February 22, 2003
Citywide Public Involvement Standards Taskforce
This coming Tuesday, the City of Portland "initiates [a] task force to develop recommendations to Council for public involvement standards for City bureaus." Information which has been provided via email from the Office of Neighborhood Involvement is provided below.
Tuesday, February 25
5:00 PM - 6:30 PM
City Hall, Lovejoy Room
1221 SE 4th Ave.
All invited
You are invited to the initial open workshop for a taskforce that will develop recommendations for Council to consider citywide public involvement standards that affect how City bureaus provide outreach to the public on all major public project and policy initiatives, land use, and other neighborhood livability issues. Your input will assist the taskforce with prioritizing the types of issues to address. Commissioner Jim Francesconi directed the Office of Neighborhood Involvement to organize this citywide dialogue that will include volunteer neighbors, community groups and City staff. There will be multiple sub-committees where we can utilize your help to draft recommendations on specific issues.
The taskforce will look at:
* Reviewing best practices and current city and bureau policies around public involvement;
* Establishing recommendations for clear, consistent standards to meet the public expectation for public involvement practices across the City, and;
* Developing policy recommendations & public involvement standards for Council adoption.
AGENDA
* 5:00 PM, Welcome and Overview of Taskforce structure
* 5:20 PM, Large Group discussion: What would public involvement look like that promoted collaborative, cooperative, democratic process between City bureaus and the public?
* 5:50 PM, Small Group Brainstorms:
* What are the questions and issues you want the taskforce to address?
* What is working well with City initiated public participation efforts? What is not working well?
* 6:20 PM, Next Steps
Given much of the criticism levelled at public involvement efforts and processes, it is critical that interested Portland residents participate as much as possible in this task force.
In her recent lecture at OMSI, architect Sarah Graham (one of the finalists in the tram design competition) noted a significant difference between public involvement in Europe versus that in the United States: In Europe, she said, officials simply assume that the citizenry is educated, and will read and will think. In the United States, however, officials tend to make the opposite assumption.
Her observation appears to be fairly well proven by recent experiences with, say, the Pioneer Courthouse Square ice rink and the Open Reservoir Replacement Project.
So let's all go see how they design a public process meant to generate ideas for an improved public process.