North Bend kicked off its third year of Citizens Academy at the beginning of February, and it’s the biggest year yet.

Citizens Academy is a free, multi-week, in-person program that began in 2023 as a way to show North Bend residents the ins and outs of city operations. According to the website, participants get to meet and interact with city officials, see where taxpayer money goes and learn how to become more involved in local government.

The 2025 North Bend Citizens Academy will include eight courses, as well as a recognition event at the end where the 21 participants can connect with North Bend City Council members. Course topics include city history, open government, economic development, emergency management, police services, city finances, public works and local parks.

The first session will be led by Mayor Mary Miller herself, along with other city staff, who will explain the basics of city operations.

“Our course is one way we work to build bridges within our city, opening a path to civic engagement and ultimately growing participation in the public process here in North Bend,” Miller said.

Citizens Academy participant Jenny Hennessy moved to North Bend for work about 10 years ago and is active on local social media pages and forums. She’s well aware of the complaints residents have for the city, having even made some herself.

She said she’s noticed that a lot of the comments and complaints she saw about city affairs were misinformed.

“I went to a couple of city council meetings, and then I was shocked, because people are [complaining] about all this stuff, but nobody goes to the city council meetings,” she said. “It made me realize I, as one person, need to at least be better informed before I make comments on things like that.”

Hennessy hopes that in learning more about how the city makes decisions on things like property development — which she noted she and many others are passionate about — she can also learn how to provide input to the city.

“I’m sure there’s a rationale behind why the decisions are being made the way they are,” she said. “How are decisions being made, and how do you impact that?”

While Hennessy does have critiques for the city, she said she doesn’t believe in passively complaining.

“You can’t just be like, ‘Our city council sucks because the roads aren’t clean’ and whatnot. Well, have you ever asked a question as to why? Have you ever made a call to the city council?” she said. “I feel like you have no right to really complain unless you are educated and are truly making a difference in your community.”

Kim Eck moved to North Bend in 2011 for her husband’s job and has since been very involved in the community — president of Friends of the North Bend library, North Bend Farmers Market volunteer, lead of the market’s Power of Produce Club and a volunteer at Si View Community Center.

But Eck didn’t feel like she had a good grasp on the workings of her local government, so she signed up for Citizens Academy.

“I fully believe if you want a better community, you better be willing to get out there and make one,” she said. “And if you want to identify problems, you better have some ideas for solutions, but you also better have a real good grasp on how things work, to know if you can implement them.”

Eck agrees with Hennessy’s sentiment that people shouldn’t complain unless they’re willing to educate themselves and take action. She compared what she’s seeing locally to her career as a labor union organizer.

“When everything was going great, you’d never see them. The minute anything went wrong, they’d flood in,” she said. “I think this is what we’re seeing right now. … [People] need to know how things work for real, so that we can make things happen together.”

Citizens Academy has had 32 participants so far and has a good history of graduates staying involved in the community, Miller said.

“Many of these participants began our series as interested, engaged community members,” she said. “Since then, we have seen graduates evolve into school board members, councilmembers, commissioners and nonprofit supporters.”

To learn more about Citizens Academy or be put on the waitlist for future sessions, email Communications Manager Bre Keveren at bkeveren@northbendwa.gov.