Victoria city councillor planning WC/CIC for public budget engagement
Daniel Doherty writes:
Following from our CIC work with the City of Victoria in support of
the Official Community Plan, one of the OCP committee members is now a
city councillor and wants to employ CICs to inform city policy.
http://www.vicnews.com/news/137620618.html
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It’s not enough to simply invite citizens to give input, [Helps]
argued. The problem is that special-interest groups can too easily
dominate the discussion.
Dan Doherty, a director with a non-profit called Wise Democracy
[Victoria], has already tested one possible solution.
In 2011, [they were] contracted by the city to build “citizens insight
councils” tasked with giving input into the city’s official community
planning process. [They] found participants through a random selection
process.
By calling 60 people, selected randomly by address, Doherty [and team]
found 24 willing participants who agreed to a half-day workshop.
“It gets at people whose voices are not usually heard,” said Doherty.
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Daniel Doherty, Victoria BC
