Equity Commission plans 2025 listening sessions after reviewing 2024 outreach

Brianna Higgins, special projects manager in the City Manager’s Office, reviewed the Equity Commission’s 2024 listening sessions and presented a planning timeline and template for 2025 sessions, asking commissioners to select months and propose focused topics and questions at the February meeting.

“Last year, the Equity Commission hosted six listening sessions. Five were conducted; one was not conducted due to a lack of attendance,” Brianna said, and she described the group-level planning and facilitation approach used in 2024. The sessions ran from May through September, were hosted by commission members at locations including Circle of Hope, St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church, the Pflugerville Justice Center and the Pflugerville Public Library, and recorded only for note-taking; there were no video recordings or photos taken.

Brianna said staff estimates the total in-person attendance across the five sessions at about 38 people, plus six online survey respondents. The sessions used the same 10 introductory questions and an agreed facilitator introduction; participation in the optional demographic form was not universal, so the attendance number is an estimate.

Common themes from 2024 included appreciation for the city’s “small-town charm,” support for local businesses, and positive feedback about trails, parks and the library. Recurring concerns included affordability, traffic and mobility, accessibility to information and civic processes (including confusion about extraterritorial jurisdiction), and requests for expanded housing options and more locally owned businesses.

Staff identified actions that fall to specific departments: traffic and mobility issues cited by residents are being addressed by Public Works through a traffic mobility master plan; Planning and Development Services and the Police Department have begun outreach to homeowner-association leadership. The Equity Commission’s role, Brianna said, is to run ongoing community input channels, organize community meetings, gather focused input on priority topics and represent community voices to the council.

For 2025, Brianna proposed a schedule and format similar to 2024 but more tightly focused: five topics, each held twice (for a total of 10 sessions), with sessions scheduled between May and September and finalized in April so marketing can begin. Staff will keep and reuse templates and translated materials from 2024. Commissioners are asked to sign up for two months each to plan and facilitate sessions; staff will assist with locations, promotion and facilitation guidance. Brianna recommended choosing focused topics (for example accessibility, housing, mobility, health or safety) and then developing targeted questions for each session rather than broad, catch-all questions.

Commissioners raised participation and timing concerns. One commissioner asked whether Council could receive interim updates earlier than the year-end report; staff said it is working on options for joint meetings earlier in the year and that staff already provides periodic summaries to council. Commissioners noted that partnering with HOA leadership could expand turnout, and staff said HOA-leadership meetings are being coordinated for April to help with outreach.

Next steps assigned during the meeting: commissioners should review the planning document, pick months and propose session topics and draft questions for discussion at the February meeting; staff will finalize locations and materials in time for marketing once topics and dates are set; staff will summarize findings in October and present to City Council in November as in 2024.