• ATTRACTIONS
  & RECREATION
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Citizen Panel Moderator's Overview of Session One - February 21, 2009

First Citizen Panel Session

• Positive first meeting
• About 49 Citizen Panel participants
• Panelists are clearly engaged and keenly interested in learning more.  They are appreciative of this opportunity to participate in the Citizen Panel pilot, and are committed to seeing if their informed involvement can make a positive contribution to our municipal governance.
• First session focused on getting to know each other, the three approaches and exploring them:
  • Approach One: Accountability - Connecting Citizens to Government
  • Approach Two: Efficiency - Keeping our City Moving
  • Approach Three: Equality - Creating a great place to live for all citizens

The Citizen Panel members:

• Said they were:
  • impressed with the diversity of the panel members
  • excited about the Citizen Panel project
  • value the opportunity to participate
  • expressed kudos to the organizers for putting this pilot together
  • said this was a very respectful group of people, thoughtful in discussions and possessing great spirit.
  • "It is gratifying to hear people talk about issues, despite our diversity"
  • Our first day was very full - a day of "information overload" - however people are looking forward to learning more, and gaining a better and deeper understanding of important aspects of our city operations and planning.
  • acknowledge that despite the diversity, a commonality has already been identified -- a desire, and commitment, to make this a great city.
  • Beginning our process to learn about the three approaches and already are conscious of possible trade-offs within them. "this seems to be a good place for our discussions to start".
  • Like the  idea of dialogue (implies two-way) and a collective voice (vs. single voice) is appealing. 
• Expressed these values for Edmonton: 
  • quality of life
  • beautification
  • sustainability (this includes the environment)
  • safety
  • community involvement
  • dependable and efficient public transit
  • two-way communications