We are highlighting the work of the five groups that participated in the ELGL & UTA Challenge. Teams were tasked with developing community engagement solutions for one of the following areas: budget, infrastructure investment, planning and zoning, and emergency preparedness. (Full details of the challenge can be found here.)
Final Report: ELGL/UTA Local Government Challenge
Make Your Citizens the Heroes
During our ELGL advisor interviews, we asked about infrastructure. We wondered why an important issue like infrastructure was not a hot topic. The answer, consistent with the literature, was funding. The obvious solution seemed to lie on some unique funding solution like crowdsourcing. We all know crowdsourcing is a popular engagement tool. Remember the ALS bucket challenge?
Fundraising and engagement gimmicks, though useful, don’t solve civic engagement as it relates to infrastructure. We agree: no one likes tax increases, but before a tax increase is on the ballot, educate and empower and allow the public to lead the discussion. For example, consider a viral YouTube video when a husband decided to do a kitchen makeover without input from his wife. She didn’t appreciate the effort because she didn’t have input. The public isn’t evil, but they have to be involved in order to buy in.
A human resources executive, Larry Solomon stumbled upon this principle and shared his experience at a conference. He discovered that no structure existed to engage and capture the ideas of their front-line staff. Since the front-line staff interacted with customers/clientele most, they had greatest insight into what needed to change. In response, they invested in ways to engage, educate, and empower their staff. In doing so, their organization created strategies that saved thousands each year. They made their staff, rather than the executives, the heroes.
Innovative solutions to the actual funding of infrastructure exist, but funding continues to be an issue due to lack of authentic citizen participation. While we can source the money, citizens still need to approve the solution. Tools also already exist to engage citizens, but citizens still remain distant. Why is that?
The answer is that there is a difference between authentic citizen engagement and engagement as it currently happens. In order to authentically engage citizens, cities must fully allow citizens to participate in administrative process, citizens must be able to change the result of administrative process, and citizens must be able to trust city administrators. This is systemic change, and in order to create a new paradigm, cities must engage in organizational change in order to gain trust of the citizens, and make process involvement and changes possible. Only when cities themselves change will the authentic engagement with citizens happen, which will in turn increase support for infrastructure funding.
How you ask?
Create a culture where the officials and their staff value the citizen’s voice. City officials need to listen well. Seek input from the beginning and throughout their term of service. Start by examining your organization in light of the list below.
Examine your environment. Infrastructure projects often receive little attention or no votes due to lack of funding. Citizens only become aware of the need after a crisis or catastrophic failure. Consider a review of these environmental changes:
- Create a budget item for marketing. (communications, and/or civic engagement department if one doesn’t’ exist).
- Task major construction firms and local Business Improvement districts with responsibility. Use their resources to generate citizen input before beginning projects.
- Foster communication channels to create avenues for citizens to approach the government. Use many avenues to gather input.
Create a simple, memorable, and engaging mission statement.
Make sure your leadership actually has a respect for the public’s views.
Consider the rules—stated and hidden—as it relates to gauging civic input.
- Do city officials care about the public opinion?
- Do they dread public meetings?
- Do the leaders support proposed changes or see a need for public opinion?
- Do citizens feel valued and welcomed?
- Do they believe they have a voice?
In the Marvel Avengers movies, whenever one of the Avengers went out on their own to solve a problem, they either created a bigger problem or failed miserably. Problems always surfaced because they wanted to go at it alone and figure out how to solve the problem.
As city leaders, you must assemble and recognize that you too are avengers. Your team consists of citizens, public officials, and other stakeholders. Your mission is to solve failing infrastructure that plagues cities around this country. Failing infrastructure is high priority. Engage citizens, give them a voice, educate and empower them to be advocate of street change. Make our citizens the heroes!
This #CommunityEngagement #LocalGovSolution in Infrastructure Investment was created by the student team,
Team Avengers
Jinnell Killingsworth
Kathryn Lattimore
Jennifer Panas
A round of applause!
Supplemental Reading
- Budgets – Citizen Engagement
- NYC Becomes a Digital City: A City of New York Case Study
- Public Engagement for Program Evaluation
- 21PAInnovators: Creative Engagement Solutions for the Budgeting Process
- Metro Mavs: Creative Engagement Solutions for Emergency Preparedness
- PhDeterminators: Creative Engagement Solutions for Emergency Preparedness
- Final Report: ELGL/UTA Local Government Challenge