Community engagement 'top of list' for mayor

CRESTVIEW — Community engagement is at the top of the list of priorities for Mayor J.B. Whitten.

“My first meeting within the first hour as mayor was with the city staff to ask how we could communicate better with citizens,” Whitten said. “We need to be able to reach out so the public knows what’s going on.”

Whitten left the meeting with several ideas, including using Facebook more through the use of videos and different bi-weekly shows featuring himself, City Manager Tim Bolduc and the city’s Public Information Officer Brian Hughes.

His second action as mayor was coming up with different activities to engage the community in.

“The two kind of go hand-in-hand,” Whitten said. “If I’m trying to do community events but I’m not communicating, then they will fall through.”

Engagement with the youth in the city is an especially important task for Whitten. Last week, two teenagers met with the mayor after they wrote him a letter about their ideas to improve life for youth in Crestview. The initiative impressed Whitten.

“Most youth are hesitant to get involved,” Whitten said. “Engaging with them is very important because I think they have kind of been neglected in the past. You have to convince them that you’re going to listen to what they have to say because if you’re not going to listen, they won’t tell you what they think.”

One way the mayor is hoping to see more involvement with youth in the city is through different youth organizations. Whitten is working closely with many of those organizations, including the Crestview Youth Alliance.

“Karen Brown came and spoke with me a while back,” Whitten said. “She is going out and surveying the youth and feeding back to us what the youth is saying we need. We’ll continue to work with her and any other organizations to get input."

Whitten said that overall, engagement with residents is on the rise because citizens are becoming more interested in what is happening within the city. Whitten said that is illustrated by attendance at City Council meetings.

“People are showing up but don’t have any big issues they want to talk about,” Whitten said. “I often see people taking notes and to me, I think that is engagement.”

Whitten hopes that anyone who has something to say or questions to ask about the “New View for Crestview” would set up a time to meet with someone in the city staff.

“I have an open door policy and what I mean is I always leave my office door open,” Whitten said. “I think people will find real quickly that anyone in the city will make an appointment with citizens and be open with them about what’s going on.”

Whitten mentioned another way for citizens to get involved is to apply for an open position on any of the available government boards. The announcement about the openings was made during the last City Council meeting.

“Right after the meeting I had someone email me, hand me their card and phone me,” Whitten said. “That didn’t happen in the past, which tells me people want to be involved and we’re making progress in reaching out to people.”

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Community engagement 'top of list' for mayor