Last month the City of Walnut Creek introduced a new feature to its website call the Open Town Hall:
Open Town Hall is an online forum for civic engagement. Check out what others are saying about important Walnut Creek topics, and join the conversation by posting your own thoughts. City officials will read the statements to learn more about what people are thinking.
While Open Town Hall is sponsored by the City of Walnut Creek, it is run by Peak Democracy, a non-partisan company whose mission is to broaden civic engagement and enhance public trust in government.
So far there has been one question posted by the city, “What should Walnut Creek’s new wayfinding system look like? Check out these designs and tell us what you like!” which received 24 replies and 132 views.
Is this a sign of things to come in terms of open civic engagement with local residents or is this a fad that will fall by the wayside? Would it be better if the city used Facebook to garner feedback on city issues? Should Lafayette and nearby cities use Walnut Creek as an example and implement this as well?
Is anyone planning to sign up? To register you need to enter your home address which I imagine they do to weed out spam but of course that introduces privacy issues.