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 An archived version of the live stream will appear on that same page following the event.
November 9-12, a panel of 20 Milwaukie residents will participate in a ground-breaking democratic exercise – as members of Oregon’s first-ever local government Citizens Jury. This Citizens Jury will be selected September 11 at a public meeting at Milwaukie City Hall.
Local government Citizens Juries are common in Canada and Australia, but are rare in the United States. They bring together groups of everyday people to study and deliberate on solutions to important policy issues. They are randomly selected from the general public, through a process that results in a panel demographically reflective of the overall population – in terms of age, gender, race/ethnicity, political party, and other factors.
The Milwaukie Citizens Jury will consider the question: “Should Milwaukie City Council members and the Mayor be paid more than their current volunteer stipends? If so, how much should they be paid?” Panelists will question a range of issue experts, deliberate on the evidence, evaluate alternatives, and provide a recommendation to the City Council.
Citizens Juries follow a detailed format to ensure fairness, objectivity, and productivity. The Milwaukie Citizens Jury will take place over 4 days (November 9-12) at Clackamas Community College’s Harmony Campus, and will be open to the public.
This summer, 5,000 randomly selected Milwaukie households received a mailing inviting them to participate as a Citizens Jury panelist. The final panel of 20 Milwaukie residents will be selected at a public event from among the respondents to this mailing. This selection event will also be open to the public and take place Wednesday, Sept. 11 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chambers at Milwaukie City Hall. The public is invited to attend to learn more about the Citizens Jury and observe the panelist selection process.
This project is a partnership between the City of Milwaukie and Healthy Democracy, an Oregon-based nonpartisan nonprofit. Healthy Democracy is best known for developing the Citizens’ Initiative Review, which brings randomly selected voters together to evaluate ballot measures and write better quality voter information.
For more information on the Milwaukie Citizens Jury, please visit healthydemocracy.org/cj/milwaukie.
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