Page 10
Commentary
Is the Portland region ready for participate
BY JIM LABBE
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
hat is participatory budgeting?
Participatory budgeting (PB) is a
W
deliberative democratic process
wherein ordinary people decide how to
allocate a portion of a municipal or public
budget
PB started
in the
1980s and has
spread
rapidly in to Brazil
well over
3,000
municipalities on all continents around the
globe. Since PB launched in Chicago’s 49th
Ward in 2009, dozens of U.S. cities, both
small and large, have begun allocating small
but growing portions of their municipal
budgets using PB.
PB varies from place to place but it usually
consists of five basic steps. Essential
elements are a dedicated source of funding,
community-driven
project development,
and a binding
Jim Labbe is one o f
the coorganizers o f
community-wide vote
the A p ril 14 Forum
or decision process in
an d co-founder o f
which the selected
Participatory
projects are
B udgeting Oregon,
implemented with
www.pboregon.org.
available funds. PB has
been used to allocate
funds for parks,
housing and
transportation improvements, criminal
justice reform and social services. It has
been applied atthe neighborhood or ward
level, and citywide. Students in schools and
tenants in publicly owned and managed
housing have used participatory budgeting to
shape public investments that directly impact
their lives.
So far, most PB processes in North
America have allocated small amounts of
funds relative to the size of municipal
budgets and populations. But the simple
appeal in an era of democratic malaise has
undoubtedly fueled growth in the size and
number of PB processes. PB gives ordinary
people real power over real money to make
decisions that affect their lives. It gives
tangible and even fun reasons for ordinary
people to participate in their local
government
PB often garners support from across the
political spectrum at a local level, including
those interested in government transparency,
budget accountability and democratic
transformation. The Obama administration’s
Open Government Partnership Action Plan,
Black Lives Matter, the Oregon Commission
on Black Affairs and an abundance of
academic research have all recognized PB as
a potentially effective tool for increasing
accountability, transparency and the number
and diversity of people engaged in local self-
governance and electoral politics.
In many cases, PB is designed and
implemented with explicit social justice
objectives aimed at building power and
leadership in underserved and,
underrepresented communities.
For example, PB is often designed to allow
and invite participation and voting by non
citizens, youth and people without a home
mailing address - a major barrier to
exercising suffrage rights in vote-by-mail
states like Oregon. In Arizona, PB is being
implemented in the Phoenix-area high
schools specifically to prepare students to
a global perspective on the founding and
spread of PB as well as the research
Participatory Budgeting
documenting its positive impacts. Former
The basic elements to participatory
Seattle Youth Commission Co-Chairs Jess
budgeting are:
Juanich and Becky Scurlock shared their
experience implementing Seattle’s youth-
1. Design the process
based PB process Youth Voice, Youth Choice,
A steering committee creates the rite s
which launched in 2016. City of Seattle
with city officials to ensure the process
Community Program Strategic Advisor Amy
is inclusive and meets local needs.
Nguyen described the evolution of Seattle s
PB into Your Voice, Your Choice - Parks &
2. Brainstorm Ideas
Streets. This year the program will allow
Through meetings and onlne tools, city
Seattleites to allocate $3 million for parks
residents share and discuss ideas for
and streets funding across seven
neighborhood districts. Finally Jamal T. Fox -
projects.
educator, professor and former City
Councilor from Greensboro, N.C. - shared
3. Develop Proposals
the perspective of a local elected official who
Volunteers develop the ideas into
successfully advocated for PB
feasible proposals, which are then
implementation in his city. In 2015,
vetted by city experts.
Greensboro launched the first PB process in
the American South.
4. Cast a vote
Following the presentations and panel
Residente vote to allot the available
discussions, forum attendees participated in
funding among the proposals.
two rounds of small group discussions and
one round of real-time voting. Participants
5. Fund winning projects
explored their concerns, questions and ideas
about bringing participatory budgeting to the
The city implements the winning
Portland region. A major question during the
projects, and along with the residents,
discussion centered on how to ensure
tracks and monitors implementation.
participatory budgeting could most effectively
challenge the status quo and not be subject
become voting citizens. Much of the research to capture by the usual suspects.
on the impacts of PB suggests it has been
'and can b^aiTefiective toôTfêFïïem ^âÎSzing
Participatory budgeting,
elite capture and clientelism
How can we be sure bringing participatory
budgeting to the City of Portland won’t
merely reproduce existing power relations?
