Corporate ideation and decision making processes in general, and certainly this includes Agile, prioritize producing the best outcome with the least energy and don't place any intrinsic value on making sure that people are represented, so they are probably not the best fit for democratic governence.
For a discussion of why fluidity and informality in process can be problematic, the seminal essay is The Tyranny of Structurelessness (https://www.jofreeman.com/joreen/tyranny.htm).
It sounds like the structure that the city council committee is using here doesn't work. But the author is wrong to expect a truly inclusive democratic process to feel good. It goes against our nature as social beings, will be unpleasant, and require a ton of additional effort to get a similar quality result compared to a more natural process.