Covington officials want to be more engaged with residents.

To that end, city staff have developed a charter to form a steering committee to create a public engagement process, something the City Council asked staff to work on at its retreat in late January, according to documents provided by City Manager Derek Matheson.

“The public engagement process is important because it creates an opportunity for the public to tell us what they want from their city government,” Matheson wrote in an email interview. “We’ve cut our budget by about $1.5 million and reduced our staff by about 20 percent since the recession began. However, if prices continue to rise and revenues remain anemic, we may have to cut more in a year or two. At the same time, we know the public wants us to build new roads and parks, maintain better the roads and parks we have, and hire more police officers, for example.”

Covington’s management team discussed the process at its retreat in March and came up with outcomes to help guide the development of the process.

Through public engagement, the city wants to help the community become educated about and connected to mandated as well as discretionary services and “the crucial role of the town center.”

In addition, the management team wants to be able to convey a clear sense of the communities priorities for the city’s existing revenue as well as new revenue.

This process should also, according to city documents, provide “a clear sense of the community’s willingness to provide new revenue for those priorities.”

“The (public engagement process) will use a Budget Priorities Advisory Committee and other public-engagement tools to determine the public’s priorities for existing revenues and determine whether the public wants to maintain and/or enhance those priorities with new, voter-approved revenues,” Matheson wrote. “The City Council adopted a BPAC charter unanimously on Sept. 13. Staff will enlist the help of our advisory commissions and other civic organizations to identify potential BPAC members. Our goal is to make it possible for the Council to appoint the BPAC by the end of the year.”

In order to develop the public engagement process, the management team suggested involving residents by inviting them to join a steering committee, participate in community meetings, focus groups and surveys as well as connect through social media such as the city’s Facebook page.

It is important, according to the city documents, to “let the community lead the process and produce results independent of Council and/or staff desires.”

This process, which will have its foundation in the council’s vision, mission and goals, will need to stay focused on the future.

Finance director Rob Hendrickson picked the brain of Shoreline’s finance director to understand how that city was able to implement a successful public engagement process.

At the Aug. 23 Covington City Council meeting Hendrickson presented a report that outlined a draft charter for the steering committee that would help develop the public engagement process.

This committee could have between 13 and 15 members with the majority required to live within the city limits. It could include city advisory commission members but not council members or city staff.

It could also include members who are between 14 and 18 years old.

Nominations for the committee would come from council members, commission members, city staff, the Covington Chamber of Commerce, local service clubs and the community with the members ideally representing a wide variety of people and viewpoints.

Members of the committee would be appointed by the council based on staff recommendations.

Hendrickson would sever as the liaison between the committee and staff.

According to the draft charter, the committee would need to meet at least once a month, report regularly to the council and put together a final report no later than mid-2013.