For the People By the People

[Music]

everybody so

i love government specifically

democracy

and i know that sounds absolutely crazy

particularly today because when you

think of government

you think of taxes you think of

bureaucracy

you think of really terrible political

campaign ads

you think of fighting but i still love

government

because of what it can be

see i grew up in northeastern pa

the old industrial anthracite region

of pennsylvania i’ve had generations

of family here and i got to watch it

decline

the corner stores my parents talked

about they don’t exist anymore

the industries that were here they’re no

longer here

when i was growing up every year

annually our population was

declining or stagnating

it was awful and i wanted to fix it

i had no idea how i didn’t know what to

but eventually i found my way into a

field

that led me to just that

i found myself into economic development

basically to sum it up economic

development is creating policies and

programs that help

rebuild communities help improve local

economies

think about it like the big things you

hear on the news the big incentive

programs that brought that business here

or my personal favorite

helping that entrepreneur get off the

ground helping to encourage

and promote small businesses

that’s what i really enjoyed i spent

nearly a decade in economic development

across multiple jurisdictions i’ve been

in a number of different states

and i’ve had the pleasure of working

with dozens of different communities

and what’s so interesting is when you

start

to work with all those different

communities you notice something

everybody wants the same thing

everybody doesn’t matter which town

you’re in

in which state you’re in everybody wants

the basics

they want to feel safe they want great

sanitation

clean air good water they want

of course good sewer they want their

trash picked up

they want great job opportunities and

they want great recreational

opportunities

that is what people want but you know

the kicker of all this

when i would go in and talk to these

different community groups

elected officials i could tell right off

the bat which communities were going to

achieve it

here’s the thing it’s about

participation

if they are at odds with each other your

government and your people

you don’t meet the goals

the center for active design publishes

the assembly

civic engagement survey and they’ve

found that there’s an inherent link

between neighborhood maintenance

conditions and

civic trust what a civic trust that

means

trusting your neighbors trusting your

government institutions

overall civic pride it’s about

participation from both parties

so there are a lot of communities that

have figured out how to do this

for example eau claire wisconsin

they wanted their public to have a say

in what happens

with the future of the development of

their public facilities

and they needed help problem solving so

in 2007 they got together and said we’re

going to create a vision called

clear vision eau claire we’ll start this

process we’ll do some visioning sessions

we will get everyone together and have

community meetings

and we’ll set the parameters for how we

move forward

we’ll set the vision for 2030. guess

what

they started that in 2007 it’s still

going strong

even with covid

new york city 2011

four city council members decided hey

let’s start a participatory budgeting

process

it’s your tax dollars you should get a

say in what they go for

so what do they do they got together

neighborhood groups people could just

show up and give their opinion

on how to spend capital discretionary

funds

and they did ended up it was a huge

success

now you can go online to new york city’s

website and you can find that they’re

still

actively looking for ideas every year

you send in a thought

as a resident and you get to vote

and pick which projects over 30 million

dollars in

public funds go to participatory

budgeting has become incredibly popular

actually it’s gone universal

across the world people are doing this

you see the thing about governments we

originally created them for some

some basic needs we’re living in a place

and we have our food we don’t want them

to come take our place on our food

very simple but over time that’s evolved

the role of government’s now

still that we have our place on our food

but now it’s also setting parameters for

our well-being

how do we live happily together in our

community

and what’s been so interesting in the

last few years

with the pandemic with calls for

equality

and equity people are really interested

in getting involved in their governments

or at least

trying to but

having worked in it

i’ll tell you laws are super complicated

forms are ridiculously long and quite

honestly

if you don’t know where to look for a

notice about a meeting

what do you do

all of a sudden the door seems

shut not to mention if you show

up to a public meeting there is nothing

worse than walking into a room

having everyone turn and look at you and

you have no clue

what to do you sit down awkwardly and

then they expect you to come up to a

microphone

and tell people your thoughts it’s a bit

