The City of Mesa Government: Prime Example of Non-Participation by The Public In The 15th Year of "The Brady Bunch"

01 February 2021

The City of Mesa Government: Prime Example of Non-Participation by The Public In The 15th Year of "The Brady Bunch"

Let's start off with this official statement: Mesa operates under a charter form of government with citizens electing a mayor and six councilmembers to set policy for the City.

Mesa's councilmembers serve terms of four-years, with three members being elected every two years. The mayor is elected at-large every four years. The mayor and council are elected on a non-partisan basis. The vice mayor is selected by the City Council

"The Mesa City Council believes that its people, not leaders, are what makes a City great and actively works to encourage citizen participation in the decision-making process. Whether it is through neighborhood meetings, advisory boards and committees, telephone calls and letters, or email, the Mesa City Council sets policies based on the input and needs of its citizens."

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-- Reference > https://www.mesaaz.gov/government/mayor-council

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OK. So we have the following stated ways to measure - and quantify - the input and needs of citizens. Right?

In an open, transparent and accountable government the public has A RIGHT-TO-KNOW and can expect frequent periodic statistics and reporting on how much input is provided as well as what specifically are the needs of citizens that are communicated in these prescribed formats for every single City Council District Representative and the mayor: except for telephone calls, letters, and emails the normal group gatherings and in-person contacts have been restricted by COVID-19 public health restrictions.

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However, every committee and board meeting has a requirement to report the number of Citizens Present - it's rarely more than none, even using the complications of signing on electronically to Virtual Zoom platforms where the public can send in online comments and/or listen.

> Neighborhood meetings

> Advisory boards and committees, advisory boards and committees,

> Telephone calls and letters

> Email

> WHAT ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?

Every City Council member, as well as the City Council, has official webpages that show the number of subscribers/followers and comments/replies that are posted.

NUMBERS CAN BE PLUGGED-IN FOR ALL THESE WAYS TO MEASURE THE PARTICIPATION AND INVOLVEMENT BY CITIZENS AND THE PUBLIC IN THEIR GOVERNMENT

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Here's one easy way to see - by updated viewer count - the public conduct of what happens at various city government meetings, at least the ones that are recorded and streamed into The Lower Chambers for the entire month of January, produced by city-owned Mesa Channel 11 - https://m.youtube.com/user/cityofmesa11 - that were uploaded to their YouTube user channel.

Check out the view counts

More > There are 4.15K Subscribers

City Council Meetings and Study Sessions Notice

To decrease COVID-19 exposure, the City Council Chambers is closed, but public participation and viewing will be available electronically.

See the City Council Meetings page for full details about meeting participation

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mesa operates under a charter form of government with citizens electing a mayor and six councilmembers to set policy for the City.

BLOGGER NOTE: There is an option on YouTube for Closed-Captioning during viewing. If you want to see the "Approved Minutes" - rather then A TRANSCRIPT - there's usually a delay in the release of that record.