CPP Staff Travels

On Monday 6th October and Tuesday 7th October, CPP project Director, Khalil Shahyd traveled to Baltimore to participate in the Case Foundation's, "Make it Your Own" awardees training.

The training brought together all 20 awardees from Case Foundation's online competitive grant contest in which the CPP was the top vote getter. http://www.neworleanschamber.org/index.php?id=362

The training, moderated by "Everyday Democracy" [http://www.everyday-democracy.org/en/index.aspx] included discussions on community organizing, recruitment for participation and fundraising activities. A consistent theme mentioned by the many participants who were all developing some form of community engagement program was the felt need to be seen not as working in isolation but a part of a movement of people.

One such initiative that is attempting to bring local democracy projects together to influence the national agenda is the "November 5th Coalition." [http://www.novemberfifth.org/]

The coalition ask the question; "Who should advise the next president on issues of public enagagement and democratic goverance?"

The meeting was very productive in being able to talk with and meet participants in other democracy initiatives around the country, but unsuprising, New Orleans, was the topic many of them wanted to discuss and hear from.

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After returning from Baltimore on Wednesday CPP staff took another short trip to learn more about how other cities incorporate varoius aspects of citizen participation. Project Director Khalil Shahyd, this time accompanied by Scope of Activities Team member David Crais on Friday left for Los Angeles to be obersrves at that city's Mayoral Budget Day.

With the Scope of Activities Team's interest in how our residents can have greater access and influence over the city's budget process, we were invited by the L.A. Office of Neighborhood Empowerment to participate in the Budget Day activities on Saturday 11th October.

Starting at 830am with a speach from the Mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa the Budget Day was a very informative event. Over 500 city residents packed into the City Council Chamber on a beautiful Saturday to discuss their town's fiscal policies.

The Mayor's talk was followed by a budget presentation and Q and A led by the Office of Neighborhood Empowerment. Each of the city's more than 90 Neighborhood Councils [neighborhood associations] were represented by 2 budget representatives.

A major discussion among the budget representatives was about how to best allocate the city budget. Should it 1. be allocated equally across the city's districts; or 2. be allocated based on population; or 3. be determined by a need based allocation?

Not an easy thing to decide in a city of over 4million people.

Each participant was give a Budget Survey to complete and return to the Office of Neighborhood Empowerment, although the survey will continue to be taken up through January 2009. The survey asked basic questions like the one mentioned above but also more pointed questions meant to measure the community's spending priorities for the coming cycle.

Each Neighborhood Council was given a copy of the city budget summary which includes brief overviews of the budget process and its components. There was also a "Budget Dollar" diagrahm breakdown of the city budget in two phases. A dollar bill was shown divided into parts, first showing where the city's revenues come from and second showing where it is spent.

This was a simple method of showing residents the sources of the city's money and the spending decisions made previously per dollar.

We also attended two breakout sessions, including one on Branding and Marketing for Neighborhood Councils and another on using the city's web based Council File Management System [CFMS} and Community Impact Statement[CIS] forms. The CFMS is an online data base of every document filed in the City Council. Along with the online, Early Notification System, Neighborhood Councils are made aware of pending decisions or projects that might impact their community.

By filling out the CIS the Neighborhood Council can have it's formal position attached to any legislation addressed by City Council.

Overall we saw that there was a great deal to be learned from city's like L.A.

More information on the L.A. trip will be given at the upcoming CPP Collaborative meeting to be held 21st October 2008, at 3500 Canal Street.