You hear the word “transparency” a lot when talking about government. I take transparency in government very seriously, and I want to assure you the City of Roswell is a transparent government. We pride ourselves on making information available to our residents through open meetings, the City’s website, recording, videotaping, and indexing our mayor and council meetings, and also through our open records process. While the City of Roswell is transparent, I want to take our transparency to another level. I want City information to be convenient for citizens to access, and City government participation to be made easier. Today’s technology makes that possible.Did you know you can receive emails from the City notifying you of meetings, events, and news? All you need to do is visit RoswellGov.com/e-notifications, and fill out the form. If you subscribe, you will receive an email each time something is posted to the website.
While we have been videotaping and posting our council meetings on the website for several years, this fall, we will be streaming mayor and council meetings live on Facebook and YouTube. We will still index them afterwards, so if you could not watch the meeting live, you will be able to access it the next day.
This past spring, Roswell held its first citizens’ academy, CORE Community. Twenty-five Roswell residents got a behind-the-scenes look at how their City government operates. The eight-week program highlighted individual departments and the work they do. This program educates residents about the City’s processes, goals, challenges, activities — and most importantly — introduces them to the people who serve the public each day. The program was a huge success, and we look forward to holding the second CORE Community next spring.
The City also wants to make it easy to request public records. We will soon launch a new program on our website, JustFOIA (Freedom of Information Act), for residents to enter a public information request online. It is an easy-to-use online form. We know it will make it more convenient for you to request and receive information.
With your busy schedule, we understand that it is not always possible for you to attend mayor and council meetings, and we would like to make it easier for you to give us your input. Roswell will be launching Open Gov sometime this fall. Once this software is up and running on our website, you will be able to give us your input on City issues, projects, and programs.
These are just a few of the new initiatives we are rolling out to make information more easily accessible. But please know we are always looking for new and innovative ways to make it easier to reach out and communicate with your government.