Work Session on Better Public Meetings Proposal – July 25, 2025
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Work Session on Better Public Meetings Proposal – July 25, 2025\n\nThe Anchorage Assembly held a work session on Friday, July 25, 2025, to discuss the Better Public Meetings Project, a community-led initiative aimed at improving civic engagement through innovative meeting formats. The project, supported by the National Civic League (NCL), involves a civic infrastructure scan, a meeting scorecard, community surveys, and creative participation methods such as legislative theater. Community partners requested at least two assembly champions and presented a draft resolution for introduction.\n\n### Discussion Items\n- Assembly Member Aaron Baldwin Day introduced the project, noting it began months earlier through conversations with community organizations about increasing public engagement in local government. The National Civic League's Center for Democracy and Innovation was identified as a partner.\n- Ariana Belize (Federation of Community Councils) and Jesse Lavoy (YWCA Alaska) presented alongside Nick Fallos (NCL) via phone. Fallos explained NCL’s work in three pilot communities (Fayetteville, Boulder, Mesa) and described the two‑pronged approach: a civic infrastructure scan (including a meeting scorecard and community survey) and participatory performances. The project is funded by the AAA ICR Foundation and does not require municipal funds beyond minimal legislative services support.\n- The timeline calls for a kickoff in August 2025, an NCL visit in late September/early October, survey deployment through budget season, and collaborative implementation starting around May 2026.\n- Assembly members asked about outreach beyond existing civic circles. Jesse Lavoy emphasized the community survey would be promoted widely (e.g., ADN, newsletters, partner organizations) and that the scorecard is distinct from the survey, focusing on meeting experiences. Nick Fallos noted use of existing informal networks to reach underrepresented groups.\n- Assembly Members Silvers and Rivera expressed concern that the scorecard’s focus on assembly and community council meetings risks reinforcing the voices of already‑engaged residents. Presenters clarified that the scorecard is one tool, while the survey and deliberative events are designed to capture broader community perspectives.\n- Member Martinez linked the project to reducing social isolation and improving community well‑being. Member Gates asked about boards and commissions; presenters stated the project’s scope is centered on the assembly due to grant limits, though the scorecard could potentially expand.\n- Claire Ross, Assembly Legislative Services Director, expressed support and noted her office’s ongoing civic engagement efforts, including newsletters and pop‑up events. She offered to help with survey distribution.\n\n### Key Outcomes\n- The resolution authorizing the Better Public Meetings Project is scheduled for introduction on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. Assembly Member Baldwin Day volunteered as one of two required champions; a second champion is being sought.\n- No formal vote was taken; the work session served to gather feedback. Several assembly members committed to including survey links in their newsletters.\n- The project will proceed only if the assembly passes the resolution, as NCL requires active interest from the governing body. Community partners stressed that the initiative is collaborative and would not move forward without assembly support.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, everyone, just a few minutes late. I think we are ready to get started. So I will go ahead and get us started. This uh today is Friday, July 25th. This is a work session on the uh better public meetings uh proposal. So we're gonna be hearing about um an exciting uh potential new project for Anchorage. So we'll do introductions. Um I will uh give just a very brief overview and then I'm gonna turn it over to Member Baldwin Day and our other presenters. Um so first let's do member introductions. And uh reminder, your microphone may be turned off still. Um so we'll start with Mr. Martinez. George Martinez. Aaron Baldwin Day. And uh looks like we have Member Johnson on the phone. Are you there? Yes, I'm here, thank you. Okay, any other members on the phone. Okay, I don't hear any. Uh, we are also joined in the room um by a couple of our guests who will introduce shortly. Um we'll get to your introduction in a second. Um, members of legislative services, assembly council, clerk staff, um, and uh member of the the public. So um I guess I'll just say that um I am uh not the subject matter expert for this item, but I'm excited about it. Um so I'm gonna actually turn it to member baldwin day, we'll have a presentation and then um we'll also introduce our other speakers. Thanks. All right. Well, thank you all for being here. Uh I'm I'm particularly excited about this um this project because it is a project that predates my service on the assembly. So this has actually been months in the making. Uh and it started um while I was um still employed uh at Alaska Public Interest Research Group, was helping to convene Anchorage Housing Club and some other citizen organizations and was connecting with a lot of other entities around Anchorage, both in the public and private sector, um, who were all asking the same question about civic engagement. How do we get more people into the into the public dialogue, into assembly meetings, into committee meetings, into work sessions, uh to really engage with their elected representatives and to engage in the process of good government. Why aren't your voices being represented well? Um and and what we what we came to was that this was a going to be a massive undertaking. And those of us who are sitting in the room who all had regular jobs, who all were very engaged specifically ourselves, weren't going to have the capacity to really steward this project in the way that it deserved to be stewarded. So uh skip ahead, skip ahead. Um, I started my assembly service, and um my colleagues in the civic engagement work carried forward and they discovered this really incredible project, this opportunity um that's been happening in other cities around the United States uh that is put specifically what we were envisioning, but someone's already doing it, and then they're doing it really, really well. And so they were pursuing that opportunity and let me know that that was um actually uh a possibility for us to bring to Anchorage that the Better Public Meetings Project could actually be a reality here. So with that introduction, I'm really excited to ask our guests to introduce themselves, and they are actually going to drive this presentation because one of the things I love about this is it is a community-led initiative. I am here as a supportive assembly person, but everything about the way that this project unfolds, should we choose to approve it, uh, will be led by people who are Anchorage citizens. It will be led by our community. And I think that's really really important. So introduce yourself. Yeah, thank you. Go ahead and introduce both of you for the record, and then whoever would like to start, go ahead. What there we go. Ariana Belize with the Federation of Community Councils. And uh Jesse Lavoy, YDBCA CEO. And we have Nick Fallos on the on the line. Hi, everyone. Uh so Nick, could you uh just share for everyone um uh what organization you represent?
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