It is usually assumed the public is turned off by local affairs and generally apathetic when it comes to council issues.
Even with the advent of social media, the city council still manages to attract only a few hundred responses to its budget consultations and meetings.
The only exception has been the result of the NIMBY (not in my back yard) effect - where large numbers of residents and campaigners lobby hard over a development, such as building on the green belt, or the opening of a mosque on their patch.
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And it is an element of this which has seen the responses to its redrawing of the political map of Birmingham.
This is all the more remarkable because they are purely written responses - considered messages sent via email or post - not a collection of knee-jerk tweets or Facebook posts rattled off in a spare minute.
The full postbag was dropped onto the commission's website last week for all to see.
It included just short of 2,000 individual letters, as well as submissions from MPs, councillors and 103 community groups and organisations.
Thousands more signed the several petitions handed in.
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All were concerned that the map of 77 new council wards did not reflect their community or that the title was wrong.
It is not only residents groups who felt so strongly about their local patch.
There are sports clubs, hobby groups and businesses for whom a local identity really matters.
The largest number of objections were about the plan to put Moseley Village in a new Balsall Heath ward.
The commission, which is due to report back next month, must have realised it had it wrong when even the Moseley Tennis Club waded in on behalf of its 300 members, describing the new boundary as “absurd”.
Dividing up a city the size of Birmingham into coherent wards is no mean feat and to then have your work criticised on such a scale must be galling for the commission’s staff.
But we have been told they are “genuinely pleased” and, having seen a selection of responses, I can see why.
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They are very critical but at the same time they are in general polite, considered, well argued and, in many cases, come up with evidence to support their view.
While the draft plans were indeed deeply flawed, the commission can have no excuse if the final scheme is not a vast improvement.
It matters more to the council than to residents
One thing the responses do show is there is also a certain fear the council ward designations will somehow make material change to neighbourhoods.
Some people in Hall Green, Erdington, Edgbaston and Moseley are very anxious their postal address will now state they live in Tyseley, Stockland Green, Summerfield or Balsall Heath, and house prices will fall and somehow they will be barred from using their local shopping parade, library or rail station because they live over the ward boundary.
While some at the Council House would probably love to have that kind of power, they do not.
Few people who ring in to this newsroom to talk about missed bins, shoddy council house repairs and grass verge abuse even know if they live in Oscott, Brandwood or Sutton Vesey wards.
The ward title really does not have an impact on their day-to-day lives.
And it will be the same whatever the Boundary Commission decides. Their postcode, telephone number and so on will all remain unchanged and wherever they choose to say they live will stay the same. The cost of housing and insurance will not change.
People still say they live in places like Witton, Tile Cross and Great Barr, even though there are no Birmingham council wards called that.
On an individual level, there is little to worry about. However, for councillors and council officers the whole thing is a minefield.
A patch with a coherent community identity and a single focus is much easier to represent and to serve than an assortment of different patches with different interests.
It is easier to get concerted action and to generate the type of grassroots activity needed in this age of austerity if interests are accurately aligned.
It is only if this is achieved that the 2018 intake of councillors are to become the community leaders wanted by the Government.
A shaggy dog toy story
Solihull councillor Ken Hawkins is a bright and breezy figure on my Twitter timeline of local politicians, with his views on life in general, such as the great back, neck and shoulder massage he had, and the ups and downs of life on the borough council.
And, as a good local councillor, he was keen to highlight a booklet for Solihull Fashion Week.
His photograph seemed to draw attention to an offer of 20 per cent off at knicker shop Ann Summers.
The retailer was clearly on his mind that day as he found a doggie bone toy in the Melbick Garden Centre which reminded him of a product more usually found in the fancy underwear shop!
"I suspect some dog owners might get confused if left in the wrong drawer," he added.