OpenGov
will share your response with the City of Palo Alto staff. Do you also want your response shown on this website?
Yes -
show it with my name
Sign in and be yourself
Sign in and let others know who you are and what you think. You can sign in now or after you submit your response. You'll be able to read your response on this website and change it if you change your mind.
Yes - show it without my name
Sign in and be someone
Sign in and let others know what you think. Only OpenGov will know who you are. You can sign in now or after you submit your response. You'll be able to read your response on this website and change it if you change your mind.
No - just show it without my name to staff
* required
Even though your response will be shared with staff, it won’t be shown on this public website so other community members won’t have the opportunity to see it.
Concerned about sharing your contact information with OpenGov?
What is a disruptive statement?
A statement
containing personal attacks, profanity, commercial advertising or content which is entirely off-topic, and/or
from a user who has falsified their registration information with the intent to post multiple statements in one topic or to misrepresent their city of residence.
Why does Open Town Hall monitor for disruptive statements?
OpenGov is a non-partisan company dedicated to building public trust in government and broadening civic engagement. Many people will not participate if the forum has disruptive statements.
Does Open Town Hall find many disruptive statements?
No. Disruptive statements are quite rare - less than one in a thousand statements are disruptive.
What does Open Town Hall do if they find a disruptive statement?
Open Town Hall
moves the statement to a different web page,
describes the problem in an email to the author, and
invites the author to change the statement.
Does Open Town Hall ever edit or delete statements?
Never. Only the statement's author can edit or delete a statement.
If I disagree with someone, can I post my opinion?
Yes. Open Town Hall encourages open dialog which, by necessity, includes disagreements.
How do I know if my statement is a 'disagreement' or a 'personal attack'?
Personal attacks are disparaging remarks which impute motives to a person's action. Statements of fact, or of your own opinion are generally not personal attacks.
Here are some examples of statements which are, and are not, personal attacks.
Personal Attack
Not A Personal Attack
He lied.
He said he did X, but in fact he did Y.
She misrepresented the truth.
I don't trust her.
He is greedy.
He is making plenty of money.
It is merely a power play on her part.
She will announce her candidacy soon.
Open Town Hall has two participation channels :
The Registered Channel: Sign in before or just after you submit your response. Either way, Community Feedback will show your response on this website.The Unregistered Channel: Don't sign in and remain anonymous. Community Feedback will just share your response with Palo Alto staff.
Note: The first time you sign in, you'll need to register (establish an account on Open Town Hall). Registration is free.
The City of Palo Alto has contracted with Community Feedback to monitor responses shown on this website.
To prevent any single user from dominating the forum, the City of Palo Alto restricts the number of responses any one user can post on selected topics. Registration helps Community Feedback enforce this restriction.
Users, staff and government leaders often want to know the neighborhood from which a response is posted. Community Feedback uses registration to show the neighborhood next to each response (not the address).
If a user posts a response that does not meet the City of Palo Alto guidelines for civility , Community Feedback uses the user's email address to invite the user to resolve the issue.
Community Feedback will get your contact information. The company is under contract with the City of Palo Alto to hold it in strict confidence per their privacy policy .
Since you'll see your own response on Open Town Hall, you'll be able to confirm that your response was posted as you intended.
You'll be able to change and/or delete your response as long as the topic is open.
Yes. Sign out, then set your privacy preference to be "No - just show it without my name to staff". You won't need to register.
While no authentication procedure can perfectly detect every fraudulent registration, Community Feedback is able to secure the registered channel against systematic fraud : cases where users submit enough statements with fraudulent registrations to sway the overall interpretation of the feedback.
Community Feedback is unable to secure the unregistered channel against systematic fraud, because unregistered users are anonymous.
Neither the registered nor the unregistered channel represent a certified voting system or ballot box - and that caveat is footnoted on every page of feedback. Instead, both are additional channels for feedback to government.
Users can participate on the registered channel (by signing in) or on the unregistered channel (by remaining anonymous). The City of Palo Alto offers both channels in order to broaden participation and maximize decision makers' insights.
The registered channel enables users to assure decision makers that their feedback comes from a real person in a specific neighborhood. It also enables users to participate in a public discussion on the website, as well as manage their own response after posting it.
