1. Citizen Engagement in Lexington, Virginia
Noah A. Simon, City Manager

2. Why engage? To educate the public and tell your story
To encourage feedback
To achieve transparency
To maintain quality customer service

3. How to engage through education:
With accessible and easy-to-read reports.
Popular Annual Financial Report
Annual Report
Budget Visualization Tool
Weekly Report from the City Manager

4. Engage with the community through the community:
Virginia Military Institute and Washington & Lee University
Strategic Plan citizen involvement
Comprehensive Plan workshop and stakeholder meetings
Meet the City Manager open forums
Community events

5. Reaching out to citizens
How?
Why?
Go where the people already are
Social media
Community events
Utilize technology
Community surveys
Day-to-day communication
Staff = ambassadors to the city
First impressions are everything.
Be proactive rather than reactive: foresee questions and problems that need answers.
Increase and diversify the people who are engaged.
Empower your citizens.

6. City of Fairfax – Jon Stehle
Fairfax City Minute
Citizen Centric Report

7. Citizen-Centric Reporting (CCR) – since 1997!
Fostering innovative means of communication between governments and their citizenry
“A government’s obligation to the people for its actions and use of resources”
- AGA’s definition of accountability
“Giving the citizens numbers they can understand.”
-Governing
Making annual financial reports available to the public -- is a first step. The CCR provides a next logical step to informing our citizens. Association of Government Accountants (AGA)

8. Government Finance Case Challenge
AGA’s Role:
Coordinate and fund the program
AGA identifies a “target government entity”
Conduct outreach to our academic members as well as other colleges and universities
College/University Role:
Form a 3-student team (plus a Faculty advisor) to provide value to a government entity; submit an application
Analyze data within a two week period, for a specified U.S. state, city or county government and develop a Citizen-Centric Report (CCR).
Students learn about government services, data availability, and what’s important to communicate
NOTE …
The next couple of slides identify what the last winning team developed in the Government case challenge
Useful to show students what the “deliverable product is”

9. Your Questions?