Merced town hall meetings ask for public input

Merced City Council’s first town hall-style meeting of the year is Thursday, and the second meeting is scheduled for next week.

The meetings are meant to help the council make decisions on priorities for the coming year by hearing from those who attend.

The first chance to speak with the council is 7 p.m. Thursday at Tenaya Middle School, 760 W. Eighth St. The town hall meeting in south Merced traditionally draws significantly more people than its northern counterpart.

The meetings are purposely less formal than a regular council meeting, so the public can have a dialogue with the council and city staff.

The city will provide interpreters for Spanish and Hmong speakers, according to staff.

With ballot approval from voters, the council amended the City Charter in 2007 to allow special meetings to be held outside City Hall.

The city’s first special meeting held outside City Hall took place in April 2012 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church’s social hall in south Merced. Concerns discussed included McNamara Park, which has subsequently benefited from significant city and community attention.

The meetings last year were dominated by residents asking the council to put more money into recreation and job-skills programs for young people. The council decided to pay to refurbish a building at McNamara Park where a drop-in program now offers tutoring and fun for youths.

City Council policy encourages the scheduling of 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.

The second meeting this year is planned at 7 p.m. Feb. 3 at Rivera Middle School, 945 Buena Vista Drive.

Each meeting will be streamed live on the Internet. A link to the meeting is on the city’s website, www.cityofmerced.org. The meeting will be shown on Channel 96 on Comcast as well.

This story was originally published January 26, 2015 at 2:18 PM with the headline "Merced town hall meetings ask for public input."