Gathering Georgetown: A Blueprint for Inclusive and Impactful Citizen Engagement

How Georgetown, Texas, turned citizen engagement into a community event — with scoops, snacks and civic spirit

Note: This is the last GGF of 2024. We’ll be back Friday, Jan. 3. Happy holidays, everybody!

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Local governments face the ongoing challenge of fostering meaningful citizen engagement. It’s not enough to simply share information; the goal is to create opportunities for residents to see the full picture of governance — the trade-offs, the connections, and the difficult decisions that come with managing public resources. In Georgetown, Texas, they’ve taken this challenge head-on, crafting innovative approaches that transform engagement from passive observation to active participation.

As I’ve shared before in Good Government Files, the most effective public engagement processes go beyond single-issue advocacy. They help residents think like elected officials, balancing competing priorities and seeing how today’s choices shape tomorrow’s outcomes. Georgetown’s approach to citizen engagement builds on this principle, offering a model for how cities can align public participation with transparency and trust-building.

In this issue, we’ll explore how Georgetown reimagined its State of the City event and created Gather Round Georgetown to increase public participation in major city planning initiatives. These efforts didn’t just inform residents — they welcomed them into the conversation, fostering a deeper understanding of city operations. We’ll also connect Georgetown’s work to broader trends highlighted by the National League of Cities (NLC), showing how their success is part of a larger movement to rebuild trust in local government.

Let’s dig into Georgetown’s story and uncover lessons that any city can adopt to strengthen its relationship with the community.

Identifying the Problem

First, a quick primer on Georgetown: It’s a half hour drive north of Austin. The current population is 92,000 — and counting. It’s been the fastest-growing city in the United States for cities with a population above 50,000. It’s the capital of Williamson County and boasts “the Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas.” A whopping 94 percent of residents rate quality of life as either excellent or good. It also happens to be my neighbor to the north, so I’ve known many of the folks working there for decades. It’s a lovely community and the municipal government is well run with a forward-thinking city manager in David Morgan and a top-notch communications chief in Aly Van Dyke.

For Georgetown, 2023 was the “Year of the Plan,” with multiple departments rolling out significant initiatives. These included updates to the Downtown Master Plan, the Future Mobility Plan, and the Unified Development Code, among others. With over 10 major projects requiring public input, the city’s traditional approach of one-off open houses quickly revealed its limitations.

“We had a public meeting for the Future Mobility Plan, and there were more city staff and consultants there than residents,” said Beth Wade, Georgetown’s marketing and social media manager. “We realized that’s not effective, and if we really value resident input, we need to find a better way to get more people involved.”

I’ve promoted public meetings just like that! This challenge is far from unique to Central Texas. A recent report from the National League of Cities (NLC) notes trust in government is highest at the local level, but traditional methods of engagement often fail to reflect the diverse and interconnected needs of residents. The Georgetown team set out to address these shortcomings.

A Sweet Solution

Georgetown’s answer was twofold: revamping its annual State of the City event early in the calendar year and introducing Gather Round Georgetown, a summer engagement initiative. A great thing about that schedule is it allowed for initial input in January, and for residents to get an update on the planning initiatives that summer.

Allowing residents to see what’s been done with their input is critical. Of course, not every idea or suggestion is going to be implemented. But people will know they’ve been heard when they can see how plans have evolved due to public input. It’s a best practice if you want to establish or build on your organization’s trust and credibility.

The 2023 State of the City event featured an open-house format at City Hall where residents could visit booths representing various city projects. Attendees were encouraged to interact with city staff, provide feedback, and see how different initiatives interconnected. Following the open house, the mayor and city manager delivered the State of the City address, highlighting the local government’s success from the previous year and looking ahead to opportunities in the coming one.

The State of the City event was followed in August by Gather Round Georgetown, an open-house-style event designed to maintain engagement with ongoing projects. Here’s what it looked like.

Credit: City of Georgetown, Texas

Both events emphasized accessibility, family-friendliness, and a welcoming atmosphere.

“We promoted it as ‘Come get ice cream on us,’” said Cindy Medrano, public engagement coordinator. “People were surprised when we didn’t just hand out ice pops or ice cream sandwiches — they could get as many scoops as they wanted from a local shop. That small gesture made a big impression.”

Good to know I’m not the only degenerate ice cream lover in the area. But I digress.