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To request that the Mayor propose a Fiscal Year 2020-2021 capital budget and a capital improvement program for the four fiscal years thereafter that includes at least $3,000,000.00 recommended for appropriation or planned appropriation for capital projects identified, with their scopes determined, through a participatory budgeting process.
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WHEREAS, section 6.19 of the Charter of the City of Richmond (2019), as amended, empowers the Mayor to recommend each year a program of proposed capital improvement projects for the ensuing fiscal year and for the four fiscal years thereafter and the Council to accept with or without amendments or reject the proposed program; and
WHEREAS, "participatory budgeting" originated in Porto Alegre in Brazil in 1989 as a method of citizen participation in allocating government resources in which citizens engage in multiple rounds of debates and deliberations and ultimately vote on how a certain percentage of the government's budget is spent; and
WHEREAS, a participatory budgeting process would include the following steps:
1. A steering committee that represents the citizens creates the rules and engagement plan;
2. Through meetings and online tools, citizens share and discuss ideas for projects;
3. Volunteer "budget delegates" develop the ideas into feasible proposals;
4. Citizens vote on the proposals that they believe most serve the city's needs; and
5. The City funds and implements the winning ideas; and
WHEREAS, although under applicable law, the Mayor has the discretion to recommend or not recommend any capital project as part of the capital budget and program of proposed capital improvement projects that the Mayor submits each year, the Council believes that it would be in the best interests of the citizens of the City of Richmond that the Mayor propose a capital budget and capital improvement program that includes at least $3,000,000.00 recommended for appropriation or planned appropriation for...
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