Boulder to Launch New, Easy-to-Use System to Contact City Council on Jan. 14

The city will make a contact council form, available in English and Spanish, accessible Friday at: https://bouldercolorado.gov/contact-city-council-and-staff. The contact form will be prominently linked on the city homepage and council-related webpages to make it easy to find.

The form will make it clearer to the public how to contact council, provide transparency about open records related to council communication, and allow the city to be more responsive and efficient in coordinating responses, which often involve staff expertise to answer questions. Community members can select or enter the topic of their message with their form submission, allowing the city to route any questions for staff to relevant subject matter experts. Every drop-down menu in the form has an option that either says “other” or “I don’t know,” so community members who are not sure where best to route their question or comment may choose one of these.

The city had used an email address in the past to contact the entire council, but it has been phased out for the new system. The city typically received between 7,500 and 10,000 emails to council each year, and routing questions to staff was time consuming. The goal of the new system to make back-end processes more efficient, which will improve responsiveness.

As in the past, one or multiple individual council members may respond to messages from community addressed to the entire council. When direct questions are asked about existing city programs, services or policies, city staff from the relevant department will strive to respond in a timely manner.

The city will continue to utilize Inquire Boulder for community members to submit service requests – such as filling a pothole or flagging graffiti for removal – so it will remain the best platform for seeking assistance or specific service from the city.