Save the date, Jan. 27, 6-8 pm for a Seattle Participatory Budgeting event in the Bertha Knight Landes Room at City Hall, 600 4th Avenue downtown, co-hosted by City Councilmember Licata & the City Neighborhood Council, to determine whether Seattle should initiate such a project locally. Participatory Budgeting is “a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. It enables taxpayers to work with government to make the budget decisions that affect their lives.”  More about the process here.

Scheduled to present is Ginny Browne, Project Manager, Oakland, California. Browne “manages PBP’s West Coast projects. She completed her Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning at UCLA, where she did extensive research on participatory budgeting in North America. With PBP, she coordinated the first city-wide PB process in the US, in Vallejo, CA. … She has collaborated with a wide range of agencies and organizations, from LA’s Strategic Actions for a Just Economy to the Federal Transportation Administration, to engage local communities on issues such as workforce development, affordable housing preservation, and transportation equity. Ginny also has a background in community media and has reported news for National Public Radio and the Pacifica Network.” More here.

More about City Neighborhood Council: http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoodcouncil/  See their What’s New section for more about this project. http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoodcouncil/documents/ParticipatoryBudgetingFlyer-CMLicata-CNC.pdf