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City updates neighborhood town‑hall program after reaching 2,000 residents; council signals support for another series
Summary
City staff told council a series of eight neighborhood town halls reached roughly 2,000 residents in hybrid sessions and produced closer staff‑resident ties; councilors and residents urged continued hybrid formats, better follow‑up, and targeted outreach methods such as postcards and door‑to‑door flyers.
Megan Horgan Taylor, the city’s chief communications officer, told the Peralta City Council on Dec. 1 that a recent series of eight neighborhood town halls reached more than 2,000 residents in hybrid formats and helped city staff and neighborhood leaders develop a steady follow‑up process.
Staff said the town halls began during the pandemic transition, combined in‑person social time with online participation and gave residents direct access to department heads. The format, staff said, produced three benefits: improved communications about neighborhood issues, greater staff and resident awareness of on‑the‑ground concerns, and stronger working relationships that continued after events through direct contact lists and email follow‑ups.
Residents who spoke during the public comment period praised the approach but asked the city to make several changes. Jennifer L., a Crescent Park resident, urged more topic‑specific meetings for complex issues such as aircraft noise. Other commenters asked the city to continue hybrid access, to combine postcards with targeted door‑to‑door flyer distribution and to ensure action items raised at meetings are tracked to closure.
Council members emphasized the value of having department heads present to answer detailed questions on the spot and urged staff to refine neighborhood groupings, preserve options for weekend meetings where feasible, maintain a Zoom option for caregivers and working families, and continue to experiment with publicity approaches. Several councilors suggested pairing postcards with neighborhood volunteers to go door to door, and recommended adding short videos to improve public understanding of specific concepts (for example, how to park at rolled curbs).
Staff said they collected attendee contact information via sign‑in sheets and QR codes, used post‑meeting surveys to collect feedback, and will continue to test refinements including mapping neighborhood boundaries by streets and offering additional publicity tools for leaders. Council indicated a consensus to proceed with another cycle of town halls and gave staff a green light to begin planning the next series.
The council also approved, without recorded objection, a $1,000 contingency donation to Second Harvest to support local food assistance efforts raised during council comments earlier in the meeting. The town‑hall update will return to council with proposed scheduling and refined engagement plans in the next cycle.
