On March 27, in its first update to the City Council, the Community Dialogue Working Group presented results and recommendations based on its citywide survey and community discussion. In early February, City Council President Marc Laredo and Vice President David Kalis established the five-member group led by Ward 1 Councilor John Oliver. The group – including Councilors Josh Krintzman, David Micley, Martha Bixby, and Alan Lobovits – was asked to explore ways to heal the pain and distrust many Newton residents expressed during and after the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) strike. In addition, the Working Group has been charged with proposing strategies for improving communications and information-sharing between City government and residents as well as clarifying the role of City leaders. (See Fig City News summary of Working Group report.)
In his presentation, Councilor Oliver explained that the Working Group identified about fifteen themes among over 350 responses to its survey and drafted five recommendations to address the most prominent issues. At the same time, he said Council members should feel free to explore and suggest other areas for discussion. The process “… shined a bright light on where the City Council and the School Committee should be doing a better job,” he said. Councilor Andreae Downs suggested that long before Covid or the NTA strike, people were concerned about a lack of face-to-face community engagement. Councilor Oliver reported that:
- The work continues.
- Public engagement is essential, perhaps developing “office hours” and listening and information sharing sessions.
- Collaboration with Newton Public Schools, the School Committee, the Mayor’s office and city staff are essential pieces of the strategic plan.
- Transparency in budgets and other City functions and how to achieve that goal
- Communications — how to put information before the public in an objective succinct format — possibly with links to the City Council’s Friday Packet, which includes all the information about City Council meetings.
Councilor Oliver said that people want to ensure that they are being heard in person and want to understand terms such as “free cash.” Councilor Lobovits added that people want to know “who we can trust,” and are looking for information that ”doesn’t have an agenda.”
President Laredo responded that people need to be heard but there would always be pushback about information. He includes developing an objective standard to information as a part of the Community Dialogue process. At the same time he is concerned about how to proceed with the “office hours” approach, wondering how well it would work if twenty councilors and only three residents came. He proposed that a possible strategy would be to develop a structure for the City Clerk to produce a one-page information piece explaining the budget process and proposals. Finance Chair Lenny Gentile said that Finance Committee information would be provided by the Finance Committee.
Councilor Grossman disagreed that lack of information is the problem. She argued that residents have access to “volumes and volumes of information,” but do not read it. She said when she had “office hours” people did not come. Her Ward 7 colleague, Lisle Baker, who described himself as having been on the Council since the Jurassic Age, said that neither office hours nor large-scale information options worked. In his view, people voted for City Councilors to make the decisions and do the job.
On the other side, Councilor Bill Humphrey supported the view that people felt they were not being heard and wanted access to City Councilors. He said that it was hard to find objective financial information because data is chosen to support a particular point of view and there are always trade-offs in budget decisions.
First-term Ward 4 Councilor Randy Block noted that four of the survey’s five questions dealt with the NTA strike, and he wondered about the breadth of the themes and wondered about issues related to zoning — which were of concern before the strike. Councilor Oliver reported that people raised concerns related to the strike, and these concerns apply broadly. President Laredo recommended that the Working Group incorporate some of the ideas and suggestions offered by the other City Councilors and return with detailed strategies for engaging with residents.
After the meeting, Councilor Oliver told Fig City News, “the Working Group is trying to set the table so that more people can join in.” He said the Working Group needs to work on involving others – NPS, the School Committee, the City Clerk, and City staff – to join the discussion.
