HEATHER ROBERTS
BEND, OR — A concept to engage the public in government policy decisions rarely seen in the U.S. could be coming to our area. City Club of Central Oregon Executive Director Kim Gammond says Citizen Assemblies are more common in Europe, “It’s a way for people to actually impact policy decisions beyond the one or two times a year we get to vote. And, it’s done in a way that’s much more democratic than a lot of our citizen involvement processes in government.” She tells KBND News, “Ireland’s done several national referendums through this process. This is how they legalized abortion and gay marriage in Ireland was through this process. So, you know, not simple issues! And then, in the Basque country, in Spain and France, they’ve run them to help with some more local issues, there.”
Gammond says the goal is to gather a large group of people from a community, representing the area’s diverse ideas and demographics. She notes the more commonly used “citizen committee” doesn’t actively recruit members, “They’re often people that are coming forward and saying ‘I want to be on this.’ Where this is run more like jury duty; and we’re saying, ‘okay, 10,000 people in Deschutes County, are you interested in being on this?’ and inviting them in.”
Nonprofits running Citizen Assemblies compensate participants for their time, and work with local governments to make sure recommendations are pursued. The Central Oregon Civic Action Project is actively fundraising for a local assembly, “The group that’s coming together here has spent a lot of time building the base, both for financial support, support within governments, and then bringing the right partners to the table to try to facilitate this.” Gammond says the Civic Action Project is still developing its first policy issue.
City Club hosts a public forum Thursday morning to discuss the concept, “We’ll have a panel with Healthy Democracy, Central Oregon Civic Action Project and then a member of the Bend City Council, to talk about how this would look at the local level, in the United States and in Central Oregon.” That forum is from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the Unitarian Universalist church.
