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Citizen Advisory Committees and Boards: Thoughts from a Recent Workshop

This entry was contributed by John Stephens, Rick Morse, on June 23rd, 2017 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Advisory Committees, Outreach Methods, Uncategorized.

We’re glad to offer some reflections here on the workshop Working with Citizen Advisory Committees and Boards we hosted at the School of Government on May 5^th. The workshop consisted of a group of 28 very engaged participants from across North Carolina. These folks were a wonderful, diverse group: elected officials, city and county clerks, program managers, a council of government official, NC Cooperative Extension advisor and appointed members of citizen advisory committees or boards (we’ll use CABs here, for short). In other words, we had, in the room together, virtually all aspects of local government CABs: participants, staff support, and elected officials that create the CABs and seek to utilize their input. Continue Reading

Trust through Transparency – Law Enforcement Agencies Ask Citizens for Input and Service

This entry was contributed by Brian Bowman, on September 29th, 2015 at 10:06 am and is filed under Advisory Committees, Civic Education, Community Partnerships, Dialogue & Deliberation, Diversity, Outreach Methods, Public Meetings.

The nation is in the middle of a serious, sometimes heated discussion about law enforcement practices and procedures. The last year of news coverage has included disturbing accounts of violence that have left all sides looking for answers.

There are some 18,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States, and some are using local citizen advisory boards to establish and nurture relationships with their communities. There are several examples in North Carolina, including the City of Asheville, the City of Greensboro, the City of Burlington and the newest board in the Town of Knightdale. The Raleigh-area suburb is starting a police advisory board in January.

“Our primary purpose for this is seeking citizen input to make sure our community policing initiatives are addressing real needs and solutions,” said Knightdale Police Chief Lawrence Capps.

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