Participatory Budgeting as Solution to Council District Discretionary Fund Problems
One of the most damaging aspects of ethical misconduct in government
is that it decreases the amount of citizen participation in
government activities. People feel that their local government is
rigged to help politicians and their families, friends, and business
associates. It's not worth spending time getting involved in a
rigged system, unless your goal is to be part of the in crowd.<br>
<br>
It was nice to read <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/nyregion/for-some-new-yorkers-a-grand…; target="”_blank”">an
article in this Sunday's New York <i>Times</i></a> about a solution to a
problem <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/node/422">I've written
about in the past</a>: the New York city council's
discretionary funds (often referred to as "slush funds"), which have sometimes been given to organizations run by people with special
relationships to council members. The solution – in an experimental
stage – is not oversight, but citizen participation (see <a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/what-can-ethics-officials-do-outside-…; target="”_blank”">another
blog post</a> on an oversight approach to the same problem).<br>
<br>
According to the article, "constituents in four City Council
districts were given control over a slice of their council members’
discretionary budgets — $1 million in each district. In a process
that began in October, they proposed projects, researched their
viability and ran them by city agencies. This week, voters will
finish choosing which of the proposals can move forward."<br>
<br>
The result is that "250 regular New Yorkers jumped into the trenches
and dirtied their hands with democracy. The point of the experiment
in October was to counter people’s cynical view of government by
inviting them to participate in the very process they mistrust."<br>
<br>
The result has not been full trust. Many obstacles have been put up
by city agencies. Bureaucracy's turf wars and unreasonable rules can
be daunting. And no one knows if this approach will really work.<br>
<br>
But what is exciting about this experiment is how many of the
citizens who have become involved were not politically active
before. And also how, in some cases, individuals sat together and
moved from projects they thought of and that benefited their
neighborhood to projects that benefited other neighborhoods, but
appeared to help more people that needed help.<br>
<br>
For example, a teacher named Christiansen had an idea to create a
green laboratory and outdoor teaching space at his school. "But when
he saw the needs at other schools, he pulled his own project from
his committee. [He] and his fellow committee members decided to use
need — which they collectively decided to measure by the percentage
of students in the schools receiving free lunches — as the deciding
factor. They also looked for projects at schools that had no
advocates on the committee, which is how Mr. Christiansen became the
champion for a project at a school in which he had never set foot.
... Agencies and politicians aside, strangers found a way to work
together and commit to honoring one another’s priorities, while
considering the good of their neighborhoods. And that ultimately was
the point. 'Maybe I should’ve fought for the garden at my school and
ducked for cover,' Mr. Christiansen said. 'Now I’m arguing for some
complete strangers’ toilets.'"<br>
<br>
The approach is known as "participatory budgeting." According to the
article, it was created in 1989 by the city government of Porto
Allegre, Brazil to introduce transparency into and restore faith in
the government's budget process. It has since expanded to about 300
cities in Brazil and elsewhere. It was even picked up by a Chicago
alderman, Joe Moore, two years ago. And, of course, participatory
budgeting has been done in New England towns for hundreds of years.<br>
<br>
There is even a nonprofit focused on this issue, the <a href="http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/" target="”_blank”">Participatory
Budgeting Project</a>, headed by Josh Lerner (the New York and
Chicago experiments are described on the website, as is the
participatory budgeting of Toronto Community Housing).<br>
<br>
Participatory budgeting is just the right way to deal with
district-oriented budgets. I hope these experiments lead to changes
in the bureaucracy that will enable such budgeting to work more smoothly, and that the process
spreads to districts throughout New York City and to cities across the country.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
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