What I learned attending my first Town Hall meeting

Interesting observations about serving people while in the public office

Tyler Adams

1 min read · Jul. 23

Mayor Alves responding to questions from attendees

It's was a pleasant, cool summer evening when Danbury's Town Hall meeting was getting started this past Monday. While I was there to meet the city's newly appointed Deputy Chief of Staff, Jason Nova, I was also interested to hear about the general concerns of the city's residents and what their mayor had to say to them. As someone who's just getting started serving the public sector after spending over a decade in the private sector, I found it valuable just to be in the room with the people who could be using the tools I develop one day. To be able to listen to their concerns, their problems, the things that are most important to them; they always provide new insights on how to best serve their interests. In public office, your residents are your customers and the quality of their lives serves as direct feedback for the quality of your service. This was my first Town Hall meeting and I had already noted how much of the Mayor's Office was present at the event, even if they weren't participating directly. In addition to Jason, I had the pleasure of meeting Joaquin, who is the first point-of-contact for much of the city's service requests (and was helpful in directing traffic to the meeting) and Zoraida, who acts as the Administrative Assistant to the office. I also met Claire, who serves on the City Council. The number of additional staff there indicated the importance of everyone being able to hear the concerns of the citizens. It wasn't just a 1-on-1 engagement with Mayor Alves; the staff there also provided their own unique perspectives and heard directly from their constituents. In the private sector, especially in startups, it's just as important to get your staff (engineers, marketing, design) in front of customers to hear directly how your product is being experienced. In both public and private settings, how those on the front lines of service understand who they're serving plays into how they represent your organization.

Town hall attendees meet at the Ecuadorian Civic Center

On that theme of communication and service, this was the 25th Town Hall meeting Mayor Alves had hosted since coming into office. There's a lot of value in the space these meetings give residents to provide direct feedback to their elected officials and vice-versa in terms of updates to provide residents on the work in-progress. Regardless of the sector in which the service is provided, people want to feel like they're being heard and their concerns are addressed. It also helps that the mayor is bilingual in a city that has a large Spanish-speaking population. He did a great job transitioning between Spanish and English during the meeting and for me, it highlighted the importance of language accessibility. I hadn't considered that the community software service Grower's Guild is offering needs to support multiple languages, but cities as a whole are very diverse and their municipal services likely need to accommodate that diversity. One final takeaway for me was seeing how the contributions of individuals feed into the vision of the community as a whole. Each of the residents asking questions expressed their differing concerns: feedback on landscaping, lights at the park, road servicing, experiences calling the town. Likewise, they Mayor's Office was there, taking notes with plans to respond to the feedback. It may sound obvious but as I listened to these interactions, I began to understand on individuals contribute to the whole and it's a wonderful thing. We each have our own insights, our own problems and concerns, and our own unique experiences. All the feedback the Mayor's Office received, along with their willingness to improve and execute, will transform the community into something that's better for everyone. Outcomes come as a result of many thoughts and ideas, all coming together towards a vision.