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Jefferson County Commissioner Don Rosier will be joining forces with former Lakewood City Councilman (and almost County Commissioner) Ed Peterson next week as they together host a telephone town hall about C-470.

From the C-470 Corridor Coalition’s Policy Committee (isn’t that a mouthful?):

C-470 Corridor Coalition Seeks Public Input

Will Use Innovative Telephone Town Hall Technology to Reach 200,000 Residents

Phones along C-470 will be ringing July 31, August 1 and August 2 as the C-470 Corridor Coalition hosts a series of telephone town hall meetings to provide information on efforts to expand and improve the highway and to get input on how to pay for these upgrades.

“We want to encourage public participation in the planning process so we’re trying to make it as easy as possible for C-470 users to offer their input on how to pay for these much-needed upgrades,” said Jack Hilbert, chair of the C-470 Corridor Coalition’s Policy Committee.

Over the course of three days, 200,000 random calls will be placed to those living near the C-470 corridor.  Although each telephone town hall will include representatives from specific jurisdictions, those living outside the specific jurisdictions may also participate.  Those that do not receive a call may still participate by calling 877-229-8493 and entering PIN number 110302.  

Following is the schedule for the hour-long telephone town halls as well as the panelists:

Tuesday,  July 31

6:15 p.m. – Jefferson County Commissioner Donald Rosier and Colorado Department of Transportation Commissioner Ed Peterson

First off, it’s 2012. While telephone town halls may indeed be novel, they’re certainly not innovative. And the only reason they’re novel is because they’re ineffective.

Just to make sure it’s clear, Rosier and Peterson will be on the other end of the line when a few thousand Jeffco-area residents pick up a phone call from a number they’ve never seen before. And then some sort of conversation about highway improvements is supposed to happen, or something?

How many of these “random calls” does the Policy Committee expect to be answered? The recipients certainly didn’t commit in advance to talking about C-470 — they were randomly selected, after all. Chances are that many who receive a call won’t be home, and those that are certainly won’t pick up when they see an 877 number on their caller ID. Not to mention that 6:15 to 7:15 PM is a pretty prime hour for both commuting and spending time with family. Few people, we presume, want to interrupt their evening to talk about highways.

Many of those who do pick up probably won’t be much help, either. A select few will have gripes about the road that they’ll all be all too happy to air — admittedly, this is probably designed for those select few — but we suspect most won’t have any idea what the town hall is about: “Don Rosier? No, you’ve got the wrong number; he doesn’t live here.”

There are undoubtedly better ways to interact with those who live near the C-470 corridor than an unscheduled and barely announced telephone town hall. Why not, you know, an actual town hall? The reason in-person meetings are a cornerstone of local government (and democracy) is because those who have something to say will be the ones in attendance.

Perhaps Rosier and Peterson are looking from candid commentary from the type of people who have opinions on C-470 but would never attend a town hall. Unfortunately, the duo isn’t likely to get much when their first attempt walks a fine line between outreach and telemarketing.

If the C-470 Corridor Coalition’s Policy Committee really insists on doing this kind of survey over the phone, why not limit it to a touch-tone IVR call that lets users record a message? People are used to those, especially in an election year, and it’s a lot easier to hit a button on a phone’s keypad than it is to engage in a live conversation with dozens of other residents.