This is the concern of “elite capture,” that
PB will be dominated by the usual suspects,
the “involvoCrats” with the time and
resources to participate. It is an unsurprising
concern at a time when an affordable housing
Bringing PB .
crisis appears to be squeezing out renters
to the Portland region
and helping preserve Portland’s past as a
white-dominated City despite demographic
On April 14, more than 100 people from
around the Portland-metro region gathered at trends in the nation and even in the state and
region toward a multi-ethnic majority. Many
thé Rosewood Initiative in East Portland to
Portlanders facing rising housing cost
explore PB. Organized by’volunteers with
burdens have the time and knowledge to
help from Healthy Democracy, the event
participate.
brought together diverse community leaders,
Nevertheless, the concern begs a
elected officials and local government staff to
question: How could the status quo of
learn about participatory budgeting, hear
Portland’s largely consultative or advisory
from outside “experts” and discuss and
“public involvement” processes become any
explore its potential implementation in the
less exclusive by a process that directly
region. Specifically, the forum sought to
shares power over public resources by
explore the following questions:
supporting more people to participate in
■ How does participatory budgeting work
decisions of real consequence? The City’s
and how is it different from other forms of
current budget advisory committee process
governing?
is notoriously opaque, arcane and
■ What are the potential benefits for
increasing government accountability, making disconnected from the budget outcomes.
Moreover, there is growing evidence that
participation more meaningful, transparent,
Portland’s much heralded system of
and inclusive, and building trust and
neighborhood associations, born from the
community?.
insurgent 1970s, no longer provides a viable
■ What can we learn from other
mechanism for fostering new, diverse voices.
municipalities before experimenting in
Some neighborhood organizations may be
Oregon?
making authentic strides toward creating
■ How can we build the necessary
more welcoming and inclusive spaces for
community awareness and capacity to be
successful? What goals or strategies would be young, black, brown or immigrant
Portlanders most threatened by involuntary
important to consider in Oregon?
displacement Nevertheless, in too many
A mix of guest speakers shared a diversity
cases, neighborhood associations have
of perspectives and case studies. Boise State
University Professor Brian Wampler provided become barriers, not pathways, to new
power and building trust and community.
In recent years, PB has finally come to the
Pacific Northwest. Seattle launched it in 2016
and Victoria, B.C., in 2017. Vancouver, B.C.,
and Tacoma, Wash., are initiating PB pilots in
2018. But so far this process has yet to còme
to Oregon.
That could change soon.
diverse leadership in city governance. The
recent controversy over the attempt of the
Overlook-Neighborhood Association to
exclude houseless people from association
membership highlights this trend.
But for years observers like civic historian
Steve Johnson and environmental justice
advocate Jeri Jimenez have documented the
decline and limits of neighborhood
association participation. “Elite capture” is
already a problem with the status quo. Isn t it
the time to create and expand alternative,
more equitable and meaningful pathways for
participation and self-governance in Portland?
Research oh participatory budgeting
suggests a sustained effort to increase the
number of people with transparent,
deliberative and binding decision-making
power over public budgets has a number of
positive impacts. These impacts begin with
giving a tangible reason for underrepresented
members of the community to turnout, get
involved and learn how to participate more
effectively.
The evidence suggests creating these
opportunities gets more and more diverse
people involved in local self-governance. One
recent analysis also found that PB increases
voter turnout; people are more likely to vote
in subsequent elections after participating in
PB. PB has also been linked to the growth in
civic society organizations, stronger
communities, shifts in government policy -
priorities and improved public health
outcomes especially among vulnerable
populations.
Moreover, research also indicates that by
strategically designing PB processes to allow
fuller and more diverse participation, the
positive impacts can be amplified and overall
quality of municipal self-governance
improved. This may be because, far from
perpetuating an “elite capture,” PB erodes
clientelist relationships wherein elected
officials or influential elites deliver limited
public resources in exchange for political
support or power, a dynamic that can thwart
more systemic or transformative change.
The presentations and deliberations at the
April 14 Community Forum shaped a draft
Forum Report that includes specific
recommendations to local governments
interested in implementing participatory
budgeting in our region. Many of these
recommendations incorporate proven
strategies to make PB more inclusive and
accessible to underserved and
underrepresented populations. Portlanders
who missed the forum can watch the
presentations and panel discussions, review
the forum report and recommendations, and
find out how they can help bring PB to |
Oregon at www.pboregon.org.
Participatory budgeting is not a silver
bullet. Its effectiveness at renewing and
expanding democratic participation can be
greatly increased by thoughtful, strategic,
commmunity-based design and
implementation. But PB offers one powerful
mechanism of participatory democracy that
can advance systemic change by sharing real
power over real money in shaping the
decisions that affect everyone’s lives.