Matt, you founded Civic Trust about 7 years ago after you realized that we’re never going to solve big problems with bad government.    Civic Trust is about implementing participatory budgeting processes city-by-city, agency-by-agency.    What is participatory budgeting, and why is it so important as a vehicle for improving governance?

Civic Trust traces its origins to Matt’s insight that democracy as a system is losing steam in civic engagement.   We need to recharge participation so that it’s fun, credible, trust-enhancing.   He created Civic Trust to improve the processes of democracy so that they are updated just like our iphones.  

Can you talk a bit about your work in Denver?  You got citizen help in figuring out how to spend $1m and, now this year, $2m, on things like intersection safety, pop-up food markets, food trucks, shade trees, and heating/cooling system upgrades in low-income community housing.   How did that work?  You’ve also had successes in other cities, including Atlanta, which opted for pedestrian-only streets, handicap access at a couple of important intersections, bike lanes, and sidewalk widening on a downtown block.   How do these ideas come up, and how do citizens choose between them?

Participatory budgeting works in cities through the allocation of budgetary dollars to particular neighborhoods or geographic areas.   For example, in Denver, $1m was set aside last year for local projects.   Residents then contribute ideas through a website run by Civic Trust.   The ideas are vetted and improved and aligned with agency initiatives.  And then they’re posted for a vote among the citizenry.   The budgetary dollars are then allocated to reflect the outcome of the vote.

How does participatory budgeting improve government in a broad sense?  You’re called “Civic Trust.”  How does participation improve trust?

The scale here Is cities, Matt explained.   The experience of democracy should be one in which you as an individual can contribute.  There is also a lot of potential for local non profits and civil-society groups to engage. 

The key variable is Trust.  Cities that are declining in trust are in trouble.   The entry point to building trust is to create an inviting civic atmosphere.  A sense of collaboration and openness emerges from engagement.   We want people to feel heard and to be treated like collaborators.

The managerial style of many cities has to change.   Participatory budgeting is targeted to involve many underserved people in a city:  marginalized groups of different kinds.   We need to get away from the high-income, managerial model and involve more citizens.

The Civic Trust business model is to provide an interface that cities can use to promote engagement.  The whole process is promoted through social media, for example.

In your article on Medium, you talk about the Gehl and Porter insight that government isn’t broken.  In fact its designed to be just as impervious to change as it is.   How is participatory budgeting and civic trust going to drive change at scale?

Matt described how the number of served cities so far is six or so (although one was NYC with 35 constituent projects).  One pattern that has emerged is that people across various locations tend to want beautification through trees, parks, murals.   But there’s also a lot of variation.  

A core challenge is that there is little incentive for innovation in government.  Voting is available to you, but it’s not a very nuanced way to provide specific feedback on services.

We need reform in the frameworks of government to get innovation to occur that reflects measurable outcomes.   We want to give opportunity to civil servants who want to implement change in the ways that workflows occur in their organizations.

              Matt’s last word:  Let’s get excited about government!