intimidating

so i’m going to give you some tips of

the trade

and some things to know and the basics

because

participation it matters so much and you

have the absolute right to it

so the basics are public meetings

governments have them once a month

they’re always at the same time

on the same day of the month of course

there’s holidays so they’ll work around

that

but they’re second tuesday of the month

third wednesday of the month

and you are welcome as a resident to

show up

and make a public comment information

about them is located in the newspaper

and if you can’t get a newspaper then go

online

and just search through the classifieds

but you’ll find the information

and you are always welcome there don’t

let the eyes make you feel uncomfortable

now okay maybe that’s not the case maybe

you don’t want to stand there and tell

people about your issues

maybe you actually want to be more

involved

you know what boards and commissions

let me tell you the greatest secret

really

residents are needed to staff boards

commissions and committees

anyone can be on these sometimes

they prefer you know a little bit about

what you would like to be on

but anyone in a town county

borough city is welcome to put their hat

in the ring to sit

on a commission a committee or a board

you don’t need to be elected

you just need to submit information

feel free to ask usually on their

websites they have some information

but reach out and just say i’m

interested in parks and recreation

hey i want to i want to be involved in

zoning

there is a place for you and if that’s

not

quite the case you’re you’re really

really not interested in being involved

in government

you’d like to be on the outskirts

there’s tons of non-profits

and there’s tons of different community

groups if you have an issue i guarantee

you there’s somebody out there with the

same exact issue and you can find a

group to participate with

now you’re still saying but i still feel

like it’s closed

they don’t listen to me okay

you have a right though here’s

two words to familiarize two terms to

familiarize yourself with

open government and sunshine laws

so open government is this movement to

transparency

you have the right to data the

government’s collecting

tons of stuff why not give it to

everybody

go on any federal website and you will

find tons of databases tons of data

drops anything you can think of it’s out

there for you

you just have to look for it and slowly

even more government agencies are moving

in that direction

sunshine laws during the 1960s there was

this push to say

we the people should have access to

basic information

we should know when meetings are we

should have the agenda we should get the

minutes i mean

hey we should know so they differ from

state to state

but the idea is different states and

different sunshine laws have their

specifics

but you have the right to information

you should know when that meeting is it

should be published

always ask you have that right

and if all of a sudden you say you know

i don’t i don’t know where can i

how do i what do i do the neat part

about a lot of think tanks

and universities is they’re starting to

really track this

government transparency is a big deal

so mit’s government lab

in 2018 put out a report

they looked at 9 000 municipal

government websites across 50 states

they looked at them at those websites

for information they wanted to know

specifics what’s there

what’s up to date 70 of them had up to

date meeting information you know proper

date proper time

how to go less than 50 percent though

actually had information that’s in the

freedom of information act they didn’t

have information on how to even contact

somebody if you wanted

more information city ethics dot org

looked at five thousand five hundred

government websites across the country

school boards counties

cities they set a bunch of parameters

they said okay here’s all our criteria

you know you have to have your meeting

minutes your agendas

uh budgets basic information of who to

contact who your elected officials are

5 500 websites 39 of them met it

now i’m not going to fault

all local governments a lot don’t have

the money

the staff heck they might not even have

somebody who can update that website

so or they might not know unless you

ask if you don’t ask they might not even

know that they should be putting this

information out there for you

but just remember you have the right to

participate

if there is anything you take away from

today

it’s so so important and the really

interesting part

with covid and the times of the pandemic

all of a sudden we’re at home meetings

are on zoom they’re call in and you know

what

i see it as an opportunity because they

have to publish their agendas ahead of

time

you can email your questions think them

out

search and figure out what you want to

ask

all of a sudden the door is more open

than ever

and truthfully it’s just a matter

everyone has the keys of finding the

right one

so remember participation is everything

and it is absolutely your right just

remember you have the keys

just have to find the one to the right

door thank you