Griffith City Council is launching their new 'community opinion groups' in an initial meeting scheduled for April 5.
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The COG meetings will be held every three months, in a bid to increase Council's transparency and consultation with the community. Mayor Doug Curran will chair the meetings, in which any community member can attend and raise issues that need addressing.
The location of the meeting will vary, with one meeting each year in Yenda, Hanwood and Yoogali and one in central Griffith.
Mayor Curran said that it was a long process to building credibility back up.
"It's about trying to give the community an opportunity to talk to their elected representatives and senior management, and improve that consultation," he explained.
"The community has told us they want things like question time back, but according to the office of local government, we can't do that - so instead we've got all the councillors in a room to answer those questions."
He added that he wasn't expecting overnight success of the program.
"It's not something where you click your fingers and the community comes along. We have to do a few and act on what we're told at them ... we realise it can't be a lip service."
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The Community Opinion Group is not the first attempt from Griffith City Council to reach out directly to the community, but Mr Curran is certainly hoping this one stays more on track.
"Many years ago, we embarked on going to the villages and talking to the community but it just morphed into something else, we were going out to the villages and just doing a presentation ... This time, we might have something prepared or an idea of potential issues but it's really about the community coming forward to us."
The meetings are open to all and no RSVP is necessary, but Mr Curran urged anyone with agenda items to reach out first in order to be better prepared.
"If they want answers on the night, it would be great to know what they want to talk about ahead of time,"
"If somebody comes to us on the night and says 'this road is crap,' we then have to go away and look at it, see if anything is already being done about it," he said.
The first of the COG meetings will be held at the Yoogali Club from 7pm, on Thursday, April 5.
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