Roseville Task Force Focuses on Community Involvement

The Civic Engagement Task Force, a special committee of the Roseville Human Rights Commission, met Wednesday to discuss how better to encourage neighborhood cohesion and to discuss the future of the task force.

It was the second meeting of the task force, and the 10 members present worked to formulate their goals for the Roseville community.

The task force was run by Gary Grefenberg, a self-described “leftover from the ‘60s.” Grefenberg urged the group to focus on gathering e-mail addresses from Roseville citizens and to use Roseville’s participation in National Night Out--a nation-wide block party scheduled for Aug. 2--to unite Roseville residents.

The task force members also discussed the importance of making commissions responsive to public input city-wide.

A sub-committee presented its findings on changing the name of the task force, and after several minutes of polite debate, the group settled on The Neighborhood and Community Engagement Task Force.

"Some people feel the term ‘civic engagement’ is too governmental,” Grefenberg said. “Using the word ‘neighborhood’ is closer to the origins of the whole group.”