But the question elected officials are trying to answer is how to bring more of those people to the table.

Takoma Park has about 17,299 residents, according to 2000 census data. Of those residents, 8,440 are white, 5,876 are African American, 754 are Asian and many other residents come from various backgrounds.

The city has a policy to support diversity in government activities and is working to put that policy into practice, said Councilwoman Joy Austin-Lane (Ward 1).

That policy includes encouraging diversity within city employees as well as people selected to serve on city committees, Mayor Kathy Porter said.

"There is at least some diversity on all those committees," Porter said.

Recently, the Takoma Park City Council, made up of two white men, a black man and three white women, formed a compensation committee of six Takoma Park residents to determine if City Council members should receive a raise, and whether that pay increase might encourage more low-income residents to run for office and create more diversity on the council. Currently the mayor earns $5,000 and each council member earns $3,800 annually.

The committee determined that council members deserved a raise -- the mayor to be paid $8,000 and each council member $6,000 annually -- but drew no conclusions about money enticing low-income residents to run in city elections.

"It takes a minimum amount of money to live," Austin-Lane said. "You have to use your work hours to bring in a minimum amount of money."

Increasing council salaries might encourage more low-income city residents to run for a seat on the council, she said. Instead of holding two jobs to make ends meet, a seat on the council could be a second job, she said.

But that salary would probably have to be raised to a high level to encourage the low-income population to run for office, Porter said. She said she could not estimate what that salary might be.

At a recent council meeting, committee members said the issues that come up during an election are what compel residents to run for office.

Some years, there has been substantial participation in city elections and some years there has been essentially no participation in city elections, said committee member Paul d'Eustachio, and year to year the salary has not changed, only the issues.

However, he also said, compensation "is clearly an issue. The problem is in quantifying how much" would be an incentive to run for a seat on the council.

At that council meeting, committee member Terry Seamens suggested the creation of another committee to look at what might encourage more people to run. That committee should be diverse in both race and income, said Rudy Arredondo, a Takoma Park resident and member of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee.

"How can six white males who are relatively well-off know how to reach a community that's not well off?" Arredondo asked. "The city needs to bring people to the table who can actually provide input."

For a diverse population to run for office, residents first need to have knowledge of the city government and the services it offers, Arredondo said. To educate and attract a more diverse group of people, meetings should be held outside of the Municipal Building, he said.

"If you keep holding things at the Municipal Building, you'll get the same people," Arredondo said.

He suggested public forums or information sessions be held at the Long Branch Community Center on Piney Branch Road or at churches with diverse congregations to reach different residents.

"We have citizens out there who are willing to provide input," Arredondo said. "They just need to be invited because they may not feel comfortable speaking up on their own."

Porter said it would be difficult to hold City Council meetings outside of the Municipal Building because they are filmed for the city's cable channel. However, she said, several walking council meetings are held each year in different wards.

"One of the main purposes of that is to get the council out into the neighborhoods," she said. "Those tend to bring out a lot of residents and they get to talk about issues that are important to them."

Additionally, she said, the city has continued to send community organizers from Progressive Maryland, a nonprofit group that benefits working families, to educate residents about city services and work with them on housing issues.

The city is working to reach out to immigrant residents and residents who do not speak English, or speak it as a second language. Recently the city hired a bilingual administrative assistant to break the Spanish-English language barrier, Austin-Lane said, adding that the first step to increasing participation among minorities is education.

City employees are also being encouraged to learn Spanish to the extent where they're conversational, because Spanish is the predominant language spoken in Takoma Park other than English, Porter said. The city is also attempting to hire bilingual people who speak languages other than Spanish to make services more available to city residents whose primary language is not English, she said.

Additionally, Takoma Park resident Carol Sweig has been teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages classes at the Takoma Park Maryland Library to residents hoping to learn English, regardless of their native language, Austin-Lane said.

"It's a terrific way that the city is increasing access to services," Austin-Lane said. "It's in the library, and its proximity to the Municipal Building makes people more familiar with local government. This is one more way to make others feel welcome. There's no one perfect thing you can do [to encourage participation]. It's a lot of little things you do that add up."

Montgomery County Councilman Thomas E. Perez (D-Dist. 5) of Takoma Park, who is Hispanic and was elected to the council in November, said programs that specifically reach out to the immigrant community are a key to increasing diversity in public office.

"It's critically important to make sure elected leaders, appointed leaders and members of division boards reflect the diversity of the city," Perez said. "Decision-making is better when everybody is at the table."

First and foremost, he said, those groups bring more voters to the polls, which is another step that should be taken before running for public office.

"We need programs like Impact Silver Spring to identify local community leaders," he said, referring to an empowerment program that seeks to find and train residents to represent their neighborhoods. "They're designed to tap into the next generation of leadership."

Casa of Maryland, a workers' advocacy group that represents Latino interests, also has a leadership development program to cultivate leadership in the Latino community, said Perez, a former board member at Casa. Those leaders can do grassroots work and encourage others to become involved, he said.

"When I think about the Latino immigrant population, I realize that voting for many of them was not only futile, but dangerous in their own countries," Perez said. "People need to learn that it's different here."

Additionally, Perez said, it's important for people to see that it's possible for them to achieve their goals.

"Color in office is important," he said, citing the recent elections of minorities Herman L. Taylor (D-Dist. 14) of Ashton, Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Dist. 18) of Chevy Chase, and Gareth E. Murray (D-Dist. 20) of Silver Spring to the Maryland House of Delegates. "If people see that it's possible, they're more likely to run. Progress begets progress."