Envisioning Governance
From BeyondVoting
Envisioning Governance imagines computer software that clarifies and simplifies the process for making community change. It is intended to help those with a vision for community change publish an idea, have it critiqued by the community, and if deemed worthy, accepted as a community goal.
In its first iteration, Envisioning Governance will create an online review process to help a NYC Community Board develop its annual Capital & Expense Budget Priorities List in a more open, transparent, and engaging manner. The Project will integrate existing information technology – the internet, forms, polls, project managers, listservs, calendars, wikis, and meet-me organizers – to transform a traditional dusky governance processes into discrete tasks that can be seen and shared by the community.
Envisioning Governance promises to incorporate more residents and their ideas into the governance process, add legitimacy and public support to the Boards' Capital & Expense Budget Priorities List, and ultimately, create better communities.
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[edit] Background
Community Boards are the grassroots governance level in New York City. Queens Community Board 3, the site for an Envisioning Governance prototype, has governance responsibilities for a population of 180,000 living on 2.8 square miles of the northeast section of Queens.
With a paucity of local communication channels, the Boards have long struggled to fulfill the demanding role assigned by the City Charter. To enhance their operation, the city is developing a series of websites for use by the Boards and community residents. The websites will publish information and facilitate communication about community meetings, activities, and issues. One goal for the sites is to involve more residents in the governance process, draw upon the collective wisdom and energy, and ultimately create improved communities.
[edit] Capital & Expense Budget Priorities Lists
The City Charter directs the Community Boards to report on the collective wisdom of the community as to the types and priority of projects that should be addressed by city government: new schools, more sanitation pickups, park improvements, highways, etc. The ideas are to be included on Capital & Expense Budget Priorities Lists (C&EBPL) – one list with 20 projects funded through the city’s Capital Budget and another with 20 projects funded through its Expense Budget - and submitted to the Mayor’s Office of Management and Budget each October. The City Charter language on this (Section 2800) is as follows:
Prepare and submit to the mayor, on or
before a date established by the mayor,
an annual statement of community district
needs, including a brief description of
the district, the board's assessment of
its present and probable future needs,
and its recommendations for programs,
projects, or activities to meet those needs;
Community improvement ideas arise from many sources – individuals, government officials, community organizations, corporations, editorials, etc. - and travel a long road from introduction to implementation. For example, one project on Community Board 3’s list, Long Island City High School, took 25 years from need identification to school opening.
While some ideas succeed, others that seem perfect, ideal, or even exquisite to the originator (and others) is presented to the governance process but never heard from again. Ideas are lost in a bureaucracy, fall through a crack, or vanish via a surreptitious pocket veto. Others never enter the public realm for lack of an opportunity or a cynical view of the process.
The impact of this “black hole” is to discourage citizen participation in the governance process with a concomitant loss of ideas and involvement – key building blocks of good community.
Envisioning Governance will improve the process and quality of these Capital & Expense Budget Priorities Lists (or C&EBPL, pronounced Sybil). This proposal outlines today’s C&EBPL development process and then describes how Envisioning Governance might improve it.
[edit] Today’s C&EBPL Process
The formal creation of the C&EBPL takes place in the fall, but its development is a year around process that can be thought of as involving several parts – Genesis, Review, Options, and Decision. While the following presents C&EBPL development within a fixed framework, the actual process is far less structured with meetings not held, public notification absent, and public participation level that is negligible. But neat and clean, here’s the way it should happen today.
Genesis - Everyone has an occasional idea they feel belongs in the public realm: how to resolve a problem, create opportunity from a new or changed situation, do something better, faster, or cheaper, etc. Many such ideas dead-end with their creators for want of an inviting or effective channel for making it public. Some enter the public realm where they become part of the community discussion, with the potential to be adopted for the betterment of the community.
Ideas for inclusion in C&EBPL come from many sources: traditional channels like word of mouth, mail, letters-to-the-editor, editorials, from other city agencies, public officials, and professional lobbyists, and from the public at community meetings. Additionally, cyber channels – email, listserves, chat, blogs, wikis, and forums – now inject ideas into the public realm.
Some of these ideas are found inviting or intriguing by one or more Board members and, with their support, will be accepted for review.
Today's Genesis is haphazard, with little in the way of tracking or reporting requirements. Ideas move from Genesis into review based upon timing, the prominence or position of the originator, community need, whose desk/committee it lands on, the weather, etc. Sometimes luck or whim determines if an idea becomes a force for community change or is forgotten.
