Like-minded group of local activists, grassroots leaders and concerned citizens plan to host a meeting Saturday in Chinatown to brainstorm ways to improve Honolulu’s 50-year-old Neighborhood Board System.

Created in 1973, the city-run Neighborhood Board System was designed to assure and increase community participation in the decision-making process of government. That system, according to the city, applies the concepts of participatory democracy, involving communities in the decisions that affect them.

To do so, the average neighborhood board — manned by volunteer board members — typically meets on a monthly basis. Those meetings — covering 33 different boards across the island — provide an open forum between government representatives, elected officials and members of the public, who also have the right to submit testimony on any and all agenda items for those respective meetings, the city says.

But for some, like Downtown-Chinatown Neighborhood Board member Robert Mikala Armstrong, community engagement in local government overall is sorely lacking.

“The numbers don’t lie: 70% of the races now go uncontested, voter numbers are down and we’re just not seeing positive, meaningful changes come out of the system,” he said.

A board member since 2016, Armstrong said that he and his group — the so-called Neighborhood Board System Planning Group — want to rejuvenate the system’s “democratic structure” for the next half- century.

“If you don’t constantly work to improve the structure and composition of the neighborhood boards, there will be atrophy, which is what I am noticing,” Armstrong said. “So I and others are fighting for change because it’s a brilliant idea that can still work in the future.”

Saturday’s organizational meeting — which Armstrong claims is the first of its kind in 15 years — will explore three key areas of the system. He added that this exploration will be done through brainstorming and then through “the development of research questions, needed interviews and future strategies.”

According to Armstrong, the three key areas are:

>> The Neighborhood Plan, which functions as the system’s constitution.

>> The neighborhood boundaries and demographics, which have changed over the years.

>> The Neighborhood Commission Office and commissioners, who function as the “executive” and “judicial” branches of the organization.

Armstrong said Saturday’s meeting will be a starting point to create changes to the Neighborhood Board System. Afterward, he said he’d like to see the various groups work online for the next three to six months.

“We’ll come together around the holidays to see where we are and how best to proceed,” he added.

Meanwhile, others involved in their own neighborhood boards are also interested in seeing changes to the system.

Colin Peros, chair of the 13-member Palolo Neighborhood Board, said more community engagement is top of mind for him.

Peros said his idea to create that engagement mirrors legislation state Sen. Les Ihara Jr. — who represents Palolo — had put forward earlier this year. That legislation, Senate Bill 749, is intended to advance civic engagement via the state Department of Education across the state.

Moreover, Peros said Ihara had also pushed for more representation for Palolo housing residents — living in Hawaii Public Housing Authority properties — on the Palolo Neighborhood Board.

“I agree and would want representation (and) opportunity for (public) housing residents in every other district, too,” Peros said, adding that the 13-member board he chairs offers no representation for those living in public housing. He added that he’d “like some kind of oversweeping state law or ordinance that would carve out a seventh subdistrict — specific to Palolo — that is exclusively for public housing units.”

Ultimately, Peros said he’d like to see similar subdistricts created across Oahu for those residing in public housing.

“I think what I’m proposing would at least provide them an opportunity to be represented,” he added.

Rich Turbin, chair of the nine-member Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board, said issues he’s experienced while serving on the board stem from the city’s bureaucracy.

“The main problem that has been vexing for me is when the (Honolulu Mayor Rick) Blangiardi administration took over, somebody in their fiscal office decided that we could not use outside facilities, such as churches or community institutions, in our community where we’ve been meeting for decades,” he said.

In his experience, Turbin said the city will no longer sign indemnity agreements “that if any accidents happen, pursuant to a neighborhood board meeting, that the city will indemnify the church” or other outside sites for potential liabilities on the city’s part.

Because of this issue, he said the Waialae-Kahala board now holds its monthly meetings closer to Waikiki — at the Ala Wai Clubhouse at the city’s Ala Wai Golf Course — rather than Kahala.

“It’s farther away from the community, so we’ve had smaller participation,” he said. “So that’s one thing that the city has done that I don’t care for, it’s been an obstacle.”

Still, Turbin said, many people do participate at board meetings via the internet — namely, through Zoom.

“The city, to their credit, has worked hard to make that available,” he added.

According to Armstrong, he hopes the group’s meeting Saturday will lead to further improvements to the city’s Neighborhood Board System. At some point, that collaboration could produce a “white paper” — a report offering solutions to a problem — for future review by the Neighborhood Board Commission and the Honolulu City Council.

“By bringing together all citizens, the vision of the Neighborhood Board System Planning Group is to review, rewrite and refresh the major components of the Neighborhood Board System so citizen participation and representation is empowered and energized for the next 50 years,” he said.

The meeting will begin at 1 p.m. at New Life Church Honolulu, 1152 Smith St. The gathering is free and open to the public. A parking garage is available beyond Smith Street, off Beretania Street.

For more information about the meeting, contact Armstrong at 808-859-4755.