Town Hall Meetings
In keeping with the new effort by the Banning City Council to reach out and involve the residents in decisions which determine the direction of the City, the Council has recognized that the council meetings are too restrictive in time and content for a true back and forth discussion of issues. They have scheduled four Town Hall meetings in 2014 for the citizens to work with City staff and other decision-makers in the community.
These meetings are for everyone in the community and are intended for citizens to meet the staff and form relationships so that they can comfortably discuss city issues just by picking up the phone or meeting with people they already know personally. The Meetings will each be held in different locations and each one will have different staff available.
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The idea is that staff can introduce themselves and tell of what they are doing and their problems in doing it and ask for input and ideas from the residents they serve. After a brief introduction, the rest of the time will be spent in back and forth discussion on a personal level.
The first meeting is scheduled for April 14, 2014 in the Hospital Modular Building at San Gorgonio Memorial Hospital from 6 – 7:30pm.
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This first meeting is important because the interim or new city manager will be one of the hosts and she is particularly interested in meeting people and hearing how they feel she needs to operate differently and more accessibly and get input on immediate issues she needs to get up to speed on. We need to help her with that.
At the present moment the leaders invited to participate in the first Town Hall meeting are:
Banning City Manager
Hospital CEO
Superintendent of Schools
President of MSTC
This list may change, so there will be several updates and reminders here on the Patch before the date of the meeting.
This is a new era. The Council has reached out to the residents and now it is the public’s turn to respond. Hopefully this won’t turn into a complaint session over past issues which can’t be changed, but a suggestion forum for the future. The past is past. This is a new day and we have to go forward as a City from here. That was then – this is now. The intent is to form a partnership that has been lacking between concerned citizens, the Council, City staff, the Police Department, and other lead agencies of the City. This will only work if the citizens will give it a chance and participate. I think it says a lot for our current Council that they have seen this need and have actively begun reaching out to the public for advice and support. I am asking those who vocally complain in print to attend and give it a chance and meet the people they are complaining about personally and see what we can work out together to make Banning better for all of us. This is our chance to be a part of things. It is not right for us as the public to elect people to represent us and then take pot shots at them for not doing what we didn’t take the time to discuss with them.
