The City of St. John’s is getting ready to hear from residents as it prepares to update its budget and three-year strategic plan.
Public engagement on the guiding documents of the city will begin in May and carry on through June, with online and in-person engagement planned.
The feedback will be organized in September, with plans for December to present the first budget in the city’s next three-year budget cycle.
St. John’s Mayor Danny Breen says in spite of criticism of past councils for not listening to residents, the city’s outreach to citizens has gotten better.
“Our engagement on the budget has been increasing every year. It’s something that you build. This year we’re having more work with our various advisory committees. There’ll be more work in the public, whether it be at kiosk-type arrangements where we’re talking to people one-on-one,” said Breen.
“We’re going to be using every possible means we can to be able to engage the public on the strategic plan and the budget.”
Breen says he will take part in town halls throughout the process.
The 2018 budget garnered criticism from council newcomers Ian Froude, Hope Jamieson and Maggie Burton, who said public engagement just wasn’t there. All three voted no to the 2018 document.
The explanation at the time for the lack of public consultation was that the budget was the last in a three-year cycle, meaning most of the spending decisions had already been made years in advance, which didn’t leave a lot of room for new ideas from the newly elected council.
Breen says this time around the public can really influence what the city decides to do in the future.
“We just recently did a citizens’ satisfaction survey. The results are now being tabulated. We’ll be presenting that to the public shortly,” he said.
“In that, we asked some hard questions — how are we doing, what are the issues that are important to you? So, we’ll be taking that information and honing-in on some of the key areas. Does the public have input? Absolutely. We’re starting in May on a budget that’s presented in December.”
The 2015-18 strategic plan had six strategic directions, with 49 total goals.
A city report said 30 of those goals had been completed, with 13 others making slow progress. Six of those goals had not made any progress at all, according to the report.
The strategic plan and three-year budget document will guide the city from 2019 to 2021.
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