Review – The formal C&EBPL review process typically begins with the Board’s Capital & Expense Budget Committee holding a formal Public Hearing, usually as part of the Board’s September plenary. Public announcement of the Hearing is included in the routine plenary meeting notice mailing to about 500 community residents and organizations.
The Public Hearing is the first agenda item during the Board’s September meeting. Over the past 10 years an average of two presenters from the public made presentations at this Hearing. The Board’s secretary and Capital Committee chair note suggestions. Presenters might be invited to a Capital & Expense Budget Committee meeting, held prior to the October plenary, to present/defend their suggestion. All attending the hearing are invited to make further suggestions by contacting the committee chair.
Prior to the Committee meeting its chair will inquire of the District Manager and Board Chair if any other suggestions have been made. On occasion the DM, a public official or member of the public will submit a suggestion for inclusion in the C&EBPL outside the formal hearing.
Public notice of the Committee meeting is nearly non-existent, with notice sent to perhaps 10 Board members. Few if any members of the public attend this meeting. At the Committee meeting the C&EBPLs from previous years will be reviewed. Completed projects are eliminated, new items judged (subjectively?) to be non-city items are eliminated, other items might be referred to a committee or the District Manager for additional research. By the meeting’s end, a report will have been developed for presentation to the Board during the October plenary.
All the while an idea might be discussed informally by the Board’s staff, at impromptu meetings of board members, by word of mouth, in the press, at civic meetings, etc.
Options – Overlapping the Review Zone is an informal options analysis of ideas that seem headed toward consideration at the October plenary. These are discussed and reviewed with an eye toward determining optimum or alternative implementation methods. Considerations might include cost, benefits, impact, timing, etc. Capital Budget Committee meetings are the proper venue for options analysis with the board staff, residents, and city agencies sometimes providing input. However, options are rarely if ever discussed.
Decision – At the Board’s October plenary the Capital & Expense Budget Committee will present a report on the status of the previous year’s lists and suggested items for inclusion on the new lists.
The report is made during the Executive Session and thus without public input. Board members ask questions of the Committee Chair and vote to include new items on the lists. Finally, the Board members will negotiate listing priorities and vote their approval of the C&EBPL.
Staff – After the CC&EBPL’s approval the staff, under the Direction of the District Manager, submits the listing to the Office of Management and Budget for review by city agencies, the city council, and mayor. Agency responses are presented after several weeks, but follow-up by the Board is nonexistent.
It’s taught during the introductory seminars provided to new Community Board members that the Capital & Expense Budget Priority Lists are key documents used by council members and the mayor in making their
decisions at City Hall. It’s taught that when funds are available, council members use these Lists as guides in making their choices. History demonstrates
this is not always accurate.
Council members and the mayor are not bound by the Boards’ Priority Lists and often make community investments that are not included on them. With minimal public involvement in List development, or even knowledge of the Lists, elected and appointed officials feel free to disregard them. This debases the Lists and the public’s enthusiasm for having an item included on them.
[edit] Toward a More Democratically Created Priority List
This first iteration of Envisioning Governance will create a more open, transparent, and accessible process for creating the Capital & Expense Budget Priority Lists. The new process will involve more residents and their ideas in preparing the C&EBPLs. And it will produce a more reasoned, responsive, and representative Priority List that warrants the support of the community. As such it will be respected and acted upon by city officials.
Envisioning Governance will use available information technology – the Internet, Forms, Polls, Project Managers, Wikis, Calendars, Decision Support Tools, Listservs, Meet-Me Organizers, etc. – to make a more visible, predictable and involving process for creating the C&EBPLs. Success will transform a traditional dusky governance process into discrete tasks that can be seen, shared, and participated in by the community.
[edit] The Process
Ideas/Suggestions/Recommendations for a community improvement will be christened “Candidates” and flow through a Candidate Tracking System resembling a spreadsheet. Candidates will move through various Zones in the multi-step development process, with each Zone clickable for additional information.
Click on a Candidate Name and the Tracking System will provide the basics: the idea, origin, sponsors, history of its progress through the Tracking System, etc. And it will present you with the opportunity to contribute to the community discussion on the Candidate.
Click on one of the Zone steps and Envisioning Governance will provide details on what the Candidate must do to progress to the next step.
