If you've ever wanted to tell the City how they should spend your money, you'll have a few chances in the near future. On Sunday, an online survey will go live. It will be unscientific -- that is, just because 90% of survey respondents give a particular answer doesn't mean that 90% of Lincolnites would give that answer -- but it will give Lincolnites a chance to rate budget priorities and offer written comments.
Then there will be four town hall meetings:
- April 22: Lincoln Southwest High School
- April 24: LPS District Offices
- May 6: Lincoln High School
- TBD
My bet is the fourth meeting will be held at Lincoln North Star or Lincoln Northeast.
I get the feeling there is a lot of distrust over this process. Rather than applauding the City for asking for public input on the budget -- something Lincolnites have asked for many times over the years -- there's a good deal of dismissal going on. I don't know if Mayor Beutler and the City Council will take the input seriously or not. I hope they do, and I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt until they demonstrate otherwise. One of the first tests will be the release of the phone poll data. It is due in mid-April. Hopefully they release all the data and let the public come to our own conclusions. If all they release are soundbites and summaries ... well, I'll be concerned.
Do you have faith in the City's public input process? How would you have done it differently?
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