Redwood City Launches The People’s Budget, a $1 Million Participatory Budgeting Pilot Program

REDWOOD CITY, CALIF.- The City of Redwood City has officially launched an inaugural participatory budgeting pilot program, known as The People's Budget, allowing direct community involvement in City spending decisions. The People's Budget is a chance for Redwood City/North Fair Oaks residents help decide how Redwood City will spend $1 million of one-time funds to positively serve or improve the community. The integration of community engagement into the local government budget process, or participatory budgeting, has been used and studied in cities across the United States and around the world. Redwood City is glad to join more than 7,000 cities around the world in giving community members another way to direct local budget.

"We look forward to hearing directly from community members about their priorities for one-time funds," said Melissa Stevenson Diaz, City Manager of Redwood City. "The People's Budget takes our extensive community engagement program to a new level."

There are four main parts to creating The People's Budget:

• Step 1: Idea Submission (January 1-Feburary 19)
  City staff will share information about participatory budgeting and City budgets and ask community members to share their ideas about what can improve or support our community. Projects suggested in other cities include school tech upgrades, park renovations, street improvements, ESL programs, community gardens, and more.

• Step 2: Project Voting (March 19-May 9)
  City staff will present project ideas to the public so community members can vote on which projects should be included in the budget. Participants will be able to rank their preferences.

• Step 3: Announcement (June 2022)
  The winning projects will be announced at the City Council's June budget review meeting.

• Step 4: Implementation and Updates (FY22-23 and beyond)
  As projects prepare for and begin implementation, City staff can provide regular updates on how PB projects are progressing and share any opportunities for the public to be involved in implementation.

Between and during all of these steps, staff will work to determine the eligibility and feasibility of each project and share updates on what's happening with The People's Budget.

The City will be hosting upcoming Community Workshops to share information about the program, answer questions and be available to help anyone needing assistance with completing an Project Idea Form (English) (Spanish).

• Virtual Workshops: Wednesday, January 26 at 6 p.m. (English) and Thursday, February 3 at 5 p.m. (Spanish)

• In-Person Outside in the Plaza Area of the Downtown Library (1044 Middlefield Road: Wednesday, February 9 and Saturday, February 19. Drop-in hours for both events will be noon-4 p.m.

In the Fiscal Year 2021-22 Adopted Budget, $1 million of one-time General Fund revenue was set aside for a pilot participatory budgeting project to be deployed during Fiscal Year 2021-22 (FY21-22), with implementation of the chosen funding allocation to occur during Fiscal Year 2022-23 (FY22-23). Potentially, an additional $1 million in one-time funds could be allocated for Fiscal Year 2023-24.

To learn more, visit www.redwoodcity.org/pb-en (English) and www.redwoodcity.org/pb-es (Español).

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