HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/19/2016 17A Council General InformationBUSINESS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
YAKIMA, WASHINGTON
AGENDASTATEMENT
Item No. 17.A.
For Meeting of: January 19, 2016
ITEM TITLE: Council General Information
SUBMITTED BY: Sonya Clear Tee, City Clerk
SUMMARY EXPLANATION:
1. Thank you letter
2. Community Review Board agenda for January 20, 2016
3. Preliminary Council Agenda
4. City Meeting Schedule
5. Preliminary Future Activities Calendar
6. Attorney General News Release regarding Open Public Meetings law
7. Newspaper/Magazine/Internet Articles:
* "Records advocate wants all Spokane police body camera videos," Spokesman.com
* "Tech and Innovation to Re-engage Civic Life," Stanford Social Innovation Review
ITEM BUDGETED:
STRATEGIC PRIORITY:
APPROVED FOR SUBMITTAL:
Interim City Manager
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
BOARD/COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION:
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Upload Date
D Couirnciill 1/1412016
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Cover Memo
RECEIVED
CITY OF YAKIMA
JAN 0 a ,„ }
OF CITY COUNCIL
COMMUNITY REVIEW BOARD MEETING
AGENDA
January 20, 2016
5:30 p.m. - Council Chambers - City Hall
I. CALL TO ORDER
II. ROLL CALL
C.R.B. Members Staff
Judy Pozarich Glenn Denman
Phyllis Musgrove
Bob Mason
Dinah Reed
Richard Marcley
Mei-Lynne Statler
Verlynn Best
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
A. None
IV. HEARINGS — CODE COMPLIANCE CASES
A. None
V. HEARINGS — RIGHT-OF-WAY USE PERMITS (FENCE)
A. None
VI. CODE ADMINISTRATION MANAGER'S STATUS REPORT
A. Code Compliance Statistics for the month of December, 2015
VII. NEW BUSINESS
A. None
VIII. OLD BUSINESS
A. None
IX. ADJOURNMENT
YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL
February 2, 2016
City Hall — Council Chambers
6 p.m. Business Meeting
BUSINESS MEETING
1. Roll Call
2. Pledge of Allegiance
3. Open Discussions for the Good of the Order
4. Council Reports
5. Consent Agenda
Items listed are considered routine by the City Council and will be enacted by one motion without
discussion. A citizen or Council member may request to remove an item from the Consent Agenda and, if
approved, it will be placed on the regular agenda for discussion and consideration.
A. Project Completion and Contract Acceptance for Columbia Asphalt & Gravel, Inc. -
Project AT2379 & 2381 - 2014 Citywide Street Resurfacing (Standard Motion V B -
Accept the project and approve)
B. Project Completion and Contract Acceptance for Schneider Water Services - Project
AC2350 Kissel Park Well Pump and motor for domestic water well (Standard Motion
V -B -Accept the project and approve)
C. Resolution authorizing a contract with Yakima County (East Valley) Fire District #4 for
dispatch and alarm service
D. Resolution authorizing an Seventh Amendment to 911 Support Services Agreement
with Yakima County
E. Ordinance relating to Public Services; amending the City of Yakima Municipal Code
for the purpose of updating the fee schedule for certain police services
6. Audience Participation
Community members are invited to address items that are not listed on the regular business meeting
agenda. A guideline of three (3) minutes per speaker is in place in order to allow as much opportunity as
possible for audience participation. A speaker's time may be extended at the discretion of the Mayor
and/or the consensus or vote of the Council. Written communication and e-mail messages are strongly
encouraged.
CITY MANAGER REPORTS
Resolution to consider opening or foregoing the Comprehensive Plan Amendment process
pursuant to RCW 36.70A.130 for the year 2016
8. Other Business
9. Adjournment
The next meeting will be a City Council Retreat on February 8, 2016, at 9 a.m. at the Yakima
Training Annex, 421 E. Chestnut Avenue
10. Council General Information
A. Council General Information
111111111111111
11111111,11,11,111111
Any invocation that may be offered before the official start of the Council meeting shall be the
voluntary offering of a private citizen, to and for the benefit of the Council. The views or beliefs
expressed by the invocation speaker have not been previously reviewed or approved by the
Council, and the Council does not endorse the religious beliefs or views of this, or any other
speaker.
