The Philomath Citizens Academy that had been planned for this fall was canceled because of a lack of interest, City Manager Chris Workman reported at the Sept. 9 City Council meeting.
It’s the second straight year that the city has canceled the series of informational sessions. Workman mentioned putting out a survey early next year to gauge interest and perhaps gain insight into a better time of year to offer it.
“It seems like fall has worked in the past — people are back on schedule and back from vacations and the kids are back in school and you’re kind of in that mode … between back to school and before the holiday season really sets in,” Workman said. “It seemed like the sweet spot but maybe not — that’s two years in a row we’ve not had a lot of interest.”
Workman said there had been only three individuals signed up by the registration deadline along with one or two more that expressed possible interest.
Citizens Academy was to run on Thursdays from Sept. 5 to Oct. 24 and feature eight sessions that covered various topics related to local government as well as public safety and community service organizations.
“The times that I’ve done it have been very interesting and very rewarding … but people are extremely busy and have a lot on their plates,” Susan Halliday said at Thursday’s School Board meeting. Halliday was to be among the presenters at a session in September.
Workman suggested that past Citizens Academy attendance had been sparked by some sort of controversial issue that piqued public interest in local government. He would in those situations encourage folks to participate in the next academy.
“That’s worked really well and people, I think, have come away a little more informed about how things work and the way things run and how to be involved and be an active voice,” Workman said. “Those people rolled over onto committees, whether it be the school or city or fire district.”
Workman recalled running the numbers of the academy’s effectiveness in a report to the League of Oregon Cities.
“I’ll say that back in the heydey just a couple of years ago, I was surprised even at the number of participants that had gone on to serve and volunteer on committees within the community,” he said. “So I do think it’s really effective.”
Again, Workman suggested it could be a timing issue.
“But also, I think part of that is we just have been doing well as a community and I think there’s a lot of really positive things happening and knock on wood, we’ve just not had a lot of real big controversial issues come before the city,” he said. “Unless something has negatively impacted somebody directly, they tend to elect people and let them be their voice to keep things running smoothly.”
