City of Peoria Moves Outside City Hall for Resident Engagement

 

Nationwide, more cities are discovering the power of engaging residents in neighborhoods instead of at city hall during a monthly meeting. 

 

Peoria, Arizona is one of the best cities in America for reaching out to engage residents. Members of the city engagement and neighborhoods department at Peoria, Lisa Mattox and Adam Jackson, were recognized with a national award in 2022 by Neighborhoods USA. 

 

When it came time to explore options in Republic, I contacted Mattox and Jackson. 

 

In Peoria, they have found that neighborhood pop-up events work best 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. during the week, or anytime on a Saturday. They recommend avoiding Wednesday and Friday evenings.  

 

“One of the biggest things has been working out times that it's good to get out there with people. We try to catch people when they are coming home. If we can catch them on their way home from work, we have a better showing,” said Mattox. 

 

The folks in Peoria take a proactive approach to engagement. They go to neighborhoods when there is a resident complaint or concern. 

 

“We want to get in there first, and talk about those things,” said Mattox. 

 

Depending on the neighborhood topics, the staff in Peoria sends different subject matter experts. Sometimes it is a contractor or engineer. Other times it is city staff. 

 

To alert people that they are hosting a pop-up meeting on their street, they use part-time staff to place fliers on doors in that neighborhood with the location and meeting time. 

 

“We set up curbside on the road. We try to pick a place that relates to the main topic. On a few occasions, we have had residents host us on their driveway,” said Mattox. 

 

In the future, Peoria also wants to use pop-up events to gather citizen input. 

 

“Just that citizens have a say and their voices are heard is a big deal. That's huge to people, especially in a growing community. We've grown fast over the last few years, so it has been important to have residents weigh in on things,” said Mattox. 

 

Mattox says that giving citizens a chance to speak freely about their concerns and what they want has decreased complaints and improved the feedback loop in Peoria. Concerns that need a resolution are passed to the city leadership and the council for consideration. 

 

Citizen engagement away from the City Hall is something that every city should pursue in this era. Especially any board or council complaining about a small turnout to meetings! 

 

Interview with Engagement Department in Peoria, Arizona 

Conducted 3/22/2023 | By David L. Burton, University of Missouri Extension 

City engagement and neighborhoods 

Lisa Mattox, director of engagement and Adam Jackson, program specialist 

https://www.peoriaaz.gov/government/departments/neighborhood-and-human-services/community-engagement 

 

Executive Notes & Take Aways 

• Have found that neighborhood pop-up events work best 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. when people are getting home from work and before dinner and settling in. 
• Avoid Wednesday and Friday evenings. Saturdays work well too. 
• In the future, plan to use these meetings for citizen input on projects. 
• Go to neighborhoods when there is a resident complaint or some concerns in an area. If an issue has repercussions, citizens might come to city upset. This is a proactive approach, get in there first, and talk about those things. 
• We do not advertise that “city staff” will be at these gatherings. Instead, we say “subject matter experts.” So if the concern is traffic, we have a traffic engineer attend. If the concern is code violations, we have an expert from our city staff there to address those issues and have those conversations. 
• Sometimes send postcards, but fliers on doors and door hangers work best for altering people. Have a door hanger design with pop-up theme that we personalize with topic, date, time and location. Part-time staff deliver. 
• We set up curbside on the road. We try to pick a place that relates to the main topic. On a few occasions, we have had residents “host” us on their driveway. 
• Try not to make pop-ups political by having council members host. However, each council member has a special events budget to host what they call a “park fest” in their district. These smaller park events (cookouts and entertainment normally) are great for the engagement popups too. 
• Biggest struggle has been getting other city departments to buy into these events and to attend. Everyone is on board now after two years. 
• We offer popcorn and popsicles and a bubble machine because it keeps with our theme. There is value in having fire and police attend. 
• Develop a feedback loop card. When someone expresses an issue at a neighborhood event you have to be able to get an answer back to them, and also be able to share the concern or idea with city staff and council members.