Citizen Participation

Giving ordinary citizens a stronger “voice” in democracy is an increasingly complex process. Citizens expect 24x7 access, faster response times, and more opportunities to stay informed and involved in the decision-making process. Government must raise the impact of citizen interactions to encourage involvement, participation, and better results. They are replacing time-consuming, high-cost citizen interactions involving paperwork, phone calls, and in-person transactions with digital tools that fulfill citizen needs quickly and constructively.

Granicus helps agencies meet these goals with tools that result in more meaningful and productive interactions with citizens. Our citizen participation technology enables agencies to:

• Encourage participation from a wider audience

  It’s imperative for government agencies to establish a fair and inclusive foundation for citizens to participate in government decision-making. To engage wider audiences and attract new voices in the democratic process, agencies need tools that motivate participation from all citizens—not just the vocal minority or citizen activists. Granicus eComment helps agencies address this challenge by providing them with an online, inclusive format to encourage participation from wider audiences. eComment provides an online channel for citizens who are unlikely, or unable to participate in-person.

• Increase participation in the democratic process

  Provide citizens with a more convenient and effective way to weigh-in on public debate. eComment provides a simplistic online form for citizens to formally submit written comments or feedback on focused meeting agenda items that are up for public debate. The process is systematic, controlled, consistent, and instantly available to the public. As a result, citizens are empowered to vocalize their opinion in a formal setting—anytime, anywhere with an internet connection.

• Promote environmentally sustainable citizen interactions

  Governments are transitioning in-person and paper-heavy citizen transactions into more sustainable, online formats. Granicus provides a variety of online methods for citizens to engage and participate with government in an environmentally-friendly way. Our tools help generate less foot traffic to your government offices, which equate to reductions in fuel emissions, traffic congestion, and parking. They also help minimize the amount of paper required to record and respond to citizen inquiries.

• Enable constructive and informed citizen participation

  Encouraging more informed participation from citizens is an underlying tenant of democratic governance. Governments are under pressure to find the most effective ways to educate the public about critical policy issues and decisions. Granicus provides governments with comprehensive legislative solutions that encourage citizens to shape informed opinions. Our Integrated Public Record of interactive public meeting webcasts and integrated digital public record is available to citizens centrally on their government’s own Media Portal. This portal gives them the capacity to quickly research policy, view or listen to public meetings, and submit feedback on specific policy items that are up for deliberation—from one central location.

• Increase responsiveness and manage citizen interactions with greater efficiency

  As the volume of citizen interactions grows, it’s imperative for agencies adopt effective processes to keep responsiveness levels high. Today’s agencies lack the resources and time to manually transact public inquiries at the rate they are expected to. Granicus provides online, productive formats to systematically interact and participate with citizens to keep government costs low—while improving the quality and responsiveness. eComment gives governments the capacity to increase participation—without adding staff time or costs. The result is a win-win for citizens and government. Staff have a controlled online environment to capture citizen input and automated process to collect, manage, track, maintain, and route information—requiring little effort.

• Align with government procedures and regulations

  Federal, State, and Local regulations require government to maintain fairness and integrity when deliberating in an open public forum. Privacy Laws, Open Government Laws, Public Record Laws are in place to make the process fair and open. Popular online tools to facilitating interaction among people, like blogs, do not meet the specific needs of government and call into question these fundamental regulations. To ensure participation is conducted in compliance with existing policies and regulations, Granicus has developed it’s systems to work within governments existing processes. Our LiveManager and eComment applications work productively within policies to participation conducted in a fair, legitimate, consistent, and formal setting.