Outside of DeKalb staff and alderman, only 12 people attended a Thursday night open editing session of the DeKalb Strategic Plan.
The Strategic Plan is a ten-year initiative that was created to guide city policy, budgeting and program development by combining residents’ ideas with DeKalb staff’s. The plan includes short- and long-term goals, according to a Nov. 17 draft of the Strategic Plan.
“[The Strategic Plan] demonstrated that every comment has been considered,” said Diana Robinson, director of the Center of Governmental Studies and the meeting facilitator.
Robinson said this is the final draft but it will remain open for adjustments in the future.
DeKalb staff, including City Council members , addressed and edited 20 comments that were suggested by four commissions, eight residents, two non-profit representatives and one city employee, Robinson said.
Residents of DeKalb were informed to attend the final drafting of the Strategic Plan through a post on the city’s website, according to the DeKalb website.
The topics addressed in the plan include DeKalb identity, downtown, inclusiveness for all citizens, accessibility for visitors and services.
The NIU Center for Governmental Studies facilitated the creation of the document by surveying 412 people either through a mediated dialogue or through an online survey in the drafting of the document, according to a Nov. 17 draft of the Strategic Plan.
Of that, 321 people attended one or more of the 48 mediated dialogues called a conversation café. At the dialogues, the Center for Governmental Studies surveyed the opinions of a group of three to eight people on their thoughts on DeKalb, according to a Nov. 17 draft of the Strategic Plan.
Accounted for separately were 91 people who completed an online opinion survey regarding DeKalb and the Strategic Plan.
Additional effort was placed on reaching underrepresented people including Latino, African-American and Asian people as well as high school and university students, Robinson said.
The Center for Governmental Studies encouraged participation by making advertisements and documents in English and Spanish and hosted multiple community conversations in an array of locations around the city in order to make participation convenient, Robinson said.
Of the 245 participants that disclosed their age, 6 percent were 21 or younger and 25 percent were ages 22 to 43.
Out of all the participants, 69 percent identified as Caucasian, 6 percent as African American, 5 percent as Hispanic, 4 percent as Asian and 2 percent as biracial according to the Nov. 17 draft of the Strategic Plan.
Of the 104,741 residents in DeKalb, according to a 2013 U.S. Census Bureau, Robinson hoped more people would have participated in the final drafting of the Strategic Plan.
“We didn’t do as well as we had hoped,” Robinson said. “We’re all going to have to work harder and smarter to engage people who aren’t interested.”
Mayor John Rey said he was not very concerned that more citizens of DeKalb did not attend the editing of the final draft of the Strategic Plan.
“Public participation is more than our first retreat in March of 2014,” Rey said. “I’m pleased. This document that’s in front of us represents much more than the turnout this evening from the public.”
