“People Just Don’t Care” and Other Misguided Municipal Myths

By Lorri Matthewson (Founder and Lead Consultant Matthewson & Co.)

www.smallplacesrock.com

“People just don’t care anymore.”

I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard that around a Council table, or in an administrator’s office. It is the easiest explanation for the low turnout at the annual meeting, empty meetings, and quiet comment boxes.

Also, “People just like to bitch.”

Again, the easiest explanation for the popularity of rants and raves pages, the growing unrest amongst the population aimed at the Council, Administration and staff, and the visible frustration amongst the people who live in our communities.

It is the easiest explanation, but it is not a factual one. Consider this; people care deeply about their homes, their roads, their taxes, their kids, their farms, their safety, and their friends and neighbors.

What they don’t care about is the way municipalities traditionally expect the citizenry to participate occasionally when they ignore them the rest of the year. And that’s not a universal character flaw; it is a design flaw in the municipal process.

If you are having a public meeting once a year, or worse, stopped having it because people stopped showing up you are doing it wrong. A single, formal, once a year meeting it not community engagement. It is a performance. It is we are doing this because we must, and we are doing it begrudgingly.

For some people, the meeting was held on a day, or time when they just couldn’t make it.

For some people, they are not connecting to the agenda, the issues feel abstract.

For most, they believe their input is not welcome, and that you made the decisions before you involved the community. Therefore, what good is their input?

None of that means they don’t care, it means the meeting doesn’t work for them. If we only measure caring by who shows up at 7:00 PM on a Tuesday in February, we are measuring the wrong thing.

Ask any councillor who isn’t hiding out at the public event, ask any councillor who is getting their groceries, or at the coffee shop…they care plenty when they are looking for the grader, when the taxes go up, or when the water bill spikes. They care when a project affects their road, their kids, or their wallet.

People care in the moment—it is not that they don’t care. They are, mostly, overwhelmed.

Like you, residents are juggling work, family obligations, aging parents, health, finances and exhaustion. Add in the political climate, and the general sense that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, most people are not sitting at home going “Eff the council, I don’t care about my town.” They are thinking “I’m too tired to go anywhere…”

Engagement that requires people to rearrange their lives is engagement that will fail. You’ve heard of the butt groove? My couch has one, and once I get my butt settled into that groove the only thing that will move me is bedtime.

What will get me to an evening meeting is when I’m clear why I need to be there, the timing works and I am reasonably sure I’m not walking into an argument. People show up when the issue affects them directly, the information—the why they should go is clearly presented, and they believe their voice matters.

That is why a social media post gets 200 comments, but a public hearing gets 4 people. It isn’t apathy, it is accessibility. They can give their opinion in 2 seconds from the comfort of their home.

If we want people to care with us, we have to stop assuming they don’t care at all, because that affects how we frame our messages to the public. Instead, we should ask:

1. Did we explain the issue clearly?

2. Did we let people know about the meeting or engagement well in advance?

3. Did we offer more than one way to participate?

4. Did we tell them what we did with their information the last time we asked for it?

Truthfully, people do care, and they always have.

Our job as administrators, leaders and community builders is to create engagement that respects people’s time, their realities, and their humanity.

People don’t need to care more. We need to engage better. And when we do, the difference happens right away.

Matthewson & Co. offers flexible, high‑impact council training delivered both in person and online, giving your team practical tools and confidence to lead effectively. Visit Our Services | Matthewson & Co. for more information.

Our next Community Engagement & Collaboration webinar will take place on Tuesday March 24th. To register, visit Community Engagement & Collaboration Tickets, Tuesday, Mar 24 from 3 pm to 4:30 pm CDT | Eventbrite