Denver Direct: The Fix is In

Have you ever attended a public meeting calling for “citizen input” on an issue to be decided by a government committee? Did you get the feeling that the issue was already decided and that the meeting was just for show? You might want to read this study by Stephen M. Griffin, MAC, PhD.

As “experts” the Denver Parks and Recreation Department excluded, ignored, or marginalized any of the public’s input that did not conform to their view of the best practices in dog park planning. The External Stakeholders Committee members did not feel the meetings were led in a way that allowed them to have meaningful input on the elements of the Plan. The Department’s public meetings were poster sessions, where the primary focus was allowing citizens to ask questions, and the collection of public input on the draft plan was secondary. The meeting conducted by the City Park Alliance was more a debate protest than a planning session. The result was the public had no meaningful influence on the decisions reached in the process.

Read the entire summary here.