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Public Engagement Signposts – September 2014

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This regular feature of ILG’s Public Engagement E-News offers useful information and resources about public engagement practices, innovations and ideas from sources in California and elsewhere.

Vallejo releases 2014 Participatory Budgeting Ballot

The City of Vallejo has released ballot information containing the 25 projects that every Vallejoan ages 16 and older will have the opportunity to vote on beginning September 27th. Project ideas include a commemorative and memorial waterfront park, a community wide branding and marketing strategy, new bike lanes and many more. Following a participatory budgeting effort as part of the city’s 2012-13 budget process, the city council approved the allocation of approximately $2.4 million for a second cycle of participatory budgeting (PB Vallejo) for FY 2013-14. The city’s website identifies four goals for this process: improve the community; engage the community; transform democracy; and open up government. Click here for more information.

Monterey County invites public comments on its website

Monterey County is redesigning its website and asking for public input through an online survey. The “Monterey County User Experience Survey” in posted on the county’s website and includes questions about the information presently sought by site users, the degree to which the site is user-friendly, the frequency of use, etc. while also soliciting ideas about what additional county information or services should be available on the site. Click here to view the survey.

Infogagement: Citizenship and Democracy in the Age of Connection

“Infogagement: Citizenship and Democracy in the Age of Connection” is the latest white paper from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE). Written by the Deliberative Democracy Consortium’s Matt Leighninger, the report – downloadable here – describes the “innovative collision” of journalism, technology and public engagement and addresses these complex and ever-changing interactions in hopes of achieving more successful and inclusive outcomes.

The New Public Service: Serving Not Steering

The New Public Service: Serving Not Steering is a very readable book charting changes in public administration theory and practice over the past 100 plus years with a focus on reasserting the values of democracy, citizenship and the public interest in the work of public management. One chapter is titled “The New Public Service and Citizen Engagement: Action Recommendation.” The authors, Janet V. and Robert B. Denhardt, provide a good read for those interested in the linkage between public engagement and the theories and practices of public administration. Published by M.E. Sharpe.

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