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February’s Topic: The Public’s Purse
Cool and Creative Ways to Ensure Participatory Budgeting
Sean Jacobs, Local Government Management Professional
Connect: LinkedIn
Budgeting 101
Though each experience is different, most local governments follow a similar basic budgeting process: residents brainstorm spending ideas, volunteer budget delegates develop proposals based on these ideas, residents vote on proposals, and the government implements the top projects. Participatory budgeting (PB) is a different way to manage public money, and to engage people in government. It is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives. It is a local government’s fiduciary responsibility to address, target audience/clients/customers, its local residents’ and local businesses’, most critical needs through the residents’ continuous, active, and consistent civic engagement. Furthermore, the local residents and local businesses must directly identify the community’s most important needs that need to be financed during each local government’s Fiscal Year (FY) budgeting process. Check this site for more info on participatory budgeting and more examples like the one below.
So, how do local governments ensure they each create and sustain a participatory budgeting process?
Vallejo, California:
In September 2012, just over a year after emerging from bankruptcy, the California Bay Area city of Vallejo took the historic step of becoming the first U.S. city to launch participatory budgeting at a citywide level. Vallejo residents used the PB process to brainstorm ideas and develop project proposals to determine how to allocate revenue from a new sales tax. In May 2013, nearly 4,000 Vallejo residents 16 years old and older voted to fund 12 projects, including community gardens, street lighting and road repairs, park improvements, and youth and senior programs. After a successful pilot year, the City Council approved PB for a second year and expressed its intention to continue PB for the life of the 10-year sales tax. Vallejo now has full-time city staff to coordinate the process and oversee the implementation of winning projects.
The City of Vallejo contracted with the Participatory Budgeting Project (PBP) to implement its first year of participatory budgeting. PBP staff worked with Vallejo City Manager’s office to oversee the project. PBP have since served as the technical assistance partner, providing trainings, workshops, materials, and ongoing support to city staff who now coordinate the process.
Outcomes:
- $6.6 million allocated by taxpayers
- 25 community-approved projects funded
- Over 4,000 people engaged in participatory democracy
One of the great features of participatory budgeting is that participation piece. In the Vallejo example, the city saw a huge increase in citizen engagement, including young residents. PBP asked a few residents involved in their other projects about what drew them to the process:
Student, Jenny Augiar, first heard about the participatory budgeting process 
when she attended a Vallejo assembly advertising free pizza. ALWAYS OFFER FREE PIZZA. But Jenny stayed because she saw an opportunity to make a change. Before this, Jenny had little experience in working with the community, but she had always been interested. The PB process gave her a chance to be more involved with projects that mattered to her.
Joni and Keith Oddie, also of the City of Long Beach, started coming to periodic council events and presentations. They wanted to learn more about their community. Joni and Keith started sharing their ideas at these meetings on how their community could be improved. They thought, who better to assess the needs of an area then the people who live there! Joni and Keith joined the PB steering committee and both managed projects that did not end up on the ballot, but they felt they learned an invaluable amount about the process of creating proposals and the way city agencies operate.
The participatory budget process really encapsulates the idea that anyone, with the help of community and the strong support of the city officials, can achieve anything in their city. The best part of this experience for citizens was the continual exchange of ideas between community members. Participants got the opportunity to make some wonderful new connections and friendships with their neighbors. It is amazing to them how much talent and passion is already present in their community! Using the participatory budgeting process, local governments can capitalize on that passion.
Supplemental Reading:
- Break it Down, ‘Local Gov’ Style
- Break it Down: Not if, But When
- Break it Down: More Than a Paperweight
- Break it Down: The 411 on Next Gen 911
- Break it Down: Flint Water Crisis