The fall season approaches and with it, the launching of Vallejo's first Participatory Budgeting (PB) initiative. Earlier this summer we decided to preview this process, publishing the first posting in our series Participatory Budgeting 101. In this article one of the 49th Ward (Chicago) Participatory Budgeting participants shared valuable insights, some cautionary, about what Vallejo should consider as it preps for launch.
In this posting Chicago's 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore, who championed the PB process from its very beginnings, offers his thoughts about the process. In a recent email-based conversation, we asked Moore:
VCIE: When you considered launching this PB process, did you have any opposition (from any quarter)? If so, how did you address this opposition?
Moore: I encountered very little opposition. To the extent such opposition existed, it was articulated by people who expressed skepticism that ordinary people could be trusted to make fair and intelligent decisions about the allocation of public dollars. "That was what we elected you to do" was a refrain I heard frequently. The success and popularity of the PB process has proven the skeptics wrong. My constituents overwhelmingly accepted the results of the PB elections and agree the projects selected by the voters were good and worthy projects that were fairly allocated across the ward.
VCIE: If you were in the position of launching your first PB initiative this year (as Vallejo is), what, if anything, would you do differently from the onset?
Moore: I honestly can say I would not do anything differently. The key to the success of PB in the 49th Ward was involving all segments of my very diverse community and bringing them into the planning process from the onset. For PB to succeed, it is absolutely critical that the community have "ownership" of the process and to have that ownership they must be given real decision-making authority over the rules governing the process, i.e., voting eligibility, qualifications for proposed projects, locations and frequency of community meetings, etc. Though my staff and I provided logistical support, we allowed the community to determine the rules of the game. If we simply imposed the process upon the community, I don't believe PB would have enjoyed the success it acheived in the 49th Ward.
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Stay tuned for our next posting when Joe Moore gives very good advice about how to preserve the integrity of Vallejo's PB initiative. (Do you know you can sign up for free email alerts by subscribing at the top of this posting? You will be notified as soon as we publish new content).
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