News

Randomly Chosen Panel Should Guide Airport’s Future, Officials Say

JORGE CASUSO “September 25, 2023 — The future of Santa Monica Airport should be hammered out — not by the usual community activists and civic volunteers — but by randomly selected “everyday people,” City officials told the City Council Monday. The information item from top Public Works officials proposes using a democratic lottery to “engage […]

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City of Eugene Review Panel Publishes Guiding Principles on Housing, as Part of Innovative Public Engagement Process

EUGENE — A first-of-its-kind Review Panel has completed the first phase of a public engagement process designed to advise the City of Eugene on the implementation of HB 2001, as part of the City’s Middle Housing Code Change project. The 29-member Panel of everyday Eugene residents was selected through a lottery process that uses random,

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Annabelle’s Reflection on her Nevins Fellowship with Healthy Democracy

Over the summer, Healthy Democracy was grateful to welcome Annabelle LaRosa as our 2020 Nevins Fellow. The Nevins Fellowship, through the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, provides students with the opportunity to complete internships at organizations that bring people together to solve common problems. From June through August, Annabelle lent her perspective and

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First Virtual Oregon Citizen Assembly Shares COVID-19 Recovery Recommendations August 27

For Immediate Release August 12, 2020 Media Contact: Robin Teater, Executive Director Ph: 503-841-6865; Email: robin@healthydemocracy.org   WHAT: Oregon Citizen Assembly on COVID-19 Recovery Thirty-six diverse citizens from across Oregon will share results of seven weeks of discussion and deliberations on key questions relevant to the State’s COVID-19 economic recovery. WHEN:  Thursday, Aug. 27, 6-6:30

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Oregon Citizens to Weigh-In on COVID Recovery: Healthy Democracy & Oregon’s Kitchen Table Convene First Virtual Citizen Assembly

For Immediate Release June 30, 2020 Media Contact: Robin Teater, Executive Director Ph: 503-381-1196; Email: robin@healthydemocracy.org   PORTLAND, Ore. – June 30, 2020 – Oregonians from all walks of life will participate in the state’s first virtual Citizen Assembly to weigh in on what could be some of the state’s most important policy considerations in

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Practical Values for Virtual Participation

Everyone is talking about online engagement these days. Yes, those are eight different links to eight different articles, all from one quick dive into social media this morning.   There is so much being written, in fact – so many weeds to get into – that I hope we don’t lose sight of a bigger picture, of what is important in planning for online deliberation. With

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On the Other Side of the Crisis . . . Thoughts from John Frohnmayer on Life After the Corona Virus

Healthy Democracy’s good friend and former Board member, John Frohnmayer, shares his thoughts on what we are learning from the Corona Virus, and the opportunities that live on the other side of the crisis. Faced with the Civil War and the potential dissolution of the Union, Abraham Lincoln said: “The dogmas of the quiet past

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Citizens’ Initiative Review Needs Legislative Funding

The Oregon legislature just started their short session on February 1. Senator Arnie Roblan, who sponsored the bill that put the Citizens’ Initiative Review in statute, is proposing that the legislature commit funds to ensure this uniquely Oregon innovation in democracy can be sustained. His OpEd appears below: Oregon was one of the first states

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Citizens Jury Panel Presents Recommendation on Milwaukie City Council Compensation

Media Contact: Robin Teater, Executive Director   Ph: 503-381-1196, email: robin@healthydemocracy.org   (Milwaukie, OR) — A diverse cross section of 18 Milwaukie residents has concluded a four-day review of Milwaukie City Council compensation and presented their findings to the Milwaukie City Council at their November 12 held at the Public Safety Building. The citizen panel was part of a

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Politicians & Public Participation — Tackling a Quintessential Design Problem

For a few weeks in September, we had the pleasure of hosting a visiting undergraduate student, Jillian Gilburne, who is a senior at Northwestern University studying political science, communication studies, and human-centered design. In an effort to better understand what motivates local officials to take on the challenge of achieving equitable, representative public engagement, Jillian

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Civic Saturday reflections . . . It’s magic y’all

On Saturday, September 14, at the C Bar C Ranch in Powell Butte, Oregon, Citizen University, Healthy Democracy, Oregon Humanities, and the Deliberative Democracy Consortium partnered to host Civic Saturday, a morning filled with civic reflection, connections, and inspiration. Wendy Willis, a Civic Seminarian through the Citizen University and the Executive Director of the Deliberative Democracy

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First-of-Its-Kind Citizen Panel Will be Selected to Study Milwaukie City Council Member Compensation (New Dates)

UPDATE: The Milwaukie Citizens Jury Selection Event – Sept. 11, 6PM, at Milwaukie City Hall – will be live streamed on the internet, for anyone not able to attend in person. Simply visit the City of Milwaukie’s YouTube page here. An archived version of the live stream will appear on that same page following the

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Welcome to Farres Alkhaiyer . . . Dreams away from screams

Monday, August 12 marked Farres Alkhaiyer’s first day with Healthy Democracy. Farres joins Healthy Democracy as a fellow in the 2019-2020 Community Solutions Program, a prestigious fellowship program run by the DC-based nonprofit IREX. This program brings together 80 of the brightest community leaders from around the world for four months of intensive leadership development in

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New Dates Announced: Milwaukie Citizens Jury on City Council Compensation

The Milwaukie Citizens Jury on City Council Compensation will now take place Sat, Nov. 9 to Tues., Nov. 12, 2019. As detailed in a previous press release, we postponed the Citizens Jury to the fall due to a low response rate and a resulting lack of demographic diversity in our response pool. The inherent legitimacy

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First-of-Its-Kind Citizen Panel Will be Selected to Study Milwaukie City Council Member Compensation

UPDATE: Due to a lower-than-typical response rate, we did not received sufficient replies to form a citizen panel fully reflective of the demographics of the Milwaukie public. Therefore, we have taken the unusual step of postponing the Citizens Jury to Fall 2019. More details on that decision (and new dates, when announced) may be found

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