A Council packet is available for review at the City Clerk's Office and the Library. A packet is
also available on-line at www.yakimawa.gov.
The City provides special accommodations, such as hearing devices, wheelchair space or
language interpreters, for City meetings. Anyone needing special assistance please contact
the City Clerk's office at (509) 575-6037.
CITY MEETING SCHEDULE
For January 18, 2016 — January 25, 2016
Please note: Meetings are subject to change
Monday, January 18
CITY OFFICES CLOSED
Tuesday, January 19
10:00 a.m. County Commissioners meeting — Council Chambers
6:00 p.m. City Council meeting — Council Chambers
Wednesday, January 20
5:30 p.m. Community Review Board — Council Chambers
Thursday, January 21
1:30 p.m. Hearing Examiner — Council Chambers
2:00 p.m. Yakima Police Department retirement ceremony — Convention Center
Monday, January 25
9:30 a.m. Hearing Examiner — Council Chambers
1:30 p.m. Hearing Examiner — Council Chambers
Office Of Mayor/City Council
Preliminary Future Activities Calendar
Please Note: Meetings are subject to change
11
11w
Mon. Jan. 18
CITY OFFICES CLOSED
Tue. Jan. 19
12:00 p.m.
6:00 .m.
Thur. Jan. 21
2:00 p.m.
WMPAINIMMISINMYAM
Tue. Feb. 2
5:00 p.m.
600 .mairMOMMII MOM.
Wed. Feb. 3
5:30 p.m.
Fri. Feb. 5
8:00 a.m.
Capitol Theatre Executive
Scheduled Meeting
Scheduled Meeting
Yakima Police Department
Retirement Ceremony
(T) City Council Executive
Session
City Council
Scheduled Event
Scheduled Meeting
Coffey
Council
Open
Council
Council
Downtown Association
Yakima annual meeting
INZWYNIMM
Scheduled Meeting
Capitol Theatre
Council Chambers
Convention Center
Council Chambers
Council Chambers
4th Street Theatre
Sister City meeting
Scheduled Meeting
Adkison 2nd Floor Conference Room
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WASHINGTON STATE OFFICE OF ATTORNEY GENERAL
Jan. 8, 2016
Attorney General calls for stronger open meetings law as part of
2016 legislative agenda
Legislation to increase -I5-year-old penalty from $100 to $500; enact
Si, 000 repeat violator penalty
OLYMPIA — Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson
today announced his proposed bipartisan legislation to increase
transparency in government by enhancing penalties for violations of
Washington's Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA).
The OPMA requires that all meetings of multimember governing bodies
of local and state public agencies be open and accessible to the public.
Passed in 1971, the law was designed to ensure the public has ready
information and access to the agencies established to serve them.
Ferguson's proposal would modernize the out-of-date penalty
provisions of the OPMA. The current penalty for violating the OPMA is
$100, unchanged since the act was enacted in 1971. Ferguson's request
legislation would increase the penalty to $500 for a first-time violation,
roughly in line with inflation. It would also enact a new $1,000 "repeat
violator" penalty for a subsequent knowing violation of the act.
"Open government is vital to an informed democracy," said
2
Ferguson. "When the law requires an open meeting, yet officials
knowingly close the door on the public, they must be held accountable
with meaningful penalties."
The Attorney General request legislation, i_ csn���°, il° ?3.5 x., is sponsored
by Rep. Sam Hunt — D, Olympia. The companion bill, -cnate
61_7 L., is sponsored by Sen. Pam Roach, R ---- Sumner.
"It is essential that our elected officials understand and follow the Open
Meetings Act," said Hunt, chair of the House State Government
Committee. "One should not be slapped on the wrist for knowingly
violating the open meetings provisions. This law has been with us since
1971, and this bill, for the first time since approved by the Legislature,
updates to 2016 levels the penalty for knowingly violating the Open
Public Meetings Act."
"To hold government accountable, we need to know what's going on."
said Roach, chair of the Senate Government Operations and Security
Committee. "No more secret meetings. 'Those officials who knowingly
and repeatedly violate our open meeting laws should face a penalty
painful enough to discourage them from ever doing so again."
The OPMA requires open meetings of multimember, public -agency
governing bodies such as city councils, county commissions, school
boards, and many state hoards. The OPMA currently authorizes a court
to assess a $100 civil penalty against each member of a governing body
who attends a meeting where action is knowingly taken in violation of
the OPMA. The OPMA does not presently include enhanced penalties
for repeat violations.
