How would you like to spend $200,000 of the City’s money?

Flyer for the Participatory Budget kick-off meeting on October 19th at the Cypress Community Center.

Click for Full Size Flyer

The City of San Jose is allowing the residents of each Council district to determine how to spend $200,000 through a process called participatory budgeting. Participatory budgeting is an international phenomenon that started in South America. It provides community members with an opportunity to engage in the budget process and determine how funds are going to be allocated.

The District One Leadership Group (D1G) is in search of some dedicated volunteers to assist in defining our process, vetting submissions, and facilitating the voting process. The entire process will be driven by the steering committee with the assistance of the D1 council office. San Jose’s Council District 3 is initiating its 3^rd annual participatory budget program. D3’s successful program provides us with an outstanding model to follow. Learn more about participatory budgeting by visiting the D3 website; d3decides.com. District 1 is planning on kicking off its participatory budgeting process in September. The first step in the process is building our steering committee. The tentative timeline for this year’s process is as follows:

Sept-Nov – Build steering committee and agree on process
Nov – Jan ( ~3 months): solicit ideas from community
Jan – March (2-3 months): vet ideas
April (1-2 months): vote
The Spending timeline is based on how long it takes to complete the project

If you are interested in being a member of the steering committee or a budget delegate please respond below. If you don’t have time to be a member of one of the committees you can still help by submitting a proposal and participating in the voting process. The board of the D1LG are extremely excited about the opportunity to have the residents of D1 determine how to best spend $200,000 of the City’s budget. Let’s take full advantage of this opportunity and do great things for the residents of D1.

To volunteer and learn more about D1 Decides, please go to the website: http://d1decides.com/get-involved/