AUBURN – Councilors won’t be going to the city’s neighborhoods for a round of ward meetings this year, but they are planning to devote time listening to neighborhood issues.

“We still want to bring the government to the people and actually listen to the people we work for,” Mayor John Jenkins said. “The difference is, we want to do it in a way that’s less expensive.”

A neighborhood meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. March 23 in City Council Chambers. All city residents are invited to bring their comments, criticisms and suggestions to councilors’ attention at the meeting. It’s scheduled to begin immediately after the council’s regular workshop meeting.

The city hosted a series of meetings in each ward two years ago, during Jenkins first year as mayor, and those meeting were well-attended. A second round the following year were not.

“We found that in many cases, city employees outnumbered the public at those meetings,” Jenkins said. “I had some councilors point out that it wasn’t the highest and best use of our staffs’ time. So we decided to have one meeting instead.”