citizen jury proposal

Leadership and Good Governance - Reports Ordinary Meeting - 02 March 2016

PAGE 206

6.6 PROPOSED CITIZENS JURY AS THE FIRST STEP TO THE COUNCIL PLAN FOR THE NEW COUNCIL

Document Information

Author and Responsible Prue Mansfield, Director Planning and Development Director

Summary/Purpose

This report recommends undertaking an independent Citizens' Jury process during 2016 to provide independent community input into:

The development of the next Council Plan.

Understanding better what the community as a whole wants to see as the key focus and priorities for the City in the period 2017-2021

and have evidence for Council, the community and Essential Services Commission that we understand community priorities.

Policy Context

Council Plan 2013-2017 (2015-2016 Update) Council set two priorities for the 2013-2017 chapter in Greater Bendigo's history, one of which is:

Completing detailed planning in important areas including transport, residential and economic development, in preparation for the continued increase in population.

Theme 1 - Leadership & Good Governance

1.1 Good governance principles are used to guide strategic decision-making: 1.1.4 Plan for the 2016 Council elections and the induction and training of

Councillors following the election.

1.4 Community engagement strategies and methods are adapted and updated to improve how the community can receive information in an accessible form and provide feedback to Council.

Background

The new Council Plan must be submitted by 30 June 2017. If the Council Plan development doesn't start until after the election, allowing enough time for the work of committed engagement and listening by June 2017 will be as challenging for the incoming Council as it was for the current Council. In developing the community engagement guidelines, the Council sets out to use new, contemporary methods of community engagement. A "Citizens' Jury" is one such model.


PAGE 207

Using this technique during 2016 will provide clear and considered advice to the incoming Council as it deliberates on setting priorities for its term of office. In addition, if the new Council want to propose a rate increase above the cap, it will need to demonstrate it has sought the community's view and considered it. This Citizens' Jury process would meet that requirement.

Report

Citizens' juries are a reasonably new model of engagement in Australia. The goal is for more people to have more confidence in more decisions of Council into the future, because "people who look like me and are not part of the establishment" have made these recommendations. This goal is achieved by the way the panel is established and the process conducted. The process is run independently. newDemocracy is a foundation that has considerable experience in this field, who would be engaged to run the process. City staff provide logistic, event and administrative support to the process. newDemocracy finalise the details independently, but the key features include:

Invitations are sent to a large, randomly selected group of people, explaining the task, commitment and process to them. People are invited to express interest in being involved.

From those that express interest, random selection of about 26 people is made (based on population size) and aligned with the demographic profile, (because of the nature of our municipality, 15% of places would be reserved for people who live outside the Bendigo urban area).

Jury members are provided with the background information (briefing book) required.

Submissions are sought from other interested people. These are provided as part of the briefing book.

Jury members come together for 6 days over about 10 weeks to deliberate. These days are run by an independent facilitator.

The Jury can seek specialist advice or information from whoever they agree to.

Most juries agree an issue needs "super-majority" - 80%, for any recommendation to be supported.

The Jury provides a final report to the Council.

The whole process takes about 6 to allow for the selection process and for the community members involved to receive, absorb and deliberate on the question.

As Councillors will recall from their discussion in developing the community engagement policy and guidelines, two of the most important steps are: 1. What is the question for which Council is seeking an answer? 2. What does the Council commit to do with that answer? The advice from newDemocracy is that for a Citzens' Jury to be effective, the question needs to be something that the Council and community is grappling with, a hard question and reasonably specific. In discussion with them, the proposed question could be:


PAGE 208

"Can we accommodate the growth of our City without increasing the rates beyond the rate cap?"

Or

"Is Council spending your money on the right things?" If Council proceeds with this proposal, the question would be finalised in discussion with newDemocracy. Some would question whether it is effective to conduct this process now as the current Council cannot commit to implementing the outcomes. Given:

In most elections, some Councillors are returned so there is continuity;

It will provide very useful information and input to the new Council;

Given the timing of the election and Christmas, if the Jury was not started until after the election, it would have to run from about February to July. This is too late for the recommendations to be used by the new Council in adopting the new 4 year Council Plan;

it is recommended the process be conducted from March to August 2016. In this circumstance, the following commitments of the current Council are recommended:

That the full report is made available for their information;

That the full report is made publically available when received;

The Jury is invited to present its findings to the current Council;

That the full report is made available to the incoming Council. It will be recommended that the incoming Council:

Invites the Jury to present their recommendations as part of their induction.

Provides a formal response to the Jury and the general community on its acceptance (or otherwise) of each of the recommendations.

Input from Others to the Jury Process Once the question has been settled and the process started, input is invited from the broader community through inviting submissions, online comments, media and Greater Bendigo News. In addition, anyone can attend the sessions when the jury is deliberating, as observers. Any questions or comments from the observers are recorded for the jury to consider.

Resource Implications

In-house resources required are estimated to be:

3.0EFT for 4 weeks, peaking at the beginning of the process, but spread over the duration of the project;

Provision of venues

Graphic design of invitations.


PAGE 209

It is estimated that approximately $89,000 would be required for:

Independent facilitator(s)

Per day rate for participants

Research fee to newDemocracy

Other support. As there is no budget allocation for this project, it would be an over-expenditure of $30,000 in this financial year (included in the mid-year budget review) and approximately $58,000 in the 2016/2017 financial year (which is included in draft budget).

Conclusion

An independently facilitated Citizens' Jury process is an innovative approach to involving our community in the future direction of the City. It will make a significant contribution to the vision of "Greater Bendigo - working together to be Australia's most liveable regional city" by building confidence that Councillors are listening to the views of a broad range of our residents.

RECOMMENDATION

That the Greater Bendigo City Council resolve: 1. To undertake an independent Citizens' Jury process, to commence as soon as

practical; 2. That the full report is made available to the current Council for their information; 3. That the full report is made publically available when received; 4. That the Jury will be invited to present its findings to the current Council; 5. That the full report is made available to the incoming Council.

citizen jury proposal

Documents