Members of the governing body are personally liable for violations and
pay any penalties out of their own pockets. While the public agency
does not pay the penalty, agencies do pay associated attorneys' fees and
3
costs.
Other states, including Arizona, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, Rhode Island and Virginia, currently
have higher penalties for open meetings violations than Washington. At
least one state — New Jersey — has enhanced penalties for repeat
violators.
Attorney General's open government work
Enhancing government accountability and transparency is a top priority
for Attorney General Ferguson.
In 2013, Ferguson established the Open Government Ombuds as a full-
time position. In 2014, AGO agency -request legislation was signed into
law, strengthening Washington's open government laws by requiring
training for public officials on the Public Records Act and the Open
Public Meetings Act.
The AGO movides trainint2, under the state's Public Records Act and
the Open Public Meetings Act. More than 5,200 people have attended
in-person trainings with the AGO Ombuds since 2014, and online AGO
training videos have nearly 20,000 combined views.
Additional AGO open goverment resources, including the Open
Goverment Resource Manual, Model Rules and more, can he found
!tett.
–30-
4
The Office of the Attorney General is the chief legal office for the state of
Washington with attorneys and stein 27 divisions across the state providing
legal services to roughly 200 state agencies, boards and commissions.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson is working hard to protect consumers and
seniors against fraud, keep our communities safe, protect our environment and
stand up ibr our veterans. Visit www.alg.wagov to learn more.
CON'FACT: Peter Lavallee, Communications Director, (360) 586-0725;
PeterL@atg.wa.gov
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Price, CaIIy
From: Price, CaIIy
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2016 10:35 AM
To: Regimbal, Tammy; Harvey, Helen; Kunkler, Mark; Cutter, Jeff; Bradford, Brandy; Rizzi,
Dominic
Subject: FYI
Records advocate wants all Spokane police
body camera videos
By Rachel Alexander rachela(cr�srokesman.com(509) 459-5406
For months, Tim Schwering has been talking to Spokane's Public Safety Committee about a worst-
case scenario for the police records unit he supervises.
Half of the department's 202 patrol officers have been wearing body cameras since May, arid the
other half started in December. As a result, Spokane now hosts what's almost certainly the largest
collection of police body camera video in Washington: as of Wednesday there were 46,688 files
totaling more than seven terabytes of video, almost all of which is a public record subject to
disclosure.
Schwering, who directs the police Office of Professional Accountability, has often told City Council
members it would be challenging and costly to fill a request seeking all body camera videos currently
in storage. As of last week, that challenge is no longer theoretical.
Tim Clemans, a 25 -year-old Seattle -area programmer and transparency advocate who's become
notorious for filing thousands of broad records requests with cities and agencies in King County,
emailed Spokane's police records unit Jan. 5 seeking all of Spokane's videos.
On Monday, Schwering gave the committee his best estimate on the time and cost of filling the
request: a little over six years, assuming one person works full-time and processes 20 videos per day,
at a salary cost of $628,000.
"The records unit within the police department is already understaffed as it is," he said.
Schwering said the department can't charge Clemans for staff time needed to fulfill his request.
"This is going to get very, very expensive for the citizens in this city," Councilman Mike Fagan said
after hearing the estimate.
But the number could be much lower if the city uses software to automatically blur, mute and release
videos en masse, which Clemans said is his goal. If the plan works, Spokane would become an early
model for how Washington cities can handle broad body camera video requests.
1
Transparency crusader
Clemans' Twitter account says his life's mission is "to make government transparent by def,ult." He's
working to build a website called Inside Your Government, where he plans to post hundreds of
thousands of spreadsheets, police reports and body camera videos — all searchable — so anyone with
an interest in police or government affairs can easily find the information they need.
He first made headlines a little over a year ago, when he anonymously filed requests seeking all body
camera footage with the roughly 10 Washington police departments that had them in use, including
Spokane. He dropped most of those requests after negotiation, but Bremerton shut down its body
camera program amid fears of more broad requests for video.
Seattle police, who were starting a pilot body camera program when Clemans filed a request seeking
all their videos, took the unusual step of hiring him early last year.
