Re-engaging with the community BOTH immediately and long-term.

Tim Niles is a founding member of Livable Raleigh and has been a resident of Raleigh for over 30 years.

At the December 6, 2022 City Council meeting he delivered these public comments:

Livable Raleigh supports today’s proposals for community engagement put forward by Councilors Christina Jones and Jane Harrison.

First, as stated, we need immediate interim opportunities to meet in-person to fill the three-year void noted by Councilor Melton. A self-imposed void created when the previous council defunded the CACs, Citizen Advisory Councils. 

We sent our proposal to you which includes opening city community centers for free use by the nine existing CACs that have continued to meet the last three years. You can read that proposal here: Livable Raleigh’s proposal for renewed engagement.  

Second, we support the longer-term recommendation to establish a formal engagement structure which includes community-based and community-led groups that:

• • are distributed equitably across the city
  • hold monthly meetings with staff support
  • have the agency to decide their own structures and agendas

We want to make sure those points made it into today’s motion adopted at this afternoon’s meeting. If they did NOT, we request the motion be amended to include those vital points.

We re-emphasize the need for immediate action to give CACs access to community centers.

You don’t have to wait for your council retreat at the end of January where you will be discussing your longer-term solutions, you could act tonight to give CACs access to community centers with a simple motion and a vote directing staff to make it happen.

If you appreciate the kind of reporting we bring to you