San Antonio is slated to take up a council consideration request this week calling for measures to help increase public participation at city hall.
In late 2018, a group commissioned by the city's Department of Government and Public Affairs submitted guiding principles for future public participation efforts top help answer these questions:
What can the city do to improve transparency and open government? Will tech-based proposals like live-streaming committee meetings and publishing voting records be enough to gain public trust?
What tools or initiatives are already active and how can the community contribute to the civic process more effectively?
Guests:
- Ana Sandoval, council member for City Council District 7
- Jeff Coyle, director of the city's Department of Government and Public Affairs
- Sherri Greenberg, clinical professor and a fellow of the Max Sherman chair in state and local government at the University of Texas at Austin's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs
"The Source" is a live call-in program airing Mondays through Thursdays from 12-1 p.m. Leave a message before the program at (210) 615-8982. During the live show, call 210-614-8980, email thesource@tpr.org or tweet at @TPRSource.
*This interview aired on Monday, January 14, 2019.
View the links below for local public information resources:
- SA SpeakUp (city public participation campaigns)
- Open Data SA (geospatial datasets, tracking construction and service requests)
- NowData (database of social indicators in the region)
- Transparency SA (city financial reporting platform)
- Budget Input Box (comments regarding city budget)