"We had no way to go through and redact all of it so that it would meet the state standard, so we
picked him up," spokesman Detective Patrick Michaud said. In the six months he worked for Seattle
police, Clemans wrote software to automatically "overredact" videos — blurring the entire frame
enough that faces and writing are not identifiable. Using that software, Seattle police were able to
automatically post blurred copies of all body camera videos on YouTube.
That came in handy when Seattle police generated about 72 hours of video during the 2015 May Day
protest. Reporters interested in the event were able to look through the blurry video on YouTube, see
which parts of the tape were actually interesting, and file a narrow request for 17 minutes of video
instead of forcing the department to go through all 72 hours by hand.
"When requesters were directed to the site, they were making very narrow, specific requests,"
Clemans said. He believes police departments can save time and money by putting more information
online by default.
Only 12 Seattle officers ever wore body cameras, and Michaud said they generated a total of about
4,300 videos during the pilot program. Body cameras in Seattle are now on hold pending contract
negotiations, he said.
Clemans said he quit the department after six months working there, frustrated by the politics and
slow pace of implementing some of the changes he worked on. Since then, Michaud said, Clemans
has filed several thousand records requests with the Seattle Police Department.
Bulk overredaction
Most body cameras used in the United States are made by Taser International, an Arizona -based
company that also makes the electrical weapon of the same name. Taser has now developed
software similar to Clemans' program for Seattle, allowing police to select videos in bulk on their
storage website, Evidence.com, and blur and mute the footage automatically.
Spokesman Steve Tully said the features were added because of concerns from Washington
customers about massive public records requests. In some cases, those concerns led cities to scrap
body camera programs.
2
"Nothing comes close to what we saw in Washington," Tully said. "They have some of the most liberal
records laws in the nation."
Clemans has requested Spokane police use those tools to provide him with overredacted footage
where video is blurred and audio is muted. Technically, that's as simple as clicking a few buttons and
letting Evidence.com do its work. But legally, the city is still unsure if it can release that video without
having someone watch all of it and make sure it's correctly redacted.
The $628,000 price tag assumes someone has to be paid to watch all the videos. If Spokane can skip
that step, it would significantly lower the cost, though no one is sure exactly how much.
Police records supervisor Mardee Ellis told Clemans in an email that she's still working that out with
the city attorney's office.
"It would make it much quicker if we can go the Seattle route," she wrote to Clemans. If the answer is
no, Clemans said he'll appeal, but withdraw the request if he can't persuade the lawyers to change
their minds.
"I don't want to end body cameras. I want a way for the public to find 'interesting' videos," he wrote to
Ellis.
Legislative action
Fears over requesters like Clemans already have led some legislators to seek changes in the state's
public records law, a development open government advocates say is troubling.
One bill introduced this session would limit release of body camera video to cases where the
requester can specifically identify a person or officer involved in the incident, or provide a case
number. It would also allow a law enforcement agency to charge fees for redacting the video except
in a few circumstances, including when the requester is a person involved in the video or their
attorney.
"We think the Legislature may react to it now that they have a concrete example" of someone filing
broad requests, said Toby Nixon, president of the Washington Coalition on Open Government's
board and a Kirkland City Council member. "That could be very damaging to the news media, to the
vast majority of citizens who use the Public Records Act responsibly."
Laws limiting body camera disclosure are being discussed in other states. An Indiana House
committee voted earlier this week to advance a bill that would require people seeking body camera
video to prove release is in the public interest.
Nixon said members of the coalition have met with Clemans and suggested he narrow some of his
requests, including ones he's filed seeking to inspect every record ever produced by all 39 cities in
King County.
"I also explained to him my perspective on how much damage he could do to the Public Records Act
for everyone else, and he was basically not concerned about that," Nixon said.
Schwering said he thinks the Legislature could help ease the burden of providing large amounts of
video, but isn't sure of the specifics he'd like to see in a bill. He would not favor a bill that restricts
certain people from making requests for footage.
3
"If you want body cameras to be an accountability tool, it doesn't do any good not to release the
video," he said.
Clemans is still waiting for Ellis to hear back from the city attorney's office before he decides how to
proceed with Spokane police videos. He's unlikely to stop making broad records requests.
