Jan.  14,  2025

Residents complain now and then about not knowing about issues affecting their neighborhoods and lives until after policy decisions have already been made.

The Forum this morning gave participants an opportunity to hear just how public input is currently welcomed on two very specific subjects: the annual Mecklenburg County budget, and the long-range planning for investments in greenways, community centers and other facilities in both Charlotte and Mecklenburg that are operated by the city-county Parks and Recreation department.

Listeners to the video below from this morning may hear evidence of how elected officials and their staffs have become more open to public input over the last few decades. Listeners may also come away with suggestions to pass on to those same elected officials and their staffs about how to broaden, widen and deepen the methods now in use for collecting resident input.

Below this morning’s video are the slides from Budget Director Adrian Cox’s budget presentation and from county parks capital planning division director Bert Lynn’s presentation. All the slides may be downloaded in two PDFs, Cox’s here and Lynn’s here.

–––  County budget presentation –––

–––  Parks planning presentation  –––