A representative of Shaping Burlington went before Tuesday’s budget committee presenting a proposal for a civic engagement charter.

The charter was one of eight recommendations put forward last spring by the Shape Burlington report, during the previous term of city council.

Shaping Burlington, an independent citizens committee that is carrying on the work of the report, wants to see council start a process to develop the charter as soon as possible.

“The charter would affirm the city’s commitment to reaching out to a diverse population and would explain how to navigate city hall and its services,” said Ken Edwards, a member of Shaping Burlington who also worked on the Shape Burlington report. “The charter would incorporate an early notification system and allow a reasonable amount of time for all participants to understand the steps and develop decisions before decisions are made. Ultimately, the charter would promote active public engagement and meaningful dialogue, which likely will require a culture shift at city hall.”

City staff will come back with a report on the Shape Burlington recommendations, including an engagement charter, for consideration at the budget committee meeting on Feb. 15.

Edwards said he hopes the report recommends a process with extensive public consultation on developing the various recommendations, including drawing up the wording for the charter, rather than presenting established responses.

“Ideally, we would like the report to embrace complete, open public participation, which is what we are advocating on everything that the public should be consulted on,” he told the Post on Wednesday. 

Shaping Burlington said it envisions the charter as a plain language policy document that incorporates best practices to ensure greater citizen involvement in Burlington’s municipal government, including a commitment to inform citizens and respond to their ideas and contributions. The group envisions the document will take between six to 12 months to develop, with flexibility for the document to be revised over passing years.

“I think that it is a document that, for the first few years, will evolve because one group can come up with a good idea and then you test it and see if there are any problems with the process or with the concept and we may have to do some tweaking to make it work a little better,” said Edwards, who added that he is optimistic that a charter could help facilitate a shift at city hall towards increased accountability and transparency.

“It is going to take a lot of work and a lot of collaboration to see that, but it can happen,” he said. “It is quite a job to sell the concept and to persuade people not to be threatened, but to embrace the change.”