"I'm just a firm believer that everyone should have access to the same records at the same time," he
said
Cally Price
Assistant to the City Manager
City Manager, Mayor, and Council Office
129 North 2nd Street
Yakima, WA 98901
Phone: 509-575-6040
Fax: 509-576-6335
www.vakimawa.gov
4
Tech and Innovation to Re-engage Civic Life I Stanford Social Innovation Review
Stanford S 0 C JAL
INNOVATION'S''
Infor», n, and inspiring leaders of social change
Page 1 of 5
Civic Engagement
Tech and Innovation to Re-engage Civic
Life
Inclusive governance will require that civil society, government, and industry work together to
empower citizens.
By Hollie Russon Gilman 1 Nov. 24, 2015
Sometimes even the best -intentioned policymakers overlook the
power of people. And even the best -intentioned discussions on
c social impact and leveraging big data for the social sector can
i)
obscure the power of every -day people in their communities.
V
But time and time again, I've seen the transformative power of civic
engagement when initiatives are structured well. For example, the
other year I witnessed a high school student walk into a school
auditorium one evening during Boston's first-ever youth -driven
participatory budgeting (https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/boston-young-people-
participatory-budgeting-winners-youth-lead-change) project. Participatory
budgeting gives residents a structured opportunity to work together
to identify neighborhood priorities, work in tandem with
government officials to draft viable projects, and prioritize projects
to fund. Elected officials in turn pledge to implement these projects
and are held accountable to their constituents. Initially intrigued by
an experiment in democracy (and maybe the free pizza), this
student remained engaged over several months, because she met new members of her
Data for Community -
Driven Solutions
(http://ssir.org/data_for_co
This series focuses
on data for impact,
and highlight specific
interventions that
can help drive a
more networked,
inclusive, and open
society.
community;
got to interact with elected officials; and felt like she was working on a concrete objective that
could have a tangible, positive impact on her neighborhood.
MU
http://ssir.org/articles/entry/tech_and_innovation tore_engage_civic_life?utmsource=Ene... 1/4/2016
Tech and Innovation to Re-engage Civic Life 1 Stanford Social Innovation Review Page 2 of 5
For many of the young participants, ages 12-25, being part of a participatory budgeting initiative
is the first time they are involved in civic life. Many were excited that the City of Boston
(http://youth.boston.gov/youth-lead-the-change/) , in collaboration with the nonprofit Participatory
Budgeting Project (http://www.participatorybudgeting.org/) , empowered young people with the
opportunity to allocate $1 million in public funds. Through participating, young people gain
invaluable civic skills, and sometimes even a passion that can fuel other engagements in civic and
communal life.
This is just one example of a broader civic and social innovation trend
(http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/techtank/posts/2014/04/15-three-lessons-promote-civic-innovation-gilman) . Across
the globe, people are working together with their communities to solve seemingly intractable
problems, but as diverse as those efforts are, there are also commonalities. Well -structured civic
engagement creates the space and provides the tools for people to exert agency over policies.
When citizens have concrete objectives, access to necessary technology (whether it's postcards
(http://www.neighborhoodpostcardproject.com/) , trucks (http://www.cityotboston.gov/cityhalltogo/) , or open data
a portals (http://www.open311.org/) ), and an eye toward outcomes, social change happens.
in
Using Technology to Distribute Expertise
Technology is allowing citizens around the world to participate in solving local, national, and
global problems. When it comes to large, public bureaucracies, expertise is largely top-down and
concentrated. Leveraging technology creates opportunities for people to work together in new
ways to solve public problems. One way is through civic crowdfunding
(http://ssir.org/articles/entry/civic_crowdfunding_a_new_way_of spending_down) platforms like
Citizinvestor.com (http://citizinvestor.com/) , which cities can use to develop public sector projects for
citizen support; several cities in Rhode Island, Oregon, and Philadelphia have successfully pooled
citizen resources to fund new public works. Another way is through citizen science
(https://www.scientificarnerican.com/citizen-science/) . Old Weather (http://whaling.oldweather.org/) , a
crowdsourcing project from the National Archives (http://www.archives.gov/) and Zooniverse
(https://www.zooniverse.org/) , enrolls people to transcribe old British ship logs to identify climate
change patterns. Platforms like these allow anyone to devote a small amount of time or resources
toward a broader public good. And because they have a degree of transparency, people can see the
progress and impact of their efforts.
