City seeks public's ideas via new website

Source: Dayton Daily News, OhioNov.迷你倉 03--The city of Dayton has launched a new website meant to generate discussion about city issues and collect feedback from residents about potential solutions.At EngageDayton.org, which launched last month, city officials post prompts on topics such as recycling, safety, immigrant-friendly policies and more. Residents' responses are reviewed by city staff, who sometimes respond on the web site."There are going to be some ideas that we can run with and implement, and there will be some ideas that we just can't," said Aaron Sorrell, the city's director of planning and community development.A recent reader post suggested that the city sponsor events to teach non-immigrants more about local immigrant populations. City staff forwarded the idea to the Welcome Dayton committee for review.Users must sign up to participate on the web site, providing their name, e-mail address, year of birth and zip code. Comments appear with the poster's first name and last initial, and anonymous comments are not permitted. The website includes a translation feature that allows users to participate in dozens of languages.Sorrell encouraged not just city residents to sign up, but also people who work in the city and live elsewhere, or former residents who have moved away.Topics will range from broamini storage issues like budget priorities, to specific cases like neighborhood projects. Topics that get little feedback will be switched out fairly quickly in favor of issues that draw more interest.Patricia Rickman, chair of Dayton's Southwest Priority Board, said she knows little about the program so far, having just seen a presentation in the past week. But she expressed concern that a lot of the people she represents don't have computers or internet access and could be left out of the process."This isn't meant to replace our traditional communication and outreach efforts," Sorrell said, adding that people can still reach city officials by phone, e-mail or in person. "This is meant to enhance those methods and reach those people who aren't coming to meetings and they want to communicate with the city on their time. This is a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year platform."The website is part of Dayton's citizen engagement strategy, which is intended to improve upon the decades-old system of priority boards. Sorrell said the full structure of that plan, which was expected earlier this year, is still being adjusted based on feedback from residents.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) Visit the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio) at .daytondailynews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