Macon’s three fellows in the Code For America program collected a short list of ideas Wednesday night about how to make city government more interactive and accessible for residents.

Easier ways to find government documents and track politicians’ actions were among the top suggestions at the small meeting in City Council chambers.

Three fellows funded by a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation are spending five weeks in Macon as an early stage in their yearlong project to develop technology applications for easier government access. Nick Doiron, Jessica Lord and Zach Williams are halfway through their five-week stay, meeting with a variety of groups to figure out what would be most useful here.

Lord said the group wants to hear as many ideas as it can from as many people as possible. Anyone the three haven’t talked to personally can send suggestions to macon@codeforamerica.org, she said.

Hearing from the general public is key, the fellows said. But there’s not a single, central location where that input can be gathered.

Wednesday’s meeting opened the public conversation. The three fellows sat at a table, facing a chamber that held several representatives of Macon city government, about a dozen private citizens, and former mayoral spokesman Andrew Blascovich, who’s now the local representative for U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga.

One of the keys to making locally useful innovations is keeping in mind some residents’ technological limitations, Doiron said.

“What we’re finding in Macon is that it’s important to keep in mind that not everybody has a smartphone,” he said. What they develop for use here should have multiple means of access, Doiron said.

Frank Dixon spoke up to ask for all city forms and applications to be placed online.

“How ambitious can we make this?” he asked.

Since many residents don’t have Internet access at home and may not be able to easily travel to city offices, perhaps a dedicated computer terminal in recreation or community centers around town could provide access to all sorts of city paperwork, Dixon said.

“I think that’s a great idea,” Lord said.

Danny Glover, who ran unsuccessfully for a Macon City Council seat last year, said there should be an easy way to show how council members vote on various issues, with a simple explanation of those items. That’s something that should be extended to all local governments, he said.

Local road activist Lindsay “Doc” Holliday added that explanatory backup documents, like the upcoming proposal to sell $18 million in bonds for projects approved in last fall’s sales tax referendum, should be posted online along with the results of those votes.

The fellows agreed, and said they’ve heard that suggestion several times already.

Williams said a way of doing that may be forthcoming, but Macon’s fellows may not be the ones to develop it. There are Code for America fellows working in eight cities this year.

The local team isn’t picking specific projects yet, because all the applications Code For America develops can be shared among different cities.

Lord said another city’s team may work out a way to what Glover and Holliday asked, which would let Macon’s fellows concentrate on still more innovations.

Holliday said traffic accident reports should also be listed online, instead of having to be purchased at the police department.

“Several times I’ve been trying to get an accident report, and it’s just too much trouble to come down here and get it,” he said.

Glover suggested a public database of all city boards, including brief biographies of members and notification of any open seats. Such boards should be required to have a few younger members, to allow them to gain experience and give a fresh perspective, he said.

Susan Martin urged creation of a central list of all public meetings, for a wide variety of agencies, including upcoming agendas. Her husband Lee Martin said he’d like to see Bibb County government meetings streamed online, as city meetings now are.

Local CPA Denise Saturna said ongoing public projects, which can fade from view for months at a time, should be posted online with regular updates so citizens can follow their progress.

City police and county sheriff’s deputies should be required to post local crime statistics regularly, Glover and Lee Martin said.

That’s already been suggested, and police have been “very open” to the idea, Williams said.

Lee Martin still doubted it would be done. There’s a big gap between polite responses to Code For America fellows and getting it done at the local level, he said.

To contact writer Jim Gaines, call 744-4489.