Public agencies aim to provide service delivery in a professional, unbiased manner to the entire community. Generally, they do well providing services to the majority, but they might not always be serving the needs of all equally. This may be a form of benign neglect in pursuit of economies of scale. Attempting to tailor services at an individual level would be costly and time-consuming, based on what Alvin Toffler referred to as, “Diseconomies of complexity.” However, public agencies might be well served in achieving this mission if they altered their approaches in identifying socially vulnerable groups.

As public administrators, we are both aware of and resigned to the lack of diversity in our public meetings. Laudable creative strategies are punctually deployed to increase it, including taking meetings with key stakeholder groups, providing evening childcare, making some meetings more ‘fun’ and even doing away with the chambers altogether by hosting off-site meetings.