Agenda Management Increases Transparency and Citizen Engagement in Gulfport, MS
Clerk's Office
Gulfport, MS
As a family-friendly community filled with concerned citizens, Gulfport Mississippi emphasizes transparency when it comes to its meeting minutes and agendas. To increase overall community engagement, the city modernized its agenda management system.
Topics Covered
Cost
Not available
Funding
General Fund/Existing Public Funds
Project Status
Operational since 2016
Gov Champion
Clerk of the Gulfport Mayor-Council
Problem Addressed
Filled with involved citizens, Gulfport wanted to increase transparency and communication with its citizens.
The City of Gulfport, Mississippi, found along the Gulf of Mexico, is known for its gorgeous coast and exceptionally family-friendly atmosphere. The community is filled with involved citizens who are interested in being active participants in public dialogue. To manage its 72,000 residents, Gulfport’s administration operates under a Mayor-council governance run by a seven-member board.
To meet citizen needs, the mayor-council’s clerk, Ronda Cole had adopted an automated agenda solution. While this had worked for years, the city wanted to further its goals of transparency and communication with citizens. In adopting a new platform, they had to ensure seamless integration, eliminating the possibility of note duplication. Equally as important was the mayor-council’s need to implement a more robust software with additional functionality.
Solutions Used
To remain transparent and ensure consistent communication with its citizens, Gulfport adopted CivicClerk, an automated agenda system.
The system conversion left the mayor-council vulnerable to file loss or duplication, which jeopardized their current communication system. With this in mind, 15,000 files were carefully imported, as field-level data was extracted from the old software, indexed for keywords, and uploaded onto the new platform. According to Cole, “CivicClerk set up templates for us to use and was able to change, add, and configure features to fit what my board wanted.”
Gulfport also capitalized on the live meeting streamings, to ensure that concerned community members could still contribute even if not physically present. Additionally, residents can access meeting notes and agendas for past and current meetings.
Outcomes
1
Increased transparency between the city and its citizens, with all agendas and meeting minutes available on demand for all community members.
2
A successful integration of all 15,000 documents, eliminating any opportunity for document duplication or loss.
3
Templates allow the city to prepare for meetings faster, increasing time spent on decision-making.
4
More citizen and employee participation in meetings, given the live streaming functionality.
5
Ability to add new features and develop on CivicClerk as technology evolves.
Lessons Learned
1
The city discovered that adopting adaptable technology was crucial to remaining transparent and communicative.
Something Unique
As part of the transition process, the Clerk's office coordinated three different live training sessions for the different departments that would be heavily using the system. Everyone could choose the training session that fit their schedule.
Who Should Consider
Municipalities of any size that need a configurable agenda and meeting management solution or are ready to offer virtual meeting viewing capabilities.
Last Updated
Apr 26th, 2022More resources about this case study
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