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Show How We See It: The National Training and Development Service is to be commended for trying to bring politics to the people. At the Town Meeting Thursday night, they attempted to involve citizens in decision-making through a popular problem-solving problem-solving technique, "Brainstorming." We did some brainstorming of our own, and came with several ideas to help foster citizen participation and better government. Here they are, along with some mentioned men-tioned at Thursday's meeting: (1) More Town Meetings so citizens can voice their complaints and be heard. (2) Task forces in several of the problem pro-blem areas cited in the NTDS survey, including includ-ing growth, public services, and education. These task forces could prepare reports listing suggestions to problems, and the reports could be presented at Town Meetings. Meet-ings. The chairperson of the task force would not necessarily have to be from the City Council. It could be a concerned citizen with some expertise in the area. (3) Better communications between town government and the town. The Record will do its part, and publish schedules of meetings, and agendas. We also welcome the use of The Record as a vehicle for the expression of opinions and attitudes of Park Cityites. We'd also like to see a community bulletin board, as was suggested Thursday night. (4) Less behind-the-scenes politicing and more open debate and discussion at council meetings. Any citizen should be able to be heard at his city's council meeting. Let's set up some procedure so that interested inter-ested citizens can speak out if they so desire. (5) Consider the hiring of an ombuds- . man who could settle grievances between the Resort, Main St., City Council, and everyone else. Citizens could take their complaints to the ombudsman and he or she could investigate the matter fully and attempt a settlement. Any town that has active citizen participation partici-pation is better off for it. People, after all, are the town, and if you care, get involved. |