New York CIty Council Member Ben Kallos

Capital New York Council to look elsewhere for constituent engagement technology by Miranda Neubauer

Council to look elsewhere for constituent engagement technology

City Council members hope to improve public engagement with the legislative process through tech, as civic technologists aim to expand and step up their efforts.

Councilman Ben Kallos, chair of the Governmental Operations Committee, said he planned to focus on implementation of the laws requiring online publication of the city's laws and of the City Council technology plan that was part of rules reforms passed last year.

"We've already gotten so much more accomplished in the first year than anyone may have ever expected and I think a lot of the focus in 2015 will be around implementation, beta-testing and learning from our first roll-outs and implementations," Kallos said.

In connection with those efforts, Kallos suggested that the Council could look toward the model of the State Senate's web platform, new tools for engaging with constituents and public-private partnerships incorporating other cities and civic technology groups.

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