To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Kristin Zagurski, Senior Management Analyst
Title
Discussion/Direction: Proposed Townwide Civic Academy
Body
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Executive Summary
Town staff has discussed developing a Townwide civic academy, to provide interested residents and business owners with a broad formal education on Town government. Staff presented Town Manager Corliss the idea last summer, and he authorized staff to conduct research and initial planning on the concept for presentation to Town Council.
Staff has completed its research and initial planning for a proposed Townwide civic academy. The purpose of this item is to provide Council with this information so that Council can determine whether this concept is one staff should move forward with at this time.
Discussion
For several years, the Town has hosted a successful Citizens Police Academy. Noting the success of that program, questions received from community members regarding departments’ service levels and the number of new residents within Castle Rock, staff is interested in developing a Townwide civic academy to provide interested residents a broad education on their Town government. Staff early this year formally began developing a proposed program for Council’s consideration.
Staff studied about a dozen other civic academies throughout the country in developing the proposed program structure presented within this report. (Parker and Centennial were among the communities studied and are two of the nearby communities that presently host civic academies.) The research showed that the average length of such academies was eight sessions, and that the average session length was 2.4 hours. Topics generally were comprehensive and encompassed most of the services provided by the host communities.
As proposed, Castle Rock’s civic academy would have eight 2.5-hour sessions, plus a graduation ceremony at a Town Council meeting. (Participants could miss no more than two sessions to graduate from the program.) With the exception of graduation at a Tuesday Town Council meeting, the sessions would be on Monday evenings from late August to mid-November. The class would not meet on Labor Day, during local schools’ fall break, nor on Halloween, which falls on a Monday in 2016.
Generally, each of the Town’s six major departments would host an evening of information and interactive demonstrations regarding their service areas. The remaining two classes would contain information about the Town’s history, structure, funding and general services. Details of the specific topics staff is proposing to cover during the academy are in Attachment A.
In the 2015 community survey, residents said they believed the Town does a good job keeping them informed but could do better at seeking their involvement and input. In fact, this is one of the areas that the survey suggested the Town should invest in to improve residents’ satisfaction with their community. The proposed civic academy would further involve residents with their Town government and could also be utilized as a channel through which to gather feedback from residents, addressing this concern cited in the community survey.
The interdepartmental team that has been developing the proposed academy has defined the project’s purpose as: “To increase governmental transparency by increasing community awareness about Town operations, with a hope of improving understanding of service levels.” A goal of the academy is to motivate participants to continue involvement with the Town as volunteers, including on boards and commissions.
These testimonials from participants in Centennial’s similar Centennial 101 program suggest that the Town’s proposed program will meet that goal:
“If you love where you live and want to learn more about what goes into making Centennial such a great City, then you must attend Centennial 101. Not only is it very informative, but (it) will motivate you to get involved and make our community an even better place (to) live and work.”
“This is the best way for citizens to become more knowledgeable about Centennial. I was involved in the launch of the City and still learned many things. This is a delightful way to find a pathway for involvement - through serving or just being more informed.”
Based upon its research, the project team is recommending that the class be capped between 20 and 30 members. Attendance would be restricted to adults over age 18 who can successfully pass a driver’s license-based background check. Preference is planned to be given to Town residents and business owners.
If Town Council directs staff to move forward with the program, staff will spend the rest of spring and early summer developing a brand and advertising materials, including an application, for the program, as well as preparing the class materials, so that the class could launch in August as proposed. Under the plan, applications for participation would be accepted in early summer.
Budget Impact
The anticipated annual cost of the civic academy is $6,000. For 2016, expenditures could be absorbed within the General Fund. Like the Citizens Police Academy, the civic academy would be offered at no cost to the participants.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends moving forward with a Townwide civic academy, to begin in 2016.
Proposed Motion
“I move to direct staff to complete development of the proposed Townwide civic academy so the program can be offered to the community beginning in 2016.”
Attachments
Attachment A: Proposed course outline