CUMBERLAND — City officials plan to host open houses geared to showcase their work.
“November is local government month in Maryland,” Cumberland Administrator Jeff Silka said of the program Municipal Government Works.
The Maryland Municipal League in 1993 created MGW “to promote citizens’ awareness of and interest in the government in their communities,” the MML website states.
“Through school visits, MML members have educated over 51,000 students and their teachers about how municipal government works.”
The initiative started in April 1993, and in 2005, transitioned to a month-long program that moved to November in 2008.
Silka said the city will hold events including open houses at facilities throughout the month.
Much of the activity will allow the city to repurpose plans for its Citizen’s Academy, which was halted earlier this month due to lack of public interest.
The annual academy, which started in 2024, included a two-hour evening weekly class for roughly two months, and provided interaction with the mayor and City Council members as well as city staff.
The city had touted the academy as a program to provide residents a look “behind the curtain” and allow local government officials to discuss how they operate.
The academy was scheduled to be held Sept. 10 through Oct. 29 and included sessions with departments of the city’s clerk, finance, parks, planning and zoning, public works, historic preservation and public safety.
Silka had wanted at least 12 people over age 18 years to sign up for the program, but only five people registered.
Now, planning that went into that program can be used in November, Silka said.
“I’m thinking that we may do mini academy classes in those … open houses just to give a little bit of an educational component if anybody wants to sit through it,” he said. “The staff did do the work for the academy so we have everything ready for this year, so it just kind of gives us a way to push a little bit of information out there.”