Name / Genesis Review C&EB Committee Board Approval Implementation
Candidate #1
Candidate #2
Candidate #3
The Candidate Tracking System (CTS) will manage the C&EBPL development process and include the following steps.
- Formalize the Introductory Step – Those having a Candidate will be guided to complete an online Candidate Registration Form with its essential elements – name, a short description, a detailed description, key word(s), identifiers of the originator and submitter, supporters, location, budget, time line, etc. (All items need not be completed initially.) The staff at the Board’s District Office will help those without computer skills complete this step. Completing a Candidate Form will place the Candidate into the Tracking System at the Genesis point.
- Assign ID Name and Number – Upon completion of the initial entry form the Candidate is assigned a tracking number and entered into the Candidate Tracking System (at Genesis) ending that historic government institution, the black hole.
- Genesis – Candidates are further ‘packaged’ in Genesis and prepared for review by a broader public. The sponsor can use Genesis as a workspace for the Candidate. Notices may be sent by the sponsor to others notifying them of the Candidate and asking them for support and to contribute to its formation. But other than sponsor initiated notices, no system notifications are made during Genesis.
- Moving from Genesis to Review - Candidates will need to be voted out of the Genesis and into the formal Review process. Candidates must get the votes of two board members or 5 community residents to become Genesis Approved and enter the Review process.
- Public Awareness – Upon Genesis Approval, Candidates will be converted into a file and broadly distributed: by a listserv to Board members and those who subscribe to the Review process (via a check box on the C&EB Committee page), to the media, and posted on the Community Board’s Home page.
- Review Process – Once released from Genesis the Candidate is assigned to a responsible committee(s) by the Board’s Chair (public safety, parks, housing…). The responsible committee Chair manages the Candidates review. S/he sends an email notification to all registered / interested members of the Committee and with that, the idea enters into full review by the community.
- During the review process the Candidate is examined by a deliberation process using tools like a Webpage, FAQs, Wiki, Blog, and Forum. Files, graphics, comments, chats, and other online communications mechanisms will be organized to present a clear picture about the Candidate. Listservs will exchange facts and opinions about the Candidates.
- Review Approval – A Candidate that receives the approval of 5 Board members or 10 residents will move from the online Review and into formal consideration by the Capital & Expense Budgets Committee.
- Capital & Expense Budgets Committee Review – The C&EBC will hold a public meeting to prepare the C&EBPLs for review by the full Board prior to its October meeting. In announcing its meeting the Committee will invite district residents to provide comment and prioritize (from 1-20) the Candidates before it. An online conference will be part of the Committee’s review and preparatory meeting.
- Board Review – The Chair of the C&EB Committee will present the Board with the Committee’s recommendations, along with any minority reports. Board members will discuss the recommendations and vote on the community’s new Capital & Expense Budget Priority Lists at its October plenary.
At any point in the process a mouse click will provide clear instructions as to what must be accomplished to move it to the next step. Each box, each step can be clicked for more detailed direction. Metaphors evaluated
will be trains, baseball, football and others.
[edit] Envisioning Governance Benefits
The project will benefit the community in several ways:
- It will end the “black hole suggestion box” that is the all too frequent experience of resident interactions with government.
- It will reduce cynicism and encourage people to participate in the governing process.
- It will help eliminate the frustration that typically accompanies involvement with governance.
- It will bring new energy and ideas to the governance process.
- It will improve public understanding of the governance process by developing a graphic representation.
- By acknowledging and highlighting suggestion initiators and contributors, Envisioning Governance will shine a spotlight on them and encourage residents to participate in the governance process. A method to allow anonymous contributions will also be provided.
- By making governance more open and inclusive, it will make further legitimize the actions of government.
- It will make residents aware that the community isq theirs to govern, making an empowered, responsive, and responsible community.
Today’s information and communication technologies enable us to create a more accessible and visual governance process. Envisioning Governance will use integrate available technology in this effort: the Internet, Personal Computers, Email, Project Managers, Calendars, Meet-me organizers, Forms, Listservs, Chats, Forums, Wikis, Files Libraries, and Polls. No new technology need be developed to complete the project.
[edit] Conclusion
This first iteration of Envisioning Governance will be demonstrated and tested by Community Board 3. With success, it will be made available to assist the city’s other 58 Community Boards develop their Priority Lists.
In creating a visual governance process we will further a central goal of the Community Board: to involve more residents in the governance process, to draw upon the collective wisdom and energy, and ultimately to create an improved community.
