Oak Bay council will take a second look at how it conducts town hall meetings going forward, after a discussion on Monday night’s council meeting revealed the traditional way of engaging with the public may no longer be effective.
The discussion began following Coun. Hazel Braithwaite’s proposal of a town hall meeting this coming November, with council members showing concern in regards to a lack of a “two-way” communication process between mayor, council and the public, and ineffective way of receiving feedback from members of the public on a topic or issue.
“We felt that a traditional town hall meeting format in a municipality like ours doesn’t really provide what we’re looking for in terms of input from our public,” said Coun. Tom Croft, who spoke of his past town hall experiences, adding the formal one-way nature of those meetings don’t positively engage the public, if at all. “The public didn’t feel that they’ve been heard because there was no feedback method for that kind of meeting.”
Croft instead suggested a more “organic” method where people are sitting at tables rather than at a great hall meeting, and stepping away from the traditional model, driving toward a friendlier and more open atmosphere.
Other councillors, such as Coun. Tara Ney, criticized town hall meetings as being “typically positional and argumentative” and one way discussions, as opposed to other public forums that are more dynamic and more interactive.
While a similar process is already in place, such as the open mic at the beginning of each council meeting, it still limits that critical engagement, noted Coun. Michelle Kirby.
“Feedback isn’t coming through this new council tool we have… it’s a one way tool and I think we’ve all experienced what it’s like to sit here and listen to somebody very concerned about a particular issue for three minutes and then that’s that,” Kirby said. “It’s frustrating for the rest of us not able to answer questions or not have a dialogue.”
The issue of hosting a civil and effective forum for the public to engage with its elected officials deepens to a public perception level, noted Dr. David Black, an associate professor at Royal Roads University in the School of Communication and Culture, adding the public is no longer afraid to question the integrity and modus operandi of the powers that be.
“Government has never been perfect, and historically, not every citizen was happy with an outcome, that’s just impossible. What’s changed though is that the legitimacy of these institutions is now challenged,” he said. “People in the past might of said, ‘what a stupid decision, this is going to affect me and I’m really angry’ but they didn’t go the next step and say, ‘government itself is illegitimate, and you have no right to represent me or to have any power over my life.’”
In this, Black highlighted the fragile line a public forum or town hall meeting needs to follow in order to create positive discussion between both sides – and not doing so likely having the opposite effect.
“No philosophical or ideological foundation should be unchallenged, it should be pressured and pushed, and hard questions asked of it, but there are good ways of asking those questions, and ways that are destructive and harmful.”
But it goes even beyond politics, Black said, adding the world is creeping away from 18th century ideas of liberal democracy and heading towards an unknown realm of illiberal and post-liberal politics – hence the struggle to find an informal way of public discussion in a traditionally-formal system.
Though some kind of town hall meeting is slated for November, an official date has yet to be determined.
*Author’s note: David Black in this article is not related to Black Press owner David Black.