In 2011, my fellow voters and I decided to spend 29 million dollars on the Alpharetta City Center project. The details of this project, from the major to the mundane, are being overseen by Alpharetta City Council.
Last week on this blog I requested an update on this project. Councilman Kennedy responded to my request and told me that the updates are all archived on the City Council meeting minutes/videos website page on the city of Alpharetta website.
Since I did not want to watch 7 hours of video, I read the Council meeting minutes dating back 3 months, hoping I could find my update in the written word.
So, for your reading pleasure and stated almost verbatim:
$$$ - September 10 – City Administrator Bob Regus introduced the City Center Design team who presented an update.
$$$ - September 17 – City Administrator Bob Regus provided an update and a timeline of events.
$$$ - October 1 – City Administrator Bob Regus provided an update. The Director of EPW talked about the Haynes Bridge closure.
$$$ - October 8th – City Administrator Bob Regus introduced Michael Swartz who presented schematic design updates.
$$$ - November 5 – City Administrator Bob Regus provided an update.
$$$ - November 19 – City Administrator Bob Regus provided an update.
$$$ - December 3 – The City of Alpharetta will need to spend an additional $1.4 million dollars because of a poor soils situation. Council will devote part of their retreat to exploring how to balance the project budget. Architects are beginning to present recommendations.
As you can see from the above, we can be assured that there is an updater making updates on the latest updates on City Center. Oh, and also evidently Council needs to explore how to balance the project budget – I wasn’t expecting that one.
Would I have learned more details if I had watched all 7 videos? Exhausting! And anyway, not all the information we need is in the videos.
I can't help but feel I’ve been denied a City Center update by Councilman Kennedy.
Here’s an idea. How about providing us – the taxpayers and voters – with a meaningful update, i.e. what’s been nailed down, what’s in progress, pictures, summaries, where we are with the financials, and posting this on the woefully neglected city website page called “Downtown Development Plan”? I say this because a) we cannot attend every City Council meeting; b) information technology really is our friend and as useful to the public as we make it; and c) it’s your fiduciary responsibility to convey to us, certainly upon request, the manner in which this project is being executed.
A brief weekly update of the progress with pictures, summaries, and financials sounds easier to keep up with. It also gives transparency to city government. Keeps us all on the same page. This could start a trend and be the 'norm' for other city websites.
I share your concern that Alpharetta seems to be using video to replace meeting minute detail. If that is the intent, find some way to index the video footage so reviewers don't have to wade through non pertinent sections and eliminate the transcriber function altogether. Otherwise the Council is using technology to obfuscate, rather than enlighten citizens.
Maybe you could spend a few minutes looking at the video that they provide everyone. Large projects are like this. There will be tons of activity for a little bit, then a lot of quiet, behind the scene work. It looks like tonight they'll have a large update to provide too.
Maybe we can do away with someone's job to help fill that budget gap on project overruns. Oh, and when will the big trees be taken down? Between Christmas and New Years when no one is looking?
If anything, it provides a very good guide to read and decide what is important to you. You can then use their video service to go back and watch. It is really simple. Once you open up the meeting those same notes appear in a box. You can then click "play" and go directly to the portion of the meeting where they discuss city center. I'm shocked at how easy and transparent it is. The original article acts like you'd have to sift through 7 hours of video, when in fact, it takes 45 seconds to get to video footage of the discussion. It also seems like if you contacted Mr. Kennedy directly with questions he would be more than happy to answer them. Or, you could appear in person to the city council meetings, where just by the few minutes I read, seems to be little if any public comment on city center.
This also reinforces transparency, and from a marketing point of view, shows the project's momentum. My point is the city should continually promote the progress on several levels and be open to any and all avenues of publicity. I think it's done a good job but the website is the area that could use more momentum. It's a wasted opportunity. Give it a personality. It's the main avenue residents can access daily.
You bring up a good point. We will certainly make an effort to put more materials on the web. As I pointed out in a previous post, the past few weeks have been spent on the finer points of city hall interior detail such as color of the bathrooom tiles and where the entry should be to pay a water bill. Not exactly the stuff of headlines. Tonight, the consultants will provide an update on the city hall interior and exterior and the council will vote on whether to move forward with the construction plans. I have asked for the presentation to be put on the city website.
That being said, there can be a bit of an IT challenge to present some of the material on the web. Drawings and presentations can be quite large. But I think most in the city and on council want this information online. The streaming video is awesome. I also like the city's use of SeeClickFix and crimereports.com. Forsyth County's planning Dept has a nice online permitting system that is searchable and contains PDFs of actual applications. Would be cool to see Alpharetta use something like this.