The City of Decatur has implemented Open City Hall - an innovative online program that facilitates citizen engagement in critical community decisions. The basic idea is simple. The City selects upcoming decisions on which it requires citizen input, posts background information about those topics on its website, and invites residents to submit comments on its website. All comments are monitored for civility. Decision makers use the online comments, along with input from other channels for participation, in their decision process.

This document was submitted to the Alliance for Innovation for consideration for a 2010 Innovation Award.