"Local governments are in the midst of a sea change when it comes to public participation and citizen engagement," writes Rob Gurwitt in his recent Governing article The X Factor. Here at the Center for Priority Based Budgeting we couldn't agree more.
The Center for Priority Based Budgeting, in partnership with groups such as the Davenport Institute of Public Policy and Peak Democracy, have been early pioneers of active citizen engagement in obtaining a more significant and meaningful citizen influence on the budget. In 2012, CPBB was part of the largest citizen outreach process ever implemented to facilitate Priority Based Budgeting, as the City of Cincinnati, Ohio conducted a massive initiative including both traditional (town-hall meetings, statistically valid citizen surveying) and cutting edge (online citizen engagement) approaches (our special thanks to the City and to the Novak Consulting Group for this incredible effort - see past blog post here).
“Priority-driven budgeting offers a common-sense, strategic alternative to conventional budgeting. It creates a fundamental change in the way resources are allocated by using a collaborative, evidence-based approach to measure services against community priorities. By bringing together community leaders and citizens to determine strategic priorities, the city can align resources with what the community values most, and create service efficiencies and innovation.”- Vice Mayor City of Cincinnati
Similarly, Douglas County, Nevada, has been on the cutting edge of active citizen engagement. There has been a lot of (deserving) hype lately revolving around the success of priority based budgeting, citizen engagement, and how these two powerful and empowering "leading practices" are transforming local government budget processes and local governments themselves at the base level. Thanks to Peak Democracy, we now have yet another comprehensive case study that further proves how fundamentally effective and transformative priority based budgeting and citizen engagement can be, both independently and employed together (see past blog post here).
Peak Democracy and the Center for Priority Based Budgeting have trail-blazed an entirely contemporary way for today’s citizens to participate in and influence their government. Douglas County has taken it to a whole new level. Read the full Douglas County Case Study here.
Pete Peterson's work, and that of the Davenport Institute stands at the forefront of authentic citizen engagement. Pete was the first executive director of Common Sense California, an organization that promotes and supports citizen engagement as a way of producing more creative policy decisions and better citizens. He developed the organization's annual Citizen Engagement Grant Program, which has provided over $200,000.00 in grants over the last two years to municipalities and school districts across California. Peterson has also consulted on several of these "participatory planning" and "participatory budgeting" projects in cities ranging from Salinas to Palmdale. Peterson has co-created and currently co-facilitates the training seminar, "Leadership through Civic Engagement" - a program offered to California leaders from city planners to regional officials. To date over 350 city, county, school district, and nonprofit officials have attended these seminars. He has written extensively on public engagement for an array of print and online journals. Peterson earned his BA in history from George Washington University, and an MPP from Pepperdine University's School of Public Policy. He was also a public affairs fellow at The Hoover Institution in 2006.
Learn what legitimate citizen engagement is all about, and how it can support Priority Based Budgeting. Also hear how the Davenport Institute can work with your city government, school district, and civic organization in a variety of ways - from speaking to your community about the virtues and possibilities of civic engagement, to their Public Engagement Grant Program, which offers communities up to $25,000 to carry out legitimate engagement projects.
The Center for Priority Based Budgeting has benefited from the Davenport Institute's mission and dedication to civic engagement. Through the Institute's Public Engagement Grant Program, both the City of Walnut Creek, CA and the City of Fairfield, CA were recipients of grant support for their work in bringing citizens into the Priority Based Budgeting process.
Priority Based Budgeting has been an effective mechanism to create a successful role for citizens to influence their communities. We couldn't be more honored to have Pete Peterson, Executive Director of the Davenport Institute, on the program as he brings to life stories of success in "legitimate civic engagement."
The 2013 "Summit of Leading Practices" is the ONLY conference where ICMA's Leading Practices for Local Government Management (and more) come together under one roof.
To learn more about Citizen Engagement and Priority Based Budgeting from CPBB and the nation's leading local government practitioners, be sure to attend the upcoming...
Center for Priority Based Budgeting 2013 Annual Conference
"A Summit of Leading Practices"
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