City of Greater Geraldton’s Participatory Budget Journey Ken Diehm CEO.

City of Greater Geraldton’s Participatory Budget Journey

Ken DiehmCEO

My Journey into Participatory

Budgeting

Background

•Started in local government in1986

•Financial Management/Accounting

•CEO of Water Board in 2001•Back into LG in 2009•Completed a MBA & finishing a second Masters

Background

• Nature of my work• Highly political

environment• Dominance Political party

policy • Very strong Mayors“Never ask a question you don’t know the answer to”

I was comfortable on the bottom rungs of the consultation ladder

Life Changing Moment

• Our kids left home• My first long holiday• Burning desire to achieve

more in my life• Legacy impact from my

career• Wanted to be a

captain/coach

City of Greater Geraldton

• 42,000 people• > 12,000km2• 2 Amalgamations• Strong growth• Diverse economy• Progressive Council• Financial challenges• Opportunity to

make a difference

• Deliberative Democracy project• 2010 – 2013• > 3,500 hours + volunteers + Curtin

Uni• > 3,000 community members involved• Community forums, world cafés,

surveys, conversation cafes, online tools

• 2011 Reinhard Mohn finalist• 2012 United Nations Liveable Cities

Award for Community Engagement

The Challenge

• Prioritised Capital Works List; and

• Review of range and level of services.

Within …..six months!!!

My staffs’ reaction

My reaction

Why Participatory Budgeting

• Commitment to Deliberative Democracy

• Community expectation• Genuine belief that true

wisdom comes from the combined knowledge of community and technical experts

Participatory Budgeting

Key elements

• Allocation of resources

• Criteria established by participants

• Inclusion; and• Deliberative

Democracy

Governance• The role of Council• Governing Committee

(Independent Review Committee)

• Project Leadership Team

Our Council’s Commitment

• Seriously consider all recommendations made by the Community Panel;

• Implement recommendations wherever possible;

• Where a recommendation or recommendations cannot be implemented, they will clearly communicate the reasons to the Community Panel; and

• Where a recommendation or recommendations cannot be implemented, Council will seek to understand the intent of the recommendation/s and work with the Community Panel to find other ways to fulfil the intent.

Governance Committee

Independent Review Committee (IRC) – included respected leaders in the community who were independent from the City – their role was;1. Ensuring that Community Panels are

appropriately established, particularly with respect to eligibility, stratification, age, ethnicity, education etc.

2. Ensuring that the participatory budgeting process is accountable and transparent and free from bias.

Governance Committee

3. Reviewing material provided to the Community Panel’s for accuracy and relevance.

4. Championing the participatory budgeting process within the community.

5. Certifying the extent to which the recommendations of the Community Panel have been developed in a transparent and accountable manner and the impact of undue bias.

Governance Committee

Importantly, the Governing Committee was not involved in the deliberations of the Community Panel, nor did they have any responsibility for amending the work of the Community Panel.

Putting the Puzzle Together

• Selection of Panels• Internal data gathering • Establishing the IRC • Technology• Keeping the broader

community informed

Capital Works Panel

• Four weeks in November.• Reviewed 116 capital works projects.• Developed values based assessment criteria

for evaluating and prioritising projects.• Delivered a report with prioritised list of

projects based on their criteria • Made four recommendations about future

community panel processes• Executive Management Team and Council

fully endorsed all recommendations of the panel

Range and Level of Services Panel• Eight weeks in February and March• Presentations and Q&A with every Manager in

the City• Developed a methodology and criteria for

assessing services• Engaged with the broader community and

incorporate community input• Determine preferential ordering of service level

recommendations• Develop a list of other suggestions (to

incorporate the “how” suggestions)• Executive Management Team and Council fully

endorsed all recommendations of the panel

Challenges and lessons learned

• Community want and are prepared to be involved

• Managing staff anxiety• Rogue panellists• Passion and tears –

managing panellists disagreements

• Keeping the panel focussed on “what” not “how”

• Time intensive

Challenges and lessons learned

• The community are smarter than we think

• Breakdown of internal silos

• Professional development opportunity for staff

• Politically Defendable outcomes

• 65 champions for the City

• Australian Project of the Year• Australian Research Award• Australasian Planning Project Award

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30yr Renewal Profile Modelling

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Pavement-Sealed Roads Pavement-Unsealed Roads Road Seal Roads - OtherBuildings Drainage Parks AirportPathways Other

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Renewal Demand & Renewal Budget

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Participatory Budgeting?

My reaction

Community Summit

• Mandatory Vs Non-Mandatory activities• Detailed budget breakdown and description

of activities• >100 participants (including previous

panellists)• Original information session• Participants given a restricted budget to

fund activities• Full day session for review of outcomes• Debate and soap box sessions• Assisted by easy to use software

Our Software

Our Software

Our Software

Outcomes

• Prioritised list of non-mandatory activities• Clear direction on what services to cut• More community champions for the City• Better informed Community• Better informed Council

My personal learnings

• Don’t be afraid to ask questions you don’t know the answer to

• The community’s collective wisdom is a lot greater than you think

• Deliberative democracy is a great way to get community champions for the Council

• Clearly demonstrates that you are genuine about consulting with the community