Priority Based Budgeting as Civic Innovation

1. Priority Based Budgeting as Civic Innovation CPBB Conference July 10, 2013 Pete Peterson, Executive Director Davenport Institute – Pepperdine School of Public Policy

2. Agenda for Today’s Talk: Introduction: In a hot, dusty corner of LA County… Not letting a crisis go to waste What innovation looks like…at the “park”

3. The Way to a Dusty…Life? Palmdale, CA (pop. 150,000)

4. Crisis = Innovation? Credit: Anne Ambrose, City of Palmdale

5. “Civic Innovation”: An Oxymoron? A combination of new public/private/civic sector working relationships, evaluative mechanisms, and technology created in order to provide services in new ways.

6. “Civic Innovation”: An Oxymoron? “This decade of local government will be a time of ‘creative destruction’ that will produce an unprecedented amount of innovation…Local governments increasingly will be expected to ‘go it alone,’ with little help from Washington or their state governments. Cross-sector strategies will be the norm. Performance and results -- not just inputs and outputs -- increasingly will matter. - Bob O’Neill/ICMA in GOVERNING, May 2013

7. “Civic Innovation”: 3 Main Elements Collaboration: Inside Government Engagement: Outside Government Technology: Either in Communication or Evaluation

8. “Civic Innovation”: Why Now? Fiscal Crisis Demographic Crisis Crisis in Trust Explosion of “2.0” Technology

9. Why Now?: Fiscal Crisis “Throughout the United States and much of the developed world, governments are on the brink of crisis. They need answers to a paradoxical challenge—how to spur economic growth while simultaneously reducing spending. This can be done only when we find novel solutions to the real problems that we have relied on government to solve.” – “Unleashing Breakthrough Innovation in Government”, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2013

10. Why Now?: Fiscal Crisis “For a variety of reasons, however, today’s budget deficits are different. Government at all levels now faces an inescapable reality – the promises of public services exceed our ability to pay for them – and will do so regardless of when the recession ends. The steady increase in the quantity and cost of public services, coupled with the needs of an aging population and public pension costs have produced a long term, structural deficit. – Stephen Goldsmith, “The Red Ink Tsunami: Why Old Ideas Can’t Fix the New Government Perma-Crisis”, e21.com, 1/10/10

11. Why Now?: Demographic Crisis • Retirement of Baby Boomers Strains Public Sector Budgets and Entitlements • Bankrupt Municipalities: More to come?

12. Why Now?: Demographic Crisis It is "estimated that the aggregate unfunded liabilities of locally administered pension plans top $574 billion. ... On average, pensions consume nearly 20 percent of municipal budgets." But the worst is yet to come. "[I]f trends continue, over half of every dollar in tax revenue would go to pensions, and, by some estimates, in some cases, would suck up 75 percent of all tax revenue.” - Brookings Institute Report, “Are Public Pensions Keeping Up with the Times?” (June 2013) [Quoted from Joel Kotkin/NewGeography.com]

13. Why Now?: Crisis of Trust “Not only are society’s leaders seen as more vulnerable, but those over whom they once held uncontested sway are more aware of different possibilities and more attuned to their own personal fulfillment. Today, we ask not what we can do for our country but what our country, employer, fast-food purveryor, or favorite airline can do for us.” – Moises Naim, The End of Power

14. The Good…of Citizen Engagement • 85% of respondents say “their views on public engagement have changed since their careers began.” • 77% of respondents “are interested in hearing more about public engagement practices that have worked in other places. • “Testing the Waters” – 2013 Survey Report of California Public Officials (DI, Inst for Local Gov’t, Public Agenda, Irvine Fdtn)

15. The Bad…and the Ugly • 76% say their public meetings are “typically dominated with narrow agendas” • 64% say their public hearings “typically attract complainers and ‘professional citizens’” • 69% say a “lack of resources and staff could stand in the way of a deliberative public engagement approach.

16. Civic Innovation: Online Gov2.0 Platforms • “Ideation” Tools: Crowdsourcing/Prioritizing Ideas from Public • Examples: Open Town Hall, MindMixer, UserVoice, MixedInk • SurveyMonkey + Tools: Assessing Public Knowledge/Support • Examples: SurveyMonkey, Next10 “Budget Challenge, games • Visualization Tools: Usually for Planning • Examples: Crowdbrite, CommunityViz, Townsquare

17. Quick Examples… • Santa Barbara’s “Budget Challenge”: Ideation

18. Quick Examples… • City of Long Beach“Budget Challenge”: Survey

19. Transparency Platforms:

20. Era of Evaluation = “Moneyball Gov’t”? “One thing that is essential to a more results-driven government is holding politicians accountable for their support o failing programs. Interest groups regularly rate politicians on their adherence to a particular perspective. What if we had a Moneyball Index, easily accessible to voters and the media, that rated each member of Congress on their votes to fund programs that have been shown not to work?”– “Can Gov’t Play Moneyball?”The Atlantic, Bridgeland and Orzag, July 2013

21. Speaking of “Moneyball”…

22. “Civic Innovation”: What it looks like • “We have to try to be creative.” • - Coach David Esquer • Put up lighting for night games • Play a few games at AT&T Park • Advertising at Cal’s ballpark • Establish Cal Baseball Foundation... • Players cold-call potential donors...including Stanford fans

23. “Civic Innovation”: What it looks like "I absolutely think that in this new financial reality for higher education, we will need to look more to philanthropy and business development.” - Sandy Barbour - Cal Athletic Director “If you have enough people that are passionate enough, you can take power away from university and put it in the hands of people that care more about the program.” - Brennan Boesch, Cal Alum

24. “Civic Innovation”: What it looks like • California State Parks… • 2011: 70 Parks Slated for Closure by Governor Brown to Save about $60MM/Yr. ($486MM Total Annual Line Item) • Assembly Responds with AB 42 Allowing New Relationships Between Individual Parks and Local Gov’ts and/or Civic Orgs • Relationships Keep All Parks Open

25. “Civic Innovation”: What it looks like • March 2013: CA’s Little Hoover Commission produces report, “Beyond Crisis: Recapturing Excellence in California’s State Park System” • “The Dept of Parks and Recreation can’t generate enough revenue on its own to replace continual reductions in taxpayer support • The current model of a highly centralized state-run park system is obsolete • The dept’s staffing structure is ossified • Relationships have deteriorated with many of the park system’s most important partners and supporters.”

26. “Civic Innovation”: What it looks like • “This new model requires building a new outward-looking, collaborative culture” • “The state, through a public process, should assess which parks presently under state ownership have statewide significance and which parks serve primarily regional or local needs.” • “The dept should encourage innovation and solicit proposals for resource-sharing agreements, as well as ideas for consortium-led management of groups of parks owned by different government entities.”

27. Thanks.