{"id":23536,"date":"2022-09-12T21:50:55","date_gmt":"2022-09-13T04:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=23536"},"modified":"2022-09-12T21:50:57","modified_gmt":"2022-09-13T04:50:57","slug":"citizens-assemblies-the-future-of-california-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/09\/12\/citizens-assemblies-the-future-of-california-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Citizens’ Assemblies: The future of California democracy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/a>Joe Mathews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sep. 12, 2022 (SFChronicle.com)<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People
People fleeing wildfires gather at an evacuation center at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds and Event Center in 2020.Lea Suzuki\/The Chronicle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I went to Petaluma to learn what might become of the world\u2019s ugliest dogs \u2014 and saw the future of California democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That future arrived in the form of the Petaluma Fairgrounds Advisory Panel, a form of citizens\u2019 assembly, a type of democratic body gaining in popularity worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Citizens\u2019 assemblies are composed of everyday people, chosen by lottery. The assemblies offer a potential path around problems that discredit democracy in California and elsewhere: the money that corrupts elections, the lobbyists who own politicians and the polarization that makes complex and contentious issues too difficult for elected governments to solve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petaluma\u2019s leaders decided to try a citizens\u2019 assembly to avert a community-wide fight over the future of the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds and Event Center. The property is home to the annual five-day Sonoma-Marin Fair and its signature event, the World\u2019s Ugliest Dog Contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The site also hosts a speedway, schools, emergency shelters and so many different events that Petalumans have come to depend on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when city officials said they wanted to rethink the fairgrounds\u2019 future, some Petalumans grew worried. Conflict loomed between the city, the fair and the obscure state agency that leases the property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to avoid fighting and expensive litigation?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petaluma\u2019s answer was to spend $450,000 to hire the Oregon-based nonprofit Healthy Democracy, to organize a citizens\u2019 assembly that would answer this question: How might we use the city\u2019s fairgrounds property to create the experiences, activities, resources and places that our community needs and desires now and for the foreseeable future?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process started with mailing 10,000 randomly selected residential addresses in Petaluma, inviting people to participate in the panel. A few hundred said yes. From that group, Healthy Democracy used a computer program to create 1,000 randomized potential panels of 36 people, each representative of Petaluma by age, gender, race\/ethnicity, location, housing status, educational attainment and disability. In April, organizers selected one of those panels by lottery \u2014 number 811 \u2014 to become Petaluma\u2019s citizens\u2019 assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unable to find a location at the fairgrounds itself \u2014 its venues were already booked \u2014 the panel met at a community center and at Kenilworth Junior High School. Over three months, it would hold 81 hours of meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wasn\u2019t volunteer work. Panelists received a stipend, equivalent to $20 per hour, as well as child care and elder care, reimbursement for transportation costs, laptops and language interpretation and translation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel needed every minute. It reviewed complicated documents (including the city\u2019s general plan) and summoned fairgrounds stakeholders from a \u201cmenu\u201d of more than 100 people for hearings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meetings were more detailed, with more actual content per minute \u2014 and less political throat-clearing \u2014 than any city council meeting I have seen in this state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was struck by how careful the Healthy Democracy staffers were to stay out of the discussion. They declined to answer questions from panelists about the fairgrounds (content being the exclusive province of the panelists themselves).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They also left these ordinary people to write three reports themselves. The first, \u201cPrinciples,\u201d detailed the body\u2019s own values, criteria and methods. A second, \u201cPathways,\u201d outlined 100-plus visions for the fairgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third and final report offered specific recommendations for land use at the fairgrounds. The panel ultimately took a cautious approach to reimagining the site, seeking to preserve the fairgrounds\u2019 most popular elements. Five \u201cKey Points of Agreement\u201d had 90 percent support from the body. Four preserved the status quo: maintaining the practice and history of agriculture at fairgrounds (before it was a North Bay suburb, Petaluma was the \u201cEgg Basket of the World\u201d<\/a>), having a farmer\u2019s market, keeping the fair and its ugly dogs, and continuing to operate an emergency evacuation center during earthquakes and wildfires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fifth idea, urging greater noise mitigation, was a response to fairground neighbors (in a related note, the panel expressed only mixed support for keeping the speedway for motor racing). The group was cool to novel ideas, from building a YMCA on the site to returning fairgrounds land to the Miwok people for a sweat lodge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel had struggles. Its schedule got scrambled because of rising COVID numbers. Four panelists dropped out; others complained that, even with 100 hours, they didn\u2019t have enough time to ask all their questions. Some stakeholders wanted a more detailed vision from the panel rather than a list of recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are questions about what legal impact the panel will have. In some other countries, citizens\u2019 assemblies can implement decisions themselves or put their proposals on ballots. The Petaluma panel\u2019s work could inform a citywide ballot measure, but the group itself has no legal power to force that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, city officials and other stakeholders say the process has defused conflict and created a more positive atmosphere for negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Panelists who agreed to be interviewed, on condition that I use only their first names, said the process has power because it\u2019s controlled by the citizens themselves. \u201cI participated in government-community processes where you have to lobby a committee of officials,\u201d one panelist told me. \u201cI think this works much better, and I would like to see more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for\u00a0Z\u00f3calo Public Square<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written By Joe Mathews<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joe Mathews is Connecting California columnist and California editor at Z\u00f3calo Public Square, an Ideas Exchange that is a project of New America and Arizona State University.VIEW COMMENTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"San<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\"HEARST\u00a92022 Hearst<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe Mathews Sep. 12, 2022 (SFChronicle.com) Comments I went to Petaluma to learn what might become of the world\u2019s ugliest dogs \u2014 and saw the future of California democracy. That future arrived in the form of the Petaluma Fairgrounds Advisory Panel, a form of citizens\u2019 assembly, a type of democratic… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23536"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23536"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23536\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23537,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23536\/revisions\/23537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}