For the People By the People
[Music]
hi
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
do
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