City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: JANUARY 8, 2014
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: RASHAD M. YOUNG, CITY MANAGER /s/
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Consideration of Civic Engagement Handbook and Implementation Plan and Setting The Plan for Public Hearing and Adoption on Saturday, January 25, 2014.
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ISSUE: Consideration of Alexandria's Civic Engagement Handbook and implementation plan; consideration of a resolution to adopt Alexandria's policy on civic engagement.
RECOMMENDATION: That City Council receive the revised Civic Engagement Handbook and Civic Engagement Implementation Plan, hold a public hearing on January 25, 2014, after the public hearing adopt the attached Resolution establishing as city policy the concepts contained in these documents, and direct the City Manager to implement these civic engagement policies.
BACKGROUND: In September 2012, at City Council's direction, the City launched What's Next Alexandria, an initiative to develop guidelines for improving and expanding civic engagement in Alexandria. Through a series of community conversations and online participation that extended through June 2013, members of the community collaborated with City staff and City officials to develop guidance about how to improve the quality of Alexandria's public participation process so that members of the community can be more actively, constructively, and meaningfully involved in the public decisions that affect their lives.
Community members' engagement opportunities during the What's Next Alexandria process included four community dialogues where participants worked together in small groups, four opportunities for online engagement, some of which supplemented dialogue work; and three opportunities for real time online video engagement during the dialogues. Community collaboration resulted in three key element...
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