The unregistered channel is for users who want to provide quick feedback without registering, and/or whose privacy concerns would prevent them from participating if required to register. Because many users with valuable insights will only share them anonymously, this channel gives decision makers the option to consider those insights in their deliberations.
OpenGov is a non-partisan company whose mission is to broaden civic engagement and build public trust in government. The City of Palo Alto has contracted with OpenGov to administer Open Town Hall.
How would you prioritize the City’s six service areas? Use the following 10 dots to demonstrate your specific priorities. The service areas are as follows:
Public Safety including Fire, Police and Emergency Services Infrastructure and Environment including Public Works, Sustainability, Facilities, Tree Maintenance, Sidewalks, and Roadway Repair Planning and Transportation including development services, code enforcement, wireless cell towers, housing, transportation, parking, mobility, safe streets, rail Economic Sustainability and Business Support including small business financial support, economic recovery efforts such as job creation, business assistance, restaurant and retail support and more Neighborhood, Community, and Library Services including open spaces and rangers, parks, recreation, art programs, park safety and maintenance, human services, non-profit support and grants, library branches and library programs Administration and Government such as Administration, Finance and Budget, Information Technology, Human Resources, and Legal
How would you prioritize the City’s six service areas? The more dots you assign to a service area, the higher a priority it is for you.
* required
In the space below, please provide any additional comments or input on the City’s budget process and priorities the City Council should consider for FY 2020-2021.
What is a disruptive statement?
A statement
containing personal attacks, profanity, commercial advertising or content which is entirely off-topic, and/or
from a user who has falsified their registration information with the intent to post multiple statements in one topic or to misrepresent their city of residence.
Why does Open Town Hall monitor for disruptive statements?
OpenGov is a non-partisan company dedicated to building public trust in government and broadening civic engagement. Many people will not participate if the forum has disruptive statements.
Does Open Town Hall find many disruptive statements?
No. Disruptive statements are quite rare - less than one in a thousand statements are disruptive.
What does Open Town Hall do if they find a disruptive statement?
Open Town Hall
moves the statement to a different web page,
describes the problem in an email to the author, and
invites the author to change the statement.
Does Open Town Hall ever edit or delete statements?
Never. Only the statement's author can edit or delete a statement.
If I disagree with someone, can I post my opinion?
Yes. Open Town Hall encourages open dialog which, by necessity, includes disagreements.
How do I know if my statement is a 'disagreement' or a 'personal attack'?
Personal attacks are disparaging remarks which impute motives to a person's action. Statements of fact, or of your own opinion are generally not personal attacks.
Here are some examples of statements which are, and are not, personal attacks.
Personal Attack
Not A Personal Attack
He lied.
He said he did X, but in fact he did Y.
She misrepresented the truth.
I don't trust her.
He is greedy.
He is making plenty of money.
It is merely a power play on her part.
She will announce her candidacy soon.
Fields marked with * are required
Translate
How would you prioritize the City’s six service areas? The more dots you assign to a service area, the higher a priority it is for you.
In the space below, please provide any additional comments or input on the City’s budget process and priorities the City Council should consider for FY 2020-2021.
While all 6 service areas are important, we need to look through the pandemic lens to see where we can pause activities to free up $$ for other areas. Can we pause the Cal Ave garage since with extensive work from home, and restaurants only able to have 1/3 capacity we won't need extra parking. Can we consolidate libraries or cut hours temporarily as people switch to more e-books? With crime down, can we maintain current police staffing levels but not fill open positions?
Also, let's get creative about new revenue sources. Can we charge for parking (modest fee) at open space preserves and Foothills Park (but bikes get in free!)? Can we charge for parking in City garages? Can we consider a vacancy tax on empty homes (as Vancouver and other Cities do)? If a home is vacant, it doesn't have residents contributing to the local economy.
I think it would be really easy to put sustainability on hold during this crisis, but we need to keep making progress there as the planet is still facing an existential crisis if we don't make progress in the next 12 years. We are giving the earth a break now, but the gains are modest versus the long term devastation we have created.
Thank you for soliciting community feedback -- this is a tough situation and tough decisions will need to be made.