Municipal Hall

February 19, 2008 / 12:00 AM

This past week the District of Maple Ridge led a group of citizens through an exercise to help identify how the District can demonstrate how it is performing in the numerous business areas it is responsible for. Maple Ridge has been a leader in business planning practices and wants to make further improvements in its procedures by ensuring its citizens are receiving the information they would like to receive.

The three and a half hour workshop included an overview of current business planning practices, a discussion on the District's Strategic Plan and a look at the District's areas of focus such as the environment, transportation and community relations. The 31 participants who attended the workshop were asked to comment on all of the focus areas and to provide ideas on how the District can demonstrate that it is performing well in each of its priority areas. Small group discussions facilitated by District employees came up with numerous ideas related to how the District could show the public that it is doing its job effectively. These included promoting a greater exchange of information through its website, creating a District report card and holding annual community forums where residents have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with community leaders to discuss topics of interest to them.

"This was a very good step forward in Council's efforts to improve dialogue with the community and to explore ways in which our citizens can receive information that is relevant," said Councillor Ken Stewart. Organizers of the workshop, which was funded by a philanthropic nonprofit institution out of New York, will be compiling the results of the workshop and reporting its findings to Council. For more information on this initiative and to view the slide show presented at the workshop, go the District's website at "Public Performance Reporting Workshop".