Mayor Michael Hancock | Michael Hancock Official Website
Mayor Michael Hancock | Michael Hancock Official Website
DENVER – City leaders have made progress in supporting public notice and engagement for projects like street paving but the city remains at risk of inconsistent public engagement for bike lane projects, according to this month’s new follow-up report from Denver Auditor Timothy M. O’Brien, CPA.
“Offering our constituents meaningful opportunities to participate in planning projects that impact their neighborhoods is an important part of effective government,” Auditor O’Brien said. “I am pleased to see a real effort in several city agencies to step up their efforts.”
In November 2021, we noted that multiple city agencies needed to do more to achieve comprehensive and accessible public notice and engagement. We looked at whether the city was doing enough to make sure members of the public are informed and given meaningful opportunities to participate in the decision-making process for city projects.
During the original audit, we found inconsistent compliance with public notice requirements, which limited the public’s awareness of some city activities. We also found that standards, expectations, and practices for public notice varied across the city.
Since then, several city agencies have taken steps in the right direction. Eight of our recommendations were fully implemented, six were partially implemented with evidence of meaningful progress, and three recommendations have not been implemented.
Among the successful steps the city has taken to engage with the public, we found the Department of Community Planning and Development now has an established guide for conducting public engagement and outreach on text amendments. That means it is more likely that the public will have an opportunity to provide feedback on substantive changes in zoning code before it is too late in the process.
The department developed a process to take input from the public and guarantee a response to online comments. The process also involves notification about how public input will be considered in the project.
“People want to know that their voices are not only heard, but also how their input will be used to affect decisions,” Auditor O’Brien said. “When individuals know how their ideas might be incorporated, they are less likely to be discouraged from future engagement.”
In several instances, city agencies took positive steps but still have work to do to fulfill our recommendations.
For example, the city’s Technology Services agency has taken steps to centralize information on city events, public meetings, and other engagement opportunities. The city created a draft citywide framework for engagement including best practices and guidelines for standardized citywide community engagement on the city’s website, social media channels, and in partnership with registered neighborhood organizations.
However, this plan is still in draft form. And the city could still benefit from a dedicated working group or committee to assess engagement and outreach strategies, lessons learned, and best practices across all agencies.
Similarly, Transportation & Infrastructure created a new public notice procedure for notifying neighbors about street paving projects, including requiring photo proof that individual addresses were contacted. However, because this year’s paving season isn’t over yet, we can’t confirm whether the new requirements helped as expected.
“I continue to encourage all city agencies to go above and beyond the minimum public notice requirements when it comes to public participation,” Auditor O’Brien said. “This process isn’t about checking boxes; it’s about truly serving the public.”
Unfortunately, one area of weakness that remains is how the city engages with people about bike lane projects. Transportation & Infrastructure made no progress in setting expectations for how its Office of Community and Business Engagement staff support bike projects teams. As a result, these teams are still at risk of responding to constituents inconsistently. The not-implemented recommendations in this area mean there could be a lack of quality public engagement for bike lane installation projects.
“My office regularly hears from constituents who ride bikes,” Auditor O’Brien said. “We know they feel they often aren’t getting consistent answers about projects, from design through implementation. I hope the city will take action to improve community engagement in this area soon.”
Engaging community members in the government’s decision-making process increases public trust and results in more effective solutions to community issues. By providing more structure and guidance around public notices and public engagement, the city could ultimately provide higher-quality services to residents and business owners.
Original source can be found here
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