As the City of San Jose discusses how to allocate increasingly scarce resources, a group of community leaders in San Jose has formed the Community Budget Working Group to assure that a broad range of voices can bring innovative ideas to elected leaders.
The group, convened by Working Partnerships USA and featuring a steering committee of representatives from a broad range of community organizations and constituencies, has announced a two-part plan to involve all San Jose residents in the discussion.
First, we will hold two public meetings, open to all interested parties to discuss the City budget and its resources. Following the first meeting, ideas generated will be studied by the independent economic analysis firm Applied Development Economics. At the second meeting, the results of the study will be announced and a final set of recommendations made to the City. Updates on the process will be available at Working Partnerships' new blog.
"Without the real input of people from across San Jose, the City's analysis, unfortunately, will be incomplete," said Working Group Steering Committee member Michele Lew, Executive Director of Asian Americans for Community Involvement. "It's important that the discussion build from positive ideas from the community that the entire community can review."
In order to maximize the ability of citizens to propose innovative ideas, the group has introduced the second part of its plan: this website, which allows any visitor to propose an idea that can be discussed before the Working Group or assessed by the independent consultant.
"San Jose invented the tools that sparked the information age," states Dennis King, Steering Committee member and Executive Director of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "We're excited to use those same resources to increase awareness of and involvement in the budget process for all the people of the capital of Silicon Valley."