A Community Engagement Charter was one of the recommendations in the Shape Burlington Report put together by the late John Boich and former Mayor Walter Mulkewich. It needs far more prodding from the public than it is getting and may well die from neglect.
If the bulk of the citizens in this city are engaged with their city hall – they don’t know it.
The Mayor has made extensive use of social media – 4000 people follow his blog, 3200 pick up his tweets. The Mayor has run several Round Tables and he holds regular Open Door days during which he and his staff wait expectantly for whoever walks through the door.
Rick Goldring will run for the office of Mayor again in 2014 – and at this point in time there is no one who could successfully challenge him. Meed Ward has Mayoral ambitions – and while she is popular, that popularity isn’t deep enough for her to defeat Goldring at this point in time. She does not yet have the confidence of the people who determine the direction city council takes.
And, Meed Ward has a lot of fence mending to do with both her council colleagues and a number of senior people at city hall.
This time next year the Mayor will be knocking on doors, confirming support and firming up his alliances in his drive to get himself re-elected.
His Worship is back from a deserved two-week vacation during which he traveled to Ireland with long-time friends. Refreshed, the Mayor will dive into the pile of paper on his desk – what he might also want to do is find a couple of weekends, when he gets away for a day and a half by himself and reviews his 32 months in office and asks himself a lot of questions. If he asks the right questions, the answers will come.
There is a better Mayor within Rick Goldring – he just needs to let that person come out.
Stephanie, what makes you think he cares? Not a lot of votes in the rural area. Seems he would rather promote the Pier and downtown despite it housing less than 7% of Burlington’s total population.
Seems during his interview and through his sober second thought, Mr. Goldring forgot that he should have taken a deeper, harder look into what non-resident Vince Rossi was doing to the City’s rural greenbelt community – aka: the Burlington Airdump.
Talk about not being prepped enough in advance. Both he and his staff should know better.
Tip – take a media relations class.