Smiths Falls town Council will be hosting a public budget meeting during their regularly scheduled council meeting on January 11th. The town will be providing public access to budget documents, and is hopeful of receiving citizen participation and comment.
Initially, it was proposed that the town would seek comment from townspeople via their online survey platform Speak up, Smiths Falls.
“That isn’t really my idea of a public meeting,” commented Councillor Brennan, “obviously [due to the pandemic] we can’t meet in person, but we can via Zoom. People in the queue could ask their questions live in a public forum.” Mayor Pankow agreed; “I’m open to methods that allow people to be more engaged.” Councillor Dwyer added, “there’s value in having people speak directly to us… there’s great opportunity for that, and it’s necessary. It wouldn’t be prudent for us to proceed without going through fulsome public consultation.”
Councillor Alford suggested that citizens who are uncomfortable with the video meeting technology could submit their comments and questions in writing, which could be read aloud and addressed in the meeting. CAO Morris assured Council the meeting could be arranged in a more interactive format.
Council is eager for public input in the town budget discussions: watch their Facebook page and smithsfalls.ca website for updated information over the next few days.