The Mayor’s Office has launched a Participatory Budgeting (PB) process that encompasses the entire Nashville-Davidson County area and looks to see how Davidson County residents would like to invest $10 million. This is Metro’s third PB Cycle. The first two were held in 2021 and 2022 and focused solely on the Bordeaux and North Nashville regions.
I grew up in a direct democracy, where voter referendums were a regular occurrence, which is why I deeply believe that the PB process is an important opportunity for Nashvillians of all backgrounds to get directly involved in government decisions. The PB process includes two main phases for every resident to participate:
1. The Idea Collection phase, from February through June; and
2. The Voting phase, which will be in December.
I wanted to learn about the process and have volunteered to assist in any way I can to help Metro reach marginalized populations such as people experiencing homelessness who may not have a computer. I was thrilled that this is a high priority for Fabian Bedne, the community development manager for the Mayor’s Office, who has overseen and helped set up and shepherd through the two successful prior PB processes.
Bedne took the time to speak to me and help me understand the process, so that I am able to reach out to service providers I know and work with and encourage them to assist people experiencing homelessness with the process. The most important part to know right away is that we are in the Ideas Phase, which is open now until the end of June. Here is how people can submit their ideas:
• Go to pb.nashville.gov;
• Click on “Submit Participatory Budgeting Ideas;” and then
• Simply follow the prompts.
Before you do so, make sure your ideas meet the basic requirements. Since the $10 million are one-time funding, they cannot support projects that need ongoing operational costs. The proposed ideas also must serve a public use or purpose, which means “it must deliver a direct, primary, concrete, or quantifiable benefit to the people of Davidson County.”
In other words, ideas that specifically and only benefit your family or church group would not be eligible. The ideas should be so specific that you know where the location of the implementation takes place. There is a map online where you will be asked to mark the location with a specific street address or an intersection. Finally, the online instructions will ask you about the project type that your idea falls under. Those include:
• Bus Transportation
• Streets, Alleys, Intersections, Traffic Calming
• Libraries
• Schools
• Parks
• General Services (such as Utilities, Fire Department, Police Department)
• Water, Garbage & Sewer
• Arts Projects
• Other
You are now ready to go online and submit as many ideas as you’d like, but make sure to only submit one idea at a time (then start over for the next idea). So, for example, if you’d like a street light at a specific intersection, enter that. If you also would like a red light at another intersection, submit that as a new idea. And a shelter at your bus stop would be a third idea, etc.
For this column, I also spoke with PB Steering Committee chair, Whitney Pastorek, to check in about how things are going and learned a lot about the intensity and deliberateness of the process. She shared with me that the goal was to have one volunteer representing each Metro Council District on the Steering Committee. Looking at the list, I am impressed to see that only seven districts are currently not represented. But Pastorek said committee members are discussing who among them is familiar enough with another district to represent that one as well and ensure all 35 Districts are covered. Implementing an equitable approach is a huge priority for the Steering Committee, one that’s been shared by the Mayor’s Office from the get-go.
Pastorek feels the committee is fairly representatives of Nashville’s diverse cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds, but cautions that as is the case with all volunteer efforts, some people are simply too busy or don’t have the means of transportation or access to information they would need to actually participate at the steering committee level. One of her focus areas is to ensure that there are measures implemented to allow for people who don’t have access to computers to participate. It’s still early in the process, but the general idea for the voting process is that a group of volunteers called “budget delegates” will evaluate all submitted ideas for eligibility based on three main criteria: need, impact and feasibility. The budget delegates then help prioritize project ideas and craft the PB ballot. To become a budget delegate, you can sign up online (also as pb.nashville. gov).
Pastorek said the goal is to have one idea from each Council District on the ballot. Davidson County residents will be able to vote for five projects total. Interestingly enough, the Steering Committee is also utilizing a social vulnerability index to weigh available funding for each area based on the needs of that area. While there have already been discussions about how to ensure that only David- son County residents are able to participate in the voting process, the Steering Committee is really just at the beginning of the process set up. Currently, they meet weekly, alternating with online and in-person meetings. Voting can only happen at in-person meetings. The responsibilities of the 2023 Steering Committee include:
• Drafting the Participatory Budgeting guidelines;
• Establishing goals and measures for a successful Participatory Budgeting cycle;
• Creating the timeline for implementation of projects; and
• Developing the outreach strategy.
Bedne has the institutional knowledge to advise the steering committee and serves as their liaison to the Mayor’s Office. In addition, Quinta Martin, who has chaired the Bordeaux/North Nashville participatory budgeting process, will come on board as a non-voting facilitator this year. The Brennan Center for Justice last year published an article about participatory budgeting (https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/making-participatory-budgeting-work-experiences-front-lines) and stressed two major positive impacts.
1. Participatory budgeting seems to, “boost civic participation, strengthen community ties, and demystify city government,” which helps increase trust through civic engagement; and
2. The PB process helps identify specific community needs that may be over- looked by a city’s usual outreach and engagement process.
However, in the article also lists several pitfalls that they found of which local government should be aware:
• Keeping too much control in the hands of city government and there- fore failing to fully empower residents;
• Limited project funding, which can result in squashing excitement among residents;
• Not having dedicated staff, which then means that existing government personnel has to run the PB on top of existing job responsibilities;
• Placing too tight and rigid restrictions on the types of projects that are allowed under the PB process; and
• Encouraging residents to believe that PB would have a transformative effect, which then can lead to disillusionment when the actual outcomes will be more modest than expected.
Pastorek is very positive about the process, but did point out that in comparison to other cities, she feels the timelines given by the Mayor’s Office to meet the deadline until the funds must be used is rather tight.
“I’m pretty excited to see what my fellow Nashvillians come up with,” Pastorek said. “It’s extremely important to me that this process is transparent, that it is equitable and that it reflects the wants and needs of the people who live in the city, not the wants and needs of the Mayor’s Office, not the wants and needs of an outside force. It’s really important to me that this be a completely participatory, community-based process.”