The Bend City Council is scheduled to vote next week on a plan “to modernize and professionalize how city government operates.”

Is it going to fix city roads? No.

Is it going to speed up getting a city permit? Nope.

Is it going to improve public safety? No, again.

No, approval of the plan would do something completely unnecessary: The Council would give the city’s neighborhood associations a permanent committee to represent their views to the city. There’s nothing modern or professional about that.

Neighborhood associations can already get the city’s attention, just like any other member of the public. Anybody can call councilors. Anybody can email councilors. Anybody can go to Council meetings and speak.

Is the Council acknowledging it doesn’t perk up and listen to neighborhood associations now? It doesn’t take creating a committee to do that. Or is the Council saying that neighborhood associations deserve a level of input above what an ordinary resident gets? That’s a mistake. Especially because under the proposal the Council will approve who sits on the committee. Listening to the committee could become like an echo chamber.

Neighborhood associations can be a way to increase citizen participation in decisions the city makes. The leaders of the neighborhood associations can then make an effort to pass on what they are hearing. The neighborhood associations can also be a useful conduit for the city to communicate with its residents about what the city is doing.

But most Bend residents don’t get involved in their neighborhood associations. They have other things that are more important in their lives — likely their families and their jobs. Councilors need to do a better job of making themselves available to listen to those people — not hand a loudspeaker to the tiny, vocal minority who are already involved.