The city of Columbia is set to hold its Community Summit on Saturday, March 14 at City Hall, an event where residents can voice their concerns and ideas directly with the city officials. Citizens are invited to attend to share feedback and learn more about the upcoming changes to the city’s strategic plans.
The Community Summit was inaugurated in 2025 as an event to spur more involvement in city government. The event was coined a success by Sydney Olsen, Columbia's engagement and public communications manager. Olsen said the event helped officials see what efforts residents wanted to be prioritized, and it also helped residents better understand how city services function.
“For the first event, we had over 300 attendees, and we heard a lot of great feedback from those who came, so a couple of ideas we heard regarded travel — we heard feedback from residents that they wanted to see flights to Denver,” Olsen said. “We also heard some great feedback on our budget process and how residents would like to learn more. And since then, we've implemented new educational opportunities through our budget town halls, and we're in the process of making educational videos as well.”
According to Stephanie Brown, the special projects manager for the city manager, one of the biggest community engagement projects that came from last year's summit was community block parties, where residents can interact with city officials in an informal setting.
“Having those informal engagements within different communities and neighborhoods, whether it's at a park or in that neighborhood, around a community area where city council, city staff and leadership were there just interacting with the residents of that neighborhood, and so that was something that we initiated in the past year that came out of suggestions for last year's summit,” Brown said.
The city said the Community Summit has many changes from the previous year, including expanding the event space so there's more opportunities to connect with officials. The city also plans to announce changes to its strategic plan, with hopes to use resident feedback to make adjustments.
Residents will be able to visit booths concerning topics such as organizational excellence, safety in community, inclusive and equitable communities, a resilient economy, and reliable and sustainable infrastructure, as outlined in the strategic plan.
The city is encouraging residents who attended the event last year to attend this year, as they will be asked different questions and get to talk to different officials that were not at last year's event. Families are also encouraged to attend with their kids, as there will be games for them to play and opportunities for them to provide feedback, too.
The city said those who attend the event will be invited to explore participating businesses downtown that are providing specials. Downtown parking fees for both parking garages and street meters will be suspended on March 14, so that people can park and attend the summit for free. Attendees will also be entered into a basket drawing for providing their feedback.
Residents who are unable to attend are encouraged to still give feedback on beheard.como.gov under the Community Summit page.
