Colusa City Council members Tom Reishe and Daniel Vaca, along with City Manager Jesse Cain, met with a few citizens last week for a cup of coffee and an informal conversation about city operations.
After more than a year of being blocked from attending public meetings because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new group was formed to give citizens greater access to public officials.
” Coffee with a Council Member was an idea I had in response to the renewed interest Ive noticed the last six months or so,” said founder Vicky Willoh. ” It seems like local residents want more substantive conversations than public meeting rules allow. Most residents dont understand how rigidly structured public meetings are intended to be, so I thought an informal setting for conversations would benefit our residents.
The new group, called ” Commitment Colusa,” has organized two additional coffee meetings. The public is invited to meet with Council members Denise Conrado and Greg Ponciano at 8:30 AM on Sept. 2 on the back patio at Caffeinated. An informal meeting with Mayor Josh Hill is scheduled for Sept. 16.
” Our first Coffee with a Council Member went very well – we had more than 10 people in person on the patio at Market Street Grill – and lots more participating virtually on Facebook Live to ask questions of Councilman Vaca and Councilman Reische,” Willoh said. The tone was collaborative.
While the coffee meeting was informal, citizens did ask their elected officials for better transparency, particularly in matters of spending and budgeting, after the City Council earlier this month adopted what many felt was a vague preliminary budget while continuing to spend lavishly on festivals and parties.
” You need to deal with line items, so you know where the money is going to go,” said Ben Felt. ” Thats not approving a budget and then making up as you go how you are going to spend the money.
Citizens also asked the City Council to better define ” economic development” which, with no opportunity provided for public input, morphed from obtaining grants to cover departmental costs and infrastructure improvements to soliciting donations from companies and contractors to help fund community events.
Sadie Boggs Ash, a co-organizer for the coffee meeting, asked city officials for greater transparency on grant applications, including a dashboard that would give the public and council members information regarding grant deadlines, application dates, closing dates, response dates, and awards as they are noticed.
” I dont know how you forecast a budget with grant funds if you have no visibility to what is getting awarded in 2021 or 2022,” Ash said.
Councilman Vaca said he agreed the City Council and public should know the status of all grants, and that such critical information would be forthcoming as the city moves forward.
” We need to have that and we need to have that as soon as possible,” Vaca said.
The council members also agreed to discuss and define economic development at a regular City Council meeting.
Without knowing what kind of response the Coffee with Council Member would get, organizers said they were pleased with the first informal gathering.
The group is also seeking to have better audio for the next gatherings for those who want to tune in virtually, although they encourage citizens to participate in person.
Organizers said the meetings provide citizens with the opportunity to ask their public officials questions – and have those questions answered. According to Brown Act requirements, the City Council cannot respond to questions raised during public comment in a regular meeting, but can only respond to questions raised on matters that are on the agenda.
” We would like to keep council members in rotation and move the day and time around to give every type of schedule an opportunity,” Ash said. ” We are hoping that this will coincide with the city staff doing their part in clear communication, so the entire city and its community members can all be on the same page, understand what is going on, and be informed. Knowledge is power and the more people understand and know, the better we can all work together.” –