city manager or assistant city manager in attendance.
When possible, city o cials will provide answers to residents’ questions and concerns during the forums. On other occasions, those present may need further input from their colleagues, or have to conduct further research, Pacheco said.
“It’s an open-door policy for us,” he said. “We want to be as open and willing to hear any concerns that residents have.”
The open o ce hours are scheduled to last about two hours, but can be extended if need be, he said.
The public forum also coincide with a relatively recent request by a prominent resident to have the city host town hall meetings.
The open forums will differ from town hall meetings in that the former will have a limited number of council members present, as opposed to the entire council.
The open forums are also meant to determine whether the format is conducive to dialogue and whether another platform might need to be considered, Pacheco said.
“If it doesn’t answer their issues, then we’ll try something else,” he said.
Former Calexico Councilman and county Supervisor Tony Tirado said that he had been attempting to persuade city officials to host a town hall meeting since April.
On Thursday, Tirado said he was content that Pacheco, who was appointed mayor at the council’s July 5 special meeting, had responded in a positive manner to such a request.
The public forums should allow citizens to express their concerns much like they have the opportunity to do so at City Council meetings, but without the time constraints.
“If all we have is three minutes, it doesn’t give us time,” Tirado said, referring to the three-minute time limit individuals are given during a meeting’s public comment session.
Residents’ continued concerns about economic development, the current state of the city’s downtown business improvement district and public safety, to name just some, have not always resulted in answers, Tirado said.
Hopefully, the public forums address that, he said. “We want to bring back Calexico to what it used to be,” said Tirado, a councilman between 1980 and 1995.