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Tech and Innovation to Re-engage Civic Life 1 Stanford Social Innovation Review Page 3 of 5
Empowering Citizens as Decisionmakers
Citizens want to participate in making decisions for their communities, and establishing
opportunities and processes for participation empowers them to do so. Participatory budgeting
(http://www.slate.com/authors.hollie_russon_gilman.html) , for example, began in Porte Alegre, Brazil, in
1989 after 21 years of military dictatorship. Over the past few decades, the process has increased
the quality of democracy in Brazil (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/01/22/brazil-
let-its-citizens-make-decisions-about-city-budgets-heres-what-happened/) , improving governance and
empowering citizens. It has also contributed to increased municipal spending on sanitation and
health, increased numbers of community-based organizations, and decreased rates of infant
mortality. More than 2,500 localities across the globe—including a growing number of diverse
cities in America from Vallejo, California, to New York City—have begun implementing projects,
allocating roughly $50 million in public dollars currently allocated in the United States, with
numbers growing.
Harnessing Civic Data to Improve Policy
in
s, The combination of government and civic data also allows government to more rapidly meet
constituents' needs. Grade.DC.Gov (http://grade.dc.gov/) , for example, uses social media sentiment
analysis (https://www.lexalytics.com/technology/sentiment) to "grade" city services. People can submit
comments about certain Washington, DC, agencies and see how other residents rate them. The
mobile app Commonwealth Connect (http://www.cityofboston.gov/DoIT/apps/commonwealthconnect.asp)
enables people inside Boston and neighboring communities to report local problems, even if they
don't know what specific agency to report to; the app forwards requests and provides an
infrastructure complaint with Open 311 (http://www.open311.org/) for resolving issues.
Next Steps Toward Inclusive Governance
Civic engagement should be hyper local and context specific by design to give communities and
people an ability to connect and engage. At the same time, there is an emerging movement for
more -inclusive decision-making that can foster the sharing of best practices and lessons to
generate results.
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Tech and Innovation to Re-engage Civic Life I Stanford Social Innovation Review Page 4 of 5
The recent post -millennial development Sustainable Development Goals
(https://sustainablcdevelopment.un.org/) (SDGs), for example, includes a commitment (16.7) to
"responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels." This goal
provides an opportunity for practitioners and researchers advancing the causes of civic engagement
to work together, and understand what works and why. This video
(https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/power-participatory-decision-making) reflects initial
conversations—with leading thinkers from civil society, academia, government, and civic
startups—about opportunities the SDG's provide to generate shared lessons and principles that
deepen civic engagement.
In fact, we have several opportunities to build upon the SDGs and align those commitments with
the work practitioners are already doing in communities across the globe. First, current
governmental processes provide multiple entry points for deepening inclusive governance by
linking to existing institutions such as complaint boards and urban planning processes. But we
need better documentation, resources to reach traditionally marginalized communities, and shared
a repositories to engage citizens with existing opportunities for civic engagement. Second, we must
share innovations and best practices across practitioner silos to allow for learning. For example,
Participedia.net (http://participedia.net) —a crowdsourced repository of democratic
innovation—enables researchers to document successes and challenges, and provides a resource for
practitioners interested in implementing new practices. Third, connecting technology and data to
offline, community -driven, bottom-up endeavors can have an exponential impact. San Francisco's
Neighborhood Postcard Project (http://www.neighborhoodpostcardproject.com/) , for example, enables
community connection through storytelling and exchange. The simple technology of a postcard
can enable previously marginalized residents to share their stories and connect with diverse
residents.
Ultimately, working toward inclusive governance will require that civil society, government, and
industry work together to create spaces where people feel empowered to create change. Civic
engagement is important not only for building more inclusive and resilient communities, but also
for building up the civic muscles of individuals. Through participating, people can leave with new
friends, community knowledge, and relationships with their government. Creating more
opportunities for civic efficacy will require experimentation, and above all, a commitment to the
value of genuine engagement.
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Tech and Innovation to Re-engage Civic Life I Stanford Social Innovation Review Page 5 of 5
Hollie Russon Gilman (@hrgilman) holds a PhD from Harvard's Department of Government, and is
the former open government and innovation policy advisor in the White House. Her book Democracy
Reinvented Participatory Budgeting and Civic Innovation in Anaerica will be released later this year.
If you like this article enough to print it, be sure to subscribe to SSIR!
Copyright Q 2016 Stanford University.
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