Enhancing City Readiness, Communication, and Collaboration

Dear Editor:

Enhancing city readiness, communication, and collaboration are achievable goals in this day and age of information and socio-economic uncertainty. Douglas can and will be a City of Refuge in these times, because we are a well of great potential and because we know how to turn storm into supply. To be that city, our government must channel and be aligned to the People of Douglas - her greatest resource and reserve - more so now than ever before.

In the spirit of including more of her people in city business, the two petitions to establish a City Youth Council and to change the day of the Regular Meeting were submitted at April’s Call to the Public. Per our City Charter, accessible at http://tiny.cc/douglasazcharter, they must be acted upon by Mayor and Council at tonight’s regular meeting. In my previous Letter to the Editor, I listed several ideas that could be realized if these initiatives were passed. Please allow me to add one more. Encouraging the participation of more people in city business is an excellent way to enhance readiness, communication, and collaboration. Please consider letting our Mayor and Council know.

In this day and age, we should expect to see resources readily available at douglasaz.org. We should see contingency plans, weather alerts, public safety notices, and neighborhood watch information. We should see campaigns and how-to’s for urban gardens, homemade solar ovens, and rain catchments. These are especially fitting given our ample sunny days and “monsoon” showers. We should see not only evidence of collaboration with non-profits, service organizations, and community coalitions, but planned town hall meetings where this collaboration will take place physically. To enhance readiness, communication, and collaboration is not just a matter of attendance. Plans of action should be adopted at these town halls and executed by committee. Furthermore, these town halls should be hosted at locations where Wi-Fi is publicly available to allow for streaming and posting recordings at douglasaz.org. Please consider letting our Mayor and Council know.

Enhancing these things is within our grasp and, in the case of the two petitions, on the agenda. They just need a little action and a little room to grow. The People of Douglas will rally, overcome, and take it from there. What better time to see the cisterns, floodgates, and channels open than now?

Very Respectfully,

Danny dj Morales