Merced looks at how to increase dialogue with residents

Merced City Council discussed how to better communicate with the public and picked dates for next year’s town hall meetings during its regular meeting Monday.

The council decided with a 6-0 vote to ask staff to look at press releases, city newsletters and other methods as ways to better keep residents in the loop and inform them about public safety efforts, as well as increase the number of Neighborhood Watch programs. Councilman Tony Dossetti was absent.

The staff and council will be part of the brainstorming workshop on Jan. 20 – the date of a regular council meeting – to iron out the details of the plan.

Also, the council unanimously approved a plan to have regular reports during council meetings from Merced police and fire. “At least all the public that are listening can get some information,” Mayor Stan Thurston said.

The city will also look at working with Merced College or UC Merced students to figure out the best ways to routinely send information to residents.

Public safety has been a hot topic in recent months in Merced as the city has seen 14 homicides this year. Last year there were five, and there were nine the year before that.

The city has about 60 Neighborhood Watch programs running, according to officials, which is down from its peak of 200. The council voted to make a goal of getting back to that number.

Councilman Michael Belluomini said there could be a benefit to bumping up the number of crime prevention groups. “I also believe that Neighborhood Watch would be a very good way to involve people in participating in their protection (and) watching over their neighborhood,” he said.

Michelle Xiong, youth coordinator for Building Healthy Communities, said she “applauded” the council for making an effort to better communicate with residents. She said the city would do well to team with organizing groups such as hers, as well as Merced Organizing Project and Neighborhoods United for a Better South Merced.

Organizing groups already work to drum up attendance for the city’s town hall-style meetings.

Also at Monday’s meeting, the council set the dates for this year’s town hall meetings for Jan. 29 and Feb. 3. The meetings are set to take place at Rivera and Tenaya middle schools, as they did last year, but the city has not decided which campus will be used on which date.

City Council policy encourages scheduling a minimum of two town hall-style meetings to receive input and ideas from residents on issues, projects and programs. The meetings typically take place in the first quarter of the year.

Little was said during Monday’s meeting about the public comment session, which became a meeting topic this week after recent concern raised by Councilman Noah Lor about how women and ethnic minorities are treated.

Thurston spoke briefly about public comment sessions at council meetings as well as the reservations voiced by Lor. The mayor said he doesn’t believe there’s reason for concern. “I don’t think there’s any evidence of it,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, that’s history.”

The mayor put the public comments discussion on the agenda after Lor accused the mayor of being inconsistent in handling the five-minute limit given to each speaker.

This story was originally published December 2, 2014 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Merced looks at how to increase dialogue with residents."